Just a few links

This is a really sad story about former baseball pitcher Jeff Reardon, who was arrested last month for robbing a jewelry store.  Seriously heartbreaking stuff, about his son's death and how he's been unable to cope.

This is a Slate article about Louis Sachar, author of some best-selling children's books.  He wrote "Sideways Stories From Wayside School," which I read as a young kid and thought was really terrific and funny and engaging.  Loved it.  Apparently a few years ago he wrote a book called "Holes" which won some awards, and he has a new one now, "Small Steps."  The article makes him sound like someone who writes with a reason, like he has something to say.  That's good.  It's not a great review of "Small Steps," but kind of makes me want to read it anyway.

This is a weblog by a Canadian law graduate who wrote a book called, "So, You Want to be a Lawyer, Eh?" a guide for prospective and current Canadian law school students.  I can't vouch for the book, but the guy e-mailed me and his blog looks okay so I figured I'd put up the link in case anyone's in the market for such a book and wants to check it out.

Comments

[PG]

My favorite Sachar probably is always going to be There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. It really does everything right: character development, plot movement, humor, pathos. Holes was good too, though I think the more mature subject matter (kid tossed in juvie) gave me higher expectations that were slightly disappointed by what seemed a too-tidy ending.

I read books targeted to adolescents almost more now than I did when I was an adolescent; when I was in 5th grade, I wanted to jump ahead and read grownup books, so I'd read stuff like Vanity Fair and understand most of the words but not all of what was going on (I was a pretty sheltered kid and missed that people were having affairs all over the place).

[Matthew]

Just gotta say (as a Canadian law student) that "So you want to be a lawyer, EH?" sounds like the sketchiest title for a book on law school in Canada ever! Anyone who's remotely curious should just go on to www.lawbuzz.ca and read students suffering through another boring property class explain why the other school in their large Canadian metropolitan area totally suck.

[Sanya]

What's sad is that it took me FOREVER to understand why he keeps calling blogs "blawgs". :-[

[blavo]

i randomly stumbled onto sachar a few years ago and was impressed. holes is excellent: poignant, poetic. onions made me tear.