June Books
Season Ticket: A Baseball Companion – Roger Angell Perhaps the greatest ever writer on matters related to baseball in the decade I grew up with the sport? Damn right I’m reading this! It only seems like Angell has been writing about baseball forever1. A significant chunk of his writings have come for The New Yorker, where he’s been an editor…
May Books
34-Ton Bat – Steve Rushin Here we have a book that is perfect for summer and browsing through while a baseball game buzzes in the background. Rushin tells a story of the history of baseball not through on the field actions, but rather through all the ephemera that is attached to the game. The development of uniforms, where nachos came…
April Books
I was crazy productive on the book-reading tip in April! High Fidelity – Nick Hornby Another in my series of re-reads. Apparently I bought this while in Portland, Oregon for work, Halloween week 2002. How do I know this? Well, A) I remember, silly. But also, B) one of my Delta boarding passes from that trip, that I apparently used…
Zander
The name Zander Hollander may not mean much to the majority of my readers. But for some of us, mostly men who grew up in the late 70s and early 80s loving sports, he played a huge role in our formative years as sports fans. Mr. Hollander, who was the creative force behind the Complete Handbook series, died last week…
March Books
The Secret History – Donna Tartt I know Tartt is one of the hot American novelists of the moment, with her novel The Goldfinch getting a lot of acclaim last year. I believe this, her debut, came on the qualified recommendation of Brother in Books, Dave V. He had a mixed view of the book, but suggested I begin with…
February Books
The Passage – Justin Cronin I resisted this book for some time. I would read a blurb about it, or see a positive review, and move it back up my To Read list. Then, I’d read a synopsis, see it had a vampire component to its plot, and decide to pass. What pushed me over the edge? I came across…
January Books
Four books in four weeks to kick off the year. But one of those was a children’s book I knocked out in an afternoon, so I’m feeling like I didn’t take advantage of January the way I should have. Also, I’m skipping one book, just because I’m still thinking about how to write about it. It’s the first time I’ve…
December Books
I read 55 books in 2013. Not bad. Not bad at all. Here’s the last of the bunch. A Christmas Story – Jean Shepherd You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas – Augusten Burroughs Shepherd’s work is an annual tradition for me. Before I can watch the movie, I have to go back and read the original essays it was…
Books, JFK
Six Seconds in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Kennedy Assassination – Josiah Thompson Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK – Gerald Posner Well, I got a little obsessed around the anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Aside from numerous TV documentaries watched and online stuff read, I came across an Errol Morris film that features Josiah Thompson. After…
Books
A full month of books, but also one in which I got obsessed by a specific topic late. So I’ll chop this into two entries: one for the non-obsession books then a second, tomorrow, for the books that haunted my dreams for a couple weeks. The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien The Quiet American – Graham Green I began…