Barbara J. Hamby

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Excitement, Not

There’s very little excitement around here today. Even the weather was calm and pleasant. We ran a few errands this afternoon. I caught up on some paperwork earlier and answered emails.

I’m reading a novel that was a finalist for the National Book Award. The most fascinating thing about it is the lack of quotation marks around dialogue. It took me about half a chapter to notice it. Most of the time, the text flows smoothly, but here and there, especially when there’s a quote within a quote and the writer either uses italics or quotation marks for the inner quote, it gets confusing and slows the reader down. It was published by Simon & Schuster, which, I suppose, gives the unusual punctuation credibility. I don’t read enough modern novels to know whether or not this is a trend.

As an interesting coincidence, last night we watched a presentation on the History Channel about the Manhattan Project. When I picked up the book this afternoon, the protagonist couple were employed by the Tennessee Valley Authority when he was recruited to be a photographer on the Manhattan Project. The name of the book is Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins, in case anyone is curious.

Last night my son sent an email from San Jose where he traveled on business and arrived in pouring rain. I think he’ll be back tonight or tomorrow. He said his plane left half an hour late because they had to jump-start the battery and the necessary equipment was broken. Flying ain’t fun any more. I noticed that some time ago.

I wouldn’t mind being a fly on the wall in any one of a number of places in Washington, D.C.--like the oval office, perhaps. I’m sure there’s much more excitement there these days.