April 5, 2019 FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME

The thrill of victory. It's NOT a feeling I've experienced often. Yeah, I've run a lot of races BUT I've never won anything more than THIRD place in my age division. Come to think of it--the ONLY time I can remember ever winning ANYTHING was in the second grade. DON'T LAUGH. I will never forget winning the FIRE PREVENTION POSTER CONTEST. Yup--It was a BIG TADOO. I was honored at a dinner--where my poster was on display. I even won a watch. Okay--might have EVEN  been the EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH--a few times at Papa Ginos--BUT THAT'S IT. It's ONLY taken 46 years BUT I finally felt THE THRILL OF VICTORY AGAIN. Okay--I didn't officially WIN--but my debate team did. There we were --with about 40 teams--WAITING for the winners to be announced. ONLY eight teams would move on to the playoffs. It was TENSE as the judges rattled off the TOP EIGHT TEAMS.  After the judges announced teams 8--7--6--5--WE BEGAN TO SQUIRM. YOU COULD CUT THE TENSION WITH A KNIFE. Team 4--3--WHY HADN'T THEY CALLED OUR TEAM--2--SWEATING BULLETS-- DRUM ROLL PLEASE--We Won FIRST place.  AAHH-winning is fun even if it's only the preliminaries. On to the next round! Daphne Maretch, the main character, in Elinor Lipman's new novel Good Riddance could use a win after her sham of a marriage ends.
 Daphne is humiliated after she realizes that her husband Holden only married her to get his trust fund. After her divorce, Daphne moves to a small apartment to try to reinvent herself. Because her apartment is so small, she decides to get rid of  some things including her recently deceased mother's  1968 high school yearbook. Although her mother treasured it, Daphne thinks her mother's obsession with it is ludicrous. Trouble ensues after Daphne's new neighbor Genova finds the yearbook in the trash and decides to unravel the comments in the book because she thinks the yearbook would make a  great documentary film. Daphne is horrified and tries to retrieve the book with another neighbor and possible love interest across the hall named Jeremy. In the midst of all this craziness, Daphne's father decides to move to the city to become a dog walker and then falls for one of the dog's owners. By the way, is he really her father--only the yearbook knows?? Find out what happens to all these quirky characters when you read this light-hearted romance novel for yourself.  It's about 300 pages or an easy 4 mile run. Enjoy.