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I was told the other day, that I have to take a bunch of vacation before the end of the year or I will lose it. I always take time off at the end of the year, but since I didn’t take any time this summer, I guess I am closer to the max than I thought I was. A nice surprise, for sure.

So, I’ve been looking at the holidays a little sooner than I normally do, because I have to figure out which days I am going to take off. I have also been thinking about which doorstop (and I say this as affectionately as possible) I will be reading over Thanksgiving week and I think it will be this one:

I was hoping to get an ARC of The Abominable but I wasn’t one of the lucky few, so I think I will load up the Kindle with this one and spend the entire Thanksgiving week reading, eating and sleeping! Those that have known me for awhile know about my Thanksgiving Day in PJs, but yeah… we spend the entire day in PJs and lounge around. Sounds magnificent, doesn’t it? I can’t wait! I love so sink my teeth into a chunkster over a nice long break.

As for the other days I will be taking off, they will fall before Christmas and after, as my kids have over three weeks off for winter break. That is a long time to be off from school. huh?

Since I have been thinking about the holidays, I have been having fun looking up recipes and checking out the decor stores but this year, it seems as if all of the stores are skipping over Halloween and going straight into Christmas. I think this happened last year too, but not quite this early. I suppose retailers want us to start buying earlier and putting out all the Christmas stuff is supposed to get you into the mood. In theory, it would be nice to be able to enjoy the Christmas lights longer than we normally do (I love twinkly lights!), but at the same time, if my neighbors hung Christmas lights up now, I would snicker for sure.

This weekend is a long weekend for my kids. A four-day for The Teen and a super long one for The Girl as it’s fall break in these parts. Monday, we are celebrating her 10th birthday so I am taking the day off to spend it with her. She has a lot planned. Shopping, eating and movie watching. They both have rehearsals next week though which puts the kabosh on it feeling like any sort of holiday week. Speaking of rehearsals, auditions and callbacks are over and now we are waiting for the final cast list. We won’t know what they got until Tuesday.

Well, that’s all I have. Hope you all have a great weekend and if any of you plan to read The Abominable, let me know. Could be fun to read it together.

The Art of Fielding
By Chad Harbach
(Back Bay Books, Paperback, 9780316126670, May 2012, 544pp.)

The Short of It:

To say this debut novel is about baseball, would be a gross understatement.

The Rest Of It:

Henry Skrimshander is a quiet boy with one heck of an arm. Destined for greatness, he is invited to play baseball at Westish College but after one wild pitch and the injury that resulted from it, he becomes paralyzed with fear every time he steps onto the field. Also affected are the four people he’s gotten to know while playing ball. Guert Affenlight, the college president, his daughter Pella, and his teammates Owen Dunne and Mike Schwartz are all tangled up in Henry’s world as they struggle to find their place.

I received a review copy of this long before it was released for publication, but as gorgeous as that copy was, it did not survive when my daughter accidentally dumped a bottle of water onto it while in the car. And did I mention that she didn’t tell me about it until three days later when it was a pulpy mess? Yeah. I tried to dry it out but the pages were stuck together and then when I checked it out from the library, I had to return it unread because I never could find the right time to read it. I mean, it was about baseball right?

Yes, and no. The Art of Fielding centers around baseball, but there is more to the story than just playing ball. It wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of readers avoided this one because they thought they’d have to know a lot about the game to follow it (you don’t) or that it would be about manly men with attitudes and a bone to pick (it’s not). It’s a tender, sweet story about friendship and love and figuring out where you fit in. As Henry attempts to find his way, the others come along for the ride and figure out things about themselves that perhaps they’d never be forced to face had Henry not entered the scene.

I really enjoyed this one and reading it now, after it’s been out for so long, I have to say that it never felt like a debut novel to me. Harbach’s grasp of his characters is swift and self-assured and the writing is straight-forward and alive. It’s incredibly readable and I think that’s important to note given its length (500+ pages). It’s one of those feel-good novels that you seek out every now and then and we all need more of those. I highly recommend it.

Note from Ti: I also listened to a portion of this on audio and it was also very good.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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