One that I Finished

In my last books post, I forgot to mention that I also recently finished Patricia McLinn's THE GAMES, which centers around four women participating in the Winter Olympics. Given that Patricia writes a powerfully emotional book with spot-on research, and given that I am a Winter Olympics junkie, this book was like my own special brand of crack. Loved it, couldn't put it down until I finished it, highly recommend it. Though she's a long-time veteran of Silhouette Special Edition, Patricia published THE GAMES with independent Delphi Press, because the larger publisher she submitted to "didn't think anyone would care about the Olympics." Losers.

So if you've ever wanted to know what it would be like to be an Olympic-caliber biathlete, figure skater, or alpine skiier (while meeting the hockey-playing love of your life for the first time, reconciling with the former Soviet skating powerhouse who broke your heart after you won the gold medal in your own event, or avoiding verbal sparring with your prickly skiing coach with whom you might just be falling in love), then go here for information on ordering this fab book: http://www.thegames2006.com .

Speaking of books, WHY am I reading A YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING? An attempt to appear literary? An experiment in mental masochism? Post-partum hormonal psychosis? Again, it's so well-written, but I have long been firmly in denial about my family's mortality, and I don't want to have to confront it like I'm finding myself doing while reading Didion's painfully sad memoir. We're immortal, my girls are going to have long and happy lives, and Jose and I are going to be together and healthy well past our hundredth birthdays (because, after all, medical science is making such huge advances, people of our generation should start routinely living past 100. I read that in Popular Science, so it must be true).

Maybe it's time to put AYOMT down and turn to some fluff. Mindless, shiny, happy, unadulterated fluff to read. Like Vanity Fair's interview with Lindsay Lohan, or the latest trivia-filled issue of Mental Floss magazine, or Curious George Lives Forever. Color me a coward, but I like denial.