Great Big Beautiful Life – Emily Henry
Alice thinks she has it made, having tracked down the long-missing former tabloid princess from one of the most storied families of the 20th Century and pitched her on writing her version of her family’s scandalous past. Instead, she finds herself in competition with Hayden, a Pulitzer Prize winning author and Purdue alum who was invited down to the remote Georgia island to pitch the job as well. While they both work on their separate pitches, they fall in love, knowing that this job could jeopardize their personal relationship. And when Alice finds out the big secret that the heiress has been hiding, it does just that.
For the third year in a row, the Goodreads Choice winner for Favorite Romance has found its way onto my Kindle. Emily Henry’s latest, Great Big Beautiful Life, isn’t your traditional romance novel, or at least not what I believe a traditional romance novel to be. Its story shares some DNA with Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, where an aging protagonist looks back at her life story through her own lens while ostensibly working with a young author. This is now the third entry from Henry that I have enjoyed, so I may need to consider looking into more of her back catalog going forward.
With Purdue’s victory Sunday night over Akron, Matt Painter notched the 500th victory of his coaching career. He had 25 wins with Southern Illinois before returning to Purdue and replacing Gene Keady in 2005, where he has racked up 475 victories. Keady ended his career with 550 career victories, 512 of which came at Purdue.
Four years ago, the Purdue men’s basketball team reached #1 in the AP rankings for the first time in program history. Over the past three seasons, the Boilermakers have spent at least one week each season at the top of the poll, leading all of college basketball with thirteen weeks total. Yesterday, another first was achieved as the team was atop the first preseason poll for the first time in program history. They’ve come close twice before, ranked #3 in 2023-24 heading into Zach Edey’s final season and #2 in 1987-88.
A few picked upsets that didn’t happen mar the bottom half of this region, but the top half, including my reginal champion, is clean.