nomadreader

It's another Sunday, and I'm in another city I still call home. The great second trimester travel tour is cruising along, and visiting places I used to love has me marveling at what paths our baby's life will take. Traveling I drove down to Lawrence yesterday afternoon to go to the Kansas-Texas basketball game. It was my first game at Allen Fieldhouse in ten years, and it was a great one! Our seats were incredible . My father and I sat nine rows back from the court, behind the Texas bench, and next to all of the Kansas players' families. It's always a special time at Allen Fieldhouse, but last night was extra special, and I'm so glad I could share it with my father. Baby D-L's in utero experience was definitely unlike anything s/he has experienced so far. As much as I love Lawrence, I'm glad this trip is such a short one because I only got back from Atlanta a few days ago and leave for Orlando Tuesday. In this whirlwind of traveling, I miss Mr. No...

The backstory: I've read and loved Gillian Flynn's other two novels Sharp Objects  ( my review ) and Gone Girl  ( my review ). The basics: When Libby Day was seven, her older brother murdered their mother and two other sisters. Libby has lived off donations ever since, but now in her late twenties, the money is almost gone. She turns to the Kill Club, a secret club obsessed with murders, and they're willing to pay for her to talk to her father and brother about the crimes. My thoughts: There's always something magical about my first 5-star read of the new year, and Dark Places  is it for 2014. I was instantly drawn into this creepy world. Flynn manges to write about very dark people and events with moments of humor: "He was about to give Lyle a high-five and then thought better: his arm froze in an accidental Nazi salute." The story unfolds in alternating chapters. One is Libby's present struggles to learn more about the crimes and reconnect with h...

The backstory: Other Press has quickly become a publisher I look to and expect to like all of their titles. When I stopped by their booth at BEA, I knew I wanted to snag a copy of this novel, and I was thrilled when I got it. The basics: The Quickening is the story of Enidina and Mary, two women with little in common except geography. Both live on a farm and they live near one another in a unnamed Midwestern state in the early 1900's. My thoughts:  Michelle Hoover was born in Ames, Iowa, where my grandmother grew up and where I spent much of my childhood visiting my great-grandmother. She's the granddaughter of four longtime farming families. My roots may not run as deep in farming, but I'm proud to be a sixth-generation Kansan. The Midwest is in my blood, and it shapes my cultural identity. I trace my family to Kansas and Iowa, and enough generations have called those states home that I truly don't think of the countries those first immigrants came from. All of t...

I realize this particular story is most interesting to me, as both a huge supporter of Obama and a diehard Kansas basketball fan, but I think the issue of presidential endorsement is interesting. The always interesting Shelf Life blog at Entertainment Weekly has a fascinating post about the publisher pulling an Obama quote from cover of the upcoming memoir by Roy Williams. (the backstory) First, I didn't know Roy had a memoir coming out in November. I will have to read it, and I will likely spend most of its 288 pages crying, if I don't throw it across the room. You see, my allegiance to Roy Williams goes back to my childhood. He was the last of my childhood heroes to fall. He was the one I thought would never lie. When he had the chance to go to UNC when Dean Smith retired, I would have let him go, understood, mourned and moved on. When he decided to stay, he promised he'd only leave when he got fired or when he died. He promised to be our coach forever. When he left thre...

How did I miss Friday's New York Times travel article about Kansas ? The dear Flint Hills get the star treatment, and with the exception of the kind words for Wichita, the article nails the simple beauty of the prairie.

I was watching the Grand Ole Opry this weekend. I look forward to it every Saturday, even though I wish the unedited Opry would be televised. During Martina McBride's interview, the token attractive female reporter asked her about her recent induction into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. I love the state of Kansas, and I love trivia about Kansas, and I have never heard of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. Off the top of my head, I could think of three artists, including Martina McBride who might be in this Hall of Fame. (The other two are Melissa Ethridge and Jennifer Knapp). I did a little investigating and discovered that the Kansas Hall of Fame is quite new, does not have a location and includes many people I've never heard of. Now I'm on a quest for Kansas music history knowledge.

Nomadreaderboy and I made the drive from Atlanta to Kansas City and back this week. As always, it's a lovely drive until one hits St. Louis. From there, it's all nerve-wracking and horrific until the Kansas state line comes. I admit to being rather partial with my love of Kansas and detest of Missoui, but my impartial Northeastern-raised nomadreaderboy agrees: Missouri is an awful place to drive. Imagine my delight as I'm catching up on five days worth of reading to discover Mike Hendricks' column from Monday, "Just Consider Us Skillful Drivers." It begins: A leading men’s magazine (not the one you’re thinking of) recently put out this year’s list of the cities with the nation’s worst drivers. Naturally, St. Louis came in second. If you’ve been through there on the interstate, then you know those maniacs missed getting first place only by virtue of a statistical fluke. Or a payoff. But clearly there was some kind of mistake for Kansas City to come in sixth pla...

Bill Simmons is my favorite columnist/blogger. He may write sports, but he is consistently hilarious and loves to reference pop culture. His column on ESPN's Page 2 is worth checking, even if you're not a sports fan. In yesterday's column, he refers to Ben Howland as the coach "who pulled Bill Self's pants down on Saturday." He also opens up the end of his blogs to emails from his smart and/or witty readers. Brandon from L.A. had this to say: "Hey Bill, you more than anyone do a great job of calling out coaches that are killing their teams. So along those lines, how has Bill Self gone under the radar all year with you and ESPN? This should be the running subplot of this tourney. He almost single-handedly blew their chances on Thursday. Everyone knew what type of team Southern Illinois is and yet he has no counter to them and his teams are always ill-prepared. How do you not spread things out and isolate your quicker guards who also have a size advantage? ...

I still consider Roy Williams' departure for UNC the worst heartbreak of my life. It still brings me to tears (or sometimes rage) when I catch a glimpse of him wearing a tarheel blue tie when he coaches. When I watch a UNC game, my jealousy comes out when I see his assistant coaches still there too. It's as though my boyfriend left me, and I miss his friends too. I can count on one hand the number of Kansas basketball games I've watched since Roy left. When Roy left, he took his style of basketball with him. I was eight when Roy came to Kansas, and although I love the history of Kansas basketball, the only style I really have ever seen is the Roy-era. I've never been a fan of Bill Self. It's a dislike that goes back to his days at Illinois, and specifically the Regional semi-final game in San Antonio when six of his players fouled out. Their strategy was to foul our big guys. Nick Collison was tackled, hugged and dragged under the basket. It worked; we di...

Mike Hendricks, my favorite Kansas City columnist has an intriguing column today on the Kansas-brewed controversy about a paid (Topeka) Capitol intern having a bumper sticker "fuck war" on her car. A good lesson in free speech is also refreshing, and the Fred Phelps-town I grew up in clearly needs a reminder. My favorite line: "What’s the greater obscenity, after all? A cuss word on somebody’s bumper? Or the bodies of men, women and children being blown to bits by insurgents in Baghdad?" http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/columnists/mike_hendricks/16956520.htm

The Sci Fi Channel is making a miniseries of the "Tin Man" based on the L. Frank Baum novel. The cast so far includes Alan Cumming(!), Richard Dreyfuss, Zooey Deschanel, Neal McDonough (Boomtown - how I loved thee) and Kathleen Robertson are all signed on so far. Production begins later this month. http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=40677 Tales of Oz are not always my favorite, as I have been subjected to terrible Dorothy and Toto jokes ever since I stepped out of Kansas, but I imagine this miniseries could be extraordinary if it's done right.