My prediction: “Rose Under Fire v True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Judge Katherine Marsh. Another choice between two books I read; and so I’m picking Rose.”

The actual match: The Thing About Luck vs The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp judged by Katherine Marsh.

And for the third time, half-right. So all I needed was for True Blue to move up. Alas, that was not to be. It’s The Thing About Luck that advances.

Why? It’s all about the “punch in the gut,” and delivers that.

One thing I liked: Marsh, like me (and others!) compares Luck to Laura Ingalls Wilder. She says because of “their depiction of farm work and its trials and rhythms,” but I see it more as the details and the how-to aspect. Just as Wilder has me convinced I can make a cabin complete with door, and smoke a pig, just from reading her books, so, too, does Luck make me think I can cook for a mess of people and drive a combine.

Oh, and how do you define “punch in the gut”? The urgency with which one turns the pages.

Or, in my case — how hard you have to resist skipping ahead to read the last chapter.