Title: We've Only Just Begun
Fandom/Subject: My Most Excellent Year
File: SendSpace
Etc.: 13 songs, 50.68MB.


My Most Excellent Year is a novel about baseball, Mary Poppins, and first love, not necessarily in that order. Set in 2003/early 2004, it's about T.C. Keller (represented on the cover by Cory Monteith), his brother-by-choice Augie Hwong (Harry Shum Jr.), and Alejandra Perez (Naya Rivera), the new girl who takes their lives by storm. It's also about Hucky Harper, a deaf six year old who becomes T.C.'s good luck charm of sorts, as well as Ale's killer dance skills, Augie's growing crush on a classmate, and T.C.'s attempts at wooing Ale.

Basically: this book is funny, heartwarming, and absolutely adorable, and MORE PEOPLE NEED TO READ IT SO I CAN DISCUSS HOW AWESOME IT IS WITH THEM. Be forewarned, there's the slightest hint of spoilers here but even if you consider direct book quotes to be spoilery, read the book anyway because you will be charmed. (Or so I hope.)


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1. Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly
A lot of the snoots on Beacon Hill like to tell you that their ancestors came over with the Pilgrims, but this didn't happen to us Kellers. We came over with the Red Sox.
Anthony Conigliaro* Keller comes from a family of Red Sox fans, and baseball is one of his passions. He's the kind of boy who is smart but not obnoxious about it, gets along with nearly everyone, and who generally flings himself at girls that he likes with success.
*: T.C. to almost everyone, Tick to Hucky, Tony C to his dad, and Anthony only to Ale.

2. Overture/All That Jazz, Catherine Zeta-Jones
Do you know who sang opposite John Raitt in The Pajama Game? Have you ever heard of Reta Shaw? Didn't think so.
Augie Hwong has been T.C.'s best friend and brother since first grade. (The brothers thing is serious; T.C. calls Augie's parents Mom and Dad and Augie calls T.C.'s dad Pop, and they both share bedrooms at each other's houses and have clothes over and T.C.'s aunts even buy them both Christmas presents. AWESOME, RIGHT?) Augie's mother is the theater reviewer for the Boston Globe and introduced him to old Hollywood and musical theater, both of which are two of his big loves.

3. Dancing Machine, Jackson 5
Until I recovered enough to return to class, I was glued to the television screen watching Gwen Verdon dance a tango and a mambo again and again until I could match her step for step. And except for the vomiting, I'd completely forgotten that I was supposed to be sick.
Alejandra* Perez is the daughter of a former Ambassador to Mexico and, prior to her first year of high school, her best friend was her Secret Service agent Clint. Compared to her civil-minded older brother Carlos, she's "a ten-year-old activist who could find a social issue in a box of Kleenex", who's content to follow in the family tradition until she watches Damn Yankees and sees a performance of Fosse.
*: Ale to those closest to her

4. I Saw Her Standing There, The Beatles
TC: That was my life until ninth grade, my most excellent year. And then I got drop-kicked by a six-year-old kid and the girl of my dreams.

5. I've Got a Crush on You, Frank Sinatra
Too late. When he calls me Spidey I turn into grape Jell-O. His favorite kind.

I'm doomed.
Augie has a crush on Andy Wexler, who plays soccer and "loves football and the Pats the same way that Tick loves baseball and the Sox."

6. Me and My Shadow, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
When we were seven and pretending we were knights, Augie killed a dragon to save my life.
As previously stated: Augie and T.C. are thisclose. Brothers and BFFs forever.

7. Supercalifragilistiexpialidocius, Julie Andrews
TC Keller: Aug, if you were 6 and deaf, do you think I could turn out to be your role model?
One day at a baseball game, T.C. notices a kid standing by the third base line. The kid tips him on when to swing at a pitch, and it kind of freaks T.C. out a little bit, while also intriguing him. The kid's name is Hucky Harper, he's six, he lives at the Boston Institute for the Deaf, and he has been waiting for Mary Poppins to come and live with him since he was four years old.

8. Cheek to Cheek, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
We were out in the middle of the dance floor, and I'm still not entirely sure how we got there.
Ale, Augie, and T.C. all are in the freshman talent show. Augie sings, Ale dances, and T.C. does something so incredible that I DO NOT WANT TO SPOIL IT FOR YOU AT ALL. (I had to cut the dialogue that goes on before that line because it would require me to set up the incredible thing, okay?) And so they dance and Ale marvels at T.C.'s Boston accent.

This is better than it sounds.

9. Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered, Lena Horne
HUCKY: Who's in the picture?
ME: That's Andy and me at Thanksgiving.
HUCKY: Why are you smiling at him that way?
ME: Uh, because I love him.
HUCKY: Does he love you too?
ME: I don't know.
HUCKY: Why don't you know??
Really, that says it all.

10. The Dark of the Matinee, Franz Ferdinand
Both boys go to the movies with their respective crushes at some point. (Wow, no long descriptions? Shut up.)

11. The Longest Time, Billy Joel
One word of advice, Mary Poppins: Give Bert a chance.
JUST LISTEN TO THE SONG, THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING MUCH BETTER THAN I CAN.

12. I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, Dean Martin
Over Christmas, T.C. and Augie go on a ski trip while Ale stays in town and Andy goes to visit relatives. There are phone conversations and general adorableness. (Ooh, another song without long descriptions.)

13. This Will Be Our Year, The Zombies
And the "um" definitely had something to do with it.
This more or less sums up the entire story: it's a good year (few years, kind of) for all three of our main characters.

Links for direct songs can be offered upon request, and I will gladly upload to Mediafire if anyone has issues with SendSpace. Thank you for your time.