|
="seawolf17":2vf2mmfl]Devil in the White City is very similar in style, but I liked it better than Thunderstruck.[/quote:2vf2mmfl]
How many pages does the guy waste describing every detail of Crippen's various addresses? I was like, just stab that bitch already!
OTOH, I was very interested and surprised to learn what a hack Marconi was. The real genius of 19th century inventions was Tesla, if there's a good book on his life, will someone recommend it please. I tried one bio but found it kinda dry and gave up.
|
AG/DC
Mar 21 2008 01:59 PM
|
|
I'm kind of getting sick of the genre that suggests, "People will gobble up history if you sublimate it into a murder mystery."
I'm on
<img src="http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/assets/images/EAN/Large/9780316027564.jpg">
That is... I read a page and a half every night before nodding off. I'm really tired.
|
TheOldMole
Mar 22 2008 07:02 PM
|
|
I'm reading books from my parents' collection.
|
DocTee
Mar 22 2008 08:11 PM
|
|
Some good stuff here. Heyerdahl is legendary, and The Great Bridge was one of the first readings assigned to me in grad school (Doc, I think you'll find his Path Between the Seas, which looks at the creation of the Panama Canal,more enjoyable). I left my copy of Devil in the White City on a plane, and being cheap, never purchased a replacement so I never finished it. Agreed with JCL on the overly wrought descriptions, and with AGDC on the genre-- history, when done well (see McCullogh, or Ed Ayers The Promise of the New South) is good enough on its own.
Me? I'm reading a ms on Woodrow Wilson's maritime policy. Scintillating, page turning zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
|
Fman99
Mar 22 2008 09:07 PM
Re: What Are You Reading Now? - 2008 edition
|
|
="Rockin' Doc":d4tnac76]<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7430000/7436955.jpg" width="225">
I find myself sticking with authors I enjoy and David McCullough is definitely one of those writers. He has a way of making history come to life. I enjoyed <i>1776</i> and <i>Mornings on Horseback...</i> last year. My wife gave me <i>The Great Bridge...</i> for Christmas. Well written and facinating, but a little heavy on technical, engineering aspects that are often difficult to envision in one's mind. Still an interesting read of what at the time it was built, was an absolute engineering marvel.[/quote:d4tnac76]
I have enjoyed all of McCullough's books that I have read, though I haven't read this one. I would especially recommend his biographies of Truman and John Adams (the latter of which is the basis for the current HBO miniseries), as well as his book "Path Between the Seas" which is about the building of the Panama Canal.
|
Rockin' Doc
Apr 05 2008 10:49 AM
|
|
99 -<i>"I have enjoyed all of McCullough's books that I have read, though I haven't read this one. I would especially recommend his biographies of Truman and John Adams (the latter of which is the basis for the current HBO miniseries), as well as his book "Path Between the Seas" which is about the building of the Panama Canal."</i>
<i>John Adams</i> is definitely on my list future reads. First I have to get through the rest of the books I received for Christmas. I'm currently working on <i>Ty and the Babe...</i> by Tom Stanton. An interesting look at the personalities of the two baseball legends and how they each in their time ruled (and changed) the game as the dominant player of overlapping eras. Explores the changing dynamics of their relationship to one another and how it changed thoughout their careers and retirement years.
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/12730000/12736230.jpg" width="250">
|
Nymr83
Apr 05 2008 11:37 AM
|
|
If anyone watches Colbert, and even if you don't, his book "I am America (and so can you)" was hysterical.
Right now I'm awaiting the arrival of (what I believe to be) another over-the-top satirical work, Glenn Beck's "An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems" I'll report back if its as funny as Colbert.
I'm also waiting for Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Facism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning." I somehow doubt there'd be any interest in that on this board though.
Finally, I'm waiting for McCullough's biography of John Adams, but I ordered it after the other two and I don't know how soon I'll get to it.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Apr 05 2008 11:40 AM
Re: What Are You Reading Now? - 2008 edition
|
|
="Rockin' Doc":2tx2ks79]<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7430000/7436955.jpg" width="225">
I find myself sticking with authors I enjoy and David McCullough is definitely one of those writers. He has a way of making history come to life. I enjoyed <i>1776</i> and <i>Mornings on Horseback...</i> last year. My wife gave me <i>The Great Bridge...</i> for Christmas. Well written and facinating, but a little heavy on technical, engineering aspects that are often difficult to envision in one's mind. Still an interesting read of what at the time it was built, was an absolute engineering marvel.[/quote:2tx2ks79]
I just noticed this posting.
<i>The Great Bridge</i> permanently (I think) changed my reading habits. I went from overwhelmingly reading fiction titles to overwhelmingly reading non-fiction. It didn't happen immediately, but this book was the first history book I ever read for pleasure, and in the years to follow there would be many many more.
|
Fman99
Apr 05 2008 01:06 PM
|
|
I got two Amazon.com gift cards for my birthday this past year. I ended up ordering 7 books, most of which were recommended by this thread and the 2007 version of the same.
I ordered:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)
The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction - 15th Anniversary Edition
A False Spring
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
The Kite Runner
Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin' Mets by Uniform Number
Hopefully they arrive soon. I am starving for something new to read.
|
Centerfield
Apr 05 2008 08:18 PM
|
|
| ="Fman99"]
I ordered:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
|
I just started that one. Pretty good so far.
Do not read The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton. Only The Fountainhead came closer to making me violate my "Finish every book you start" rule.
|
Number 6
Apr 07 2008 03:40 PM
|
|
After finishing an immense Chinese novel I decided on some lighter reading.
<img src="http://img.tesco.com/pi/Books/L/65/9780297844365.jpg">
Enjoying it so far, about 150 pages in.
|
metirish
Apr 07 2008 08:44 PM
|
|
="Fman99":2fjbr1t2]I got two Amazon.com gift cards for my birthday this past year. I ended up ordering 7 books, most of which were recommended by this thread and the 2007 version of the same.
I ordered:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)
The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction - 15th Anniversary Edition
A False Spring
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
The Kite Runner
Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin' Mets by Uniform Number
Hopefully they arrive soon. I am starving for something new to read.[/quote:2fjbr1t2]
Some great reading there , which one to read first will be the question.
|
Rockin' Doc
Apr 12 2008 07:20 PM
|
|
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13700000/13700882.JPG">
The trails and tribuilations of a family living with their hyperactive, psychotic, but well intentioned labrador retriever. Marley certainly had his problems, but he was loyal and loving to the end. Marley's crazy antics made me laugh out loud a few times, which is a rarity for a book. I would hate to have owned Marley, but it would have been great fun to observe the madness and mayhem from next door.
|
seawolf17
Apr 12 2008 08:07 PM
|
|
A terribly sad book. I really liked it, though.
|
metsguyinmichigan
Apr 13 2008 08:42 PM
|
|
I'm finally reading "The Bad Guys Won!" I usually don't read negative Mets books, and I always seemed to think Pearlman was a bit of a tool. But I saw it at a Borders Outlet for $3.99, and he said nice things about Mets By The Numbers so I decided to give it a shot, thinking it would make decent airplane reading on the way back from Florida.
I'm about half-way through. It's not as bad as I thought. (Then again, I'm not at the infamous part about Mitchell and the cats)
I'm torn. Some of the things, I wish I didn't know. But it sure does explain a lot about what happened later.
|
RealityChuck
Apr 14 2008 08:11 AM
|
|
|
themetfairy
Apr 14 2008 08:17 AM
|
|
I read that Chuck. I thought the concept of the alternate history was very interesting, although I found the crime drama was somewhat murkily written. It's an interesting read, though.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Apr 14 2008 08:22 AM
|
|
Shake it baby.
|
sharpie
Apr 14 2008 08:24 AM
|
|
I read the Chabon book early this year. I liked it a lot. Took a while to get going I thought but I liked the consistency of his tone.
I haven't read SALT but earlier this year I read the same author's THE BIG OYSTER about New York's relationship with that bivalve. Interesting but ran out of steam (steamed oysters?).
Currently finishing up Walter Kirn's MISSION TO AMERICA. Very funny.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Apr 14 2008 09:54 AM
|
|
I'm about halfway through Salt. I won't say it's the greatest book ever but it is a great accomplishment: He writes a history of the world by showing how different civilizations and cultures used/manfactured/sold salt; and argues that those uses were defining characteristics of those cultures and people.
I kinda drift in and out when he republishes old recipes but you are what you eat and everydody eats salt. Genius.
|
Vic Sage
Apr 14 2008 10:13 AM
Edited 8 time(s), most recently on Apr 14 2008 11:46 AM
|
|
i have that Chabon book on my nightstand, but i read his novella GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD first, and its a terrific adventure tale... an action/buddy story that takes place in the geo-political and religous conflicts of the middle east, 1000 years ago.
Then, i got involved in Jonathan Lethem's FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, which was like reading my autobiography, as written by somebody else about somebody else's life. That book took me a looooooooooong time to get into it, and i would've quit it but for the verisimilitude of the time and place which kept me going. Eventually, the story kicked in and i couldn't put it down.
i'm now reading THE 10 CENT PLAGUE, a non-fiction work about comic-book censorship in the 1940s and 50s. Its very good reading so far.
|
AG/DC
Apr 14 2008 10:16 AM
|
|
Lethem is odd. He keeps some autobigraphical themeatic touchstones in his books, but he seems to change his style every time out.
Or in <i>Fortress</i>, mid-book.
|
sharpie
Apr 14 2008 10:47 AM
|
|
His most recent book, You Don't Love Me Yet, is pretty terrible. I'm willing to give him a pass because it was so short but was his worst work in a while.
|
metsguyinmichigan
Apr 14 2008 11:02 AM
|
|
http://www.amazon.com/Mistaken-Identity ... 348&sr=8-1
I'm a spazz and still can't figure out how to post photos.
But I just interviewed the families who wrote this book, and met them at a signing on Saturday. I've covered the story since the mix-up was discovered, since one of the families is from our area, and the other is from the state.
Amazing story. They were on Oprah and the Dateline two weeks ago.
The book is a good read.
If someone can use the link to post the cover... thanks!
|
themetfairy
Apr 14 2008 11:14 AM
|
|
Here's what you do -
First, right click the image, and choose "Copy Image Location."
Then, click Img above.
Paste the link you just copied immediately after Img.
Then click Img again.
Voila -
|
Fman99
Apr 14 2008 12:14 PM
|
|
I devoured "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" this weekend. Highly entertaining stuff.
|
Centerfield
Apr 15 2008 11:27 AM
|
|
I'm in the middle of it now and I just met the whale. What a badass.
|
Willets Point
Apr 16 2008 02:02 PM
|
|
="Centerfield":2uz8ae4t]I'm in the middle of it now and I just met the whale. What a badass.[/quote:2uz8ae4t]
So it's already better than <i>Moby Dick</i> where the titular whale doesn't show up until page 756.
|
seawolf17
Apr 16 2008 02:25 PM
|
|
Moby Dick is about a whale? I thought it was classic porn.
|
DocTee
Apr 16 2008 04:26 PM
|
|
Kurlansky is among the most prominent of micro-historians, focusing on one commodity and extrapolatnig from that. His earlier work, Cod: Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, is a classic.
|
Rockin' Doc
May 02 2008 08:35 PM
|
|
<img src="http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/20560000/20563906.jpg" width="300">
I remember our very own Sandgnat recommending this book in last years book thread thread, so I decided to give it a try. Very interesting look at the men that helped to shape America during it's early formative years and ultimately changed the world. The book looks at he forefathers and the decisions they made against seemingly insurmountable odds, from the time of the Continental Congress and the first shots of the American Revolution up through the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase, and examines how those decisions effected American and world history.
|
Triple Dee
May 03 2008 04:19 AM
|
|
I'm about 1/2 way through, and I have to say it's quite engrossing. Recommended only if you're into morbid humor. It's by the same person who wrote Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy.
|
themetfairy
May 03 2008 06:09 AM
|
|
| ="Triple Dee"]
I'm about 1/2 way through, and I have to say it's quite engrossing. Recommended only if you're into morbid humor. It's by the same person who wrote Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About a Boy. |
The first half is, by far, the better half. Once Hornby sets up his characters, the book stalls, IMO.
|
Fman99
May 05 2008 10:26 AM
|
|
I bought a number of books from this thread and the 2007 counterpart. I just finished "Mornings on Horseback" on Saturday and it's among McCullough's better books.
I'm now plowing through Pat Jordan's "A False Spring" and I should be done with that in the next 1-2 days. Nice little baseball story.
|
AG/DC
May 05 2008 10:28 AM
|
|
I mostly enjoyed <i>A Long Way Down</i>. Hornby is figuring things out as he goes.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
May 05 2008 10:39 AM
|
|
="metsguyinmichigan":1440zqf4]I'm finally reading "The Bad Guys Won!" I usually don't read negative Mets books, and I always seemed to think Pearlman was a bit of a tool. But I saw it at a Borders Outlet for $3.99, and he said nice things about Mets By The Numbers so I decided to give it a shot, thinking it would make decent airplane reading on the way back from Florida.
I'm about half-way through. It's not as bad as I thought. (Then again, I'm not at the infamous part about Mitchell and the cats)[/quote:1440zqf4]
You're way too hard on this, IMO. And I'm surprised you're not, like I was, struck by what a nifty work of journalism it was.... I mean, he tracked down *everyone* who would talk, and had done enough homework beforehand to have good questions to ask once he found them. You should know that much is an accomplishment.
Content wise, I wouldn't describe it as "negative" -- or "positive" ... and as you know by now, the whole Mitchell thing was investigated and more or less dismissed due to lack of evidence.This book wasn't the one that brought that story up -- far shoddier work had.
I have a huge pile on the "get to" list. Someone give me 2 days off.
|
Triple Dee
May 07 2008 06:37 AM
|
|
This book reads like addendum to Mets Essential. It contains a rag-bag of Mets related info. There's sufficient new info that makes it worth a look, particularly the section devoted to "Shea Goodbye". I tend to judge Mets books on two factors (1) What I learn. (2) How much I'm entertained; and this book scores highly in both regards.
The numbers attached to each entry seem to be arbitrarily chosen (probably not to conflict with MBTN although "Seaver's Unbreakable Pitching Records" at 41 cannot be a coincidence). Silverman's writing style is very good, but it's apparent he doesn't want to offend anybody, and after reading MBTN I discovered that offensive remarks in Mets books are a good thing!
There's a nice plug for CPF and our Schaefer award and he calls G-Fafif "a pro's pro." Nice.
|
Rockin' Doc
May 07 2008 10:25 AM
|
|
Thanks for the heads up 3D. I will add that to my shopping list for my next trip to Barnes & Noble.
|
Benjamin Grimm
May 07 2008 11:36 AM
|
|
| ="Triple Dee"]There's a nice plug for CPF and our Schaefer award and he calls G-Fafif "a pro's pro." Nice. |
| ="Amazon.com, Search Inside the Book"]on Page 208:
"... MATTHEW SILVERMAN is responsible for the revitalization of the Schaefer Player of the Game Award is a site worth perusing. faithandfear.blogharbor. ..." |
Huh?
I suspect that the excerpt is fragments from different parts of the page, concatenated together to from what looks like an odd, disjointed sentence.
Amazon wouldn't let me click on the page to see that excerpt in context. (Some pages are viewable but not page 208. Nor is page 207, for that matter. That's the page that references the CPF. Amazon says that "security considerations" prevent them from telling us why those particular pages are unavailable.
|
Triple Dee
May 08 2008 03:43 AM
Edited 2 time(s), most recently on May 08 2008 04:07 AM
|
|
| ="Matthew Silverman"]
81 - Read the Mets
cranepoolforum.net: Any site named after the longest tenured Met that weaves insighful comments from numerous sources and is responsible for the revitalization of the Schaefer Player of the Game Award is a site worth persuing. |
|
Willets Point
May 08 2008 08:56 AM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 08 2008 09:04 AM
|
|
Moving on to better baseball books (as opposed to <i>The Worst Team Money Could Buy</i> which is no longer in this thread), I just started reading <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Game-of-Brawl,673324.aspx">A Game of Brawl</a> which details the story of the 1897 National League pennant race. It was a tough battle between the Baltimore Orioles, who'd won the three previous pennants and were loathed for their dirty style of play and the Boston team, unofficially called the Beaneaters, who stood for a more gentlemanly version of baseball. It also tells of the formation of the Royal Rooters as the first documented group of fans to travel to away games to support their team. It's a good so far with a lot of the colorful players of the era playing for one of these teams.
|
Benjamin Grimm
May 08 2008 08:59 AM
|
|
| ="Willets Point"] |
I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but boy, that looks like a good book!
(Forward by Senator Edward M. Kennedy?)
|
Willets Point
May 08 2008 09:01 AM
|
|
="Benjamin Grimm":p1l9cddu](Forward by Senator Edward M. Kennedy?)[/quote:p1l9cddu]
I was wondering myself until I read the Forward. It's actually a nice collection of memories of Kennedy's grandfather John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald who was one of the founders of the Royal Rooters, and took young Ted to Red Sox and Braves baseball games.
|
SteveJRogers
May 08 2008 10:47 AM
|
|
="John Cougar Lunchbucket":sb3nu1vg]
You're way too hard on this, IMO. And I'm surprised you're not, like I was, struck by what a nifty work of journalism it was.... I mean, he tracked down *everyone* who would talk, and had done enough homework beforehand to have good questions to ask once he found them. You should know that much is an accomplishment.
[/quote:sb3nu1vg]
Couple of things about that though, I heard Bob Ojeda on WFAN with Ann Ligouri talking about the book, and Ojeda said he was never contacted, or even heard about the book until it came out. And pretty much he didn't want to discuss it.
Course he could have been BSing as there are some negative stories featuring Ojeda in there, including the famous Houston night club incident (why am I blanking on the name) so he could be distancing himself from that past in his public remarks.
Also in a review for some fan site, may have been Inside Pitch's online project, I wrote that it was a bit of a negative that he didn't have Gooden or Strawberry and relied on their autobiographies and past interviews, when it would have been nice to hear fresh interviews with those two alongside the other ones (Mex, Knight, Carter, etc)
Pearlman than shot me an email explaining his situation that both Gooden and Strawberry never responded despite many, many attempts at contacting them.
I guess I have to take the author's word for it, but after hearing Ojeda on that WFAN show makes me wonder.
|
AG/DC
May 08 2008 10:58 AM
|
|
I have little dobut that Pearlman tried hard to secure Gooden and Strawberry, but, considering the state fo their lives at the time, it's unsurprising that theyi'd each either bein in a defensve posture, or quite content to let the world pass them by.
How many times do you want to hear a professional wirter ask what the hell happened to you?
Ojead has always struck me as chronically depressed.
|
Fman99
May 09 2008 06:17 AM
|
|
| ="Willets Point"]Moving on to better baseball books (as opposed to <i>The Worst Team Money Could Buy</i> which is no longer in this thread), I just started reading <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Game-of-Brawl,673324.aspx">A Game of Brawl</a> which details the story of the 1897 National League pennant race. It was a tough battle between the Baltimore Orioles, who'd won the three previous pennants and were loathed for their dirty style of play and the Boston team, unofficially called the Beaneaters, who stood for a more gentlemanly version of baseball. It also tells of the formation of the Royal Rooters as the first documented group of fans to travel to away games to support their team. It's a good so far with a lot of the colorful players of the era playing for one of these teams.
|
Thanks Willets. Adding that to the list.
|
SteveJRogers
May 14 2008 08:12 PM
|
|
Got some stuff I'm debating reading during my trip to San Diego and LA next month.
Couple of 19th century baseball books, former on the old American Association, and the other on the original Orioles.
|
DocTee
May 14 2008 08:22 PM
|
|
Steve, if you want a baseball book with a California twist, try:
The Golden Game.
|
SteveJRogers
May 14 2008 08:22 PM
|
|
About the old PCL
|
DocTee
May 14 2008 08:27 PM
|
|
Much more than that. About how pioneers brought the game wes (using wagon axels as bats) and the evolution of "major League" BB...barnstorming pros, military teams, collegiate level and more-- loaded with really cool photos, too.
The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball. Kevin Nelson.
Check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Game-Story ... 1890771805
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
May 14 2008 08:39 PM
|
|
| ="SteveJRogers"]Got some stuff I'm debating reading during my trip to San Diego and LA next month.
Couple of 19th century baseball books, former on the old American Association, and the other on the original Orioles. |
Read both, liked both. 'Beer & Whisky' is loaded with pictures which I found helpful especially when discovering 19th century ball for the first time.
|
Rockin' Doc
May 25 2008 03:26 PM
|
|
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13780000/13781223.JPG">
Another wonderful historical biography by David McCullough. John Adams dedicated his life to the fight for independence and subsequent survival of the fledgeling United States of America. McCullough breathes life into this biography of an extraordinary patriot that helped to change world history. It's amazing all the work and effort Adams did in service of his country, and I still have 200 pages left in the book.
|
RealityChuck
May 27 2008 07:27 AM
|
|
Superb biography, with a lot of things that had never come to light before.
|
AG/DC
May 27 2008 07:30 AM
|
|
Share with us. What could we not know by now? Did George have four testacles?
|
seawolf17
May 27 2008 07:37 AM
|
|
="AG/DC":10yvkeks]Share with us. What could we not know by now? Did George have four testacles?[/quote:10yvkeks]
Let's just say that the "Fab Four" sobriquet didn't come out of nowhere.
|
Rockin' Doc
May 27 2008 10:14 AM
|
|
Great, now I have to look up sobriquet.
|
Fman99
May 27 2008 10:36 AM
|
|
="Rockin' Doc":267vlzmv]<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13780000/13781223.JPG">
Another wonderful historical biography by David McCullough. John Adams dedicated his life to the fight for independence and subsequent survival of the fledgeling United States of America. McCullough breathes life into this biography of an extraordinary patriot that helped to change world history. It's amazing all the work and effort Adams did in service of his country, and I still have 200 pages left in the book.[/quote:267vlzmv]
McCullough is the man. That's one of his best... that and his bio of Truman are my two faves.
|
Benjamin Grimm
May 27 2008 10:38 AM
|
|
Both Truman and Adams are outstanding.
I also loved his Brooklyn Bridge book. The Johnstown Flood and Panama Canal books were also interesting. 1776 was disappointing.
|
Centerfield
Jun 04 2008 03:51 PM
|
|
Just finished The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Very easy and interesting book.
Just started Atonement by Ian McEwan.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jun 04 2008 04:01 PM
|
|
I have considered reading <i>The Tipping Point</i> in the past, but never have carried through on it. I'll have to check it out after I get through my current backlog of books.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jun 19 2008 07:20 PM
|
|
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/25040000/25041489.JPG">
For fans, like myself, that have always lived away from the New York metroplitan area and therefore seldom get actually see their heroes, this book has been an informative romp through Mets history. I have learned a great deal about the many players that have been priveleged to don the Mets uniform throughout the years. I'm on chapter 40, so I still have a great deal to learn. Thanks for an enjoyable Mets history lesson, JCL.
|
soupcan
Jun 19 2008 09:23 PM
|
|
Just finished this...
'Set in the bleaker than bleak landscape of Stallinist Russia, an officer in the secret police gets framed by a colleague for the act of treason, causing him to go on the run with his emotionally estranged wife. Whilst evading the man hunt, he stumbles across a series of child murders which he endeavors to solve whilst simultaneously avoiding capture and almost certain death.'
I found it to be quite the page turner. Liked it and I'd recommend it if you are a Follet/Ludlum/LeCarre fan.
|
SteveJRogers
Jun 25 2008 08:53 PM
|
|
Apropos of the death of George Carlin, I ended up reading this book on my San Diego trip couple of weeks back
Great book, gives good small bios of all the heavyweights of the era; Pryor, Bruce, Carlin, Klein, Brooks, Martin, Kaufman and Williams.
Gives a good glimpse into the rise of the New York, and LA comedy scene, as well as the downfall in the 80s where every small town in America seemed to be opening a comedy club.
Touches a little on the 80s, including the beginnings of Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison and even Jay Leno.
|
AG/DC
Jun 25 2008 09:12 PM
|
|
How do you get a name like "Tom Rob Smith"? Is he perhaps a son of Martin Cruz Smith?
|
sharpie
Jun 26 2008 07:17 AM
|
|
Maybe he thought Thomas Robert Smith was too pretentious.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jun 28 2008 08:50 PM
|
|
Writer immerses himself in the macho world of a big-time restaurant kitchen, then follows his food jones to Italy. Remarkably similar in some ways to his book about losing himslef in the world of soccer hooligans some time earlier, Among the Thugs. Enjoyable and funny, a bit scattered, but great writing on food and in capturing the energy of a kitchen, and the jazzlike wizardry of Mario Batali.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jun 30 2008 11:19 AM
|
|
<img src="http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/26790000/26795142.jpg" width="250">
Randy Pausch is a reknowned and accomplished computer science engineer and professor professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In the prime of life he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live. As a dedicated educator, he feels compelled to give a "final lecture" to his students on being successful and getting the most out the time they have in life. In book form, his advice serves as a loving legacy to his three young children.
If you only have months to live, what wisdom would you wish to leave to your children for the futre and how would you do it? This is one man's real life answer to that difficult question.
|
Frayed Knot
Jul 09 2008 02:39 PM
|
|
Although not by design or any kind of olympic year preparation this is my second Olympics book in the last six months, following 'The Nazi Games' about the 1936 Berlin games.
I do, however, tend to like well done sports/history tales and Maraniss has a good enough track record in both areas - penning books on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Al Gore, Roberto Clemente, and campus Vietnam protests - to make this worth a look. His view here is that Rome - only 15 years removed from being on the losing end of a global war - winds up being center stage for a number of political and social issues.
Mainly it's where the ongoing cold war is being played out in various forms:
China is separated into two teams for the first time causing mainland China to opt out at the inclusion of the nationalist Chinese in Taiwan and Taiwan to almost follow suit on account of not being allowed to call themselves China.
The two Germanys compete as one barely unified team only months before the wall will go up. And all the while the USA & USSR use the opportunity to spy on each other while treating the stopwatch and tape-measure as measures of political supremacy.
It's the Olympics where money, TV, and drugs start to surface and where the sham of amateurism starts to crumble.
It's also where black athletes step to the forefront in large numbers for the first time. Decathlete Rafer Johnson is the first black American to carry his country's flag 8 years before he'd help wrestle the gun out of Sirhan Sirhan's hand; Oscar Robertson co-captains (with Jerry West) the basketball team; a group of women from the small and historically black Tennessee State Univ dominate the sprints; plus a loud-mouthed boxer from Louisville, Kentucky treats the games as his own personal stage.
And it's where a skinny Ethiopian ran barefoot on cobblestoned streets to a marathon victory just twenty-some years after he was forced from his home as a 4 year old by soldiers from the country where he won his medal, a victory that signaled not only the impending African running boom but the first baby steps in the emergence onto the world stage of Africa itself as it was throwing off the yoke of colonialism.
Good reading so far.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jul 09 2008 02:49 PM
|
|
He was talking with Russo on the radio the other day, good interview. I mean, as good as it could be considering.
|
AG/DC
Jul 09 2008 03:54 PM
|
|
I don't know why I didn't know that about Rafer Johnson. I should have watched <i>Bobby</i> more closely.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jul 09 2008 04:58 PM
|
|
Sounds like an interesting read, Knot. I think I will check it out when I finish my current read.
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/25360000/25369477.JPG">
On Triple D's recommendation I decided to pick this up last time I was at Barnes and Noble. A nice overview of many of the most memorable and compelling personalities and events (good and bad) in the Mets team history.
|
Frayed Knot
Jul 09 2008 05:21 PM
|
|
="AG/DC":6kbv6xll]I don't know why I didn't know that about Rafer Johnson. I should have watched <i>Bobby</i> more closely.[/quote:6kbv6xll]
I didn't see 'Bobby' but didn't it have, well, like nothing to do with reality?
Johnson was an aide in RFK's '68 campaign and was with him for the primary in his native Califormia and as an friend/bodyguard during the post-speech walk through the hotel kitchen.
|
AG/DC
Jul 09 2008 05:23 PM
|
|
="Frayed Knot":37wi6snl]="AG/DC":37wi6snl]I don't know why I didn't know that about Rafer Johnson. I should have watched <i>Bobby</i> more closely.[/quote:37wi6snl]
I didn't see 'Bobby' but didn't it have, well, like nothing to do with reality?[/quote:37wi6snl]
Well, I didn't much like it. My sister's yutzie Yankee-loving boyfriend brought it home.
|
seawolf17
Jul 09 2008 05:26 PM
|
|
="John Cougar Lunchbucket":riix6269]He was talking with Russo on the radio the other day, good interview. I mean, as good as it could be considering.[/quote:riix6269]
Second that. Chris actually sounded like he had read the book, or at least skimmed for detail.
|
Frayed Knot
Jul 09 2008 05:50 PM
|
|
Russo can do a decent interview if he's both up on the topic and not too headstrong on a particular point that he can't or won't hear the answers to his own questions.
What's funny about him talking with Maraniss about an Olympics book is that he normally has nothing but disdain for the so-called minor sports that make up the Olympic games. So I could see him spending the next 2 weeks yapping about how interesting the stories in this book are - and then spending the 3 or 4 after that being both ignorant and contempuous about the ongoing Olympics.
|
soupcan
Jul 09 2008 06:59 PM
|
|
| ="RealityChuck"] |
In the middle of this. So far I like it.
This yid can write.
|
sharpie
Jul 10 2008 07:46 AM
|
|
I read the Chabon book early this year. Liked it. Not as good as "Kavalier and Clay" but still good.
Reading "The Brief History of the Dead", a novel by Kevin Brockmeier, liking it a lot.
|
Mendoza Line
Jul 10 2008 10:21 AM
|
|
I was just going to post "Yiddish Policeman's Union". Liked it, but the last 80 or so pages drag a bit.
Also just finished
which is a fine book for anyone, like me, who lives in Hudson County, didn't grow up there, and wants to get at least an anecdotal idea of how it managed to become the most corrupt political entity in New Jersey (which is no small feat).
|
Rockin' Doc
Aug 17 2008 01:30 PM
|
|
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13890000/13892192.JPG">
I had often considered reading this book, but had never actually carried through with it until Centerfield recommended it. I'm glad he did. Quite interesting analysis of the personality traits and circumstances that combine to make some ideas iconic fads while others fall flat.
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/27240000/27240731.JPG" width="165">
A fascinating read of the politics and personalities of the Olympics in general, and the 1960 Olympic games of Rome, in particular. An appreciative thanks to Frayed Knot for bringing this book to my attention.
|
A Boy Named Seo
Aug 18 2008 08:53 AM
|
|
This is good so far:
After getting drunk for the first time at age 9:
| ]"I was going straight to hell, no doubt about it," Willie said. "It freaked her out (his mother), plus it freaked out my neighbor Miss Brissler. By then, I decided that there was no chance for me to go on to heaven, I had already fucked up more ways than God was going to put up with, and I wasn't even ten years old yet, so I had in mind, the sky's the limit from here on, I mean, I can't go to hell twice." |
|
Rockin' Doc
Aug 27 2008 07:30 PM
|
|
<img src="http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13700000/13701342.JPG">
A collection of short stories from the warped, twisted, and often funny life of the author. Burroughs once again delivers a wickedly uncensored view into his crazy life.
|
A Boy Named Seo
Oct 11 2008 09:27 AM
|
|
ESPN sportswriter moves to England and starts following Portsmouth, not as an employee of ESPN or a writer, just as a fan. Only started it last night, but digging it so far.
|
Fman99
Oct 11 2008 02:41 PM
|
|
Peter K. Massie's biography of Peter the Great. Fascinating stuff.
|
Vince Coleman Firecracker
Oct 11 2008 03:07 PM
|
|
Great so far.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Oct 11 2008 03:19 PM
|
|
="Fman99":tr5mlvfd]Peter K. Massie's biography of Peter the Great. Fascinating stuff.
[/quote:tr5mlvfd]
I read that a few years ago. A terrific book.
|
Frayed Knot
Oct 11 2008 04:12 PM
|
|
I should check that one out too.
I've read a couple of Massie's books on later-day Romanov Tsars; 'Nicholas & Alexandra', plus another one (name escapes me at the moment) where he revisits the same couple and the scientific process which surrounded the remains of the family being discovered.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Oct 11 2008 06:44 PM
|
|
I read both of those too! And another book of his called "Dreadnought"
Massie is one of my favorite history writers.
|
Fman99
Oct 11 2008 08:48 PM
|
|
="Benjamin Grimm":2xfwruw1]I read both of those too! And another book of his called "Dreadnought"
Massie is one of my favorite history writers.[/quote:2xfwruw1]
This is the first book of his that I have read. I appreciate anyone who can write historical nonfiction and do so in an engaging fashion.
Got this one at the local library's used book sale. I got 10 books for $8.50. I am on book #2.
|
AG/DC
Oct 11 2008 09:34 PM
|
|
Russian history, superhero movies, raising kids, college football, and goofing off here 90 hours a week. How do you folks find the time?
|
Willets Point
Oct 11 2008 10:02 PM
|
|
="AG/DC":1e9q3mmw]Russian history, superhero movies, raising kids, college football, and goofing off here 90 hours a week. How do you folks find the time?[/quote:1e9q3mmw]
Multitasking.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Oct 12 2008 05:35 AM
|
|
I ignore the college football.
|
dgwphotography
Oct 12 2008 05:51 AM
|
|
="AG/DC":f02qasvs]Russian history, superhero movies, raising kids, college football, and goofing off here 90 hours a week. How do you folks find the time?[/quote:f02qasvs]
Sleep is for the weak...
|
Frayed Knot
Oct 12 2008 08:38 AM
|
|
="Benjamin Grimm":1dbf4o0o]I read both of those too! And another book of his called "Dreadnought"
Massie is one of my favorite history writers.[/quote:1dbf4o0o]
I never got around to tackling 'Dreadnought'.
I too often get intimidated by books that can double as doorstops.
|
Fman99
Oct 12 2008 01:32 PM
|
|
I haven't seen a movie in five years. Plus college football stinks.
Add in 4-5 trips per week to the gym, golfing, and 110 daily minutes of commuting, though, and you're closer to the mark for me.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Oct 18 2008 08:43 PM
|
|
| ="A Boy Named Seo"]ESPN sportswriter moves to England and starts following Portsmouth, not as an employee of ESPN or a writer, just as a fan. Only started it last night, but digging it so far.
|
I just finished this. I thought he was too "well, I may be just a dumb American sportswriter, but..." at first, but I kinda like that he seems to recognize by the end that big-time sports will burn you out anywhere. It is also refreshing to see a big-time writer (not with ESPN... the LA Times and Newsday IIRC) reduced to suffering indignities of the common fan. Like, being unable to get tickets.
You can also tell where this book was written for 2 continents, with explanations of things we needn't have explained (like that the Cubs have gone a while without a championship, etc). The cover and title are just awful. In England this book is known by the much cooler title UP POMPEY.
|
G-Fafif
Oct 18 2008 08:49 PM
|
|
Culpepper was the best sportswriter Newsday had in recent years. I wondered what became of him.
I began reading [url=http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/ritele.html]Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932[/url] by Donald Ritchie in late summer. It's so realistic that every time I pick it up, it feels like an election is going on with the specter of a stock market crash hanging over it.
|
themetfairy
Oct 18 2008 09:15 PM
|
|
The family has enjoyed Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's prequels to Peter Pan (Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, and Peter and the Secret of Rundoon), and I started their newest collaboration the other day. I'm about halfway through, and it's very entertaining.
Here's the trailer for the book -
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r3Cl7OeE3Zs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r3Cl7OeE3Zs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Oct 26 2008 08:17 PM
|
|
Fast-moving autoboigraphy focusing on his career as a standup comic, from breaking in to entertainment as a teenaged Dizney retail slave to quitting the standup game -- forever -- as its biggest success in the early 80s.
Interesting look at how he worked disparate influences into his act (magic, music, art, philosophy etc), and how he honed it using precision, daring and improvisation over a million shows, and how isolating that experience could be. If you ever L'dYAO seeing or hearing Steve Martin, to have him explain how he did it all was a real fascinating experience.
Reminded me also a million jokes I hadn't heard in a long time. For whatever reason, I laughed hardest to this one:
A lot of people wonder if Steve Martin is my real name. Well, it's true I changed my name for show business. My real name is Gern Blanston. So please, just call me ... (long pause)... Gern!"
|
Vic Sage
Oct 27 2008 07:49 AM
|
|
I just read Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.
wow.
Just to show you how depressed I am these days, I found McCarthy's vision of Man's inherent decency as overly sentimental and optimistic.
But this is an incredibly poetic, beautiful book. I couldn't put it down.
|
cooby
Nov 03 2008 05:13 PM
|
|
Every November I read this.
|
A Boy Named Seo
Nov 03 2008 05:29 PM
|
|
="Vic Sage":2n6hqyqs]I just read Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.
wow.
Just to show you how depressed I am these days, I found McCarthy's vision of Man's inherent decency as overly sentimental and optimistic.
But this is an incredibly poetic, beautiful book. I couldn't put it down.[/quote:2n6hqyqs]
Buck up, Vic. There was plenty of human indecency to go around.
One of my favorite books ever.
|
Edgy DC
Nov 16 2008 09:06 PM
|
|
<img src="http://cdn.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/medium/4/9780066213934.jpg" align="left">An in-depth biography that paints the subject as highly achieved in the face of a mostly unhappy personality desperate to show people who had underestimated him. It's well-written, and fun as it's illustrated with strips selected to underscore the experiences and perspectives of Schulz's life that the author is writing about. But it's occasionally over-speculative in assuming conclusions about Schulz's psyche based on his stance in a photograph or some-such. You know, not everything that happened to everyone in that strip happened to Sparky. His family, who all cooperated and treated the author as something of the official biographer, mostly objected to the portrayal of the writer as so complete in his unhappiness.
It's naturally a trip to meet the friends, family members, and places that would inspire the elements fo Schulz's universe.
Funny thing --- turned out that Schulz was a pretty good ball-player. His friends did reward his zealotry by voting him manager, like Charlie Brown, but he honored their faith by leading them to more wins than losses, catching on the days he wasn't pitching, and even throwing a no-hitter at one point.
|
cooby
Nov 17 2008 04:25 AM
|
|
is now on my Christmas list
|
Vic Sage
Nov 17 2008 09:23 AM
|
|
="A Boy Named Seo":1loxg2z9]="Vic Sage":1loxg2z9]I just read Cormac McCarthy's THE ROAD.
wow.
Just to show you how depressed I am these days, I found McCarthy's vision of Man's inherent decency as overly sentimental and optimistic.
But this is an incredibly poetic, beautiful book. I couldn't put it down.[/quote:1loxg2z9]
Buck up, Vic. There was plenty of human indecency to go around.
One of my favorite books ever.[/quote:1loxg2z9]
oh, absolutely. But McCarthy's view of the child stands in staunch opposition to a book like LORD OF THE FLIES, which posits that, absent cultural pressure, humans will revert to a terrifying primitivism. McCarthy's child, on the other hand, is the final repository of our more decent impulses and keeps the father from degenerating into pure savagery. And the "happy" ending, such as it is, goes further in underlining the point.
And that's all perfectly valid and fine, and even uplifting. But, as i said, its optimistic and romantic in a way that i was unpreparted for, given the rest of the book, and my own depressed mood.
|
themetfairy
Nov 17 2008 10:23 AM
|
|
I probably wouldn't have chosen this on my own, but I was invited to partake in a book club and this is what they're reading and I'm finding it interesting so far.
|
Centerfield
Nov 20 2008 08:22 AM
|
|
Just finishing this up. It kinda sucked.
|
Edgy DC
Nov 20 2008 08:25 AM
|
|
Ugh. Yup.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Nov 20 2008 09:21 AM
|
|
English writer explores his personal fascination with Dutch soccer, arguing that the distinct style of "total football" emerging from Holland's Ajax club in the 70s (a fast-moving, attacking style where players switched positions on the fly and reinterpreted the idea of space on the field) and its bafflingly spotty record in world cups and other tourneys reflects the ingenuity, cultural values, architecture, art, georgraphy, national guilt, shortcomings, etc. unique to the Netherlands and its people.
In addition to learning about guys like Johan Cruyff -- described as a kind of genius of field sense and creativity who was also a bit of a diva -- the book is interesting for constantly questioning its own premise: Many of the participants, for example, don't believe "total football" really existed, it was just that they had a lot of talent. Adventurous and fun, a real piece of work.
Bonus: Footage of the famous "Cruyff Turn," when it was inveted at the 1974 World Cup.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U1k7DGqRF5g&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U1k7DGqRF5g&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>:
|
metirish
Nov 20 2008 09:36 AM
|
|
Looks interesting , before every World Cup and Euro tournament one question that is always asked is will the Dutch stop the infighting long enough to win this thing.
I wanted to order this from nypl.org but it's not all that user friendly.
|
A Boy Named Seo
Nov 20 2008 10:14 AM
|
|
Looks cool. In the queue.
|
HahnSolo
Nov 20 2008 11:10 AM
|
|
I'm 100 pages in to Dennis Lehane's The Given Day, and I am really enjoying it.
|
Frayed Knot
Nov 20 2008 11:49 AM
|
|
I'm going to give this one a shot
War as they Knew it: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a time of unrest
I generally have no interest in college football even to the point where I've built up a lot of contempt for the sleaziness of it and the see-no-evil coverage which has a tendancy to turn often very flawed coaches into near deities based on W-L records.
But from what I've heard about this one it's not just a kiss-ass homage to two guys put up on a pedestal because they won a bunch of football games, but rather a story about how they coped with not only each other as powerhouse rivals but with the rapidly changing times on campuses when football programs weren't nearly as isolated from the university as a whole the way they are now. IOW, as much a history book as a sports one.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Nov 20 2008 11:54 AM
|
|
I'm reading "The People Talk" by Benjamin Appel. It was written in 1939 and it relates the author's experiences traveling around the country talking to regular people as they cope with the Great Depression.
It's interesting, but I'm getting a little bogged down in it. Since it consists of many brief vignettes, I find that I'm sometimes not as motivated to pick it up. (As opposed to a book with a strong narrative, where you want to keep seeing what happens next.)
Reading it in 2008, it's interesting to see the many ways in which day-to-day life has changed in the last 69 years.
|
OlerudOwned
Nov 20 2008 02:51 PM
|
|
Picked up the second of John Hodgman's planned trilogy of almanacs of (fake) COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE after making the trip from Athens to Atlanta for his in-store appearance. If you've read the first, THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE, you know the gist of this one as well. Bizarre and very entertaining tangential accounts of things that are absolutely false. Odd page layouts, including a running feature in this one where every page also functions as a day calendar. 700 names. (Hobos then, Mole Men now).
Judging from the excerpt he read and expounded on at the reading, the piece on his transformation into a FAMOUS MINOR TELEVISION PERSONALITY is a winner.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Dec 02 2008 12:43 PM
|
|
I'm reading David Maraniss' biography of Roberto Clemente.
The book contained an anecdote about the way Don Drysdale's career ended and something motivated me to fact-check it and I found out that it wasn't quite true. (Thanks Retrosheet!)
I e-mailed Maraniss to tell him about what I found. (Not as a "gotcha" but because I thought he might like to know.)
I don't know how likely it is that I'll hear back from him. I also don't know if he'll appreciate the heads up. So let me ask the authors we have here: If a reader found a verifiable error in your book, would you want to hear about it or would you rather stay in the dark about it?
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 02 2008 01:18 PM
|
|
| ]I'm reading David Maraniss' biography of Roberto Clemente.
The book contained an anecdote about the way Don Drysdale's career ended and something motivated me to fact-check it and I found out that it wasn't quite true. (Thanks Retrosheet!)
I e-mailed Maraniss to tell him about what I found. (Not as a "gotcha" but because I thought he might like to know.)
I don't know how likely it is that I'll hear back from him. I also don't know if he'll appreciate the heads up. So let me ask the authors we have here: If a reader found a verifiable error in your book, would you want to hear about it or would you rather stay in the dark about it? |
It's better to know, especially when couched in fake "great book!" praise.
I read the Clemente book and found it really interesting at first then... dragging ... on ... I was like, 'Crash the damn jet already!'
Don;t tell him that.
|
themetfairy
Dec 02 2008 01:32 PM
|
|
Quip on back cover from Jon Stewart - "Lewis Black is the only person I know who can actually yell in print form."
|
Frayed Knot
Dec 02 2008 01:46 PM
|
|
| ]War as they Knew it: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler and America in a time of unrest |
Pretty good book and, like I said earlier, I'm not a college football guy at all so it wasn't like the build up to "the big game" kept me on the edge of my seat as I relived a game I watched intently on TV 3 decades ago.
But it was a good look at a sport where two of the biggest teams in the country were led by two obsessed and larger than life coaches in a different time and very much of their time. Lots has changed since (some for the better, some not) to the point where those two couldn't exist in that form today.
Hayes, in particular, comes off as both an ornery screwball and, at the same time, much better in a lot of ways than the Neandethal image many have of him (and the author is a Michigan grad!!)
Bill Ayres, in the news recently for having at least some ties to Obama, is part of the scenery as a student radical at Vietnam-era Michigan.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Dec 02 2008 02:00 PM
|
|
="John Cougar Lunchbucket":16cfh3z0]
It's better to know, especially when couched in fake "great book!" praise.
I read the Clemente book and found it really interesting at first then... dragging ... on ... I was like, 'Crash the damn jet already!'
Don;t tell him that.[/quote:16cfh3z0]
Yep, I did include the praise.
I'm not finding it too draggy. In fact, I was thinking to myself just yesterday that it could have been a lot worse. Maraniss literally skips over entire seasons. The years between 1960 and 1966, for example, are a blur. The author could easily have gone month-by-month through those seasons. (That kind of stuff is generally the most tedious parts of baseball biographies.) I think he showed some good judgment by hitting the fast-forward button a few times.
The error I found was this: Maraniss said that Clemente hit a third-inning line drive through the box that bloodied Don Drysdale's ear. Drysdale was so shaken by this that he then gave up a home run to Manny Sanguillen and then never faced another batter.
I found it surprising that Don Drysdale would get so frightened by a near-miss that he'd end his career, so I looked up the box score on Retrosheet.
It turns out that the ear-grazing did take place in the third inning. Drysdale then gave up a single to Al Oliver, and got Sanguillen out on a pop up.
Drysdale stayed in the game through six innings. It was in the sixth that Sanguillen hit a leadoff homer off Drysdale, but the pitcher did finish the inning. (He gave up a single to Steve Blass but did get the three outs.) Drysdale then left the game for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth. So he was hardly scared off the mound as Maraniss implies.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Dec 08 2008 12:24 PM
|
|
I just heard back from David Maraniss. He thanked me for pointing out the error. He said he loves hearing about the mistakes as much as he hates making them. He got the story from Don Drysdale's recollection, as reported by George Plimpton and regrets not having triple-checked.
|
Frayed Knot
Dec 08 2008 12:27 PM
|
|
Rule 1: NEVER treat an athlete's recall as gospel
Rule 2: See Rule 1
Cool that he got back to you.
|
Fman99
Dec 08 2008 07:57 PM
|
|
I am reading Alex Haley's epic "Roots." Somehow I never read this before, though I saw the miniseries at some point in the 1990's.
It is a tremendous read thus far.
|
metirish
Dec 08 2008 08:06 PM
|
|
I was going to take out " The Given day" by Dennis Lehane at the library Saturday but it was a new book and a one week only rental with no renewals , no way I am reading that book with 600 plus pages in a week. I just can't devote that time anymore to a book.
I never read Lehane so instead I took out "Shutter Island" , a three week rental although I could read that in a week.
|
Nymr83
Dec 08 2008 10:17 PM
|
|
="Fman99":nos5sfuy]I am reading Alex Haley's epic "Roots." Somehow I never read this before, though I saw the miniseries at some point in the 1990's.[/quote:nos5sfuy]
which one was the miniseries? was that the Star Trek convention with Levar Burton, Avery Brooks, Tim Russ, and Kate Mulgrew?
|
HahnSolo
Dec 09 2008 07:02 AM
|
|
="metirish":2hht2e9u]I was going to take out " The Given day" by Dennis Lehane at the library Saturday but it was a new book and a one week only rental with no renewals , no way I am reading that book with 600 plus pages in a week. I just can't devote that time anymore to a book.
I never read Lehane so instead I took out "Shutter Island" , a three week rental although I could read that in a week.[/quote:2hht2e9u]
The 50 cent fine or whatever you'd get for a late return would be worth it for The Given Day. Now, since you haven't read Lehane before, don't necessarily judge him by Shutter Island. I don't think that was all that great. I would read Mystic River (even if you've seen the movie) and then The Given Day.
|
soupcan
Dec 09 2008 07:15 AM
|
|
Funny and touching. Collection of anecdotes from his life including childhood.
|
metirish
Dec 09 2008 07:32 AM
|
|
="HahnSolo":31xlpgfm]="metirish":31xlpgfm]I was going to take out " The Given day" by Dennis Lehane at the library Saturday but it was a new book and a one week only rental with no renewals , no way I am reading that book with 600 plus pages in a week. I just can't devote that time anymore to a book.
I never read Lehane so instead I took out "Shutter Island" , a three week rental although I could read that in a week.[/quote:31xlpgfm]
The 50 cent fine or whatever you'd get for a late return would be worth it for The Given Day. Now, since you haven't read Lehane before, don't necessarily judge him by Shutter Island. I don't think that was all that great. I would read Mystic River (even if you've seen the movie) and then The Given Day.[/quote:31xlpgfm]
Yeah the fine doesn't worry me obviously , I just don't like keepoing a book late , and especially if it's a book that others might be waiting for.
|
themetfairy
Dec 09 2008 07:34 AM
|
|
Ann Leary (Denis' wife) wrote her account of delivering their first child, Jack, thirteen weeks prematurely - they thought they were going to London for the weekend, and wound up having to stay there with the baby for several months.
I knew Ann and Denis shortly after these events because we lived in the same building in the City and Ann and I had both had preemies who were close to the same age (she had me trumped, though - my daughter was a mere five weeks early). Ann's descriptions and accounts of her experiences are both touching and humorous - so far I'm enjoying the book very much.
|
soupcan
Dec 09 2008 07:52 AM
|
|
Ann Leary was my sister's roomate in college.
|
Edgy DC
Dec 09 2008 08:01 AM
|
|
If you drop one more name this morning, I will personally kick your ass.
|
soupcan
Dec 09 2008 08:05 AM
|
|
I know right? I'm totally star-fucking today (although being prompted to relate a memory having to do with c-list actors ain't really dropping names).
Did I tell you about my dinner with Mick Jagger last night?
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 09 2008 08:23 AM
|
|
Tell us again about Billy Squier. Will he be attending the xmas party this year too?
|
themetfairy
Dec 09 2008 08:28 AM
|
|
BTW, although she can't qualify because Denis isn't a Met, Ann Leary would slay the competition in the Wifey Watch thread.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Dec 09 2008 08:31 AM
|
|
<img src="http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0cVxfx52SY1x5/340x.jpg" height="459" width="340">
Sort of has a Cameron Diaz-thing going on.
|
soupcan
Dec 09 2008 08:49 AM
|
|
="John Cougar Lunchbucket":1j4vrrmi]Tell us again about Billy Squier. Will he be attending the xmas party this year too?[/quote:1j4vrrmi]
Eat me Underoos.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Dec 09 2008 08:53 AM
|
|
And how about a moratorium on famous people posing in front of corporate-logo splashed backdrops?
|
Edgy DC
Dec 09 2008 09:00 AM
|
|
That could well start with the Mets.
|
Fman99
Dec 09 2008 09:31 AM
|
|
| ="soupcan"]I know right? I'm totally star-fucking today (although being prompted to relate a memory having to do with c-list actors ain't really dropping names).
Did I tell you about my dinner with Mick Jagger last night? |
I met Henry Winkler in an airport earlier this year. I told him how much I enjoyed the movie "Night Shift."
That should've made the 80's tournament.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Dec 09 2008 09:42 AM
|
|
This is Chuck reminding Bill to SHUT... UP.
|
soupcan
Dec 09 2008 10:10 AM
|
|
Take live tuna fish, and feed them mayonnaise!
|
cooby
Dec 09 2008 03:24 PM
|
|
| ="soupcan"]
Funny and touching. Collection of anecdotes from his life including childhood. |
Soupcan, did you read "naked" too? I did and it's terrific!
|
sharpie
Jan 05 2009 02:03 PM
|
|
As Yancy did two years ago and Willets did last year, here's a list of what I've read in 2008 (51 titles):
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION/ Michael Chabon
A BOX OF MATCHES/ Nicholson Baker
BUTTERFIELD-8/ John O’Hara
RIDERS ON THE STORM/ John Densmore
WATERFRONT/ Phillip Lopate
THE BIG OYSTER/ Mark Kurlansky
HEYDAY/ Kurt Anderson
THE CRAZED/ Ha Jin
SAUL AND PATSY/ Charles Baxter
A SPOT OF BOTHER/ Mark Haddon
EXPENSIVE PEOPLE/ Joyce Carol Oates
REDEMPTION FALLS/ Joseph O’Connor
IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN/ Hisham Matar
BROTHER, I’M DYING/ Edwidge Danticat
MISSION TO AMERICA/ Walter Kirn
THEFT/ Peter Carey
EAT THE DOCUMENT/ Dana Spiotta
THE MINISTRY OF SPECIAL CASES/ Nathan Englander
METS BY THE NUMBERS/ Jon Springer & Matthew Silverman
TURBOTT WOLFE/ William Plomer
STANLEY/ Tim Jeal
MISTER PIP/ Lloyd Jones
OLDEST LIVING CONFEDERATE WIDOW TELLS ALL/ Allan Gurganus
THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD/ Kevin Brockmeier
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA/ Richard Hughes
THE GREAT DERANGEMENT/ Matt Taibbi
THE GINGER MAN/ J.P. Donleavy
THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR/ Paul Theroux
ZOLI/ Colum McCann
LIQUIDATION/ Imre Kertesz
READ THE BEATLES/ June Skinner Sawyers (ed)
AWAY/ Amy Bloom
HOMECOMING/ Bernhard Schlink
MEN DIE/ H.L. Humes
ANY HUMAN HEART/ William Boyd
BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN/ Charles Bock
MAO: THE UNKNOWN STORY/ Jung Chang & Jon Halliday
THE PESTHOUSE/ Jim Crace
DEERHUNTING WITH JESUS/ Joe Baigent
THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO/ Junot Diaz
EVERYDAY PEOPLE/ Stewart O’Nan
ROTTEN: NO IRISH, NO BLACKS, NO DOGS/ John Lydon
THE VIEW FROM THE SEVENTH LAYER/ Kevin Brockmeier
ON THE ROAD WITH BOB DYLAN/ Larry “Ratso” Sloman
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED/ Evelyn Waugh
THE WILD TREES/ Richard Preston
THE CONJURER’S BIRD/ Martin Davies
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD/ Richard Yates
BY A SLOW RIVER/ Philippe Claudel
LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER/ Stewart O’Nan
THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER/ Tom Perrotta
|
Benjamin Grimm
Jan 05 2009 02:13 PM
|
|
I guess it's that time of year again! I'll have to post my list too.
What did you think of Mao? I read that one in 2007. A number of readers apparently found it controversial; it depicted Mao in a negative light.
|
themetfairy
Jan 05 2009 02:14 PM
|
|
We bought an autographed copy of Robert Klein's memoirs when we saw him perform in November. D-Dad finished reading it, so now it's my turn. It's an interesting look back on the life of a funny and very intelligent man.
|
metirish
Jan 05 2009 02:28 PM
|
|
="sharpie":20qjsfvz]As Yancy did two years ago and Willets did last year, here's a list of what I've read in 2008 (51 titles):
[/quote:20qjsfvz]
I'm going to do that this year, great list.
OK , I have a $50 gift card from Barnes & Noble and want to get some books. I have gone over the previous pages in this thread for inspiration and it certainly has helped. I want to take a step away form the usual fiction I read such as DeMille , Michael Connelly and the mystery/thriller genre.
So far in my "Wish List" I have "Child 44" by Tom Smith , "The Given Day" by Denis Lehane and "The Great Shame" by Thomas Keneally."In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick
I would like to start reading more historical books weather they be biography's or books on a certain period in time.
Thoughts?
|
Benjamin Grimm
Jan 05 2009 02:28 PM
|
|
<TABLE><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Rough Crossings: Britain, The Slaves, and The American Revolution </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Simon Schama </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">First Into Nagasaki </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">George Weller </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Gashouse Gang, The </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">John Heidenry </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">What It Takes </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Richard Ben Cramer </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Union - 1812 </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">A. J. Langguth </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Conquering Gotham </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Jill Jonnes </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Da Vinci Code, The </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Dan Brown </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Liliuokalani </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Dan Koeppel </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Mark Twain in Hawaii </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Mark Twain </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Travels in Hawaii </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Robert Louis Stevenson </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Sloan Wilson </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Nation Within: The Story of America's Annexation of the Nation of Hawai'i </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Tom Coffman </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Shark Dialogues </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Kiana Davenport </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Jack Kepcheck </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Longest Night, The: The Bombing of London on May 10, 1941 </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Gavin Mortimer </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Anthony Bourdain </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Empire Falls </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Richard Russo </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Goodbye, Darkness </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">William Manchester </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">1920: The Year of the Six Presidents </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">David Pietrusza </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Yaz: Baseball, the Wall, and Me </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Carl Yastrzemski, Gerald Eskenazi </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Einstein: His Life and Universe </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Walter Isaacson </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Bloody Shirt, The: Terror After Appomattox </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Stephen Budiansky </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">People's Choice, The </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Jeff Greenfield </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">People Talk, The </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Benjamin Appel </td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Clemente </td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">David Maraniss</td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Zimmermann Telegram, The</td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Barbara W. Tuchman</td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Assassination Vacation</td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Sarah Vowell</td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Cagney by Cagney</td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">James Cagney</td></tr><TR><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, The</td><TD align="top" class="bodyline">Douglass Wallop</td></tr></table>
I especially liked What it Takes and Assassination Vacation. The book about bananas was also fun and interesting. The biggest disappointment was <i>Union - 1812</i>. I had read Langguth's book <i>Patriots</i>, about the Revolution, and it was terrific. I was hoping that this book would be more of the same, except about the War of 1812. It wasn't. This latter book was much more high-level, and a lot less interesting.
<i>The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant</i> is the novel that inspired <i>Damn Yankees</i>. The best thing about it was the jacket. I got an original copy (from 1954) at a used book store and the cover art is a cartoon by Willard Mullin. I'll have to scan it and post it. It's pretty cool.
EDIT: Irish, consider <I>Assassination Vacation</i>. It's a fun and interesting blend of historical fact and travelogue.
|
sharpie
Jan 05 2009 02:45 PM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Jan 05 2009 02:47 PM
|
|
I read Assassination Vacation a couple of years ago. I liked it more at the beginning as her snarky schtick bothered me at times but I'd recommend it. The wife liked it too.
Mao was a bit much. I learned a lot but maybe too much. Plus it got hard to follow all of those long marches. What I got out of it: he was a bad guy with pretty much no redeeming characteristics other than being a skilled and insightful political infighter.
Just as Ben enjoyed his banana book I enjoyed my oyster book (The Big Oyster which tells the history of New York City in the 19th Century by way of its relation to the oyster (which NY harbor was full of).
|
Edgy DC
Jan 05 2009 02:46 PM
|
|
coimng around the bend on The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
I've been growing disenchanted with fiction, but this (like most of Chabon) is wondermints.
|
batmagadanleadoff
Jan 05 2009 03:08 PM
Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Jan 05 2009 03:19 PM
|
|
| ="Benjamin Grimm"]
<i>The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant</i> is the novel that inspired <i>Damn Yankees</i>. The best thing about it was the jacket. I got an original copy (from 1954) at a used book store and the cover art is a cartoon by Willard Mullin. I'll have to scan it and post it. It's pretty cool.
|
A few months ago, I read The Mets Will Win the Pennant (1964) a short easy read analyzing the Mets against the background of an actual contemporary Met/Dodger game. The baseball analysis is very dated and conclusory ... primitive, really .. although the book does yield several Met anecdotal nuggets. And of course, the Mets would win the pennant by decade's end, as preposterous as that proclamation must have sounded in 1964.
I bring this book up and in relation to Grimm's quote above about Wallop's book, only because of the striking similarities in the titles of the two books and also, because Willard Mullin cartooned the cover of the Met book, as well.
I also thought that the best thing about this book was the cover jacket. I won an original first edition on ebay. The photo below is from a current ebay auction.
|
metsmarathon
Jan 05 2009 03:10 PM
|
|
i don't think i read enough, or would be able to tease out whether i read something this year or last, to be able to put together a year end list. so i'll just try to remember to be in a position to post one next year.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jan 05 2009 05:37 PM
|
|
I have been on a history and non-fiction kick for the past 2-3 years.
This is my list of books for 2008:
1. Stealing Lincolns Body by Thomas J. Craughwell
2. Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin
3. It’s Not About Me by Max Lucado
4. The Great Bridge…by David McCullough
5. Ty and the Babe…. by Tom Stanton
6. Marley and Me by John Grogan
7. American Creation by Joseph P. Ellis
8. John Adams by David McCullough
9. Mets by the Numbers by John Springer
10. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
11. 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Matthew Silverman
12. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Glasdwell
13. Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World by David Maraniss
14. Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs
15. Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil by David Berendt
16. Zodiac by Robert Graysmith
17. Night by Elie Weisel
The list is only through August, because I temporarilly quit leisure reading at that time. In September, I entered into an intensive 32 week bible study course that takes up most of my reading time. I received 6 books and $65 in Books-A-Million gift cards for Christmas so I will have plenty to read once I complete the majority of the Bible.
|
Fman99
Jan 05 2009 05:41 PM
|
|
My family got a $200 GC from Barnes & Noble as a holiday gift from my parents. I have much shopping to do.
I just finished "Flags of our Fathers." Good read. I still have four books from the summer library sale up on the shelf waiting to be read.
|
Frayed Knot
Jan 05 2009 06:22 PM
|
|
Grimm: Rough Crossings: Britain, The Slaves, and The American Revolution - Simon Schama
Schama is the guy who wrote and narrated a huge (15 one-hour episodes) BBC/History Channel series on the history of Britain. From pre Anglo-Saxon times in the days of Stonehenge through the 20th century of Churchill and Orwell.
Good series, and he sounds like an interesting chap.
Is this book worth checking out?
R-Doc: Zodiac by Robert Graysmith
I read this one after the recent movie came out.
Flick was a little slow at times though I liked it. It got a lot more critical acclaim than popular success.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Jan 05 2009 07:06 PM
|
|
| ="Frayed Knot"]Grimm: Rough Crossings: Britain, The Slaves, and The American Revolution - Simon Schama
Schama is the guy who wrote and narrated a huge (15 one-hour episodes) BBC/History Channel series on the history of Britain. From pre Anglo-Saxon times in the days of Stonehenge through the 20th century of Churchill and Orwell.
Good series, and he sounds like an interesting chap.
Is this book worth checking out?
|
I was kind of lukewarm on that book. I found it sometimes interesting, and sometimes dry.
|
DocTee
Jan 05 2009 08:26 PM
|
|
If you want a good Schama read, check out his earlier Dead Certainties.
If you want a good book on the slave trade, check out Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jan 05 2009 08:37 PM
|
|
="Benjamin Grimm":1qb53spd]The book about bananas was also fun and interesting[/quote:1qb53spd]
Good. I just picked that one up.
Do you buy all these books or get them at a library? Banana is only now out in paperback.
|
Rockin' Doc
Jan 05 2009 09:05 PM
|
|
FrayedKnot, the Zodiac book fascinated me. I had a hard time putting it down. I think my interest stems from having been an elementary school student living in southern California during the time of the Zodiac's killing spree. The news reports and images of his attacks terrified me as a youngster. I actually never knew of the movie until after reading the book.
|
Willets Point
Jan 05 2009 09:07 PM
|
|
="DocTee":1qrnvgjl]If you want a good Schama read, check out his earlier Dead Certainties.
If you want a good book on the slave trade, check out Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship.[/quote:1qrnvgjl]
Second the reccomendation for Dead Certainties. Awesome book. I also liked Rough Crossings which I listened to as an audio book narrated by the interesting chap himself.
|
Benjamin Grimm
Jan 06 2009 04:48 AM
|
|
="John Cougar Lunchbucket":242c62r6]Do you buy all these books or get them at a library? Banana is only now out in paperback.[/quote:242c62r6]
I buy them. I'm in the History Book Club, which I usually ignore, but every once in a while they offer a deal where you can get a bunch of hardcover books cheap. <i>Banana</i> was one of those books. I got it, and several others, all for about nine bucks each with free shipping.
|
Fman99
Jan 09 2009 09:46 AM
|
|
="Fman99":3uwsgvej]I got two Amazon.com gift cards for my birthday this past year. I ended up ordering 7 books, most of which were recommended by this thread and the 2007 version of the same.
I ordered:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)
The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction - 15th Anniversary Edition
A False Spring
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
The Kite Runner
Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin' Mets by Uniform Number
Hopefully they arrive soon. I am starving for something new to read.[/quote:3uwsgvej]
So here are my reviews of these seven books, several months later.
Essex -- the best of the bunch. A real page turner.
No Country for Old Men -- I liked it. Writing style takes a bit of getting used to. A non-ending ending kind of pissed me off though.
Promise of the New South -- reads like a textbook. Got 3-4 pages in and bailed.
A False Spring -- enjoyable.
Mornings on Horseback -- typical McCullough excellence
The Kite Runner -- couldn't get into it, may try again someday
MTBNM -- perfect reading for the john, bought one for my Dad too.
|
John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jan 09 2009 10:54 AM
|
|
="Fman99":3g1say5s]
MTBNM -- perfect reading for the john, bought one for my Dad too.[/quote:3g1say5s]
It's 20% more absorbant than Playboy!
|
themetfairy
Jan 09 2009 12:10 PM
|
|
On Edit - Oops - wrong thread.
|
Willets Point
Jan 09 2009 03:07 PM
|
|
Books read in 2008
* The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (completed reading on 1/4/08)
* Slam by Nick Hornby (completed reading on 1/6/08)
* Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (completed reading on 1/9/08)
* Pride of Baghdad by Brian K Vaughan (completed reading on 1/12/08)
* The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (completed reading on 1/20/08)
* Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat (completed reading as of 1/25/08)
* American Pastoral by Phillip Roth (completed reading on 2/6/08)
* Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To by Anthony DeStefano (completed reading on 2/9/08)
* The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (completed reading 2/13/08)
* God’s Library by Joe Paprocki (completed reading 2/12/08)
* The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes (completed reading on 2/18/08)
* The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (completed reading on 2/23/08)
* How Big is Your God? by Paul Cutinho (currently reading as of 2/23/08)
* Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (completed reading 3/3/08)
* Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (completed reading as of 3/9/08)
* Hell’s Abyss, Heaven’s Grace: War and Christian Spirituality by Lawrence D. Hart (completed reading as of 3/12/08)
* Saints Behaving Badly by Thomas J. Craughwell (completed reading 3/16/08)
* Jesus Before Christianity by Albert Nolan (completed reading 3/18/08)
* The Rapture Exposed by Barbara R. Rossing (completed reading 3/20/08)
* The Misunderstood Jew by Amy-Jill Levine (completed 3/22/08)
* Googling God by Mike Hayes (completed reading 3/25/08)
* Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing by Charles Bamforth (completed reading 3/30/08)
* The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (completed reading 4/2/08)
* Vermeer’s Hat by Timothy Brook(completed reading 4/18/08)
* Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury (completed reading 4/15/08)
* Mets by the Numbers by Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman (completed reading 4/29/08)
* Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll (completed reading 4/30/08)
* The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1 by M.T. Anderson (completed 5/2/08)
* The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle (completed reading 5/6/08)
* A Game of Brawl by Bill Felber (completed reading 5/12/08)
* The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox by Steven Budiansky (completed reading 5/14/08)
* All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka (completed reading 5/19/08)
* Lee Miller’s War by Anthony Penrose (completed 5/28/08)
* Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar (completed 5/31/08)
* The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations by James Surowiecki (completed 6/6/08)
* Woman of the Inner Sea by Thomas Keneally (completed 6/11/08)
* The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (completed 6/19/08)
* In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (completed 6/28/08)
* The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe (completed 7/6/08)
* Bleak House by Charles Dickens (completed 7/9/08)
* The Declaration of Independence: A Global History by David Armitage (completed 7/11/08)
* This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust (reading as of 7/15/08)
* Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (completed 7/24/08)
* Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) by Jeffrey Kluger (completed 7/28/2008)
* Groundswell by Charlen Li and Josh Bernoff (completed 7/30/2008)
* Crosstown by Helen Levitt (completed 8/1/2008)
* The Confusion (Baroque Cycle Book 4: “Bonanza”) by Neal Stephenson (completed 8/5/08)
* The Joke by Milan Kundera (completed 8/13/08)
* New York Calling edited by Marshall Berman and Brian Berger (completed 8/14/2008)
* A Pocketful of History: Four Hundred Years of America–One State Quarter at a Time by Jim Noles (completed 8/15/2008)
* The Fabric of America by Andro Linklater (completed 8/19/2008)
* The Confusion (Baroque Cycle Book 5: “The Juncto”) by Neal Stephenson (completed 8/27/2008)
* Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (completed 9/3/08)
* The Driftless Area by Tom Drury (completed 9/3/08)
* The black swan : the impact of the highly improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (completed 9/13/2008)
* Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky (completed 9/14/2008)
* How the States Got their Shapes by Mark Stein (completed 9/18/2008)
* Maps by Nuruddin Farrah (completed 9/26/08)
* Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote (completed 10/1/08)
* A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester (completed 10/8/08)
* Manhattan ‘45 by Jan Morris (completed 10/9/08)
* Paula Spencer by Roddy Doyle (completed 10/11/08)
* Solomon’s Gold by Neal Stephenson (completed 10/16/08)
* The Blind Side by Michael Lewis (completed 10/23/08)
* The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (completed 10/29/08
* Empire Rising by Thomas Kelly (completed 10/30/08)
* The Devil We Know by Robert Baer (completed 11/5/08)
* The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol II (completed 11/13/2008)
* Where’s My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived by Daniel Wilson (completed 11/14/08)
* Middlesex by Jefferey Eugenides (completed 11/17/2008)
* Trawler by Redmond O’Hanlon (completed 11/20/08)
* Freeman Walker by David Allan Cates (completed 11/23/08)
* Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (completed 11/30/08)
* A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (conpleted 12/1/08)
* Respect by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (completed 12/8/2008)
* Snakepit by Moses Isegawa (completed 12/16/08)
* Rough Crossing by Simon Schama (completed 12/17/2008)
* The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (completed - 12/17/08)
* Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (completed 12/19/08)
* The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson (completed 12/20/2008)
* Dishwasher : one man’s quest to wash dishes in all fifty states by Pete Jordan (reading as of 12/21/2008)
* Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center by Daniel Okrent (completed 12/30/08)
|
batmagadanleadoff
Jan 09 2009 03:29 PM
|
|
| ="Willets Point"]Books read in 2008.... |
What are you ... like the Burgess Meredith character in that Twilight Zone episode?
|
DocTee
Jan 09 2009 04:45 PM
|
|
Do you read those in succession? If so, MBTN took you the longest?!
|
Willets Point
Jan 09 2009 07:20 PM
|
|
batmagadan - no, I'm not like Burgess Meredith because I have 20/20 vision and thus don't need reading glasses.
DocTee - I'm pretty sure that MBTN didn't take me the longest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
