This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to consider Top Ten Extraordinary Book Titles.

Here are 10 titles that piqued my interest:

1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling)
2. Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, by Jeff Zentner
3. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, by Jessica Townsend
4. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, by Max Porter
5. The Tea Dragon Society, by Katie O’Neil
6. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, by Ashley Herring Blake
7. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann
8. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
9. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle
10. The Other F-Word, Natasha Friend

How about you? Are there books you’ve picked up simply based on their title?

It was still a beautiful evening when my friends caught up with me Thursday, and Eric, who used to live not far away, suggested we head toward the river. I didn’t quite understand what the hurry was (we all walk fast, but he was double-timing it and I had a heavy bag) until we reached the waterfront for the final moments of a fleetingly fluorescent sunset over the Hudson River.

Obviously he knew what he was doing…

I fell asleep trying to figure out how to add a photo from Flickr to a post while on my phone (it’s easy on my laptop) and haven’t had any more luck now that I’m awake.

We could interpret this as failing, but I’ve decided not to. My favorite readalong likes to use as its motto that there’s no failing, only flailing, and that seems appropriate here, too. After all, it didn’t mean I couldn’t write a post, it just means that you’ll get that post tomorrow after I’m home with my laptop. And today’s post has written itself!

Yesterday, I did a round train trip to New York City, leaving home before 6 a.m. and returning home after 1 at night.

Today, we left D.C. in the evening and drove, apparently along with everyone else in the mid-Atlantic, north for the weekend. At least we had a baseball game to listen to. (Go, Nats!) We’re going to celebrate Dad’s birthday, Rudi’s going to do a bike ride, and then we’ll get back in the car and return home Sunday evening.

So, I guess I’d better get to sleep!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I went on a work trip to New York City today and wrapped up my day there with dinner with two dear friends from college.

2. My long-time volleyball team is reaching the end of our season, so we went out for an evening of drinks and laughter at a local bar.

3. At the zoo, Nicole and I took Juliet into the Ape House. We saw baby gorillas and orangutans, but even more fun was when a big gorilla plopped itself down right in front of us.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Have I ever shared here how much I hate the intentional walk? I think it’s a particularly overused action in contemporary baseball. You want to skip a batter? Pitch around him. He hits it anyway? Them’s the breaks!

It particularly grates me when it’s done to load the bases, and I don’t care how many Sabremetrics guys want to tell me that it’s a savvy move when there are no outs and a hot batter is at the plate. You intentionally walk the bases in that situation and you deserve to have a grand slam smacked against you.

Because eventually, that next batter is going to get really tired of being deemed the lesser threat. And he’s going to demonstrate that he, too, can make the clutch move. And, honestly, extra innings in the final game of a playoff series is a really great time to make such a statement.

Thanks, Howie Kendrick, for channeling all the dismissiveness the Dodgers showed you and smacking that baseball back toward the D.C. crowd who’s waiting to buy you a beer when you get home.

Let’s go, Nationals! St. Louis, we’re coming for you next!