Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/6/2012

I inadvertently posted January 5, 2011's book yesterday instead of 2012, so there's two today:

1/6/2002:
During the last regular-season game of the 2001 campaign, New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan breaks the single-season sack record in controversial fashion. As time winds down in the game against the Packers at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Strahan has 21-1/2 sacks on the season, just shy of the record 22 set by Mark Gastineau of the New York Jets in 1984. With 2:42 remaining and Green Bay ahead by 34-25, Brett Favre runs a naked bootleg toward Strahan's side of the field. As Strahan gains on him, Favre falls purposely to the ground. But Strahan touches Favre for the sack, which gives him 22-1/2 on the year, and the record.

Birthdays:
Early Wynn b. 1920
Lou Holtz b. 1937
Nancy Lopez b. 1957
Keenan McCardell b. 1970
Gilbert Arenas b. 1982


"Epiphany" comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means manifestation or appearance.

LIVING HISTORY

If you are finding your winter long and hard, curl up by the fire to experience Louisa Adams’s extraordinary 40-day race from St. Petersburg to Paris in the winter of 1815. Michael O’Brien’s impeccable scholarship and crackling prose make the read as fast as the ride and infinitely more enjoyable. The logistics of the trip alone are mind-boggling—multiple passports, currencies, letters of credit, supplies, and servants needed. A must-read for fans of colonial American and Napoleonic history.

MRS. ADAMS IN WINTER: A JOURNEY IN THE LAST DAYS OF NAPOLEON, by Michael O’Brien (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010)

SCHOOL DAY

Prep-school girls are a dangerous lot.
Nina de Gramont adds to the genre of coming of age among the elites with her dark and beguiling tale. Think Prep (by Curtis Sittenfeld) or The Secret History (by Donna Tart). Outsider Catherine Morrow gets taken under the wing of rebel queen bee Skye Butterfield, and the resulting drama is fierce, fragile, and unforgettable. “I inhaled this novel in one breath,” said Jacqueline Mitchard.

GOSSIP OF THE STARLINGS, by Nina de Gramont (Algonquin, 2009)