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I've read, or at least finished, my last book of the year.
PEDRO — Pedro Martinez and Michael Silverman (2015) **-1/2
I don’t generally go much for athlete autobios but, between Pedro’s NYM connections and coming off as a guy with more to say than your average jock, I found this to be a bit better than is typical of its genre even if that's faint praise.
INSIDE OF A DOG: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know — Alexandra Horowitz (2009) ***
How does a dog see the world; what does it think about?
THE HORSE: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion — Wendy Williams (2015) ***
The evolutionary history of the horse as well as how they see the world and what they think about.
THE RELIC MASTER: A Novel — Christopher Buckley (2015) ***-1/2
THE DEVILS OF CARDONA — Matthew Carr (2016) **
Two fiction titles on medieval Europe in one year … purely a coincidence.
In RELIC MASTER Buckley turns his sarcastic wit to a story of a religious artifacts dealer who runs into much hi-jinx as the era of the Protestant Reformation dawns.
DEVILS OF CARDONA is a first novel by an historian on Spain of that same era where, although I learned a few things about the times, the plot and execution were only marginally engaging.
ONCE IN A GREAT CITY: A Detroit Story — David Maraniss (2015) ****
Prior to when books written about this city carried the word ‘Autopsy’ in the subtitle, there was Detroit of 1963-64: the Detroit of Motown & Mustangs; of being on the vanguard of the civil rights and labor movements.
THE OREGON TRAIL: A New American Journey — Rinker Buck (2015) ****
A somewhat eccentric writer and his even goofier brother decide to explore the Oregon Trail the old fashioned way, via mule-led covered wagon. More than just a vanity travelogue, there’s some excellent history thrown in along the way.
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History — Elizabeth Kolbert (2015) ***
Not strictly a global warming warning, more a selected look at why and how large numbers of species have either gone, or are in danger of going, extinct during this modern era.
THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE TRIPOLI PIRATES: The Forgotten War that Changed American History — Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger (2015) **-1/2
A bit of a simplistic and flag-waving account of what was essentially this country’s first war, a U.S.-led regime change in North Africa during the first decade of the 19th century. The more things change …
JOHN PRINE: In Spite of Himself — Eddie Huffman (2015) **-1/2
WARREN ZEVON: Desperado of Los Angeles — George Plasketes (2016) ***-1/2
Both of these rock bios are part of a series (although not the same series) where publishers line up writers to churn out bios of various musicians. The Zevon one works better IMO with the author getting inside the songs and the subject to a much greater degree. Plus WZ is simply the more interesting subject, he was certainly a more colorful one. Talkin’ about the man!
THE MOTHER TONGUE: English and How it Got that Way — Bill Bryson (1990) ****
An entertaining (although 25+ years old at this point) look at the history, influence, and quirks of the English Language.
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan — Rick Perlstein (2014) ***
A look at the political scene, mostly from 1973-’76, that attempts to explain Reagan’s rise to prominence from the ashes of the Nixon era. Some chapters were interesting, others a bit of a slog to get through.
Moneyball: The Next Generation -- Now playing at a bookstore/library near you!!
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Inside the Baseball Revolution — Brian Kenny (2016) **-1/2
Fairly standard pro-Sabermetric / kill the Luddites stuff from the MLBN host.
BIG DATA BASEBALL: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-year Losing Streak — Travis Sawchik (2015) ***
Pittsburgh circa 2013 where the market inefficiency is defense, specifically shifts and pitch-framing, and how it may have played a role in breaking their lengthy playoff drought.
THE ONLY RULE IS IT HAS TO WORK: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team — Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller (2016) ***
A couple of Baseball Prospectus nerds take charge of an Independent League team as a lab to test Sabermetric theories in action.
WOUNDED KNEE: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre — Heather Cox Richardson (2010) ***-1/2
AMERICAN CARNAGE: Wounded Knee, 1890 — Jerome A. Greene (2014) **-1/2
PARTY POLITICS looks at the national political landscape that contributed to the WK tragedy; AMERICAN CARNAGE deals more with the local details of the massacre itself.
BASEBALL MAVERICK: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets — Steve Kettmann (2015) ***
Finally got around to this one. The sub-title is more than a bit over the top (aren’t most?) and, at the time, premature as well. But, still, some good insight into Sandy with little bits of behind the scenes NYM action.
INDENTURED: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA — Joe Nocera & Ben Strauss (2016) ****
Clearly biased in favor of the ‘NCAA are evil blood-sucking swine’ side of the issue, the authors illustrate how the ‘college model’ of big time sports evolved to the system as it now exists, the legal quagmire involved in trying to change it, and how the supposed ‘student athlete’ consistently gets a raw deal.
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: How the English Became Americans — Malcolm Gaskill (2014) **
How the first century of English settlers in North America began to split from the mother country. I often got lost and/or bored by the internal religious splits in both countries.
THE GENE: An Intimate History — Siddartha Mukherjee (2016) ****
A history of heredity from what the ancient Greeks knew (or thought they knew), through Darwin & Mendel, and on up to the modern age of genetic engineering.
Occasionally stuff flew over my head but quite well-written and worth sticking with.
GHOSTS OF MANILA: The Fateful Blood Feud Between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier — Mark Kram (2001) ****
In the wake of Ali’s death I revisited this book which I read back when it first came out.
Great writing from a long-time boxing guy covering the physical and psychological fights between the two leading up to their final meeting in the Philippines, and one which doesn’t always follow the script of deifying the Ali myths which were endlessly flogged earlier this year.
THE ARM: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports — Jeff Passan (2016) ****
Everything you ever wanted to know about the ulnar collateral ligament and then some. Tackles the issues involved from youth ball on up to the majors.
A FIELD PHILOSOPHER’S GUIDE TO FRACKING — Adam Briggle (2015) **
THE GREEN AND THE BLACK: The Complete Story of the Shale Revolution, the Fight Over Fracking, and the Future of Energy — Gary Sernovitz (2016) ***
A Philosophy professor writes a self-congratulatory tale on the community activism that got fracking banned in their town - although it’s more a story of fighting dopey zoning issues on a local level than it is about the overall issue of fracking.
The better read is GREEN AND THE BLACK where an author with one foot on each side of the debate — a self-proclaimed liberal New Yorker who works in the finance end of the oil & gas business — examines the history and future of ‘Fracking’ both from a local/environmental viewpoint and a global/financial perspective.
A GAME OF THRONES — George R. R. Martin (1996) ****
— A CLASH OF KINGS (1998)
Picking these up for the first time (knew nothing about this series prior to the TV show) as way to keep up/refresh the story until the series restarts.
NEVER A DULL MOMENT: 1971 - The Year that Rock Exploded — David Hepworth (2016) ***
Longtime English music writer makes the case that THIS was the R&R year that stands out above all others. And maybe he’s right.
THE GAMES: A Global History of the Olympics — David Goldblatt (2016) ***
A broad, although not particularly deep, history of the modern Olympics from its original goal where culture and competition between ’sporting gentlemen’ would foster international relations, to its present day global TV/corporate spectacle.
ON TRAILS: An Exploration — Robert Moor (2016) ***
Man hiking the Appalachian Trail begins to ponder the meaning, history, purpose of all kinds of trails from insect on up through natural and man-made.
AMERICAN HEIRESS: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst — Jeffrey Toobin (2016) ****
So just how victimized and/or complicit was she? The network legal reporter spins a well-told account of the slow-moving crime story that dominated the news in its time although not even close to the degree it would today.
THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT — Graham Moore (2016) **
EMPIRES OF LIGHT: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World — Jill Jonnes (2003) ***
LAST DAYS is a novel built around the real life competition between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla (the inventor, not the metal band) during the dawn of the age of electricity.
And after reading that I decided to give the non-fiction version, EMPIRES OF LIGHT, a shot. The real story is better.
THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America — Erik Larson (2003) ***-1/2
This author consistently picks interesting, even if somewhat offbeat, topics to explore.
BLOOD IN THE WATER: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy — Heather Ann Thompson (2016) ***
Exhaustively researched and detailed story of the long-ago shit-storm itself and then even more into the decades-long aftermath of cover-ups and legal wrangling which followed.
I’D KNOW THAT VOICE ANYWHERE: My Favorite NPR Commentaries — Frank Deford (2016) ***
Longtime sports writer reprints some of his weekly NPR essays.
CITY OF DREAMS: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York — Tyler Anbinder (2016) ****
From 1600 to the present: who came, how they came, and what they faced when they got here. Good history and instructive for current times as well.
GAME 7: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life — Ron Darling (2016) ***-1/2
Well done account of WS Game 7 1986, plus asides into other topics - even if mostly aimed at us NYM geeks.
BLOOD AT THE ROOT: A Racial Cleansing in America — Patrick Phillips (2016) ***
The story of how an entire county (Forsyth County, Georgia) manages to stay almost entirely White for most of an entire century.
A MAN CALLED OVE: A Novel — Fredrik Backman (2014) ***-1/2
Lighthearted little tale about a curmudgeonly Swede whose nuisance neighbors keep interrupting his suicide plans.
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