Book completed

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, by Robert Dugoni. This was the selection for the university alumni book club. I got it from the library but the description inside the jacket didn't really interest me. However, instead of returning it when I went to the library a few days ago, I decided to read the first few pages - and it was fine. So I read it and enjoyed it, but I don't strongly endorse it. It's not great literature, and I was especially irritated by the idea that a dare from a friend could help a child overcome dyslexia, and it's best if the reader is sympathetic to Christianity (specifically Catholicism).

It's the story of Samuel Hill, a boy born in the 1950s on the San Francisco peninsula (he lives in Burlingame, if that means anything to you - it's near the airport and the baseball stadium). His dad is a pharmacist and his mom is a devout Catholic, and Sam, their only child, is born with red irises that lead his Catholic school classmates to call him "devil boy" and "Sam Hell." He does acquire two very good friends - the school's only Black boy, and a girl considered rebellious. We follow a few weeks of his life in 1989, woven into the story of his childhood, up through high school graduation, and then we have a ten-year timeskip near the end, which brings us to a resolution of all major plot threads.

Day 538: Labor Day

Today was the Labor Day holiday, the U.S. holiday that traditionally marks the end of summer and is celebrated with a barbecue. Our friends weren't available, though, nor was D, and barbecue for two seemed silly, so we just read outside with the intention of ordering from Agate Alley for dinner. Turns out Agate Alley was closed, so we made our own dinners and read some more. Then I watched American Ninja Warrior, then J. played some Garden Story. All the characters have fruit/vegetable names, and when we started exploring a new area ("Autumn Town"), we met a character whose name I got a kick out of: Squashua. Ha ha ha!

Meanwhile, D&S had gotten burgers, fries, and milkshakes and ended up eating until they both felt quite ill. Too much, I guess.