Monthly Archives: September 2016

First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day – Labor Day “Get to Work” Edition

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The Olympics always mess up my reading schedule quite a bit, so in honor of not really reading all that much this month, here are a dozen short stories that I have not read yet from my bookmarked "Stories to Read" Folder.

SCI-FI

Charlie Jane Anders - The Time Travel Club (audio)
I loved Anders other short fiction, so it was completely on the reputation of the author that I picked this one.

Desirina Boskovich - The Island
I have no recollection of bookmarking this.  It appears to be a horror short story.  I'll have to read it and get back to you.

Chen Qiufan - The Mao Ghost
Translated by Ken Liu, who I love as an author and I've loved his choices for translated sci-fi work as well.

Aliette de Bodard - Prayers of Forges and Furnaces
I will read anything by de Bodard ... eventually.

Yoon Ha Lee - Combustion Hour
I feel like so many of these are "this author is awesome - I just haven't got around to this yet."  And that's exactly what this one is.

Sofia Samatar - Those
Sofia Samatar - Tender
Samatar's "Selkie Stories are for Losers" was a wonderful story and one that convinced me to read her first novel, which I really liked.

NON SCI-FI

Kobo Abe - The Magic Chalk
Abe is always surreal, but I've never read any of his short work.

Leopoldine Core - Historic Tree Nurseries
She won a Whiting Award last year, and every time I've read a book by someone who won that award, I've really enjoyed it - her collection "When Watched" is on my to-read list as well.

Clarice Lispector - Clandestine Happiness
Lispector (the most famous Brazilian woman author) is going to be my 2017 reading project, which includes her recently released complete collection of short stories.  I'll probably just pick this one up when I read that.

Tade Thompson - The Monkey House
The fun part about going through this list is finding stories that I have no clue where they came from or why I bookmarked them.  This must have been recommended somewhere, but I can't for the life of me remember where it came from.

Colin Winnette - Ghost Mountain Murder Mystery
I love Colin Winnette - "Giant Panda" is one of my favorite short stories of all time.  There's no good reason that I haven't already read this.

Anne Marie Wirth Cauchon - Wait Anywhere
Cauchon got me invested in a novel ("Nothing") with a cast full of self-absorbed twenty-somethings, which is kind of remarkable, so I marked this one to see what her other writing is like.

Keeping Track

Happy Birthday–September 5

Al Orth (1872)
Nap Lajoie (1874)
Lefty Leifield (1883)
Max Bishop (1899)
Merv Shea (1900)
Gene Bearden (1920)
Bill Mazeroski (1936)
Karl Kuehl (1937)
Tom Hallion (1956)
Candy Maldonado (1960)
Jeff Brantley (1963)
Jimmy Haynes (1972)
Rod Barajas (1975)
Randy Choate (1975)
Jason Hart (1977)
Chris Young (1983)

 Karl Kuehl was a coach for the Twins from 1977-1982.  He was a minor league manager for several seasons and also managed the Montreal Expos in 1976.  His minor league managing career started in 1959, when he managed the Salem Senators in the Northwest League at age 21.

Tom Hallion has been a major league umpire from 1986-1999 and 2005-present.

Continue reading Happy Birthday–September 5 →

2016 Twins Game Logs

2016 Game 137: Hosers at Twinkies

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First pitch 1:10 p.m. CDT

Anthony Ranaudo (1-1, 8.76 ERA, 13 K, 1.476 WHIP)
Andrew Albers (0-0, 6.97 ERA, 8 K, 2.129 WHIP)

I remember Andrew Albers debut a few years ago when Gardy ended a complete game bid by pulling him in the 9th inning of shutout due to pitch count. I bitched about it for almost a week, right up until Albers' next start when he pitched a complete game shutout. This will be Albers' first major league start since 2013. I hope it goes as well for him as his first two major league debuts. On another note, Byron Buxton has man muscles and runs like a cheetah chasing dinner.

Play ball!