It Was Good In Parts, Less Good in Others: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

This book, enh, it was alright?
I didn't love it. It was really good in some spots, but it felt like there were many sections where James was just flexing his writing muscle and it did not advance the story at all. If you're into it then maybe you would be less bored with it than I was. There were some chapters that I felt could have been omitted, and many others that could have just been cut in half, or more.

The characters that James creates are great, and it is a long and involved story. "Sprawling" seems to be a popular way to describe it, but here's the thing: sprawl can have a negative connotation (e.g. urban sprawl), and I think that connotation applies here. This novel had all the elements to be a true classic, but it needs to be tightened up.

One other thing that got really, really old was the fact that the entire novel was written in the first person viewpoint. Everything that happens is happening through one person's eyes, and that just gets tiresome after a while. Also it starts to feel gimmicky and contrived when you introduce minor character number 28, who won't play any kind of role beyond maybe killing somebody. So it all got a bit tiresome after a while.

That said, the parts that were good were excellent, so you can see why some people like the book. But any honest reviewer can see that while it is a strong work of fiction, it isn't as good as it could be.
I don't know that I would recommend it, unless you want to know more about Jamaica gang violence in the 70s and 80s. That part was kind of interesting.

Chris Cole is a God on Earth

Do you like skate videos? Me too! Here is Chris Cole doing fun things on a skateboard. 11 minutes! That's a lot of footage. Enjoy.

Congratulations Alex Howes - 2019 US Men's Elite Road Race Champion

One of the unique and fun things about pro cycling is that if you win your national championship in a specific discipline you get to wear the national jersey for the entire next year whenever you ride that discipline. (After your year is up you get to wear stripes on your sleeve, which is good and cool but very confusing if you are trying to determine if a rider is Belgian or German, never mind all the countries with red/white/blue as their flag colors). Wearing the jersey is a big honor, and at the beginning of all the races you start at the front to show off the colors, and you ride alongside the other jersey-wearers. And the stripes are forever, which is legit.

This year the US National Champion is Alex Howes, who won a very exciting race on a circuit course in Knoxville. Howes is a beast of a rider, and he deserved the win after riding in a breakaway, getting caught by the peloton, and then riding in another breakaway before getting separation at the end to clinch the victory. A worthy champion, and a nice story after several years of near misses for him in the race.

Howes also rode in the Dirty Kanza last month, a race which is weird and popular with a subset of people that like the feel of dirt in their mouth and sand in their shoes. To each their own, I guess. His team made a very good video about it, which you can enjoy above. Howes' team sent three pros to Kanza, and I don't think it is a coincidence that they sent three likable, telegenic riders. That's just good marketing, but it helps that they are phenomenal on the bike.