Sports Fact and Book Rec of the Day 11/15/2007

11/15/2004:
Seventeen-year-old Maria Sharapova completes an amazing year for Russian women tennis players by beating Serena Williams in Los Angeles to capture the year-end WTA Championship. Her victory at Wimbledon this summer was sandwiched between conquests by countrywomen Anastasia Myskina at the French Open and Swetlana Kuznetsova at the U.S. Open. Before 2004, no Russian woman had ever won a Grand Slam singles title.

Birthdays:
Gus Bell b. 1928
Harland Svare b. 1930
Bob Dandridge b. 1947
Otis Armstrong b. 1950
Chris Terreri b. 1964

IF YOU LIKE MAEVE BINCHY, YOU’LL LOVE...

A Good Yarn, a Seattle knitting store, is Lydia Hoffman’s second chance. With the store and the knitting classes she’s offering there, she’ll hope to stitch together a better life for herself, one that includes friendship and love. Macomber’s heartwarming and deeply felt stories of women getting on with their lives have made her a bestseller and have put her in a league with Maeve Binchy and Luanne Rice.

THE SHOP ON BLOSSOM STREET, by Debbie Macomber (Mira, 2005)