Sweet and simple, despite having with two Creech plot crutches, the baby-in-danger and the first-love-confusion. The fact that despite her use of these elements in almost every book, every book remains fresh and original, is testament to her skill.
It's the most gorgeous weather: perfectly sunny, perfectly clear, warm in the sun, cool in the near-constant, strong winds. Like September at my beach.
We left intending Golden Gate State Park, but as soon as we were on Colfax with a clear view of the west and the towering front, we aimed instead for our stretch of the Highline Canal. We saw kestrels and killdeer and western kingbirds and magpies, the last of which have been conspicuously absent in our neighborhood this spring, which makes me sad.
5.2 miles.
Katherine Paterson's Christianity is more prominent in these her later books--this and Preacher's Boy--than in her earlier ones, but it's still not preachy. The main issue of children of people in the penal system wasn't compromised, and the only weak point was that "everyone" else in school had new clothes and expensive notebooks, even in rural Vermont. Not an artificially happy and tied-up ending either, which is realistic.
RDC and I had dinner with Trish and Jared last night, or two separate dinners because of an incompetent host. There was monkey vivisection and smacktalk and gossipy speculation. And forgetting that Trish cooks and to let her know I received her birthday card and the usual dose of lisa-suckage.