Week Starts

Word of the day :
                             campestral  - of or relating to fields or open country ; rural

Ten Things I Like/Don't Like or Get/Don't Get This Monday:

1) Like.  Simon Baatz's 2008 nonfiction book For the Thrill of It, an account of the infamous, shocking Leopold and Loeb case, in which the the two wealthy, homosexual University of Chicago students murdered a 14-year old boy and then hired the most famous lawyer in the country, Clarence Darrow (an anti-capital punishment icon - and windbag) to prevent them from getting the chair  Fascinating and terrifically researched, the book's only flaw is that its midsection drags on; the book's about a hundred pages longer than it should be. 


2) Don't Like.  Can't really say my initial (if wary) interest in The Americansi has really been rewarded.  I like Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, but I wish the show was more about them and their children - even they're tense relationship with Noah Emmerich's nosy Fed neighbor.  Everything else that is going on in this show I either don't care about or can't follow.

3) Like.  That Jennifer Love Hewitt's guilty pleasure Lifetime show The Client List is back for its second season.

4) Don't Get.  How Oz ruled the box office this weekend, bringing in just over $80 million.  I thought this one would bomb, but apparently a lot of people - particularly overseas - are still interested in Frank Baum's world.

5) Like.  The Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona.  Subject of a 60 Minutes piece last night, it looks like it would be the most amazing church you'd ever see in your lifetime.

6) Get.  The international appeal of Linwood Barclay.  I'm just about done with my second book by him, 2011's The Accident.  Though his plotting is a little silly and he doesn't write the greatest dialogue, he can definitely crank out a page turner - check out 2012's Trust Your Eyes.

7) Like.  Indiana's tense win yesterday over Michigan.  What a game!

8) Don't Get.   How insurance rates and costs keep going up on everything - but salaries stay just the same!

9)  Like.   That we might be going to Europe again next summer - for six weeks!

10)  Don't Like.  That there are still two whole months before we go to Italy.