Summerall: On and Off the Air; Outlander

 

As promised, I was able to borrow a copy of Pat Summerall's autobiography, "On and Off the Air". The nights of drunken debauchery were not as exciting as I'd hoped, but that was okay, his life story was interesting. 

Pat was born with a club foot and his right leg twisted backwards. A doctor was able to correct it, and thought he would be okay to walk once he got older but probably not ever run or play sports. Pat defied the odds, playing all kinds of sports as a kid and a teenager, he loved all of it. 

He ended up playing football for a few teams, including the New York Giants when they had both Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi as assistant coaches. When he retired from football he took up broadcasting and was paired with Tom Brookshier. The two of them were great friends as well as drinking buddies until CBS split them up and put Pat with Coach Madden. Eventually his family and friends held an intervention and convinced Pat to go to the Betty Ford clinic for his alcoholism. Pat went and never drank again. 

Due to his years of alcohol abuse, Pat ended up needing a liver transplant and lived for another ten years. He sounded like a humble, grateful man at the end and I'm glad he got the chance to turn his life around. 

I've read "Outlander" before but a friend at work who loved the show just started reading the books and after talking with her about them it made me nostalgic to go back and reread them. I took advantage of the long, rainy weekend and tucked in with book one. 

The year is 1945 and Claire Randall, a nurse who served on the battlefields of France during WWII, and her husband, Frank, are vacationing in Scotland before Frank takes up a position at Oxford. They were apart during the war and they're trying to reconnect. While looking at some flowers at Craigh na Dun (a rock formation like Stonehenge), Claire falls through a portal back in time to 1743. 

A band of Scottish Highlanders rescue her from Captain Black Jack Randall, an ancestor of her husband, and take her under their protection. As part of being kept from Black Jack's murderous hands, she ends up marrying Jamie Fraser. At first for convenience, since she's determined to get back to the stones and go to her own time, but she and Jamie fall in love and she decides to stay. 

And yes, I know I have a million library books (not to mention all the ones I own) that I haven't read yet but there's no point fighting it. I've learned over the years 😊

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1

 

So these books seemed to have exploded out of nowhere. After reading the first volume (of 9, I believe), I understand why. It was really good! 

In 1883, Emma Lion, an orphan, returns to the home she's set to inherit when she turns 21 in a few months. She's been living with her very disagreeable and elderly cousin Matilde, who promised to set her three years of wages aside for her but now is refusing to do so because she thinks Emma stole her silver. Her cousin Archibald, Matilde's brother, has been living in Lapis Lazuli House (which is Emma's), taking care of the upkeep and finances. He refuses to give Emma her old rooms and instead sticks her in the garret. He keeps avoiding her and Emma finally makes an appointment with her banker, who tells her Archibald has deliberately blown through her inheritance by buying expensive clothes. 

Boy, with relatives like these, man. Poor Emma. She's a plucky girl, though, and quickly arranges to have a renter come in and rent out part of the house so they have some income. Her aunt Eugenia also wants Emma to be a companion to her daughter, Arabella, who Eugenia is getting ready to introduce to society. 

Brower has written Emma with a lovely, quirky, slightly dark sense of humor and as a result Emma is very relatable and fun. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume. 

Rich People Problems; The Football Game That Changed America

 

I'm so sad the series is over but at least the ending was wonderful. Just perfect *chef's kiss*

The main storyline is about Nick's Ah Ma, Su Yi, has had a heart attack and isn't expected to make it. Nick's cousin Eddie, knowing that Nick is persona non grata, makes a play for Tyersall Park (in your dreams, Eddie). Nick hasn't seen his grandmother since she forbade him from marrying Rachel a few years earlier but Rachel convinces him he should go to Singapore to say goodbye. 

Meanwhile, Astrid's divorce from Michael is getting contentious. He's demanding five billion dollars from her so she can share custody of Cassian. Astrid and Charlie just want to their respective divorces done so they can get married. 

I can't say much more without spoiling it, but it was so good. I really enjoyed it and I can see myself rereading the series at some point. 

This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was more of an academic treatise on the financial and cultural aspects of the Super Bowl. Parts were interesting (like how the Super Bowl halftime show has evolved over the years) but other parts were pretty dry and he did get repetitive at times. 

Ironically enough, I rarely watch the Super Bowl. I think the AFC/NFC Championship games are usually way more entertaining. The Super Bowl always seems to be one sided to me. The commercials are on YouTube weeks before the game or immediately after, so I don't need to see them (I don't particularly care about most of them, anyway). And the halftime show? Meh. Again, I can watch it on YouTube if I'm so inclined. Seeing a performer do a minute of each of their most popular songs doesn't appeal to me. 

The really interesting thing I learned was that the Super Bowl almost didn't survive after the first two. The NFC team (Green Bay) won Super Bowl I and II, and the Colts were heavily favored in Super Bowl III, until the brash young QB for the Jets, Joe Namath, made the bold prediction that the Jets were going to win. The Jets did, and because of that fans in America realized the AFC could be contenders. After 60 Super Bowls, the divisions are pretty evenly split as far as wins. Most people watch now for the entertainment aspect rather than the game itself. 

Madden and Summerall

 

Ah, football season. This time of year if I'm not watching football, I want to be reading about it. 

I don't remember when Madden and Summerall called NFL games together, although I was watching football before Summerall retired. I'm sure I heard the two of them in the booth together. I do very fondly remember Madden and Al Michaels calling Sunday night games (I was so sad when Madden retired and Cris Collingsworth took over). 

Coach Madden was a treasure. Have you heard of a turducken? It's because of him. And for 21 years, Pat Summerall was his perfect foil. Pat used to call games with his buddy, Tom Brookshier. Their nights of drunken debauchery are, apparently, legendary (I'm trying to track down Summerall's bio so I can read about them). Eventually CBS broke them up and paired Pat with Coach Madden, who was very new to broadcasting. They weren't friends outside of work but they worked very well together. I went on YouTube to watch some clips and they were hysterical. And boy, has football changed. I saw one play and said "Oh, pass interference!" but no one threw a flag. No foul on the play. Back when they could just *play*. 

Pat quit drinking after an intervention but the damage was done. He had a liver transplant in his early 70s and lived another 10 years. Coach Madden retired and then passed away in 2021. A true end to an era. 

China Rich Girlfriend

 

The sequel to "Crazy Rich Asians" did not disappoint (seriously, Kevin Kwan is a treasure). 

Nick and Rachel are getting married despite his grandmother's strenuous objections. They were able to find Rachel's biological father, Bao Shaoyen, who has become a successful businessman and is married with a son, Carlton. Shaoyen attends the wedding and invites Nick and Rachel to his home in Shanghai so she can get to know him and his family better. Nick and Rachel happily accept. 

Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, the former Hong Kong soap opera actress, married Bernard Tai and had a daughter, Gisele. Kitty is desperate to get into elite society and hires a woman named Corrine to help her. 

And poor Astrid--now that her husband, Michael, is fabulously rich (thanks to Charlie Wu purchasing his first company anonymously), she's miserable in her marriage. Michael has changed and become a complete ass. She finds herself spending more and more time emailing and calling Charlie so he can console her. 

It was very fun and I'm looking forward to the third book, although it seems like it might be the last one, which is really sad. 

Intimate Audrey

 

This was a beautiful, touching tribute to a wonderful woman. 

Audrey barely survived WWII. She'd been living in the UK when war was declared and her mother sent her to the Netherlands, thinking she would be safer there. Unfortunately the Netherlands were occupied and many people died. Audrey was almost one of them. When the war was over and Audrey returned to England to resume ballet lessons, her instructor told her that she wouldn't be able to be a professional dancer due to her malnutrition. Audrey then turned to acting and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Audrey's father left when she was six and she didn't see him for decades. Her mother was a hard woman and as a result Audrey was insecure and had abandonment issues. She desperately wanted to find love and get married and have babies. She married fellow actor Mel Ferrer and had Sean after suffering several miscarriages. She and Mel drifted apart and divorced and she married Andrea Dotti and had a second son, Luca. Andrea cheated on her endlessly, and their marriage also broke up. She spent the last years of her life with a partner named Robert Wolders. By all accounts, they were deeply in love but never married. 

Audrey left the public eye to focus on raising her boys. She became an ambassador for UNICEF, traveling all over the world to raise awareness to children dying from starvation. Sadly, Audrey was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later in her beloved home in Switzerland. She was only 63. 

The legacy she left is a powerful one and won't soon be forgotten. She brought a light into this world, a light of love and compassion, of helping others and expecting nothing in return. We are both better off for having known her and worse for her having left us so early. 

The Heirs

 

This one was on my TBR list and I found myself at work one day without a book for lunch, so I checked my list to see what might be on the shelf and grabbed it. The premise sounded intriguing: five child prodigies (well, four and one dud) are all suspects in their wealthy father's murder. 

Leontes Button adopted five kids when they were babies: Octavius, Fola, Bilal, Perdita, and Romeo. Each one was supposed to cultivate a gift through his unique "Button" method, which basically meant 18 hour days spent with tutors and specialists. Octavius became a music prodigy, Fola a chess and math wiz, Bilal an Olympic fencer, Perdita an artist, and Romeo was supposed to be a talented writer but no amount of tutoring could help him so he was known as "the failure". 

On the night of the Prodigy Ball, Mr. Button is murdered on a yacht full of people and the police get to work trying to track down the killer. The Button siblings decide to figure it out for themselves. 

I have to admit, it just wasn't great. I really wanted to like it but it fell flat. The solution to the mystery was very banal (and I saw it a mile away, which is really unusual for me). At least it was a quick read so I don't feel like I wasted too much time.