Whatever Wednesday - Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

 And this book is going, going, gone.... It's outta here....a real hit!

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a delightful memoir. She brings  her nose  for history and recollection and combines it with warmth and wit.  It's 1950s New York  City. The neighborhood is divided - who do you root for?  Dodgers, Giants,  or Yankees? 

Doris was a daddy's girl and she was by his side to listen to baseball games on the radio and learn  how to mark up a game. She rooted for the Dodgers - Jackie Robinson (her favorite), Roy Campanella, Pee Wee  Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Her  descriptions of teasing jousts with best friends and discussions at  the  local corner store are heartfelt. 

Her mother taught her a love of books and her sisters helped raise her. She writes well about growing  up - life, love, friendships,  death - and  balances it with the ebb and  flow  of baseball.

Wait  Till Next Year is wistful,  poignant, and a delight.  Batter up (this book) and play ball (read it). 

Movie Review Madness - Brooklyn

The new film Brooklyn is an immigrant tale written by Nick Hornby.  1950s small town Ireland does not offer a lot of room for growth. It’s a land of predictability – you live, marry, and die. But more is meant for Eilis Lacey. Her sister Rose arranges via the priest for Eilis to travel to Brooklyn, live in a respectable boarding house, and work at a department store.  Rose will stay in Ireland, continue working as a bookkeeper, and care for their mother. So Eilis ventures into an unknown world. After a bout of homesickness, she soon meets a young man. It’s shocking but he’s Italian.  But it’s not Ireland. It’s America, and it’s okay. Eilis grows into her job – learning to laugh and interact with customers. The local priest (Jim Broadbent) sponsors her night school so she can achieve her dream to someday become an accountant. She’s blossoming before our eyes into an independent young woman – an American.

Circumstance bring her back to Ireland and she has to face her past to decide on her future. The auld sod is in her heart, but she’s torn. She has a new life in Brooklyn.  This tender movie is sweet, poignant, and well-acted. Saoirse Ronan’s clear blue eyes captivate the screen. She’s excellent and you root for her. Jim Broadbent is perfect as the local priest looking out for her. Julie Walters is a welcome presence as the boarding house marm. Emory Cohen, Tony the Italian suitor, is a charmer. And Domhnall Gleeson is the Irish lad in the old home town.

Brooklyn presents choices, growth, humor, love, and tells a tale about home and what the word embodies. It’s rich and presents the energy of America. It’s a good movie to see in this holiday season and to give thanks.