Mike's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:43:06 -0800 60 Mike's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Wool - Holston (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Mike 2 4.14 2012 Wool - Holston (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Заповедник - Авторский сборник]]> 18114429 В декабре 2018 года на широкие экраны страны выходит фильм «Заповедник», снятый режиссером Анной Матисон. Главную роль в фильме исполнит Сергей Безруков.]]> 528 Sergei Dovlatov Mike 3 4.31 1983 Заповедник - Авторский сборник
author: Sergei Dovlatov
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness]]> 198493735
More than any baseball player of his generation, Clayton Kershaw has embodied the burden of athletic greatness, the prizes and perils that await those who strive for it all. He is a three-time Cy Young award winner, the first pitcher to win National League MVP since Bob Gibson, and a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Many of his peers consider him the greatest pitcher to ever climb atop a big-league mound. In an age when baseball became more impersonal, a sport altered by adherence to algorithms and actuarial tables, Kershaw personified the game’s lingering humanity, with his joy and suffering on display each October as he chased a championship. He pitched through pain, placing his future at risk, on the game’s grandest stages. He endeared himself to teammates and foes alike with his refusal to make excuses, with his willingness to shoulder the blame when he failed. And he only further impressed them when he returned, year after year, even as his body broke down from the strain of his profession. The journey captivated fans in Los Angeles and beyond, so much so that when the Dodgers finally won a title in 2020, the baseball world exulted in his triumph.

The Last of His Kind traces Kershaw’s path from a boyhood fractured by divorce to his development as one of the most-heralded pitching prospects in Texas history to his emergence in Los Angeles as the spiritual heir to Sandy Koufax. But the book also charts Kershaw’s place in baseball’s changing landscape, as his own stubbornness butted against the game’s evolution. The story of baseball in the 21st century can be told through Kershaw’s career, from his apprenticeship with icons like Joe Torre and Greg Maddux, to his wary relationship with the implementation of analytics, to his victimhood in the 2017 sign-stealing scandal at the hands of the Houston Astros. The game has changed so much during Kershaw’s illustrious career, and he has changed, ever so slightly, to stay at the top. To understand how baseball is played today, and how it got that way, you must understand the journey of Clayton Kershaw.]]> 400 Andy McCullough 0306832593 Mike 0 to-read 4.41 The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness
author: Andy McCullough
name: Mike
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mysteries 100698795 A New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Indie Bestseller.

From Bill Watterson, bestselling creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and John Kascht, one of America’s most renowned caricaturists, comes a mysterious and beautifully illustrated fable about what lies beyond human understanding.

In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.

For the book's illustrations, Watterson and caricaturist John Kascht worked together for several years in unusually close collaboration. Both artists abandoned their past ways of working, inventing images together that neither could anticipate—a mysterious process in its own right.

With The Mysteries, Watterson and Kascht share the fascinating genesis of their extraordinary collaboration in a video that can be viewed on Andrews McMeel Publishing's YouTube page.]]> 72 Bill Watterson 1524884944 Mike 4
Nearly 30 years after Watterson wrapped up Calvin & Hobbes, he got you to pay $20 to find out he's no big deal and no one should care. The book is about some mysteries that everyone is afraid of yet can't wait to get to the bottom of. When they find out what the mysteries are, everyone is disappointed and immediately stops caring. The world quickly moved on. And it takes five minutes to read that story.

Hmmm ...]]> 3.76 2023 The Mysteries
author: Bill Watterson
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:
Bill Watterson trolled you.

Nearly 30 years after Watterson wrapped up Calvin & Hobbes, he got you to pay $20 to find out he's no big deal and no one should care. The book is about some mysteries that everyone is afraid of yet can't wait to get to the bottom of. When they find out what the mysteries are, everyone is disappointed and immediately stops caring. The world quickly moved on. And it takes five minutes to read that story.

Hmmm ...
]]> Blackouts 65215321 From the bestselling author of We the Animals, Blackouts mines lost histories--personal and collective.

Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay--playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized--has a project to pass along to this new narrator. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried. As Juan waits for his end, he and the narrator trade stories--moments of joy and oblivion--and resurrect lost loves, lives, mothers, fathers, minor heroes. The past is with us, beside us, ahead of us; what are we to create from its gaps and erasures?

Inspired by Kiss of the Spider Woman, Pedro Páramo, Voodoo Macbeth, the book at its own center and the woman who created it, oral histories, and many more texts, images, and influences, Justin Torres's Blackouts is a work of fiction that sees through the inventions of history and narrative. An extraordinary work of creative imagination, it insists that we look long and steady at the world we have inherited and the world we have made--a world full of ghostly shadows and flashing moments of truth.]]> 306 Justin Torres 0374293570 Mike 0 to-read 3.76 2023 Blackouts
author: Justin Torres
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Daughter 124029281 In Claudia Dey’s Daughter, a woman long caught in her father's web strives to make a life—and art—of her own.

To be loved by your father is to be loved by God.

So says Mona Dean—playwright, actress, and daughter to a man famous for one great novel, whose needs and insecurities exert an inescapable pull and exact an immeasurable toll on the women of his family: Mona, her sister, her half-sister, their mothers. His infidelity destroyed Mona’s childhood, setting her in opposition to a stepmother who, though equally damaged, disdains her for being broken. Then, just as Mona is settling into her life as an adult and a fledgling artist, he begins a new affair and takes her into his confidence. Mona delights—painfully, parasitically—in this attention. When he inevitably confesses to his wife, Mona is cast as the agent of disruption, punished for her father’s crimes and ejected from the family.

Mona’s tenuous stability is thrown into chaos. Only when she suffers an incalculable loss—one far deeper and more defining than family entanglements—can she begin supplanting absent love with real love. Pushed to the precipice, she must decide how she wants to live, what she most needs to say, and the risks she will take to say it.

Claudia Dey chronicles our most intimate lives with penetrating insight and devilish humor. Daughter is an obsessive, blazing examination of the forces that drive us to become, to create, and to break free.]]> 272 Claudia Dey 0374609705 Mike 0 to-read 3.92 2023 Daughter
author: Claudia Dey
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bliss Montage 65215711
In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything—if you bury yourself alive.

These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heart-breakingly alike.]]> 228 Ling Ma 1250893542 Mike 0 to-read 3.81 2022 Bliss Montage
author: Ling Ma
name: Mike
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sky Vault (The Comet Cycle #3)]]> 58312062
The comet, Cain, came from beyond our solar system, its debris containing elements unknown. Now, in the isolated region of Fairbanks, Alaska, the skies shift and stretch as an interstellar dust cloud seeds the atmosphere. When a plane shudders its way through pulpy, swirling, bruise-shaped clouds, lit with sudden cracks of lightning, the sky opens and the aircraft vanishes…but only for a minute.

When the flight lands, everyone on board and in the community will be changed forever. Chuck Bridges, a local DJ and conspiracy theorist, was on board and later reported dead to his family, but not before proclaiming that something inside the clouds was speaking to him. Now his son, Theo, must chase down answers to the mystery his father unlocked. He’ll find himself at odds with Sophie Chen, an agent with a shadowy employer desperate to secure the black box from the airplane, as well as Rolf Wagner, a widowed sheriff investigating a series of increasingly strange and unsettling reports. And then there is Joanna Straub, a contractor reconstructing a top-secret government lab active during WWII and shuttered deep within the nearby White Mountains.

The answer to the comet’s origin is about to be unveiled, and its impact on Earth is more treacherous and sublime than humanity could imagine.]]> 320 Benjamin Percy 1328544419 Mike 0 to-read 3.89 2023 The Sky Vault (The Comet Cycle #3)
author: Benjamin Percy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Temple Folk 62919865
In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics, and sexuality in America. The ten stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists the mainstream culture to which they are expected to accept and aspire to while functioning within the country in which they are born.

In “Due North,� an obedient daughter struggles to understand why she’s haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased father. In “Who’s Down?� a father, after a brief affair with vegetarianism, conspires with his daughter to order him a double cheeseburger. In “Candy for Hanif� a mother’s routine trip to the store for her disabled son takes an unlikely turn when she reflects on a near-death experience. In “Woman in Niqab,� a daughter’s suspicion of her father’s infidelity prompts her to wear her hair in public. In “New Mexico,� a federal agent tasked with spying on a high-ranking member of the Nation of Islam grapples with his responsibilities closer to home.

With an unflinching eye for the contradictions between what these characters profess to believe and what they do, Temple Folk accomplishes the rare feat of presenting moral failures with compassion, nuance, and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it’s the errors that make us human.]]> 256 Aaliyah Bilal 1982191813 Mike 0 to-read 3.70 2023 Temple Folk
author: Aaliyah Bilal
name: Mike
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House Is on Fire 61273814 The author of Florence Adler Swims Forever returns with a masterful work of historical fiction about an incendiary tragedy that shocked a young nation and tore apart a community in a single night—told from the perspectives of four people whose actions during the inferno changed the course of history.

Richmond, Virginia 1811. It’s the height of the winter social season. The General Assembly is in session, and many of Virginia’s gentleman planters, along with their wives and children, have made the long and arduous journey to the capital in hopes of whiling away the darkest days of the year. At the city’s only theater, the Charleston-based Placide & Green Company puts on two plays a night to meet the demand of a populace that’s done looking for enlightenment in a church.

On the night after Christmas, the theater is packed with more than six hundred holiday revelers. In the third-floor boxes, sits newly widowed Sally Henry Campbell, who is glad for any opportunity to relive the happy times she shared with her husband. One floor away, in the colored gallery, Cecily Patterson doesn’t give a whit about the play but is grateful for a four-hour reprieve from a life that has recently gone from bad to worse. Backstage, young stagehand Jack Gibson hopes that, if he can impress the theater’s managers, he’ll be offered a permanent job with the company. And on the other side of town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt dreams of one day being able to bring his wife to the theater, but he’ll have to buy her freedom first.

When the theater goes up in flames in the middle of the performance, Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert make a series of split-second decisions that will not only affect their own lives but those of countless others. And in the days following the fire, as news of the disaster spreads across the United States, the paths of these four people will become forever intertwined.

Based on the true story of Richmond’s theater fire, The House Is on Fire offers proof that sometimes, in the midst of great tragedy, we are offered our most precious—and fleeting—chances at redemption.]]> 376 Rachel Beanland 1982186143 Mike 0 to-read 4.07 2023 The House Is on Fire
author: Rachel Beanland
name: Mike
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Godforsaken Place 23168345
But then she buys a rifle, and everything changes.

This Godforsaken Place is the absorbing tale of one tenacious woman’s journey set against the dramatic backdrop of the Canadian Wilderness and American Wild West. Told by four narrators—including Annie Oakley and Gabriel Dumont—Abigail’s story brings the high stakes of the New World into startling focus.]]> 240 Cinda Gault 1927366410 Mike 0 to-read 3.88 2015 This Godforsaken Place
author: Cinda Gault
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Studious Delinquents & Psychiatric Malfeasance]]> 122753523 244 J.T. Hackshaw Mike 0 to-read 3.47 Studious Delinquents & Psychiatric Malfeasance
author: J.T. Hackshaw
name: Mike
average rating: 3.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lookback Window 62919373 A fearless debut novel of resilience, transcendence, and the elusive promise of justice.

Growing up in suburban New York, Dylan lived through the unfathomable: three years as a victim of sex trafficking at the hands of Vincent, a troubled young man who promised to marry Dylan when he turned eighteen. Years later—long after a police investigation that went nowhere, and after the statute of limitations for the crimes perpetrated against him have run out—the long shadow of Dylan’s trauma still looms over the fragile life in the city he’s managed to build with his fiancé, Moans, who knows little of Dylan’s past. His continued existence depends upon an all-important mantra: To survive, you live through it, but never look back.

Then a groundbreaking new law—the Child Victims Act—opens a new way forward: a one-year window during which Dylan can sue his abusers. But for someone who was trafficked as a child, does money represent justice—does his pain have a price? As Dylan is forced to look back at what happened to him and try to make sense of his past, he begins to explore a drug and sex-fueled world of bathhouses, clubs, and strangers� apartments, only to emerge, barely alive, with a new clarity of purpose: a righteous determination to gaze, unflinching, upon the brutal men whose faces have haunted him for a decade, and to extract justice on his own terms.

By turns harrowing, lyrical, and beautiful, Hertz’s debut offers a startling glimpse at the unraveling of trauma—and the light that peeks, faintly, and often in surprising ways, from the other side of the window.]]> 288 Kyle Dillon Hertz 1668005875 Mike 0 to-read 3.71 2023 The Lookback Window
author: Kyle Dillon Hertz
name: Mike
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Somebody's Fool 62952125 The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls returns to North Bath, in upstate New York, and to the characters that captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers in his beloved best sellers Nobody's Fool and Everybody's Fool.

Ten years after the death of the magnetic Donald "Sully" Sullivan, the town of North Bath is going through a major transition as it is annexed by its much wealthier neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Peter, Sully's son, is still grappling with his father's tremendous legacy as well as his relationship to his own son, Thomas, wondering if he has been all that different a father than Sully was to him.

Meanwhile, the towns' newly consolidated police department falls into the hands of Charice Bond, after the resignation of Doug Raymer, the former North Bath police chief and Charice's ex-lover. When a decomposing body turns up in the abandoned hotel situated between the two towns, Charice and Raymer are drawn together again and forced to address their complicated attraction to one another. Across town, Ruth, Sully's married ex-lover, and her daughter Janey struggle to understand Janey's daughter, Tina, and her growing obsession with Peter's other son, Will. Amidst the turmoil, the town's residents speculate on the identity of the unidentified body, and wonder who among their number could have disappeared unnoticed.

Infused with all the wry humor and shrewd observations that Russo is known for, Somebody's Fool is another classic from a modern master.]]> 464 Richard Russo 0593317890 Mike 0 to-read 4.16 2023 Somebody's Fool
author: Richard Russo
name: Mike
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[2034: A Novel of the Next World War]]> 54211065

By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.

So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically out maneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries.

Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and literary, human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power.

Everything in 2034 is an imaginative extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground combined with the authors' years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: 2034 is all too close at hand, and this cautionary tale presents the reader a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid.

]]> 320 Elliot Ackerman 1984881256 Mike 3
In this one, China gets the upper hand on the United States by freezing the country thanks to a cyberattack that takes out many systems. Of course, the US must retaliate. By the end, tens of millions are dead and everyone finally realizes that the entire thing was a bad idea.

The typical fast-paced thriller with the expected cardboard characters. I can't stop reading them.]]> 3.67 2021 2034: A Novel of the Next World War
author: Elliot Ackerman
name: Mike
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/15
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Hey, look, another dystopian novel!

In this one, China gets the upper hand on the United States by freezing the country thanks to a cyberattack that takes out many systems. Of course, the US must retaliate. By the end, tens of millions are dead and everyone finally realizes that the entire thing was a bad idea.

The typical fast-paced thriller with the expected cardboard characters. I can't stop reading them.
]]> The Displacements 59382058
When the storm makes landfall, it triggers a descent of another sort. Their home destroyed, two of its members missing, and finances abruptly cut off, the family finds everything they assumed about their lives now up for grabs. Swept into a mass rushof evacuees from across the American South, they are transported hundreds of miles to a FEMA megashelter where their new community includes an insurance-agent-turned-drug dealer, a group of vulnerable children, and a dedicated relief worker trying to keep the peace. Will “normal� ever return?

A suspenseful read plotted on a vast national tapestry, The Displacements thrillingly explores what happens when privilege is lost and resilience is tested in a swiftly changing world.]]> 448 Bruce Holsinger 059318971X Mike 3
All that happened not long before almost the same thing happened to Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach in real life. It's not so fun to read dystopian fiction that practically mirrors reality.

The Displacements follows the Larsen-Halls, a well-off family in Miami. Unbeknownst to Daphne, her doctor husband Brantley has been lying about their finances. This all comes out when the world's first Category 6 hurricane hits Florida and causes millions of people to flee. Daphne, her three children, and her mother-in-law are among them, forced to shelter in a FEMA camp with no resources. They have gone from having everything at their fingertips to groveling for meals almost overnight.

How they deal with all this, and how these disasters affect the world, are the crux of the story. The characters aren't very nuanced and few solutions are in sight. I'm more struck by a book like Matthew Desmond's Evicted, which depicts people in poverty living in situations like this in real life. The Larsen-Halls suffer. But they are resilient, goshdarnit. The tunnel widens for them by the end. In real life, odds are they'd suffer a greater tragedy.]]> 3.92 2022 The Displacements
author: Bruce Holsinger
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/13
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Miami is wiped off the map about a hundred pages in. Most of Houston not long after.

All that happened not long before almost the same thing happened to Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach in real life. It's not so fun to read dystopian fiction that practically mirrors reality.

The Displacements follows the Larsen-Halls, a well-off family in Miami. Unbeknownst to Daphne, her doctor husband Brantley has been lying about their finances. This all comes out when the world's first Category 6 hurricane hits Florida and causes millions of people to flee. Daphne, her three children, and her mother-in-law are among them, forced to shelter in a FEMA camp with no resources. They have gone from having everything at their fingertips to groveling for meals almost overnight.

How they deal with all this, and how these disasters affect the world, are the crux of the story. The characters aren't very nuanced and few solutions are in sight. I'm more struck by a book like Matthew Desmond's Evicted, which depicts people in poverty living in situations like this in real life. The Larsen-Halls suffer. But they are resilient, goshdarnit. The tunnel widens for them by the end. In real life, odds are they'd suffer a greater tragedy.
]]> Our Missing Hearts 60149573 A novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture� in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.]]> 335 Celeste Ng 0593492544 Mike 4
In this dystopian tale which could be true, Ng turns the United States against Asians as they are blamed for a financial collapse. Slowly, laws are put into place to preserve American culture, which means anything that promotes something other than Americanism is labeled as subversive. Anyone who promotes it is suspicious. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and soon enough children of people who engage in such behavior are taken from their families and hidden in a twisted foster care system.

You can imagine how this affects teenage Bird, child of a mixed marriage between a white American father and Chinese-American mother. Bird's mother Margaret left the family years prior after being caught up in the mess. Bird's father lives in constant fear of Bird being taken or worse if the family doesn't constantly denounce Margaret.

Of course, this is fiction. But it feels as if it could be real, real quick. Much like Margaret Atwood says everything in The Handmaid's Tale happened somewhere in some fashion, nothing in Our Missing Hearts feels truly made up.

Unlike everyone else, I liked Ng's Everything I Never Told You more than Little Fires Everywhere. I read EINTY because Ng grew up in nearby Shaker Heights, and continued to read her because she's good. Since Reese Witherspoon has already praised this book, it's certainly destined for the screen. I could see it becoming a world, like The Handmaid's Tale TV show. Ng has a lot to say here. I'll be on board for whatever comes next.]]> 3.74 2022 Our Missing Hearts
author: Celeste Ng
name: Mike
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/16
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Celeste Ng's The Handmaid's Tale. Which is why it was so infuriating.

In this dystopian tale which could be true, Ng turns the United States against Asians as they are blamed for a financial collapse. Slowly, laws are put into place to preserve American culture, which means anything that promotes something other than Americanism is labeled as subversive. Anyone who promotes it is suspicious. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and soon enough children of people who engage in such behavior are taken from their families and hidden in a twisted foster care system.

You can imagine how this affects teenage Bird, child of a mixed marriage between a white American father and Chinese-American mother. Bird's mother Margaret left the family years prior after being caught up in the mess. Bird's father lives in constant fear of Bird being taken or worse if the family doesn't constantly denounce Margaret.

Of course, this is fiction. But it feels as if it could be real, real quick. Much like Margaret Atwood says everything in The Handmaid's Tale happened somewhere in some fashion, nothing in Our Missing Hearts feels truly made up.

Unlike everyone else, I liked Ng's Everything I Never Told You more than Little Fires Everywhere. I read EINTY because Ng grew up in nearby Shaker Heights, and continued to read her because she's good. Since Reese Witherspoon has already praised this book, it's certainly destined for the screen. I could see it becoming a world, like The Handmaid's Tale TV show. Ng has a lot to say here. I'll be on board for whatever comes next.
]]> <![CDATA[The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football]]> 60144997
There is no profession in sports like the NFL tight end. None. You must mash 320-pound defensive ends in the run game. You must twist your torso at impossible angles to make acrobatic catches downfield in the pass game. You must have a certain element of crazy to you, too. The tight end is a blend of brain and brawn and bruises…so many bruises. BLOOD AND GUTS tracks the fascinating rise of this position one tight end at a time, from Mike Ditka and John Mackey in the '60s to Rob Gronkowski today.As much as football has changed over the years, there has always been one glorious the tight end.

None of this is by accident, either. There’s a reason all of these players were magnetically drawn to the position.

In BLOOD AND GUTS, Tyler Dunne interviews the greatest tight ends ever, whose stories reveal why they were uniquely qualified to serve as the blood and the guts of football—the players keeping this sport alive and well. There’s a reason Mike Ditka epitomized true toughness in pro football through the 1960s. Ben Coates, the son of a World War II vet, put an entire childhood spent building roofs to use by smashing defenders in the open field. Tony Gonzalez matured from a kid terrified of bullies to an absolute beast terrifying defensive backs. His entire life, Jeremy Shockey has been hellbent on sticking it to anyone who doubts him. And from afar, a young “Gronk� idolized Shockey and took his approach to a whole new level.

Here, great American tight ends share countless harrowing, never-before-told stories. One moment, a tight end (Gonzalez) nearly socks a coach in the eye. The next, a tight end (Shockey) is breaking the orbital bone of someone in a bar fight.

There’s no one in sports like them. BLOOD AND GUTS brings them to life.]]> 352 Tyler Dunne 1538723743 Mike 4
Maybe he overwrites a little bit. But he doesn't quite get carried away. He's worshipful, yes. But Dunne has away of humanizing his subjects, bringing the reader right into a scene, and telling quite a story.

Like with Jeremy Shockey, where the joy rises from the page. We're sitting right next to Shockey as he recounts the story of a bar fight that could have changed the trajectory of his life. We can see Dallas Clark weeping in his truck as he recalls the time his mother collapsed and died from a heart attack. We're nodding along with Mike Ditka as he goes on a bout his glory days without sounding out of touch.

It's simple -- football fans will like this book. Non-football fans won't. I'm a football fan, and a fan of this book. ]]> 4.03 The Blood and Guts: How Tight Ends Save Football
author: Tyler Dunne
name: Mike
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/27
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Tyler Dunne loves football. His writing shows it. He really loves tough football players. His writing of this nook shows it.

Maybe he overwrites a little bit. But he doesn't quite get carried away. He's worshipful, yes. But Dunne has away of humanizing his subjects, bringing the reader right into a scene, and telling quite a story.

Like with Jeremy Shockey, where the joy rises from the page. We're sitting right next to Shockey as he recounts the story of a bar fight that could have changed the trajectory of his life. We can see Dallas Clark weeping in his truck as he recalls the time his mother collapsed and died from a heart attack. We're nodding along with Mike Ditka as he goes on a bout his glory days without sounding out of touch.

It's simple -- football fans will like this book. Non-football fans won't. I'm a football fan, and a fan of this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Freezing Cold Takes: NFL: Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions―and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them]]> 56622226
Since 2015, Fred Segal has chronicled “unprophetic� sports predictions on the internet. His Freezing Cold Takes social media pages feature quotes and predictions from members of the sports world that have aged poorly or were, in hindsight, flat-out wrong. The pages have become a guilty pleasure for hundreds of thousands of sports fans who love to see (okay, and mock in good humor) sports media’s infamous “hot takes� that went cold.

With this book, Segal focuses on the NFL, and provides a vast collection of poorly aged predictions and analysis from NFL media members and personalities about some of the most famous teams and players in the league’s history. He also explores ill-fated commentary related to draft picks, hiring decisions, and some of the NFL’s most notable games. But this book is not simply a list of quotes. It delves through content mined from internet archives and original interviews with media, players, and coaches. Segal provides important background surrounding each featured mistake to offer essential context as to why the ill-fated prediction was made as well as why the personality who made the prediction is eating their words.

Together, the fourteen chapters—each spotlighting Freezing Cold Takes about a specific team or topic within a certain defined period—create a wholly unique and endlessly entertaining lens through which to explore NFL history.

A few illustrative ]]> 336 Fred Segal 0762475455 Mike 3
My best prediction concerned a certain local high school team that had never been very good but was supposed to be good that season. I wrote that if they had a winning season I would join their booster club. I signed it and posted it to the wall. It came down to their last game, which they lost to finish at 5-5 and save me from a fated booster club meeting. Another coworker predicted during the OJ Simpson car chase that OJ would never be convicted because he had won a Heisman Trophy and because he was OJ. That hung on the board well after the trial where OJ was acquitted.

Another coworker wasn't so lucky. After Barry Bonds left the Pirates for the San Francisco Giants in free agency, he predicted that Bonds would be traded before he played out his entire contract. Bonds retired as a Giant after setting baseball's all-time home run record. Still, that wasn't the worst prediction I ever. That belonged to a coworker's brother, who avoided the board because the prediction was made years before -- that Wayne Gretzky would never amount to anything.

Now we have books like Freezing Cold Takes to memorialize bad predictions. The book is the natural progression of a hilarious Twitter feed called @OldTakesExposed, which finds old predictions which have gone laughably bad and retweets them. They range from the benign such as someone predicting Michigan would "beat the piss" out of TCU to cringingly bad such as forecasting that Luka Donkic would be back in Spain in five years, four years before he threw up a 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist game.

But what makes a great Twitter feed doesn't make all that interesting of a book. It lacks the fun and humor of the tweets. Absurdity is the overall concept of the Twitter feed. Freezing Cold Takes doesn't really add to that.

The book takes a look at several NFL sureties over the year -- the Patriots were idiots for hiring Bill Belichick, Tony Mandarich can't miss, Ryan Leaf will be better than Peyton Manning -- and deconstructs them. In well-researched chapters, Fred Segal points out all the people who were wrong and tells what really happened. Most of it is through old newspaper accounts. It's fairly humorless storytelling, nothing that really drew me in. You'll get the idea a few chapters in. But each goes quick, so when you have a few minutes to kill it's easy to knock out a chapter and finish the book very quickly.

Which is what I did. But if there is an NBA or MLB or any other edition, I'll stick to reading the Twitter feed. Fortunately the predictions my former coworkers and I made are lost to the wind and will never find themselves in a follow-up book.]]> 3.73 2022 Freezing Cold Takes: NFL: Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions―and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them
author: Fred Segal
name: Mike
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/19
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
At an old workplace, we had a prediction wall. Whoever had a grand prediction would write it down, sign it, and tape it up to the wall. This was way before Twitter, Facebook, and other social media existed, much less the Internet itself. So people only announced their idiocy to their coworkers rather than the entire world.

My best prediction concerned a certain local high school team that had never been very good but was supposed to be good that season. I wrote that if they had a winning season I would join their booster club. I signed it and posted it to the wall. It came down to their last game, which they lost to finish at 5-5 and save me from a fated booster club meeting. Another coworker predicted during the OJ Simpson car chase that OJ would never be convicted because he had won a Heisman Trophy and because he was OJ. That hung on the board well after the trial where OJ was acquitted.

Another coworker wasn't so lucky. After Barry Bonds left the Pirates for the San Francisco Giants in free agency, he predicted that Bonds would be traded before he played out his entire contract. Bonds retired as a Giant after setting baseball's all-time home run record. Still, that wasn't the worst prediction I ever. That belonged to a coworker's brother, who avoided the board because the prediction was made years before -- that Wayne Gretzky would never amount to anything.

Now we have books like Freezing Cold Takes to memorialize bad predictions. The book is the natural progression of a hilarious Twitter feed called @OldTakesExposed, which finds old predictions which have gone laughably bad and retweets them. They range from the benign such as someone predicting Michigan would "beat the piss" out of TCU to cringingly bad such as forecasting that Luka Donkic would be back in Spain in five years, four years before he threw up a 60-point, 21-rebound, 10-assist game.

But what makes a great Twitter feed doesn't make all that interesting of a book. It lacks the fun and humor of the tweets. Absurdity is the overall concept of the Twitter feed. Freezing Cold Takes doesn't really add to that.

The book takes a look at several NFL sureties over the year -- the Patriots were idiots for hiring Bill Belichick, Tony Mandarich can't miss, Ryan Leaf will be better than Peyton Manning -- and deconstructs them. In well-researched chapters, Fred Segal points out all the people who were wrong and tells what really happened. Most of it is through old newspaper accounts. It's fairly humorless storytelling, nothing that really drew me in. You'll get the idea a few chapters in. But each goes quick, so when you have a few minutes to kill it's easy to knock out a chapter and finish the book very quickly.

Which is what I did. But if there is an NBA or MLB or any other edition, I'll stick to reading the Twitter feed. Fortunately the predictions my former coworkers and I made are lost to the wind and will never find themselves in a follow-up book.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Mike 5
Indelible characters. Beautiful storyline. Excellent writing. And a page-turner. Not just my favorite book of the year, but the best I've read in ages.

It takes place in the world of video games, but is about much more. Sam and Sadie meet as kids in the hospital where Sam is being treated for a foot injury and Sadie is visiting her sister. The book follows them for the next three decades, starting up again when they re-meet cute while Sam is attending MIT and Sadie Harvard. They started their relationship playing a Mario video game and continue it by creating video games themselves. They become very successful once Sam's college friend Marx enters the picture, inspiring them and providing much support for their ideas.

Sadie drifts in and out of relationships with her brilliant college professor Dov, a successful video game maker himself, and Marx -- and of course with Sam, who always loves her platonically and becomes mad when he thinks she isn't fully devoting herself to their games. There are times they go years without talking. And the reader has plenty of reasons to support both Sadie and Sam while being mad at both of them.

The book has already been optioned for a movie, but I've already seen it on screen in the form of the TV show Mythic Quest. That show is a comedy, where this book is straight drama, but the relationship between MQ's video-game creators Ian and Poppy could mirror Sam and Sadie. They work perfectly together, drive each other crazy, have a strictly platonic relationship, and make each other better no matter if they like it or not. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow doesn't have the zany hijinks, but is as heartfelt and character-driven as any book I've read in ages.]]> 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/15
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
My favorite book of the year.

Indelible characters. Beautiful storyline. Excellent writing. And a page-turner. Not just my favorite book of the year, but the best I've read in ages.

It takes place in the world of video games, but is about much more. Sam and Sadie meet as kids in the hospital where Sam is being treated for a foot injury and Sadie is visiting her sister. The book follows them for the next three decades, starting up again when they re-meet cute while Sam is attending MIT and Sadie Harvard. They started their relationship playing a Mario video game and continue it by creating video games themselves. They become very successful once Sam's college friend Marx enters the picture, inspiring them and providing much support for their ideas.

Sadie drifts in and out of relationships with her brilliant college professor Dov, a successful video game maker himself, and Marx -- and of course with Sam, who always loves her platonically and becomes mad when he thinks she isn't fully devoting herself to their games. There are times they go years without talking. And the reader has plenty of reasons to support both Sadie and Sam while being mad at both of them.

The book has already been optioned for a movie, but I've already seen it on screen in the form of the TV show Mythic Quest. That show is a comedy, where this book is straight drama, but the relationship between MQ's video-game creators Ian and Poppy could mirror Sam and Sadie. They work perfectly together, drive each other crazy, have a strictly platonic relationship, and make each other better no matter if they like it or not. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow doesn't have the zany hijinks, but is as heartfelt and character-driven as any book I've read in ages.
]]> <![CDATA[American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper]]> 59808343
Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,� was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables� led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.

Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness’s hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman.]]> 342 Daniel Stashower 1250041163 Mike 3
I will say it is the definitive biography of Eliot Ness. Starting with Ness's time in Chicago as a member of the task force that became known as The Untouchables and took down Al Capone, Cleveland native Daniel Stashower provides a detailed, by-the-book look at Ness's career. Stashower pored over newspaper reports from Ness's day and also relies heavily on a Ness archive at the Western Reserve Historical Society. It's almost a daily log of Ness's career, in which turned from hero to goat once he came to Cleveland and couldn't crack the Torso Killer case.

The book is very dry, mostly limiting itself to the facts, ma'am. Stashower does not add a lot of flourishes. He did tell me things I did not know, such as the fact that Ness had a politically connected suspect in mind but could never prove anything and played a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with him. I also didn't know much of what happened to Ness after Cleveland -- or at least I had forgotten it. To be fair, it was mostly forgettable.

So three stars for the effort and detail, two stars for the reading experience. Ness was an important person in Cleveland history and this book provides the context for that, if not an engrossing read.]]> 3.45 2022 American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper
author: Daniel Stashower
name: Mike
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/12
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
I would never have read this if it weren't about a Cleveland luminary. Were Eliot Ness solely linked to Chicago, or a place like, say, Denver, my interest would never have been piqued and the writing would not have been compelling enough to keep me interested.

I will say it is the definitive biography of Eliot Ness. Starting with Ness's time in Chicago as a member of the task force that became known as The Untouchables and took down Al Capone, Cleveland native Daniel Stashower provides a detailed, by-the-book look at Ness's career. Stashower pored over newspaper reports from Ness's day and also relies heavily on a Ness archive at the Western Reserve Historical Society. It's almost a daily log of Ness's career, in which turned from hero to goat once he came to Cleveland and couldn't crack the Torso Killer case.

The book is very dry, mostly limiting itself to the facts, ma'am. Stashower does not add a lot of flourishes. He did tell me things I did not know, such as the fact that Ness had a politically connected suspect in mind but could never prove anything and played a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with him. I also didn't know much of what happened to Ness after Cleveland -- or at least I had forgotten it. To be fair, it was mostly forgettable.

So three stars for the effort and detail, two stars for the reading experience. Ness was an important person in Cleveland history and this book provides the context for that, if not an engrossing read.
]]> One's Company 58999184
For readers of Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad, this fearless debut chronicles one woman’s escape into a world of obsessive imagination. Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the ghosts of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, Three’s Company . When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision―to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity―takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat where she can re-create the iconic apartment set of Three’s Company and slip into the lives of its main characters: no-nonsense Janet Wood, pleasantly airheaded Chrissy Snow, and confident Jack Tripper. While her best friend, Krystal, tries to drag her back to her old life, Bonnie is determined to transcend pain, trauma, and the baggage of her past by immersing herself in the ultimate binge-watch.]]> 272 Ashley Hutson 0393866645 Mike 3
As a librarian, I failed. Librarians read, right? That's the stereotype. But let's face it, many people who work in libraries are drawn to them because they like books. Reading them, looking at them, embracing new releases -- that's why many people work in libraries. And if any of them are like me, their eyes are bigger than their eyes. I take home stacks of books which go unread until I'm alerted that the library thinks they are lost. Then I return them thinking that I'll check them back out and eventually read them.

So what's a librarian with stacks of library books sitting around to do after he comes home from an unexpected total hip replacement and convalesces for a few weeks? Read them, right? Well ...

Oh, wait, I'm burying the lead. You've heard of pickleball, right? The rising sport that's capturing the nation's attention? It was the talk of 2022. LeBron James and Tom Brady own teams in some pickleball league. TJ Watt, Minkah Fitzpatcick, and Alex Highsmith of the Pittsburgh Steelers played pickeball with some random woman who didn't know who they were when they needed a fourth for doubles. Steven Colbert hosted a celebrity pickleball tournament broadcasted in prime time on CBS. And back in July, I fell and broke my hip while playing it.

Yep, that is correct. Thanks to pickleball, I have an artificial hip. After years of playing softball and running around backyards and driveways playing basketball and touch football, I suffered my first major sports injury. And it was in the supposedly safer sport of pickleball. I made the mistake of thinking I was younger than I am, ran forward a few steps, leaned down for a return, and fell to my knees. Whenever this has happened in the past, I roll right over and pop back up. Heck, it happened about an hour before when I was running to my right for a volley.

But this time ...

Instead of rolling over and hopping back to my feet, I just rolled over. That's as far as I made it. I couldn't do anything else. So I just laid there, wondering what was wrong. There was little pain. My knees looked like they were in place. Neither of my legs felt like they were broken. Maybe a pulled muscle? If only.

A couple people helped me to my feet and I hopped to a chair off to the side. There I sat for 20 minutes waiting for my leg to feel better. When it became clear things were only getting worse, I knew an ambulance and hospital visit were next on my list. And a few hours later, after some poking and prodding, a nurse said I had probably broken my hip. A CT scan not long after confirmed it.

It was a good one, too. Falling onto my knees triggered a reaction in my hip that caused a break in the spot where the blood vessels converge. Total replacement necessary, else proper healing wouldn't occur. And then I'd need a new hip. Or worse. So the next day a surgeon pounded a couple screws into my healthy bones and installed a new hip. A few days after that I was home on a walker with little to do other than exercise, eat decent meals, learn how to walk again, and take naps.

In total, I was sidelined for three-and-a-half weeks. That's a lot of time away from work. My stacks of books beckoned. I figured it was time to tackle them. So I chose One's Company. After all, I was pretty much my own company most of this time.

One's Company had piqued my interest because it sounded unique. The narrator wins the lottery -- the biggest ever in the history of lotteries, more than a billion dollars -- and decides to hire contractors to build her a replica set of the 1970's show, Three's Company. Once completed, she lives there, by herself, playing out the role of a different character for a year each. One year, she's Jack Tripper. One year, she's ditzy blonde Chrissy. She especially enjoys being Mrs. Roper for a year. It's as bizarre as it sounds. And then it turns really crazy.

But the thing about recovering from hip surgery is those aforementioned naps. I'd wake up early, eat breakfast and down about 10 pills, do some strengthening exercises for my hip, then put some ice on my leg. It all took even longer than usual since I couldn't move very fast. Then I'd want to rest and read but having already tired myself up, I'd take a nap instead. And then it would be lunchtime. Time to start the eating, pills, and exercise routine all over again. Followed by some reading. I mean a nap.

Of course there were some doctors appointments and home physical therapy visits thrown in there. Basically three-and-a-half weeks away from work due to a broken hip wasn't the vacation one would hope for. It's a lot of work rehabbing after hip replacement surgery. A lot of tiring work. If it wasn't the rehab that wore me out, it was trying to concentrate on the words that knocked me out.

But eventually I made it through. The rehab and the book. All functions back to normal as far as the hip goes, and One's Company was an enjoyable read. Though I am glad it wasn't any longer than 272 pages. I can now climb steps, stand up and sit down without balancing myself, drive, put on shoes and socks without assistance, basically anything in normal everyday life you wouldn't even think of until you can't do it anymore. There's still strengthening to do in my rehab, but except for running and kickboxing, I can do pretty much anything I could before the injury. Well, maybe not pickleball. But my reading has picked up as well.

New Year's resolution -- read more. Break hips less.

]]> 3.76 2022 One's Company
author: Ashley Hutson
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/14
date added: 2022/12/31
shelves:
review:
Subtitle -- The One Book to Read When You Only Read One Book While Recovering From Hip Replacement Surgery.

As a librarian, I failed. Librarians read, right? That's the stereotype. But let's face it, many people who work in libraries are drawn to them because they like books. Reading them, looking at them, embracing new releases -- that's why many people work in libraries. And if any of them are like me, their eyes are bigger than their eyes. I take home stacks of books which go unread until I'm alerted that the library thinks they are lost. Then I return them thinking that I'll check them back out and eventually read them.

So what's a librarian with stacks of library books sitting around to do after he comes home from an unexpected total hip replacement and convalesces for a few weeks? Read them, right? Well ...

Oh, wait, I'm burying the lead. You've heard of pickleball, right? The rising sport that's capturing the nation's attention? It was the talk of 2022. LeBron James and Tom Brady own teams in some pickleball league. TJ Watt, Minkah Fitzpatcick, and Alex Highsmith of the Pittsburgh Steelers played pickeball with some random woman who didn't know who they were when they needed a fourth for doubles. Steven Colbert hosted a celebrity pickleball tournament broadcasted in prime time on CBS. And back in July, I fell and broke my hip while playing it.

Yep, that is correct. Thanks to pickleball, I have an artificial hip. After years of playing softball and running around backyards and driveways playing basketball and touch football, I suffered my first major sports injury. And it was in the supposedly safer sport of pickleball. I made the mistake of thinking I was younger than I am, ran forward a few steps, leaned down for a return, and fell to my knees. Whenever this has happened in the past, I roll right over and pop back up. Heck, it happened about an hour before when I was running to my right for a volley.

But this time ...

Instead of rolling over and hopping back to my feet, I just rolled over. That's as far as I made it. I couldn't do anything else. So I just laid there, wondering what was wrong. There was little pain. My knees looked like they were in place. Neither of my legs felt like they were broken. Maybe a pulled muscle? If only.

A couple people helped me to my feet and I hopped to a chair off to the side. There I sat for 20 minutes waiting for my leg to feel better. When it became clear things were only getting worse, I knew an ambulance and hospital visit were next on my list. And a few hours later, after some poking and prodding, a nurse said I had probably broken my hip. A CT scan not long after confirmed it.

It was a good one, too. Falling onto my knees triggered a reaction in my hip that caused a break in the spot where the blood vessels converge. Total replacement necessary, else proper healing wouldn't occur. And then I'd need a new hip. Or worse. So the next day a surgeon pounded a couple screws into my healthy bones and installed a new hip. A few days after that I was home on a walker with little to do other than exercise, eat decent meals, learn how to walk again, and take naps.

In total, I was sidelined for three-and-a-half weeks. That's a lot of time away from work. My stacks of books beckoned. I figured it was time to tackle them. So I chose One's Company. After all, I was pretty much my own company most of this time.

One's Company had piqued my interest because it sounded unique. The narrator wins the lottery -- the biggest ever in the history of lotteries, more than a billion dollars -- and decides to hire contractors to build her a replica set of the 1970's show, Three's Company. Once completed, she lives there, by herself, playing out the role of a different character for a year each. One year, she's Jack Tripper. One year, she's ditzy blonde Chrissy. She especially enjoys being Mrs. Roper for a year. It's as bizarre as it sounds. And then it turns really crazy.

But the thing about recovering from hip surgery is those aforementioned naps. I'd wake up early, eat breakfast and down about 10 pills, do some strengthening exercises for my hip, then put some ice on my leg. It all took even longer than usual since I couldn't move very fast. Then I'd want to rest and read but having already tired myself up, I'd take a nap instead. And then it would be lunchtime. Time to start the eating, pills, and exercise routine all over again. Followed by some reading. I mean a nap.

Of course there were some doctors appointments and home physical therapy visits thrown in there. Basically three-and-a-half weeks away from work due to a broken hip wasn't the vacation one would hope for. It's a lot of work rehabbing after hip replacement surgery. A lot of tiring work. If it wasn't the rehab that wore me out, it was trying to concentrate on the words that knocked me out.

But eventually I made it through. The rehab and the book. All functions back to normal as far as the hip goes, and One's Company was an enjoyable read. Though I am glad it wasn't any longer than 272 pages. I can now climb steps, stand up and sit down without balancing myself, drive, put on shoes and socks without assistance, basically anything in normal everyday life you wouldn't even think of until you can't do it anymore. There's still strengthening to do in my rehab, but except for running and kickboxing, I can do pretty much anything I could before the injury. Well, maybe not pickleball. But my reading has picked up as well.

New Year's resolution -- read more. Break hips less.


]]> One Second After (After, #1) 4922079 New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies.

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America. In the tradition of On the Beach, Fail Safe, and Testament, this book, set in a typical American town, is a dire warning of what might be our future ... and our end.]]> 352 William R. Forstchen 0765317583 Mike 5 3.92 2009 One Second After (After, #1)
author: William R. Forstchen
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/10/30
shelves:
review:

]]> New Animal 56379083
Maybe being a cosmetician at her family's mortuary business isn't the best job for a young woman. It's not helping her social life. She loves her job, but she's not great at much else. Especially emotion.

And then something happens to her mum and suddenly Amelia's got too many feelings and the only thing that makes any sense to her is running away.

It takes the intervention of her two fathers and some hilariously wrong encounters with other broken people in a struggling Tasmanian BDSM club to help her accept the truth she has been hiding from. And in a final, cataclysmic scene, we learn along with Amelia that you need to feel another person's weight before you can feel your own.

Deadpan, wise and heartbreakingly funny, New Animal is a stunning debut.]]> 240 Ella Baxter 1760877794 Mike 3
I mean, for those of you into that.

Fifty Shades of Grey, this is not. Or so I'm told.

New Animal is the first novel from Australian author Ella Baxter. It's hook is that first-person main character Amelia Aurelia hooks up with a BDSM community while visiting her father in Tasmania after the death of her mother. (If you don't know what BDSM means, look it up.)

Amelia has fled home and her job as a makeup person in her family's funeral home business after her mother dies. She doesn't want to attend the funeral, though it angers most every other person in her family. But her father lives far away in Tasmania, having divorced Amelia's mother years ago, so she flies there to drown her sorrows with him and avoid the funeral.

While in Tasmania, she continues her habit of hooking up with men she meets online, matching up with Leo the Sadist for a different kind of night. He takes her to a kink party where she climbs on stage, strips off her clothes, and lets Leo whip her. At least a little. After he practically rapes her in front of the crowd, she storms off, never to see him again but definitely to see more people in the community.

But that's not what the book is about. It's a rumination on grief and loss and coping. Aurelia isn't all right before her mother's death, before visiting her father, before the whipping and other events in the king community. She's mourning another death that happened a year before the book even begins, a young man named Daniel who threw himself off a cliff. Amelia prepared him for his funeral, though it's implied she had some kind of relationship with him. Now she wanders through her online apps looking for men with whom to spend the night. She deals with most of her family through texts and phone calls, not wanting to be around them except for when she's at work.

It's a sad existence for Amelia, and we're not sure if she's much better by the end. It seems like her father Jack and stepfather Vincent are. Her brother Simon, though mad with her for not attending their mother's funeral, says they are waiting for her to come back to spread their mother's ashes. Who knows if Amelia will anytime soon.

Oh, Simon's also in a throuple, so it seems everyone is letting their freak flag fly.

I mean, for those of you into that.]]> 3.36 2021 New Animal
author: Ella Baxter
name: Mike
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/11
date added: 2022/06/11
shelves:
review:
She gets whipped on page 97. That's just more than halfway through the novel.

I mean, for those of you into that.

Fifty Shades of Grey, this is not. Or so I'm told.

New Animal is the first novel from Australian author Ella Baxter. It's hook is that first-person main character Amelia Aurelia hooks up with a BDSM community while visiting her father in Tasmania after the death of her mother. (If you don't know what BDSM means, look it up.)

Amelia has fled home and her job as a makeup person in her family's funeral home business after her mother dies. She doesn't want to attend the funeral, though it angers most every other person in her family. But her father lives far away in Tasmania, having divorced Amelia's mother years ago, so she flies there to drown her sorrows with him and avoid the funeral.

While in Tasmania, she continues her habit of hooking up with men she meets online, matching up with Leo the Sadist for a different kind of night. He takes her to a kink party where she climbs on stage, strips off her clothes, and lets Leo whip her. At least a little. After he practically rapes her in front of the crowd, she storms off, never to see him again but definitely to see more people in the community.

But that's not what the book is about. It's a rumination on grief and loss and coping. Aurelia isn't all right before her mother's death, before visiting her father, before the whipping and other events in the king community. She's mourning another death that happened a year before the book even begins, a young man named Daniel who threw himself off a cliff. Amelia prepared him for his funeral, though it's implied she had some kind of relationship with him. Now she wanders through her online apps looking for men with whom to spend the night. She deals with most of her family through texts and phone calls, not wanting to be around them except for when she's at work.

It's a sad existence for Amelia, and we're not sure if she's much better by the end. It seems like her father Jack and stepfather Vincent are. Her brother Simon, though mad with her for not attending their mother's funeral, says they are waiting for her to come back to spread their mother's ashes. Who knows if Amelia will anytime soon.

Oh, Simon's also in a throuple, so it seems everyone is letting their freak flag fly.

I mean, for those of you into that.
]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Mike 4
Emily St. John Mandel's latest is billed as a novel but it reads like short stories. There's Edwin St. John St. Andrew, who starts the book trekking across Canada after he's exiled by his wealthy family for questioning their morality. We don't hear much about him after the first chapter. Instead we journey with Mirella Kessler, who has discovered her friend Vincent died -- in St. John Mandel's previous book, The Glass Hotel. Kessler begins a journey to find out what happened. But then we shift to a 23rd-century bestselling author Olive Llewellyn, who lives on the Moon but is on a book tour of the United States.

Then time travel comes into it.

The final two or three chapters tie it all together, connecting the players in a way we might not have seen coming. The book spans nearly 500 years once you add it all up, and despite being only 272 pages, it packs a lot into that half-century. By the end, it is a novel but in a very loose sense. The stories all connect but also stand alone. And characters from Mandel's previous works keep popping up, some in prominent roles and some on the periphery. She's creating her own Mandelverse.

I'll keep diving in. Emily St. John Mandel can trick me all she wants.]]> 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mike
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/17
date added: 2022/06/02
shelves:
review:
I think she tricked me.

Emily St. John Mandel's latest is billed as a novel but it reads like short stories. There's Edwin St. John St. Andrew, who starts the book trekking across Canada after he's exiled by his wealthy family for questioning their morality. We don't hear much about him after the first chapter. Instead we journey with Mirella Kessler, who has discovered her friend Vincent died -- in St. John Mandel's previous book, The Glass Hotel. Kessler begins a journey to find out what happened. But then we shift to a 23rd-century bestselling author Olive Llewellyn, who lives on the Moon but is on a book tour of the United States.

Then time travel comes into it.

The final two or three chapters tie it all together, connecting the players in a way we might not have seen coming. The book spans nearly 500 years once you add it all up, and despite being only 272 pages, it packs a lot into that half-century. By the end, it is a novel but in a very loose sense. The stories all connect but also stand alone. And characters from Mandel's previous works keep popping up, some in prominent roles and some on the periphery. She's creating her own Mandelverse.

I'll keep diving in. Emily St. John Mandel can trick me all she wants.
]]> City on Fire (Danny Ryan, #1) 57558287 New York Times Bestseller!

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel Trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Broken comes the first novel in an epic new trilogy.

“Superb. City on Fire is exhilarating.� � Stephen King

"Epic, ambitious, majestic, City on Fire is The Godfather for our generation.� � Adrian McKinty, New York Times bestselling author of The Chain

Two criminal empires together control all of New England.

Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.

Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit� life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save the friends he loves like family and the family he has sworn to protect, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die.

From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, two rival crime families ignite a war that will leave only one standing. The winner will forge a dynasty.

Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honor, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece in the tradition of The Godfather, Casino, and Goodfellas—a thrilling saga from Don Winslow, “America’s greatest living crime writer� (Jon Land, Providence Journal).]]> 384 Don Winslow 0062851195 Mike 4
Rat-a-tat writing. Characters the author loves even if they are assholes. Crime. Grit. Sex.

And lots of asides.

Winslow specializes in writing about the Mafia, or police who are corrupt but trying to be good, or drug cartels. Or all three. This one focuses on a couple of Mafia families in Rhode Island -- yes, it's a thing. One family controls one part of town, the other the other. Then a woman comes between them. She's first with a made man of one of the families before she hooks up and marries one from the other family.

The first guy doesn't take too well to this.

Danny Ryan is the focus, he's the sensible one with the pregnant wife who doesn't want to lead the Murphy family into war. But his brother-in-law Liam Murphy gets the girl and keeps acting the fool, so there's always someone mad at him. And ready to go to war.

There's car bombs and shootouts and murders and everything else you'd expect from a gang war. And a Winslow book. And despite it's nearly 400 pages, it goes down as smooth as good bourbon.

Winslow says it's his modern retelling of The Iliad. And as the first of a trilogy, anyone who enjoyed it has some more enjoyment coming.]]> 4.02 2021 City on Fire (Danny Ryan, #1)
author: Don Winslow
name: Mike
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/02
date added: 2022/06/02
shelves:
review:
Hey, it's Don Winslow. You know what you're getting.

Rat-a-tat writing. Characters the author loves even if they are assholes. Crime. Grit. Sex.

And lots of asides.

Winslow specializes in writing about the Mafia, or police who are corrupt but trying to be good, or drug cartels. Or all three. This one focuses on a couple of Mafia families in Rhode Island -- yes, it's a thing. One family controls one part of town, the other the other. Then a woman comes between them. She's first with a made man of one of the families before she hooks up and marries one from the other family.

The first guy doesn't take too well to this.

Danny Ryan is the focus, he's the sensible one with the pregnant wife who doesn't want to lead the Murphy family into war. But his brother-in-law Liam Murphy gets the girl and keeps acting the fool, so there's always someone mad at him. And ready to go to war.

There's car bombs and shootouts and murders and everything else you'd expect from a gang war. And a Winslow book. And despite it's nearly 400 pages, it goes down as smooth as good bourbon.

Winslow says it's his modern retelling of The Iliad. And as the first of a trilogy, anyone who enjoyed it has some more enjoyment coming.
]]> <![CDATA[Dreadful Sorry: Essays on an American Nostalgia]]> 60266751 166 Jennifer Niesslein 1953368034 Mike 3
In effect, this is Belt Publishing's Hillbilly Elegy. Except much better.

Jennifer Niesslein's nine essays touch on race and class and white supremacy and how it shaped her life growing up. I only read two of the essays, not because they were bad, but because the book wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it would be more like Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties, which was in my stack underneat Dreadful Sorry, just a lighthearted rip through youthful memories. Instead, Niesslein muses on her 1980s youth in Western Pennsylvania, focusing on her grandmother and other women in the family that might not have had it as easy as she did. She is very aware of the state of things in America today and writes through that prism.

A good book, just not what I was looking for.]]> 3.93 Dreadful Sorry: Essays on an American Nostalgia
author: Jennifer Niesslein
name: Mike
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/18
date added: 2022/06/02
shelves:
review:
I thought this would be about nostalgia for the pop culture of one's youth -- playing video games, remembering TV shows, reading comics, climbing trees out in the yard. Instead, it's really about family and regrets and how it all shapes people.

In effect, this is Belt Publishing's Hillbilly Elegy. Except much better.

Jennifer Niesslein's nine essays touch on race and class and white supremacy and how it shaped her life growing up. I only read two of the essays, not because they were bad, but because the book wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it would be more like Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties, which was in my stack underneat Dreadful Sorry, just a lighthearted rip through youthful memories. Instead, Niesslein muses on her 1980s youth in Western Pennsylvania, focusing on her grandmother and other women in the family that might not have had it as easy as she did. She is very aware of the state of things in America today and writes through that prism.

A good book, just not what I was looking for.
]]> All Day Is A Long Time 55959526 Moby Dick, he sinks into Hemingway and battles with Milton. But on Florida's Gulf Coast, one can slip into deep water unconsciously; at the age of fourteen, David runs away from home to pursue a girl and, on his journey, tries crack cocaine for the first time. He's hooked instantly. Over the course of the next decade, he fights his way out of jail and rehab, trying to make sense of the world around him--a sunken world where faith in anything is a privilege. He makes his way to a tenuous sobriety, but it isn't until he takes a literature class at a community college that something within him ignites. All Day is a Long Time is a spectacular, raw account of growing up and managing, against every expectation, to carve out a place for hope. We see what it means, and what it takes, to come back from a place of little control--to map ourselves on the world around, and beyond, us. David Sanchez's debut resounds with real force and demonstrates the redemptive power of the written word.]]> 256 David Sanchez 0358572010 Mike 3 3.76 2022 All Day Is A Long Time
author: David Sanchez
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:
There's a litany of drug-addiction memoirs out there, some fiction disguised as nonfiction (see James Frey), many truth disguised as fiction (see this and Cherry.) David Sanchez's book, purporting to be a novel, has much in common with Cherry. It's the story of the narrator's addiction to various drugs mostly starting in high school and continuing until he's around 30 years old. Coincidentally, the narrator is modeled on the author's life -- he's named David, he's in and out of prison early in life, and he eventually beats drugs and gets on with his life. Sanchez said he cleaned up when he was 30. He entered a writer's program and went with the advice, write what you know. This is what he knew.
]]> Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama 57851735 In this hilarious, heartfelt memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Nobody opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his legendary cult status as a comedy writer, and what it's like to reinvent himself as a no-holds-barred action film ass-kicker at fifty.

Bob Odenkirk's career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explain it here, because that is what memoirs are for. Charting a "Homeric" decades-long "Odyssey" from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago all the way to a dramatic career that is baffling to his friends, it's almost like there are two or three Bob Odenkirks...but there is just one and one is enough, frankly.

Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City's legendary Del Close, which eventually led to a job as a writer at SNL. As he weathered the beast that is live comedy, he stashed away the secrets of sketch writing--employing them in the immortal "Motivational Speaker" sketch for his friend Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show With Bob and David, which inspired an entire generation of comedy writers and stars. Then his career met the hope-dashing machine that is Hollywood development. But when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, Bob was more astonished than anyone to find himself on Breaking Bad. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, until finally re-re-inventing himself as a bona-fide worldwide action star for reasons that even he does not fully grasp! Read this and do your own psychoanalysis--it's fun!

Throughout Bob's travels, his memoir preserves the voice he cultivated from years of comedy writing. Featuring humorous tangents, joyful interludes, never-before-seen photos, wild characters from his winding career, and his trademark upbeat but unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale--and a moving story about what it's like to risk everything you think you know to make a change.]]> 284 Bob Odenkirk 0399180516 Mike 3
Hey, hey, it’s OK! Bob Odenkirk told me to. Really! He said so!

It’s right there at the end of the introduction. Odenkirk writes that I should buy the book and take it either on the airplane or to the bathroom and read it. And since I wasn’t at the airport �

There are three places I read books when I’m home. Well, five, but three of them add up to 99% on that pie-chart breakdown you sometimes see. There’s the bathroom, my couch, and my bed. Two of those places I tend to fall asleep when reading. (Take a guess.) Those three places are the 99%. I also have a chair that I don’t sit in that much and read in even less. And occasionally, exclusively when eating, I’ll sit in a bar stool at my counter. The stools and the chair add up to the 1%.

So �

I did need to use the bathroom when I started Bob Odenkirk’s memoir while lying on my couch. I enjoyed it and knew I would be reading it for awhile. But that rumbling stomach. The introduction isn’t very long, just a few pages. And at the end Odenkirk gave me permission to read in the bathroom. So I did.

Let’s not pretend you don’t do it as well. I don’t know how anyone can spend any amount of time in the bathroom -- OK, using the toilet -- without reading. How can someone sit there for five minutes, 10 minutes, without something to take their mind off things? When I was a kid I used to play a game while using the toilet. I would look around for items left out on the counter or the floor and try to spell out the entire alphabet from the packages. Say, a mouthwash bottle sitting by the sink. I knew I’d have the E from Listerine, but where to find A, B, C, and E? If there was soap sitting round, I had the Z. Q was always hard to find; hopefully there was some medicine bottle left out. Perhaps this was an early version of Wordle. Poopdle?

Don’t pretend you didn’t play such games. There’s an entire cottage industry of bathroom reading. Ever seen Uncle John’s Biggest Ever Bathroom Reader? Just think how many of those were published before they got to the biggest one. There’s The Bathroom Trivia Book from The Bathroom Library. (Note: the trivia is not about bathrooms.) And don’t forget the Astonishing Bathroom Reader, which can keep you busy for many flushes -- 600 pages worth. These books haven’t been published in multitudes because I am the only one who reads while sitting on the throne.

I didn’t track how much of Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama I read in the bathroom vs. how much in bed or on the couch. No pie chart for that. Maybe a quarter? When you gotta go, you gotta go grab something to read. And this is what I was reading. Sure, I could entertain myself with my phone, playing a game or scrolling through Facebook or reading an article I’d bookmarked three months ago. But sometimes my phone was out of juice or I’d wake up in the middle of the night needing to go and I’d need to grab something quickly. Odenkirk’s book was lying right beside the bed where I’d left it before falling asleep.

Now, I didn’t need Bob’s permission or encouragement to read his book on the can. I would have done it anyway. I have been doing it anyway, with all kinds of books for all kinds of years. (So have you, don’t lie.) But it was nice to have his permission. Kind of like one of those support groups; if Bob Odenkirk hadn’t told me at the very beginning to take his book to the bathroom, I might have just done it quietly and with a bit of shame. Now I do it proudly and shamelessly, and even with the door open. (That’s because I live alone. I think it would be weird to close the bathroom door when you’re all alone.)

As far as the book goes � if you like Bob Odenkirk, you’ll like his book. If you don’t like Bob Odenkirk, you haven’t read this far anyway.


]]> 3.58 2022 Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama
author: Bob Odenkirk
name: Mike
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:
I read part of it in the bathroom.

Hey, hey, it’s OK! Bob Odenkirk told me to. Really! He said so!

It’s right there at the end of the introduction. Odenkirk writes that I should buy the book and take it either on the airplane or to the bathroom and read it. And since I wasn’t at the airport �

There are three places I read books when I’m home. Well, five, but three of them add up to 99% on that pie-chart breakdown you sometimes see. There’s the bathroom, my couch, and my bed. Two of those places I tend to fall asleep when reading. (Take a guess.) Those three places are the 99%. I also have a chair that I don’t sit in that much and read in even less. And occasionally, exclusively when eating, I’ll sit in a bar stool at my counter. The stools and the chair add up to the 1%.

So �

I did need to use the bathroom when I started Bob Odenkirk’s memoir while lying on my couch. I enjoyed it and knew I would be reading it for awhile. But that rumbling stomach. The introduction isn’t very long, just a few pages. And at the end Odenkirk gave me permission to read in the bathroom. So I did.

Let’s not pretend you don’t do it as well. I don’t know how anyone can spend any amount of time in the bathroom -- OK, using the toilet -- without reading. How can someone sit there for five minutes, 10 minutes, without something to take their mind off things? When I was a kid I used to play a game while using the toilet. I would look around for items left out on the counter or the floor and try to spell out the entire alphabet from the packages. Say, a mouthwash bottle sitting by the sink. I knew I’d have the E from Listerine, but where to find A, B, C, and E? If there was soap sitting round, I had the Z. Q was always hard to find; hopefully there was some medicine bottle left out. Perhaps this was an early version of Wordle. Poopdle?

Don’t pretend you didn’t play such games. There’s an entire cottage industry of bathroom reading. Ever seen Uncle John’s Biggest Ever Bathroom Reader? Just think how many of those were published before they got to the biggest one. There’s The Bathroom Trivia Book from The Bathroom Library. (Note: the trivia is not about bathrooms.) And don’t forget the Astonishing Bathroom Reader, which can keep you busy for many flushes -- 600 pages worth. These books haven’t been published in multitudes because I am the only one who reads while sitting on the throne.

I didn’t track how much of Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama I read in the bathroom vs. how much in bed or on the couch. No pie chart for that. Maybe a quarter? When you gotta go, you gotta go grab something to read. And this is what I was reading. Sure, I could entertain myself with my phone, playing a game or scrolling through Facebook or reading an article I’d bookmarked three months ago. But sometimes my phone was out of juice or I’d wake up in the middle of the night needing to go and I’d need to grab something quickly. Odenkirk’s book was lying right beside the bed where I’d left it before falling asleep.

Now, I didn’t need Bob’s permission or encouragement to read his book on the can. I would have done it anyway. I have been doing it anyway, with all kinds of books for all kinds of years. (So have you, don’t lie.) But it was nice to have his permission. Kind of like one of those support groups; if Bob Odenkirk hadn’t told me at the very beginning to take his book to the bathroom, I might have just done it quietly and with a bit of shame. Now I do it proudly and shamelessly, and even with the door open. (That’s because I live alone. I think it would be weird to close the bathroom door when you’re all alone.)

As far as the book goes � if you like Bob Odenkirk, you’ll like his book. If you don’t like Bob Odenkirk, you haven’t read this far anyway.



]]> <![CDATA[The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World]]> 58121729 Riveting and inspiring first-person stories of how "taking a knee" triggered an awakening in sports, from the celebrated sportswriter In 2016, amid an epidemic of police shootings of African Americans, the celebrated NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began a series of quiet protests on the field, refusing to stand during the U.S. national anthem. By "taking a knee," Kaepernick bravely joined a long tradition of American athletes making powerful political statements. This time, however, Kaepernick's simple act spread like wildfire throughout American society, becoming the preeminent symbol of resistance to America's persistent racial inequality.

Critically acclaimed sports journalist and author of A People's History of Sports in the United States, Dave Zirin chronicles "the Kaepernick effect" for the first time, through interviews with a broad cross-section of professional athletes across many different sports, college stars and high-powered athletic directors, and high school athletes and coaches. In each case, he uncovers the fascinating explanations and motivations behind a mass political movement in sports, through deeply personal and inspiring accounts of risk-taking, activism, and courage both on and off the field.

A book about the politics of sport, and the impact of sports on politics, The Kaepernick Effect is for anyone seeking to understand an essential dimension of the new movement for racial justice in America.]]> 219 Dave Zirin 1620976757 Mike 3 3.74 2021 The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World
author: Dave Zirin
name: Mike
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unfamiliar Garden (The Comet Cycle, #2)]]> 55959433
It isn’t until five years later that the rains finally return to nourish Seattle. In this period of sudden growth, Jack uncovers evidence of a new parasitic fungus, while Nora investigates several brutal, ritualistic murders. Soon they will be drawn together by a horrifying connection between their discoveries—partnering to fight a deadly contagion as well as the government forces that know the truth about the fate of their daughter.

Award-winning author Benjamin Percy delivers both a gripping science fiction thriller and a dazzling examination of a planet—and a marriage—that have broken.]]> 224 Benjamin Percy 0358332710 Mike 3
Percy started as a fiction writer. This is his sixth novel since 2010. But he's become known as a comics writer and has also branched out into screenwriting. He's written Green Arrow, Nightwing, and Wolverine, among others. So Swamp Thing could very much be in his future. It will be in mine if he takes it over.]]> 3.73 2022 The Unfamiliar Garden (The Comet Cycle, #2)
author: Benjamin Percy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:
Someday Benjamin Percy is going to write The Swamp Thing for DC Comics. That's what I got out of this novel. It's the second in his Comet Cycle, which take place after Earth is bombarded by a widespread meteor strike. In this one, Seattle and much of the Pacific Northwest is taken over by fungus and plant life, which spreads quicker than water flowing down a mountain. By the end, many people are living plants. Well, not the very end, because the world has to be saved.

Percy started as a fiction writer. This is his sixth novel since 2010. But he's become known as a comics writer and has also branched out into screenwriting. He's written Green Arrow, Nightwing, and Wolverine, among others. So Swamp Thing could very much be in his future. It will be in mine if he takes it over.
]]> Brown Girls 57717412
We live in the dregs of Queens, New York, where airplanes fly so low that we are certain they will crush us...

This remarkable story brings you deep into the lives of a group of friends--young women of color growing up in Queens, New York City's most vibrant and eclectic borough. Here, streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple across sidewalks, and the briny scent of the ocean wafts from Rockaway Beach. Here, girls like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and many others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture they come of age in. Here, they become friends for life--or so they vow.

Exuberant and wild, they sing Mariah Carey at the tops of their lungs and roam the streets of The City That Never Sleeps, pine for crushes who pay them no mind--and break the hearts of those who do--all the while trying to heed their mothers' commands to be dutiful daughters, obedient young women. As they age, however, their paths diverge and rifts form between them, as some choose to remain on familiar streets, while others find themselves ascending in the world, drawn to the allure of other skylines, careers, and lovers, beckoned by existences foreign and seemingly at odds with their humble roots.

In musical, evocative prose, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, motherhood, and beyond, and is an unflinching exploration of race, class, and marginalization in America. It is an account of the forces that bind friends to one another, their families, and communities, and is a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world. For even as the dueling forces of ambition and loyalty, freedom and marriage, reinvention and stability threaten to divide them, it is to each other--and to Queens--that the girls ultimately return.]]> 209 Daphne Palasi Andreades 0593243420 Mike 3
This is Andreades' first novel. Like many, there is probably some of her own story in this. But unlike many debut novels that almost read like memoirs, whatever is her story and whatever is made up is hard to differentiate. This is due to the first-person plural narration. It sweeps the reader along. While it makes the characters into a collective, it also makes it hard to identify with them (which as an old white guy would be difficult for me anyway) or personalize any of them so the reader can empathize.]]> 3.90 2022 Brown Girls
author: Daphne Palasi Andreades
name: Mike
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:
The book is kind of a dream state. It floats through the lives of various brown girls growing up in New York City, using a first-person plural narration to combine their experiences. In this, it reminded me of And Then We Came to the End by Joshua Farris.

This is Andreades' first novel. Like many, there is probably some of her own story in this. But unlike many debut novels that almost read like memoirs, whatever is her story and whatever is made up is hard to differentiate. This is due to the first-person plural narration. It sweeps the reader along. While it makes the characters into a collective, it also makes it hard to identify with them (which as an old white guy would be difficult for me anyway) or personalize any of them so the reader can empathize.
]]> DMZ, Vol. 1: On the Ground 158683 126 Brian Wood 1401210627 Mike 3
I always have a conflict whether to count graphic novels as books read. This one collects the first 12 issues of the series, though, and is chock full of great art and plenty of words. It takes awhile to get through it, so we'll count it.

And probably read the next in the series as well.]]> 3.89 2005 DMZ, Vol. 1: On the Ground
author: Brian Wood
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/03
shelves:
review:
Cool graphic novel collection of a series that wrapped up 10 years ago. The United States has been splintered by a civil war and New York City is now the demilitarized zone separating the good guys from the bad guys. You decide who's good and who's bad.

I always have a conflict whether to count graphic novels as books read. This one collects the first 12 issues of the series, though, and is chock full of great art and plenty of words. It takes awhile to get through it, so we'll count it.

And probably read the next in the series as well.
]]> The Institute 50892339
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.]]> 576 Stephen King 1982110589 Mike 0 to-read 4.20 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Mike
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Great Circle 54976986 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780525656975 can be found here.

Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.]]> 608 Maggie Shipstead Mike 4
Marian Graves is the youngster the book is circled around. She and her twin brother Jamie have basically been orphaned, as they live with their uncle in Montana thanks to an imprisoned father and a presumed dead mother. They manage, exploring the countryside with fellow feral friend Caleb while their uncle fritters away time and money through his gambling exploits. One day Marian sees a plane flying overhead and tracks down the pilots later that day. Enthralled, she makes it her life mission to become one herself. Not an easy feat for a teen girl in the 1920s.

The book bounces back and forth between current day, focusing in the present on a disgraced actress taking on the part of Marian in her newest movie while going back to Marian's story, mixing in the tale of her twin brother. The parts in the present day are interesting and take a much different tone than the sprawling tale of Marian. Along the way we learn that all that everyone knows about Marian isn't really everything about Marian.

Her journey takes her through marriage, to hiding out in Alaska, to a stint as a pilot in World War II, and eventually to her life's great feat, an attempt at circling the globe from pole to pole in an airplane.

If you love airplanes, especially early to mid-century biplanes, this is for you. If you love strong female protagonists, this is also for you. And if you just like good, solid adventuring books, this is also for you.

The end made me a bit mad, until something happened that was more true to Marian's character than I thought it was going to be. Her tale is satisfactory. The story that takes place in the present kind of just vanishes and feels unfinished. Still, it's an enjoyable read overall. And a long one.]]> 4.06 2021 Great Circle
author: Maggie Shipstead
name: Mike
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/27
date added: 2022/02/03
shelves:
review:
I kept coming back for Marian.

Marian Graves is the youngster the book is circled around. She and her twin brother Jamie have basically been orphaned, as they live with their uncle in Montana thanks to an imprisoned father and a presumed dead mother. They manage, exploring the countryside with fellow feral friend Caleb while their uncle fritters away time and money through his gambling exploits. One day Marian sees a plane flying overhead and tracks down the pilots later that day. Enthralled, she makes it her life mission to become one herself. Not an easy feat for a teen girl in the 1920s.

The book bounces back and forth between current day, focusing in the present on a disgraced actress taking on the part of Marian in her newest movie while going back to Marian's story, mixing in the tale of her twin brother. The parts in the present day are interesting and take a much different tone than the sprawling tale of Marian. Along the way we learn that all that everyone knows about Marian isn't really everything about Marian.

Her journey takes her through marriage, to hiding out in Alaska, to a stint as a pilot in World War II, and eventually to her life's great feat, an attempt at circling the globe from pole to pole in an airplane.

If you love airplanes, especially early to mid-century biplanes, this is for you. If you love strong female protagonists, this is also for you. And if you just like good, solid adventuring books, this is also for you.

The end made me a bit mad, until something happened that was more true to Marian's character than I thought it was going to be. Her tale is satisfactory. The story that takes place in the present kind of just vanishes and feels unfinished. Still, it's an enjoyable read overall. And a long one.
]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Mike 5
Fast forward 20-some years and there's still some kind of civilization. Station Eleven focuses on a Shakespeare troupe which travels around the Great Lakes to perform plays for the survivors who are trying to rebuild. It's kind of like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but optimistic.

I come back to this because it has just been adapted into a television show. I know many things have been changed for the show, but only because I have read about the adaptation, not because I remember a lot of the book's details. I just remember loving it. The TV show, not so much. I'm kind of bored by the show. Plus it's hard to hear people because they mumble so much. Or I am old and losing my hearing. I can hear other shows just fine, though. So I'll blame the show, not my ears.

To summarize -- Station Eleven, fantastic book, meh television show.]]> 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mike
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/12/30
shelves:
review:
I read this years ago, when it came out, and loved it. It's about a pandemic, back when writing about pandemics was fun. A flu breaks out and within weeks around 90% of the world's population is dead.

Fast forward 20-some years and there's still some kind of civilization. Station Eleven focuses on a Shakespeare troupe which travels around the Great Lakes to perform plays for the survivors who are trying to rebuild. It's kind of like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, but optimistic.

I come back to this because it has just been adapted into a television show. I know many things have been changed for the show, but only because I have read about the adaptation, not because I remember a lot of the book's details. I just remember loving it. The TV show, not so much. I'm kind of bored by the show. Plus it's hard to hear people because they mumble so much. Or I am old and losing my hearing. I can hear other shows just fine, though. So I'll blame the show, not my ears.

To summarize -- Station Eleven, fantastic book, meh television show.
]]> Rovers 56470963
This hard-boiled supernatural hell ride kicks off when the brothers encounter a young woman who disrupts their grim routine, forcing Jesse to confront his past and plunging his present into deadly chaos as he finds himself scrambling to save her life. The story plays out through the eyes of the brothers, a grieving father searching for his son’s murderer, and a violent gang of rover bikers, coming to a shattering conclusion in Las Vegas on the eve of America’s Bicentennial.

Gripping, relentless, and ferocious, Rovers demonstrates once again why Richard Lange has been hailed as an “expert writer, his prose exact, his narrative tightly controlled� (Steph Cha, Los Angeles Times ). Finalist for the 2022 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award]]> 304 Richard Lange 0316541966 Mike 3
And guess what? Benjamin Percy does know Richard Lange. They're Facebook friends. At the very least, they know each other professionaly; Percy did blurb a previous Lange novel. So I sensed something just from knowing what the book was about.

If you don't like nastiness, if you don't like blood, if you don't like depression and killing and hopelessness, don't ready this. Don't even look at it. Jesse and his brother Edgar are rovers, roaming about the country, staying away from the main drags, just trying to get by. And they've been doing it for close to a hundred years, since they are vampires. Each was turned decades ago, and they must get their monthly feast of blood to survive. They usually go after people who deserve to have their blood sucked dry by vampires. Really, who doesn't? But then life gets more complicated when they cross a vampire motorcycle gang who takes none to kindly to people who get in their way. A war that doesn't end well for anyone ensues.

An enjoyable, surprisingly quick, and ultimately depressing read for those who aren't squeamish. Something Benjamin Percy might have written. But Richard Lange did. Maybe I'll have to grab more of his books, like I have with Percy.]]> 3.84 2021 Rovers
author: Richard Lange
name: Mike
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/14
date added: 2021/12/30
shelves:
review:
If Benjamin Percy didn't write this, he's gotta know the guy who did. That was my first thought after grabbing this book off the library shelves and reading the description. It's vampire vs. vampire as they crisscross the southwest in the mid-1970s. Then my second thought was that Benjamin Percy had to have blurbed this. It's too much up his alley -- a bloody horror novel with some practically supernatural characters.

And guess what? Benjamin Percy does know Richard Lange. They're Facebook friends. At the very least, they know each other professionaly; Percy did blurb a previous Lange novel. So I sensed something just from knowing what the book was about.

If you don't like nastiness, if you don't like blood, if you don't like depression and killing and hopelessness, don't ready this. Don't even look at it. Jesse and his brother Edgar are rovers, roaming about the country, staying away from the main drags, just trying to get by. And they've been doing it for close to a hundred years, since they are vampires. Each was turned decades ago, and they must get their monthly feast of blood to survive. They usually go after people who deserve to have their blood sucked dry by vampires. Really, who doesn't? But then life gets more complicated when they cross a vampire motorcycle gang who takes none to kindly to people who get in their way. A war that doesn't end well for anyone ensues.

An enjoyable, surprisingly quick, and ultimately depressing read for those who aren't squeamish. Something Benjamin Percy might have written. But Richard Lange did. Maybe I'll have to grab more of his books, like I have with Percy.
]]> <![CDATA[It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness]]> 56965384

In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the country’s finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted since 2001, Wickersham’s chronicle is packed with revelations, taking us deep into Bill Belichick’s tactical ingenuity and Tom Brady’s unique mentality while also reporting on their divergent paths in 2020, including Brady’s run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raucous, unvarnished, and definitive, It’s Better to Be Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting in the tradition of Michael Lewis, David Maraniss, and David Halberstam.]]> 544 Seth Wickersham 163149824X Mike 4
Wore me down, really.

OK, made me root for him. Kinda. I mean, I give in. He's done it all. He's won the most. He keeps going. Why wouldn't I want to keep watching greatness; the greatest of all time.

He is Tom Brady. Me is probably like most everybody else. I rooted for him as an underdog when he began his career, the kinda nerdy guy thrust into a starting role with the New England Patriots due to injury. He led a team of no-names into a Super Bowl matchup with the juggernaut Rams and led them to victory with a last-second field-goal drive.

The underdog always appealed to me. I never liked the Yankees or the Cowboys or the Steelers or the Celtics or any of those other dynasties that captured the nation's attention. Well, the Reds were my team, but right after the Big Red Machine era. Football I decided to make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers my team because I liked their logo. Then that got boring so about 1983 I switched to the Buffalo Bills because I liked their name -- and who else in Northwest Ohio liked them? I stuck with them about 15 years. Then I moved to Cleveland, and, well, you know what goes on here.

Anyway, Tom Brady's first championship came in 2002, about a month after I started my current job. Then Brady and the Patriots with Bill Belichick and Teddy Bruschi and Ty Law and Mike Vrabel won two more in 2004 and 2005 and then they kept showing up on the playoff cast listing, winning their division most every year for the next 20. And like most everybody else I got tired of seeing the Patriots in the playoffs. They had their share. They had enough. Let someone else have some.

But Tom Brady is not about sharing. At least not with anyone other than his teammates and family. This book shows that, from beginning to end. Brady had an oversized competitive streak from the time he was a kid, throwing tantrums on the golf course when playing with his dad, working his way onto his youth football teams, declaring his picture would be on the wall along with other University of Michigan greats at a restaurant while on a recruiting trip, and goading and demanding greatness from his teammates on the Patriots. ESPN's Seth Wickersham shows us what makes Brady tick -- and Belichick as well. This book serves as a football biography of both men, detailing the origin stories of each and how year after year they grinded out winning seasons.

And then more Super Bowl wins. After 10 years without winning a ring, Brady and Belichick returned to the championship stage with some new friends like Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman and Malcom Butler. Who needed to see that? Who needed to see the Patriots win three of the next five Super Bowls and play in four of them? Who besides people in Boston and Tom Brady's parents wanted to see that?

Well, I guess I did. Because when Tom Brady left the Patriots and went to Tampa Bay and led my original favorite team to a Super Bowl title, what was left to say? Can anyone deny that Brady is the GOAT after winning his seventh Super Bowl the first year he joined a new team? He wins and he keeps winning and even better he keeps playing and says he'll keep playing more. Tom Brady is 44 years old and will turn 45 before next season, which is the age he has said for years is when he'll retire. He's also said he'll stop playing when he sucks; he doesn't suck.

So why not keep watching Tom Brady, and why not root for him now? He's done everything and done it with class. He's beaten just about everyone and worn down the rest. He's even got me to read a book about his and Bill Belichick's football lives. And it's a pretty good one, just like the Patriots on the field.]]> 4.29 2021 It's Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness
author: Seth Wickersham
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/28
date added: 2021/12/30
shelves:
review:
He beat me.

Wore me down, really.

OK, made me root for him. Kinda. I mean, I give in. He's done it all. He's won the most. He keeps going. Why wouldn't I want to keep watching greatness; the greatest of all time.

He is Tom Brady. Me is probably like most everybody else. I rooted for him as an underdog when he began his career, the kinda nerdy guy thrust into a starting role with the New England Patriots due to injury. He led a team of no-names into a Super Bowl matchup with the juggernaut Rams and led them to victory with a last-second field-goal drive.

The underdog always appealed to me. I never liked the Yankees or the Cowboys or the Steelers or the Celtics or any of those other dynasties that captured the nation's attention. Well, the Reds were my team, but right after the Big Red Machine era. Football I decided to make the Tampa Bay Buccaneers my team because I liked their logo. Then that got boring so about 1983 I switched to the Buffalo Bills because I liked their name -- and who else in Northwest Ohio liked them? I stuck with them about 15 years. Then I moved to Cleveland, and, well, you know what goes on here.

Anyway, Tom Brady's first championship came in 2002, about a month after I started my current job. Then Brady and the Patriots with Bill Belichick and Teddy Bruschi and Ty Law and Mike Vrabel won two more in 2004 and 2005 and then they kept showing up on the playoff cast listing, winning their division most every year for the next 20. And like most everybody else I got tired of seeing the Patriots in the playoffs. They had their share. They had enough. Let someone else have some.

But Tom Brady is not about sharing. At least not with anyone other than his teammates and family. This book shows that, from beginning to end. Brady had an oversized competitive streak from the time he was a kid, throwing tantrums on the golf course when playing with his dad, working his way onto his youth football teams, declaring his picture would be on the wall along with other University of Michigan greats at a restaurant while on a recruiting trip, and goading and demanding greatness from his teammates on the Patriots. ESPN's Seth Wickersham shows us what makes Brady tick -- and Belichick as well. This book serves as a football biography of both men, detailing the origin stories of each and how year after year they grinded out winning seasons.

And then more Super Bowl wins. After 10 years without winning a ring, Brady and Belichick returned to the championship stage with some new friends like Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman and Malcom Butler. Who needed to see that? Who needed to see the Patriots win three of the next five Super Bowls and play in four of them? Who besides people in Boston and Tom Brady's parents wanted to see that?

Well, I guess I did. Because when Tom Brady left the Patriots and went to Tampa Bay and led my original favorite team to a Super Bowl title, what was left to say? Can anyone deny that Brady is the GOAT after winning his seventh Super Bowl the first year he joined a new team? He wins and he keeps winning and even better he keeps playing and says he'll keep playing more. Tom Brady is 44 years old and will turn 45 before next season, which is the age he has said for years is when he'll retire. He's also said he'll stop playing when he sucks; he doesn't suck.

So why not keep watching Tom Brady, and why not root for him now? He's done everything and done it with class. He's beaten just about everyone and worn down the rest. He's even got me to read a book about his and Bill Belichick's football lives. And it's a pretty good one, just like the Patriots on the field.
]]> Crossroads 55881796 Jonathan Franzen's gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads.

It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless--unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who's been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate.

Jonathan Franzen's novels are celebrated for their unforgettably vivid characters and for their keen-eyed take on contemporary America. Now, in Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, he conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own.

A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Jonathan Franzen's gift for melding the small picture and the big picture has never been more dazzlingly evident.]]> 592 Jonathan Franzen 0374181179 Mike 5
Don't take my word for it, take ŷ' -- 4.2 rating for Crossroads, 3.8 for The Corrections. Or take Amazon's -- both are rated 4.2 stars on there. My words -- I loved reading this.

I loved The Corrections as well. I don't really remember much of it, but I remember thinking how brilliant it was while devouring it. And the same thing happened with this. Franzen's latest is the story of the Hildebrand family, pastor Russ and his wife Marion and their four children; Clem is just off to college, Becky is the popular senior in high school, Perry is the smart but driftless drug-abusing 16-year-old, and 9-year-old Judson is just there. All but Judson get their own chapters that find them each at their own crossroads, battling with the devils that want to guide them down the wrong path.

Once again, Franzen dives deep into the family structure and finds plenty of drama in it. Russ is bored with his life and his wife and wants to take up with one of his widowed parishoners. His wife is well aware of this and begins withdrawing and then looking into her past to try to make her future better. Becky is straightlaced but dabbles with drugs and a dalliance with a young man already in a relationship. Perry is brilliant but enjoys his Mary Jane, both using and selling, before moving on to stronger things. And Clem has a crisis of conscience which leads him quite the decision with college and a girlfriend.

There is much philosophizing here. In close to 600 pages, Franzen goes all in on religion and morality, both with conversations between characters and their inner fraught monologues as they choose which paths to take. And though plenty of the Hildebrand's make idiotic decision, Franzen doesn't mock them. This is very much a character study, following each character with much detail to really understand why they make their decisions. Marion gets an especially deep treatment, as we learn about her checkered past with the reasons she makes all her decisions branching from there.

It's been 20 years since The Corrections. Franzen followed up with Freedom and Purity, both of which didn't seem to like their characters and were nowhere near either The Corrections or Crossroads. (ŷ agrees, giving them 3.6 and 3.8 ratings, respectively). It appears Franzen still has plenty to say. This book, weighing in at 578 pages, is the first of a planned trilogy. When it ended I wanted to read more. At least I won't have to wait 20 years for another Franzen hit.]]> 4.05 2021 Crossroads
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Mike
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/07
date added: 2021/12/07
shelves:
review:
It's better than The Corrections.

Don't take my word for it, take ŷ' -- 4.2 rating for Crossroads, 3.8 for The Corrections. Or take Amazon's -- both are rated 4.2 stars on there. My words -- I loved reading this.

I loved The Corrections as well. I don't really remember much of it, but I remember thinking how brilliant it was while devouring it. And the same thing happened with this. Franzen's latest is the story of the Hildebrand family, pastor Russ and his wife Marion and their four children; Clem is just off to college, Becky is the popular senior in high school, Perry is the smart but driftless drug-abusing 16-year-old, and 9-year-old Judson is just there. All but Judson get their own chapters that find them each at their own crossroads, battling with the devils that want to guide them down the wrong path.

Once again, Franzen dives deep into the family structure and finds plenty of drama in it. Russ is bored with his life and his wife and wants to take up with one of his widowed parishoners. His wife is well aware of this and begins withdrawing and then looking into her past to try to make her future better. Becky is straightlaced but dabbles with drugs and a dalliance with a young man already in a relationship. Perry is brilliant but enjoys his Mary Jane, both using and selling, before moving on to stronger things. And Clem has a crisis of conscience which leads him quite the decision with college and a girlfriend.

There is much philosophizing here. In close to 600 pages, Franzen goes all in on religion and morality, both with conversations between characters and their inner fraught monologues as they choose which paths to take. And though plenty of the Hildebrand's make idiotic decision, Franzen doesn't mock them. This is very much a character study, following each character with much detail to really understand why they make their decisions. Marion gets an especially deep treatment, as we learn about her checkered past with the reasons she makes all her decisions branching from there.

It's been 20 years since The Corrections. Franzen followed up with Freedom and Purity, both of which didn't seem to like their characters and were nowhere near either The Corrections or Crossroads. (ŷ agrees, giving them 3.6 and 3.8 ratings, respectively). It appears Franzen still has plenty to say. This book, weighing in at 578 pages, is the first of a planned trilogy. When it ended I wanted to read more. At least I won't have to wait 20 years for another Franzen hit.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ninth Metal (The Comet Cycle, #1)]]> 53968532
At first, it seems to be a disaster. Until the people of Minnesota notice deposits of unusual metal in the comet's debris. Not gold, silver, copper, tin, iron or any of the noble metals, it's a previously unknown ninth metal: omnimetal. With high-density charging capabilities and conductive properties that can change the world as an energy source, the deposit might be the best thing that ever happened to the northern section of the state, where the economy has been dying for a long time. Or it might be the worst.

It is then that the "gold rush" begins. Farmers sell their metal-rich land for millions. Comet-worshipping cults set up compounds and repeat the phrase "Metal is" as their mantra. Roughnecks flood the town, hungry for work and trouble. Prostitutes flourish. Businesses rise. Families are divided. Saudis bid against the Chinese on land grabs. Bodies lie in shallow graves. As witnessed when oil was discovered in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota, the heartland in our story goes from the middle of nowhere to the center of everything. And one family--the Frontiers--hopes to control it all.]]> 304 Benjamin Percy 0358331536 Mike 3
No, not the pandemic, which started a year and a half or so ago. The first book I finished since I caught Covid. Near three weeks ago I started coughing up a storm and spent a weekend sucking down cough drops. Feeling better, I went to work. But fatigue soon caught up with me and a couple Tuesdays I went home early. I haven't been back since because the two pink bars came up on the take-home Covid test. Yep, I was positive.

More tests confirmed it. For a week or so I didn't have much more than a nasty cough but I felt very tired all the time. I lost track of how many naps I took. It was more like wake up to eat a bowl of soup or take some more aspirin, then lie back down. Turn on a ball game or a TV show and there was a danger of falling asleep right in the middle of it. Fortunately that's as much danger as I was in for most of the next week. Picking up a book or magazine? I just didn't have the energy. My books sat there untouched, growing sad because no one was paying attention to them.

And then one day I woke up refreshed. I made it through an entire Browns game. I ate a decent dinner. I didn't fall asleep on the couch. Perhaps the spell had lifted.

I still tested positive for Covid, though. So my time away from work continued (thank you, loads of sick time). My naps didn't, at leas the Covid-induced ones. Seems I was only feeling the normal fatigue just from being old and out of shape. Soon I could pick up books and magazines again without my eyelids immediately closing.

So I finished Benjamin Percy's newest. I was about halfway through before Covid struck. And it's just under 300 pages. So a quick read. And Percy is back at it, creating superhero-like characters that are morally ambiguous. OK, most of them fall on the bad side of good, even if they are trying to be good. In this one, John Frontier returns to his family's home in Nortfall, Minnesota, a few years after a comet strike has left the town filled with some new element called Ninth Metal which is almost like unlimited renewable energy. His family runs most of the mines around town which dig out this metal. And they don't necessarily do it nicely.

John returns wanting nothing to do with his family. He's only back in town for a day because of his sister Talia's wedding. Or so he thinks. Events -- and his sister -- conspire to keep him around. His father is attacked. A competing company wants the Frontiers' claims to the mines. A secret government facility has captured and is testing a child named Hawkin who seems to have unnatural abilities due to the Ninth Metal. And John is not all he claims to be.

Percy uses his traditional world- and character-building along with his ability to turn nouns into verbs and even verbs into other verbs to create a compelling universe where even the good guys have to turn bad in order to do good. There's lots of setup of some really bad people who when everything comes to a head are dispatched rather easily. Or are they? This is the first in what is called Percy's Comet Cycle trilogy. Most likely everyone clamied dead will return for part two in Michael Myers style. We never really saw so-and-so's body after the explosion that claimed their lives, right?

Anyway, I'll probably be there for the Comet Cycle #2, whenever that is. Preferably sans Covid. Not sure if I am sans Covid right now -- I'm done testing -- but I'm sans Covid systems. Just back to normal with all the other things that are wrong with me.]]> 3.63 2021 The Ninth Metal (The Comet Cycle, #1)
author: Benjamin Percy
name: Mike
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/07
date added: 2021/10/07
shelves:
review:
It's the first book I finished during Covid.

No, not the pandemic, which started a year and a half or so ago. The first book I finished since I caught Covid. Near three weeks ago I started coughing up a storm and spent a weekend sucking down cough drops. Feeling better, I went to work. But fatigue soon caught up with me and a couple Tuesdays I went home early. I haven't been back since because the two pink bars came up on the take-home Covid test. Yep, I was positive.

More tests confirmed it. For a week or so I didn't have much more than a nasty cough but I felt very tired all the time. I lost track of how many naps I took. It was more like wake up to eat a bowl of soup or take some more aspirin, then lie back down. Turn on a ball game or a TV show and there was a danger of falling asleep right in the middle of it. Fortunately that's as much danger as I was in for most of the next week. Picking up a book or magazine? I just didn't have the energy. My books sat there untouched, growing sad because no one was paying attention to them.

And then one day I woke up refreshed. I made it through an entire Browns game. I ate a decent dinner. I didn't fall asleep on the couch. Perhaps the spell had lifted.

I still tested positive for Covid, though. So my time away from work continued (thank you, loads of sick time). My naps didn't, at leas the Covid-induced ones. Seems I was only feeling the normal fatigue just from being old and out of shape. Soon I could pick up books and magazines again without my eyelids immediately closing.

So I finished Benjamin Percy's newest. I was about halfway through before Covid struck. And it's just under 300 pages. So a quick read. And Percy is back at it, creating superhero-like characters that are morally ambiguous. OK, most of them fall on the bad side of good, even if they are trying to be good. In this one, John Frontier returns to his family's home in Nortfall, Minnesota, a few years after a comet strike has left the town filled with some new element called Ninth Metal which is almost like unlimited renewable energy. His family runs most of the mines around town which dig out this metal. And they don't necessarily do it nicely.

John returns wanting nothing to do with his family. He's only back in town for a day because of his sister Talia's wedding. Or so he thinks. Events -- and his sister -- conspire to keep him around. His father is attacked. A competing company wants the Frontiers' claims to the mines. A secret government facility has captured and is testing a child named Hawkin who seems to have unnatural abilities due to the Ninth Metal. And John is not all he claims to be.

Percy uses his traditional world- and character-building along with his ability to turn nouns into verbs and even verbs into other verbs to create a compelling universe where even the good guys have to turn bad in order to do good. There's lots of setup of some really bad people who when everything comes to a head are dispatched rather easily. Or are they? This is the first in what is called Percy's Comet Cycle trilogy. Most likely everyone clamied dead will return for part two in Michael Myers style. We never really saw so-and-so's body after the explosion that claimed their lives, right?

Anyway, I'll probably be there for the Comet Cycle #2, whenever that is. Preferably sans Covid. Not sure if I am sans Covid right now -- I'm done testing -- but I'm sans Covid systems. Just back to normal with all the other things that are wrong with me.
]]> Sanibel Flats (Doc Ford #1) 56311995 Its cool gulf breezes lured him from a life of danger. Its dark undercurrents threatened to destroy him.

After ten years of living life on the edge, it was hard for Doc Ford to get that addiction to danger out of his system. But spending each day watching the sun melt into Dinkins Bay and the moon rise over the mangrove trees, cooking dinner for his beautiful neighbor, and dispensing advice to the locals over a cold beer lulled him into letting his guard down.

Then Rafe Hollins appeared.

How could he refuse his old friend's request-even if it would put him back on the firing line? Even if it would change forever the life he'd built here on Sanibel Island?

]]> 323 Randy Wayne White Mike 3
OK, there's no TV series planned. Actually, the Doc Ford series has been rejected more than once, most recently back in 2014. But that was a different world, before all the streaming services we have started looking under their couch cushions for content. No way a Doc Ford series can be left off the list these days, right? And I can picture Kyle Chandler -- you know, Coach from Friday Night Lights, the new Godzilla vs. Kong movie, Bloodline -- spitting out Doc Ford's lines, keeping everyone marching toward the goal, inspiring those around him.

He's too old now, though. I'm not exactly sure how old Doc Ford is in the first book of the series. I'm guessing around 40, more likely younger than older. And since Kyle Chandler is a few years older than me that means he's closing in on 60, gotdammit. (Though Coach might say they aren't exactly calling it third and short just yet for him to get there.) He might still look young, have the rugged looks I picture in Doc Ford, but I don't know if he'd be fit for the role much longer.

And they could make a TV series of Doc Ford for years. There are 26 novels now, starting with Sanibel Flats back in 1990 and spanning to Salt River from a year ago. Plenty of material. I'll keep reading them based on the first one. Doc Ford is a CIA operative who has retired from that gig to Sanibel Island, where he runs his own small business and tries to keep to himself, though he has a small circle of regular friends and regularly falls into their mysteries. This series starting in 1990, I picture him as a cross between Magnum PI and Jim Rockford. Both of those private investigators finished up long-running series in the 10 years before Randy Wayne White published Sanibel Flats.

I've had my eye on the Doc Ford series for awhile, since my sister and her husband live on Sanibel Island and I have visited Doc Ford's, a popular restaurant there. Randy Wayne White even hangs out there sometimes, since he owns it and all. Since I was looking for a good book series to delve into for awhile, I chose this one right after beginning the Easy Rawlins series. Both were good choices.

Oh, about the book -- well, as mentioned, Doc Ford is living his best retirement when old high-school friend Rafe Hollins calls him and tells him he is mixed up in some trouble and his son has gone missing, presumably kidnapped by a Central American drug lord. He asks Doc to meet him; when Doc shows up, Rafe is dead. Shenanigans ensue, starting with figuring out who killed Rafe and why. Doc winds up adventuring to Central America with his buddy Tomlinson, who is a smart hippie I presume will be around for a few more books.

Solid story with lots of exposition in dialogue. Action heats up at the end, and is as believable as any in this type of book. The very end is kind of stupid and almost feels tacked on. Nothing was really leading up to that last chapter. And obviously written by a man, as every woman who shows up wants to have sex with Doc Ford and pretty much falls in love with him.
Hey, if he looks like Kyle Chandler, why wouldn't they?]]> 4.25 1990 Sanibel Flats (Doc Ford #1)
author: Randy Wayne White
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/25
date added: 2021/09/21
shelves:
review:
I want to see Kyle Chandler play Doc Ford in the TV series.

OK, there's no TV series planned. Actually, the Doc Ford series has been rejected more than once, most recently back in 2014. But that was a different world, before all the streaming services we have started looking under their couch cushions for content. No way a Doc Ford series can be left off the list these days, right? And I can picture Kyle Chandler -- you know, Coach from Friday Night Lights, the new Godzilla vs. Kong movie, Bloodline -- spitting out Doc Ford's lines, keeping everyone marching toward the goal, inspiring those around him.

He's too old now, though. I'm not exactly sure how old Doc Ford is in the first book of the series. I'm guessing around 40, more likely younger than older. And since Kyle Chandler is a few years older than me that means he's closing in on 60, gotdammit. (Though Coach might say they aren't exactly calling it third and short just yet for him to get there.) He might still look young, have the rugged looks I picture in Doc Ford, but I don't know if he'd be fit for the role much longer.

And they could make a TV series of Doc Ford for years. There are 26 novels now, starting with Sanibel Flats back in 1990 and spanning to Salt River from a year ago. Plenty of material. I'll keep reading them based on the first one. Doc Ford is a CIA operative who has retired from that gig to Sanibel Island, where he runs his own small business and tries to keep to himself, though he has a small circle of regular friends and regularly falls into their mysteries. This series starting in 1990, I picture him as a cross between Magnum PI and Jim Rockford. Both of those private investigators finished up long-running series in the 10 years before Randy Wayne White published Sanibel Flats.

I've had my eye on the Doc Ford series for awhile, since my sister and her husband live on Sanibel Island and I have visited Doc Ford's, a popular restaurant there. Randy Wayne White even hangs out there sometimes, since he owns it and all. Since I was looking for a good book series to delve into for awhile, I chose this one right after beginning the Easy Rawlins series. Both were good choices.

Oh, about the book -- well, as mentioned, Doc Ford is living his best retirement when old high-school friend Rafe Hollins calls him and tells him he is mixed up in some trouble and his son has gone missing, presumably kidnapped by a Central American drug lord. He asks Doc to meet him; when Doc shows up, Rafe is dead. Shenanigans ensue, starting with figuring out who killed Rafe and why. Doc winds up adventuring to Central America with his buddy Tomlinson, who is a smart hippie I presume will be around for a few more books.

Solid story with lots of exposition in dialogue. Action heats up at the end, and is as believable as any in this type of book. The very end is kind of stupid and almost feels tacked on. Nothing was really leading up to that last chapter. And obviously written by a man, as every woman who shows up wants to have sex with Doc Ford and pretty much falls in love with him.
Hey, if he looks like Kyle Chandler, why wouldn't they?
]]> The Other Black Girl 55711688 Get Out meets The Stepford Wives in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.

Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.

Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.

It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career.

A whip-smart and dynamic thriller and sly social commentary that is perfect for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace, The Other Black Girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last twist.]]> 357 Zakiya Dalila Harris 1982160136 Mike 2
At least it thinks it is.

It isn't.

This is where you stop reading because of spoilers. Unless you like spoilers. Or my reviews. But this book is allegedly about being the only black woman in an office when another black woman is finally hired. Will the two be buddies? Will they be connected at the hip? Will they resent each other? Will everyone else ostracize them so they need to become allies?

(Spoiler coming up.)

((Really, it's coming up next.))

(((Right after this.)))

((((Close your eyes!))))

OR WILL ONE OF THEM RUN A SECRET HAIR PRODUCT BRAINWASHING ORGANIZATION THAT IS BANKROLLED BY THE COMPANY'S CEO BECAUSE HE WANTS BLACK WOMEN TO STOP BEING SO UPPITY!! (Oh, and probably because he wants to make them want to have sex with him, but that's kind of glossed over.)

We finally learn all this in the last three dozen pages, mostly when The Other Black Girl begins twisting her villain moustache during a bathroom confrontation with the original black girl, who she has been trying to make less uppity. Even though pretty much all that girl does is meekly submit to everyone at work and complain about police shooting videos to her boyfriend and best friend.

Nothing anyone does in this book makes sense. Even the dumbest James Bond villains have better reasons for their dumb world domination master plans than the bad guys here. While most of the book is about the work relationship between Nella and the new black girl Hazel-May, a few chapters narrated by out-of-the-blue characters sneak in. Through them we learn about two competing factions that are fighting for the souls of black girls nationwide. There's the group funded by Richard, the CEO of the publishing house where Nella and Hazel-May work -- they are trying to make the black girls subservient through hair products that brainwash them. Then there's a competing group inspired by Kendra Rae, a former editor at Richard's publishing house; this group is basically the resistance.

The book takes about 350 pages to reveal this mystery to us, then basically cuts to black with even more questions unanswered. (Hey, it's the X-Files!) By the end, we wonder what happened to Nella's boyfriend and best friend, and Hazel-May, and Richard, and everyone else, and why the hell did any of them even do any of it.

There's also all throughout mention of a brilliant book that Richard's publishing house printed in 1983 which basically took the world by storm ... except we learn pretty much nothing about the book, save that it was brilliant just trust me! No excerpts from that book, no summaries, nothing but mentions of how great it was.

This book could have been something. It really wanted to be. I really wanted it to be.]]> 3.34 2021 The Other Black Girl
author: Zakiya Dalila Harris
name: Mike
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/08/19
date added: 2021/08/18
shelves:
review:
Get Out meets Gone Girl.

At least it thinks it is.

It isn't.

This is where you stop reading because of spoilers. Unless you like spoilers. Or my reviews. But this book is allegedly about being the only black woman in an office when another black woman is finally hired. Will the two be buddies? Will they be connected at the hip? Will they resent each other? Will everyone else ostracize them so they need to become allies?

(Spoiler coming up.)

((Really, it's coming up next.))

(((Right after this.)))

((((Close your eyes!))))

OR WILL ONE OF THEM RUN A SECRET HAIR PRODUCT BRAINWASHING ORGANIZATION THAT IS BANKROLLED BY THE COMPANY'S CEO BECAUSE HE WANTS BLACK WOMEN TO STOP BEING SO UPPITY!! (Oh, and probably because he wants to make them want to have sex with him, but that's kind of glossed over.)

We finally learn all this in the last three dozen pages, mostly when The Other Black Girl begins twisting her villain moustache during a bathroom confrontation with the original black girl, who she has been trying to make less uppity. Even though pretty much all that girl does is meekly submit to everyone at work and complain about police shooting videos to her boyfriend and best friend.

Nothing anyone does in this book makes sense. Even the dumbest James Bond villains have better reasons for their dumb world domination master plans than the bad guys here. While most of the book is about the work relationship between Nella and the new black girl Hazel-May, a few chapters narrated by out-of-the-blue characters sneak in. Through them we learn about two competing factions that are fighting for the souls of black girls nationwide. There's the group funded by Richard, the CEO of the publishing house where Nella and Hazel-May work -- they are trying to make the black girls subservient through hair products that brainwash them. Then there's a competing group inspired by Kendra Rae, a former editor at Richard's publishing house; this group is basically the resistance.

The book takes about 350 pages to reveal this mystery to us, then basically cuts to black with even more questions unanswered. (Hey, it's the X-Files!) By the end, we wonder what happened to Nella's boyfriend and best friend, and Hazel-May, and Richard, and everyone else, and why the hell did any of them even do any of it.

There's also all throughout mention of a brilliant book that Richard's publishing house printed in 1983 which basically took the world by storm ... except we learn pretty much nothing about the book, save that it was brilliant just trust me! No excerpts from that book, no summaries, nothing but mentions of how great it was.

This book could have been something. It really wanted to be. I really wanted it to be.
]]> Milk Blood Heat 43893870
A thirteen-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter—whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family’s church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their father’s ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them.

Wise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, Milk Blood Heat forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth.]]> 208 Dantiel W. Moniz 0802158153 Mike 4 4.04 2021 Milk Blood Heat
author: Dantiel W. Moniz
name: Mike
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood]]> 54711654
“For that period of time, he was the greatest player of my generation.”—Keith Hernandez

Dave Parker was one of the biggest and most badass baseballplayers of the late twentieth century. He stood at six foot five and weighed 235 pounds. He was a seven-time All-Star, a two-time batting champion, a frequentGold Glove winner, the 1978 National League MVP, and a World Series championwith both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Oakland A’s. Here the great Dave Parker delivers his wild and long-awaited autobiography—anauthoritative account of Black baseball during its heyday as seen through the eyes of none other than theCobra.

From his earliest professional days learning the game from such baseballlegends as Pie Traynor and Roberto Clementeto his later years mentoring younger talents like Eric Davis and Barry Larkin, Cobra is the story ofa Black athlete making his way through the game during a time of major social and cultural transformation.From the racially integrated playing fieldsof his high school daysto the cookie-cutter cathedrals of his prime alongside all themidseason and late-night theatrics that accompany an athlete’s life on the road–Parker offers readers a glimpse of all that and everything in between. Everything .

Parker recounts the triumphantvictories and the heart-breaking defeats, both on and offthefield. Heshares the lessons and experiences of reaching the absolute pinnacle of professional athletics, the celebrations withhissports siblings who also got a taste of the thrills,as well as hisbeloved baseball brothers whom the game left behind. Parker recalls the complicated politics of spring training, recounts the early stages of the free agency era, revisitsthe notorious 1985 drug trials,andpays tribute to the enduringpower of relationships between players at the deepest and highest levels of the sport.

With comments at the start of each chapter by other baseball legends such as Pete Rose,Dave Winfield, Willie Randolph,and many more, Parker tells an epic tale of friendship, success, indulgence, and redemption, but most of all, family. Cobra is the unforgettable story of a million-dollar athlete just beforebaseball became a billion-dollar game.

]]> 480 Dave Parker 1496218736 Mike 2
Especially when he's still in the minors a hundred pages into it? When we're more than 300 pages in before we get to Parker's World Series win with the 1979 Pirates? When his post-Reds baseball career is condensed into about five pages as we approach the end of the book?

Well, I didn't really neeeeeeeeeeeeed to ...

Dave Parker's career always fascinated me. It mostly predated my baseball fandom, which really started in 1978 though I don't remember watching too many games until the early 1980s. Parker had already had his glory days and World Series ring by then. He really was an overlooked star of the '70s, mashing the ball throughout most of the decade and becoming a Pirates Hall of Famer from 1973-1983. When he joined my then-beloved Reds in 1984, it seemed Cincinnati was getting a past-his-prime slugger, but Parker led the NL in doubles and RBI in '85 and played well his four years in Cincinnati before becoming a bit of a baseball vagabond his final three years.

Little controversy followed Parker, save for his involvement in the Pittsburgh drug scandals where he was merely a user and not a seller. He testified against those selling while Reds teammate Pete Rose was honing in on his record-setting hit total. Beyond that, there was the normal baseball-player activities that don't command headlines -- women, partying, contract issues. Very few headline-grabbing issues.

And in his autobiography, Parker touches on those things without going into details. Oh, there's a blowout fight with one girlfriend whom Parker says destroyed his apartment during a breakout. There's the trips to the clubs and the bathrooms of the clubs to partake in cocaine binges, though Parker doesn't offer much detail. Mostly it's Dave Parker giving us a chronological breakdown of his life and career, starting with his school days through the minors through each year in the bigs with the Pirates. Many chapters describe a season in the making of Dave Parker, with much play-by-play breakdown of big moments. Parker describes as much locker-room camaraderie as on-field play, the book very much living up to the brotherhood aspect of the subtitle.

Ultimately, that's what it was all about for Dave Parker, the brotherhood he created with those along his path. It was very important for him to have good relationships with his teammates and coaches, even upper management. He wanted to earn respect from fans by giving his best effort every time he took the field, playing through injuries along the way. And it was important for him to pass down lessons he learned from people such as Willie Stargell, a mentor when Parker joined the Pirates.

Ultimately, it's a quick read despite its length, though not particularly in-depth. Sometimes the play-by-play details bog down the book, but they also help it breeze by as readers of a certain age will see the names and reminisce, causing them to just keep on going to see who else pops up. There's nothing earth-shattering here, nothing groundbreaking, just a check-in with a familiar name that will bring back memories and give the reader a better understanding of Dave Parker's philosophy of life.]]> 4.35 Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood
author: Dave Parker
name: Mike
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2021/07/05
date added: 2021/07/05
shelves:
review:
Did I really need to read 444 pages about Dave Parker?

Especially when he's still in the minors a hundred pages into it? When we're more than 300 pages in before we get to Parker's World Series win with the 1979 Pirates? When his post-Reds baseball career is condensed into about five pages as we approach the end of the book?

Well, I didn't really neeeeeeeeeeeeed to ...

Dave Parker's career always fascinated me. It mostly predated my baseball fandom, which really started in 1978 though I don't remember watching too many games until the early 1980s. Parker had already had his glory days and World Series ring by then. He really was an overlooked star of the '70s, mashing the ball throughout most of the decade and becoming a Pirates Hall of Famer from 1973-1983. When he joined my then-beloved Reds in 1984, it seemed Cincinnati was getting a past-his-prime slugger, but Parker led the NL in doubles and RBI in '85 and played well his four years in Cincinnati before becoming a bit of a baseball vagabond his final three years.

Little controversy followed Parker, save for his involvement in the Pittsburgh drug scandals where he was merely a user and not a seller. He testified against those selling while Reds teammate Pete Rose was honing in on his record-setting hit total. Beyond that, there was the normal baseball-player activities that don't command headlines -- women, partying, contract issues. Very few headline-grabbing issues.

And in his autobiography, Parker touches on those things without going into details. Oh, there's a blowout fight with one girlfriend whom Parker says destroyed his apartment during a breakout. There's the trips to the clubs and the bathrooms of the clubs to partake in cocaine binges, though Parker doesn't offer much detail. Mostly it's Dave Parker giving us a chronological breakdown of his life and career, starting with his school days through the minors through each year in the bigs with the Pirates. Many chapters describe a season in the making of Dave Parker, with much play-by-play breakdown of big moments. Parker describes as much locker-room camaraderie as on-field play, the book very much living up to the brotherhood aspect of the subtitle.

Ultimately, that's what it was all about for Dave Parker, the brotherhood he created with those along his path. It was very important for him to have good relationships with his teammates and coaches, even upper management. He wanted to earn respect from fans by giving his best effort every time he took the field, playing through injuries along the way. And it was important for him to pass down lessons he learned from people such as Willie Stargell, a mentor when Parker joined the Pirates.

Ultimately, it's a quick read despite its length, though not particularly in-depth. Sometimes the play-by-play details bog down the book, but they also help it breeze by as readers of a certain age will see the names and reminisce, causing them to just keep on going to see who else pops up. There's nothing earth-shattering here, nothing groundbreaking, just a check-in with a familiar name that will bring back memories and give the reader a better understanding of Dave Parker's philosophy of life.
]]> How I Learned to Hate in Ohio 51075369 A brilliant, hilarious, and ultimately devastating debut novel about how racial discord grows in America

In late-1980s rural Ohio, bright but mostly friendless Barry Nadler begins his freshman year of high school with the goal of going unnoticed as much as possible. But his world is upended by the arrival of Gurbaksh, Gary for short, a Sikh teenager who moves to his small town and instantly befriends Barry and, in Gatsby-esque fashion, pulls him into a series of increasingly unlikely adventures. As their friendship deepens, Barry’s world begins to unravel, and his classmates and neighbors react to the presence of a family so different from theirs. Through darkly comic and bitingly intelligent asides and wry observations, Barry reveals how the seeds of xenophobia and racism find fertile soil in this insular community, and in an easy, graceless, unintentional slide, tragedy unfolds.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio shines an uncomfortable light on the roots of white middle-American discontent and the beginnings of the current cultural war. It is at once bracingly funny, dark, and surprisingly moving, an undeniably resonant debut novel for our divided world.
]]> 249 David Stuart MacLean 1419747193 Mike 3
This is where I tell you what happened. Stop reading now if you don't want to know. If you're reading this with one eye closed, think about what will probably happen in a book which both models itself on and idolizes The Great Gatsby. Think of the relationship between Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Now think about the relationship between the narrator of this book and his friend, Gurbaksh, aka Gary. What happens to Gatsby, seemingly out of nowhere, with just a few pages left? Now guess what happens to Garbaksh, seemingly out of nowhere, with just a few pages left?

Yes, Gurbaksh is murdered. A group of redneck bigots and racists beat him to death at a bonfire party while his friend, the narrator Baruch, basically runs away.

See, I told you I was going to tell you.

In How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, Baruch Nadler is a smarter-than-everyone bullied kid in his near-Columbus town. He is well-read -- some of the best analysis of The Great Gatsby I've ever read comes from Baruch aka Barry in this book -- and knows his options are limited in the small town of Rutherford in central Ohio. He is mocked by everyone, nicknamed Yo-Yo Fag because of a stupid incident with a yo-yo, and stuck in a certain seat on the bus, because we all know how seating on the school bus goes. A family of poverty-ridden bullies regularly picks on him.

Then one day Gurbaksh is in Barry's seat. He is a Sikh who has just moved to town with his father. And he is magnetic. Soon Barry is caught up in Gurbaksh's orbit. They have all kinds of small-town adventures and Barry's status at school is elevated because he is best friends with the charismatic and new toy Gurbaksh, who goes by Gary. Then one day it all goes south, a large part of it due to Gary's father's relationship with Barry's mother.

The book tries to emulate The Great Gatsby, painting Gary as a charming mysterio. Barry is the smitten friend trying to record everything. Both have chances with another interesting classmate, Ottilie; Gary winning, of course. That's another part of the falling out between Gary and Baruch.

Ultimately, a couple years after their high school years have ended, after Ottilie is away at college, after they've had time to reflect on everything that has happened, Gary and Barry reconcile. They decide to reminisce at a giant bonfire attended by their old classmates. And the old redneck bigots, with whom both have fought in the past, beat Gary to death.

And, basically, the book ends.

There are a few more pages, quickly depicting the wake and funeral and aftermath. And then it's over. That is much how ***SPOILER ALERT*** The Great Gatsby ends. Gatsby is murdered in his own pool by a man who thinks Gatsby has killed his wife. Then the man kills himself. The book ends a few pages later.

So why am I not sure the ending of How I Learned to Hate in Ohio was earned? The murderers are nasty people, sure, set up that way and described thusly throughout the book. But they weren't really set up as murderous. Dumb, idiotic, mean-spirited, violent, sure. But ascending to murder? They didn't like Arabs, they didn't like Muslims, they didn't like the way the world was changing around them and Gary represented all that. But in The Great Gatsby, a guy thought Gatsby had killed his wife. In this, a bunch of idiots just didn't like a kid because they didn't like their own lives and figured he represented the reasons why.

But maybe I just missed something. Maybe I'm mad because I didn't see the end coming when anyone who knows The Great Gatsby should have. Maybe I didn't like it because it is so abrupt. Maybe I'm the big dumb redneck idiot who doesn't know enough of the world around him.

At any rate, that's what happened. It's still a good book, which isn't really a spoiler. It's just ... that ending.
]]> 3.66 2021 How I Learned to Hate in Ohio
author: David Stuart MacLean
name: Mike
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/09
date added: 2021/06/11
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure the ending is earned.

This is where I tell you what happened. Stop reading now if you don't want to know. If you're reading this with one eye closed, think about what will probably happen in a book which both models itself on and idolizes The Great Gatsby. Think of the relationship between Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby. Now think about the relationship between the narrator of this book and his friend, Gurbaksh, aka Gary. What happens to Gatsby, seemingly out of nowhere, with just a few pages left? Now guess what happens to Garbaksh, seemingly out of nowhere, with just a few pages left?

Yes, Gurbaksh is murdered. A group of redneck bigots and racists beat him to death at a bonfire party while his friend, the narrator Baruch, basically runs away.

See, I told you I was going to tell you.

In How I Learned to Hate in Ohio, Baruch Nadler is a smarter-than-everyone bullied kid in his near-Columbus town. He is well-read -- some of the best analysis of The Great Gatsby I've ever read comes from Baruch aka Barry in this book -- and knows his options are limited in the small town of Rutherford in central Ohio. He is mocked by everyone, nicknamed Yo-Yo Fag because of a stupid incident with a yo-yo, and stuck in a certain seat on the bus, because we all know how seating on the school bus goes. A family of poverty-ridden bullies regularly picks on him.

Then one day Gurbaksh is in Barry's seat. He is a Sikh who has just moved to town with his father. And he is magnetic. Soon Barry is caught up in Gurbaksh's orbit. They have all kinds of small-town adventures and Barry's status at school is elevated because he is best friends with the charismatic and new toy Gurbaksh, who goes by Gary. Then one day it all goes south, a large part of it due to Gary's father's relationship with Barry's mother.

The book tries to emulate The Great Gatsby, painting Gary as a charming mysterio. Barry is the smitten friend trying to record everything. Both have chances with another interesting classmate, Ottilie; Gary winning, of course. That's another part of the falling out between Gary and Baruch.

Ultimately, a couple years after their high school years have ended, after Ottilie is away at college, after they've had time to reflect on everything that has happened, Gary and Barry reconcile. They decide to reminisce at a giant bonfire attended by their old classmates. And the old redneck bigots, with whom both have fought in the past, beat Gary to death.

And, basically, the book ends.

There are a few more pages, quickly depicting the wake and funeral and aftermath. And then it's over. That is much how ***SPOILER ALERT*** The Great Gatsby ends. Gatsby is murdered in his own pool by a man who thinks Gatsby has killed his wife. Then the man kills himself. The book ends a few pages later.

So why am I not sure the ending of How I Learned to Hate in Ohio was earned? The murderers are nasty people, sure, set up that way and described thusly throughout the book. But they weren't really set up as murderous. Dumb, idiotic, mean-spirited, violent, sure. But ascending to murder? They didn't like Arabs, they didn't like Muslims, they didn't like the way the world was changing around them and Gary represented all that. But in The Great Gatsby, a guy thought Gatsby had killed his wife. In this, a bunch of idiots just didn't like a kid because they didn't like their own lives and figured he represented the reasons why.

But maybe I just missed something. Maybe I'm mad because I didn't see the end coming when anyone who knows The Great Gatsby should have. Maybe I didn't like it because it is so abrupt. Maybe I'm the big dumb redneck idiot who doesn't know enough of the world around him.

At any rate, that's what happened. It's still a good book, which isn't really a spoiler. It's just ... that ending.

]]> <![CDATA[100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer]]> 57454976
For most of their lives together Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs couldn’t imagine a spring without baseball. Their season tickets renewal package always seemed to arrive on the bleakest day of winter, offering reassurance that sunnier times were around the corner. Baseball was woven into the fabric of their lives, connecting them not only to each other but also to their families and histories. But by 2017 it was obvious something was the allure of another Sunday watching their Detroit Tigers had devolved to obligation. Not entirely sure what they were missing, they did have an idea on where it might be in their own backyard. Drawing a radius of one hundred miles around their home in Windsor, Ontario, Dale and Heidi set a goal of seeing fifty games at all levels of competition over the following summer. From bleachers behind high schools, to manicured university turf, to the steep concrete stands of major league parks, 100 Miles of Baseball tells the story of how two fans rediscovered their love of the game—and with it their relationships and the region they call home.]]> 353 Dale Jacobs Mike 2
I just finished watching Mare of Easttown. Or the third season of True Detective, if you want to look at it that way. In Mare of Easttown, Mare is a detective in the small Pennsylvania town of Easttown, struggling through her own life's problems when a series of disappearances and murders shock her community. Mare seems to know everyone in Easttown, giving double-meaning to her name. And it defeats her even more to see the disappointment in everyone's life, whether it is from the things that happen to them or Mare's inability to help resolve the things that happen to them. Besides the action of the cases Mare takes on, there are themes of loss, loneliness, and motherhood that elevate the show into true prestige television. Give it a five-star rating on Goodwatches, if there is one.

This is what I wanted from 100 Miles of Baseball, by a professor and librarian at the University of Windsor. They're a married couple who decides to go to write a book about attending 50 baseball games within 100 miles of their home one summer. They make it as far as the Cleveland area, visiting an independent showcase in Lorain, a Frontier League game in Avon, the Indians downtown, and a Class A minor league game in Lake County, just east of Cleveland. They see a lot of college level and high school ball in the summer of 2018, plenty of them in places I've barely even heard of.

Oh, I didn't need it to be Mare of Easttown. That would be ridiculous to want that. But the Jacobses basically tell you what they saw. They don't show you. They don't get into many stories about the people or places they visit. They don't get into much history of the areas they visit. And they don't get into many themes about why people want to play in many of these game, much less watch them. There is a little bit of soul searching amongst themselves as to why they are doing this. Is it just something to do? Just something to pass time? Does it bring the couple closer together? Does it make either of them like baseball more or less? Explore those themes, add in spice with some stories about the games or people or places that you saw, and you have a more compelling book.

Maybe that stuff is in their somewhere. But after reading about their first three weekend trips, I found the book becoming repetitive. So I skipped ahead to the Cleveland-area chapter, which is more than halfway through. More of the same. Then I skipped to the end and didn't find any grand conclusions. So I don't think I'm missing much.

Congrats to the Jacobs. They wrote a book about traveling to a bunch of baseball games. I haven't so I'm jealous. I just wanted there to be more to it.]]> 3.66 100 Miles of Baseball: Fifty Games, One Summer
author: Dale Jacobs
name: Mike
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2021/05/31
date added: 2021/05/31
shelves:
review:
I wanted more studies.

I just finished watching Mare of Easttown. Or the third season of True Detective, if you want to look at it that way. In Mare of Easttown, Mare is a detective in the small Pennsylvania town of Easttown, struggling through her own life's problems when a series of disappearances and murders shock her community. Mare seems to know everyone in Easttown, giving double-meaning to her name. And it defeats her even more to see the disappointment in everyone's life, whether it is from the things that happen to them or Mare's inability to help resolve the things that happen to them. Besides the action of the cases Mare takes on, there are themes of loss, loneliness, and motherhood that elevate the show into true prestige television. Give it a five-star rating on Goodwatches, if there is one.

This is what I wanted from 100 Miles of Baseball, by a professor and librarian at the University of Windsor. They're a married couple who decides to go to write a book about attending 50 baseball games within 100 miles of their home one summer. They make it as far as the Cleveland area, visiting an independent showcase in Lorain, a Frontier League game in Avon, the Indians downtown, and a Class A minor league game in Lake County, just east of Cleveland. They see a lot of college level and high school ball in the summer of 2018, plenty of them in places I've barely even heard of.

Oh, I didn't need it to be Mare of Easttown. That would be ridiculous to want that. But the Jacobses basically tell you what they saw. They don't show you. They don't get into many stories about the people or places they visit. They don't get into much history of the areas they visit. And they don't get into many themes about why people want to play in many of these game, much less watch them. There is a little bit of soul searching amongst themselves as to why they are doing this. Is it just something to do? Just something to pass time? Does it bring the couple closer together? Does it make either of them like baseball more or less? Explore those themes, add in spice with some stories about the games or people or places that you saw, and you have a more compelling book.

Maybe that stuff is in their somewhere. But after reading about their first three weekend trips, I found the book becoming repetitive. So I skipped ahead to the Cleveland-area chapter, which is more than halfway through. More of the same. Then I skipped to the end and didn't find any grand conclusions. So I don't think I'm missing much.

Congrats to the Jacobs. They wrote a book about traveling to a bunch of baseball games. I haven't so I'm jealous. I just wanted there to be more to it.
]]> The Heart's Invisible Furies 33253215 real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from � and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.]]> 582 John Boyne Mike 0 currently-reading 4.51 2017 The Heart's Invisible Furies
author: John Boyne
name: Mike
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire]]> 56695159 Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone captured the rise of Amazon in his bestseller The Everything Store. Since then, Amazon has expanded exponentially, inventing novel products like Alexa and disrupting countless industries, while its workforce has quintupled in size and its valuation has soared to well over a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos’s empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. Between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon’s cloud computing unit, AWS, plus Bezos’s ownership of The Washington Post, it’s impossible to go a day without encountering its impact. We live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its iconoclast founder.

In Amazon Unbound, Brad Stone presents a deeply reported, vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy. Stone also probes the evolution of Bezos himself—who started as a geeky technologist totally devoted to building Amazon, but who transformed to become a fit, disciplined billionaire with global ambitions; who ruled Amazon with an iron fist, even as he found his personal life splashed over the tabloids.]]> 496 Brad Stone 1982132612 Mike 0 currently-reading 4.03 2021 Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire
author: Brad Stone
name: Mike
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crimson Phoenix (Victoria Emerson #1)]]> 54231822 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Jonathan Grave novels, comes Crimson Phoenix—first in the new Victoria Emerson Thriller series. With America brought to the brink of destruction, one woman becomes the last hope of a nation and its people . . .

Victoria Emerson is a congressional member of the U. S. House of Representatives for the state of West Virginia. Her aspirations have always been to help her community and to avoid the ambitious power plays of her peers in Washington D. C. Then Major Joseph McCrea appears on her doorstep and uses the code phrase Crimson Phoenix, meaning this is not a drill. The United States is on the verge of nuclear war. Victoria must accompany McCrea to a secure bunker. She cannot bring her family.

A single mother, Victoria refuses to abandon her three teenage sons. Denied entry to the bunker, they nonetheless survive the nuclear onslaught that devastates the country. The land is nearly uninhabitable. Electronics have been rendered useless. Food is scarce. Millions of scared and ailing people await aid from a government that is unable to regroup, much less organize a rescue from the chaos.

Victoria devotes herself to reestablishing order—only to encounter the harsh realities required of a leader dealing with desperate people . . .

“Just the thing for readers who feel oppressed by the pandemic lockdown.”� Kirkus Reviews

“A gripping page-turner.� —Taylor Stevens, New York Times bestselling author

“An explosive story that keeps your mind churning and pulse racing . . . Don't miss this powerful new series from a master thriller writer.� —Jamie Freveletti, international bestselling and award-winning author]]> 320 John Gilstrap 1496728556 Mike 3
Maybe for the fast-paced, drag-you-along plots? The Jason Bourne-like characters who find a way out of every cliffhanger scenario, just in the nick of time? The ripped-from-the-headlines scenarios that have me peeking out my window every few chapters just to see if something like this is about to happen?

Probably. It's usually not the scintillating writing.

The most recent such book I read -- well, before Crimson Phoenix -- was The End of October by Lawrence Wright, which was about a worldwide pandemic that killed millions before it was brought under control. It very much mirrored our COVID-19 pandemic, though on a scale ten times as bad. Crimson Phoenix reminded me of the best I've read in this genre, One Second After by William Fortschen, which takes place in the rural mountains in North Carolina just after an EMP strike has obliterated all electrical grids in the United States. It's also very reminiscent of James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand series, which takes place in upstate New York after the world has somehow been destroyed. It's not quite as nihilistic as Nevil Shute's On The Beach, a novel from a half-century ago that Gilstrap says inspired him.

There's probably a sociological discussion of why so many of these books focus on the put-upon rural American who rises to greatness when the world around them is being destroyed. Call them pornapocalypse books. It would be interesting to read similar books by people from around the world rather than those centered on Americans. Maybe that's why two of the best in the genre are Station Eleven by Canadian Emily St. John Mandel and Severance by Chinese-born Ling Ma.

(Personally, I think rural America will turn out as Cormac McCarthy depicts in The Road. But since you're not going to get very many entertaining books out of that concept, you're gonna get more of the plucky rural American type.)

Crimson Phoenix deals with a few people who have survived a nuclear attack that has basically destroyed the United States. At least what most people know of as the United States -- Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Seattle, you name the city, it's been obliterated. The same is true for most places worldwide. Millions if not billions are dead. The survivors in the United States federal government have been moved into a safe haven in the mountains of rural West Virginia. Congresswoman Victoria Emerson, her three sons, and her armed forces escorts Major Joseph McCrea and First Sergeant Paul Copley must find a way to survive as forests burn around them, people immediately turn to scavenging and murder, and just about everything electronic stops working, including cars.

The setup is good, as the United States plans to back Israel's pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran. Very ripped from the headlines. But word gets out and Iran pre-emptively pre-emptively strikes Israel and the United States, basically destroying them. Ah, but those plucky Americans. Who needs big cities, electrical grids, nuclear capabilities and the Internet when we have rural ingenuity and speeches. Emerson has the leadership skills needed to unite people into survivors, and fortunately has spent her life prepping her sons and herself for just such an occurrence like nuclear devastation.

Anyway, I didn't know Crimson Phoenix was the first of a series until I came to ŷ and saw this is Victoria Emerson #1. The varying plots don't necessarily end on cliffhangers, but they don't really end. There really is no resolution to any of them, the book just running out of pages. Crimson Phoenix is only 312 pages, but Gilstrap is an accomplished author who has written more than a dozen Jonathan Grave thrillers. He knows how to keep a series going. Since I can't stop reading these pornapocalypse books, I'll probably be coming along for the ride.]]> 3.85 2021 Crimson Phoenix (Victoria Emerson #1)
author: John Gilstrap
name: Mike
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/29
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves:
review:
Not sure why I keep reading these post-apocalyptic, the-end-of-the-world-is-here books.

Maybe for the fast-paced, drag-you-along plots? The Jason Bourne-like characters who find a way out of every cliffhanger scenario, just in the nick of time? The ripped-from-the-headlines scenarios that have me peeking out my window every few chapters just to see if something like this is about to happen?

Probably. It's usually not the scintillating writing.

The most recent such book I read -- well, before Crimson Phoenix -- was The End of October by Lawrence Wright, which was about a worldwide pandemic that killed millions before it was brought under control. It very much mirrored our COVID-19 pandemic, though on a scale ten times as bad. Crimson Phoenix reminded me of the best I've read in this genre, One Second After by William Fortschen, which takes place in the rural mountains in North Carolina just after an EMP strike has obliterated all electrical grids in the United States. It's also very reminiscent of James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand series, which takes place in upstate New York after the world has somehow been destroyed. It's not quite as nihilistic as Nevil Shute's On The Beach, a novel from a half-century ago that Gilstrap says inspired him.

There's probably a sociological discussion of why so many of these books focus on the put-upon rural American who rises to greatness when the world around them is being destroyed. Call them pornapocalypse books. It would be interesting to read similar books by people from around the world rather than those centered on Americans. Maybe that's why two of the best in the genre are Station Eleven by Canadian Emily St. John Mandel and Severance by Chinese-born Ling Ma.

(Personally, I think rural America will turn out as Cormac McCarthy depicts in The Road. But since you're not going to get very many entertaining books out of that concept, you're gonna get more of the plucky rural American type.)

Crimson Phoenix deals with a few people who have survived a nuclear attack that has basically destroyed the United States. At least what most people know of as the United States -- Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Seattle, you name the city, it's been obliterated. The same is true for most places worldwide. Millions if not billions are dead. The survivors in the United States federal government have been moved into a safe haven in the mountains of rural West Virginia. Congresswoman Victoria Emerson, her three sons, and her armed forces escorts Major Joseph McCrea and First Sergeant Paul Copley must find a way to survive as forests burn around them, people immediately turn to scavenging and murder, and just about everything electronic stops working, including cars.

The setup is good, as the United States plans to back Israel's pre-emptive nuclear strike on Iran. Very ripped from the headlines. But word gets out and Iran pre-emptively pre-emptively strikes Israel and the United States, basically destroying them. Ah, but those plucky Americans. Who needs big cities, electrical grids, nuclear capabilities and the Internet when we have rural ingenuity and speeches. Emerson has the leadership skills needed to unite people into survivors, and fortunately has spent her life prepping her sons and herself for just such an occurrence like nuclear devastation.

Anyway, I didn't know Crimson Phoenix was the first of a series until I came to ŷ and saw this is Victoria Emerson #1. The varying plots don't necessarily end on cliffhangers, but they don't really end. There really is no resolution to any of them, the book just running out of pages. Crimson Phoenix is only 312 pages, but Gilstrap is an accomplished author who has written more than a dozen Jonathan Grave thrillers. He knows how to keep a series going. Since I can't stop reading these pornapocalypse books, I'll probably be coming along for the ride.
]]> <![CDATA[Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball]]> 51182635 The riveting story of four men�Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige�whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond.

In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians. Though Doby, as the second Black player in the majors, would struggle during his first summer in Cleveland, his subsequent turnaround in 1948 from benchwarmer to superstar sparked one of the wildest and most meaningful seasons in baseball history.

In intimate, absorbing detail, Our Team traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy.

Together, as the backbone of a team that epitomized the postwar American spirit in all its hopes and contradictions, these four men would captivate the nation by storming to the World Series--all the while rewriting the rules of what was possible in sports.]]> 389 Luke Epplin 1250313791 Mike 4
Especially when they played for the Cleveland Indians.

Today, and for the past several years, everything is on TV. Watch Fernando Tatis Jr.'s latest game-tying home run in the ninth on Twitter seconds after it happens. That awesome LeBron James three-point shot to win the game is on Facebook within minutes. Scroll through sports TikTok and you'll find highlights from any sport, anytime, anywhere.

Not so much in 1940s Cleveland.

But Our Team by Luke Epplin brings it all to life in modern fashion. After reading this book, it won't be easy to forget that Bob Feller was a giant both before and during his pitching career with the Indians. It won't be easy to forget that Indians owner Bill Veeck was an public relations genius who willed people into packing the park for Indians games. It won't be easy to forget that Satchel Paige was one of the most underappreciated superstars in baseball history. And it won't be easy to forget that Larry Doby was an unheralded superstar who was the final piece of the puzzle that brought the 1948 World Series title to Cleveland.

Meticulously researched -- there are nearly 100 pages of footnotes and acknowledgements representing hundreds of people, books, and articles that Epplin distilled into this book -- Our Team follows the foursome of Feller, Veeck, Paige, and Doby who came together in the 1940s to lead the Indians to their most recent World Series victory. It's a chronological treatment, starting with schoolboy Bob Feller's exploits amid the Iowa cornfields, jumping to Larry Doby's backstory, then moving onto Satchel Paige's Negro League Baseball and barnstorming history before linking them all through Bill Veeck. Epplin alternates chapters with each person's story before they unite with the Indians in 1948.

Though Our Team chronicles events that happened more than 70 years ago, it's not hard to read this book through a modern day lens. Bob Feller really was a LeBron James of his time, earning the hype while still in high school and living up to it the moment he reached the bigs. While Indians games especially don't draw big crowds any longer, it's something to read about 70,000-people crowds for games back before games were televised or even broadcast regularly on the radio. People found interesting ways to follow the action, even Bill Veeck who at times resorted to yelling out his car window in traffic jams to find out the score of the game. And knowing that players make millions of dollars a year playing baseball makes it all the more fascinating to know that the biggest stars of the 1940s and earlier could make many times their salaries playing barnstorming exhibition games after the regular season ended -- sometimes making even more than they would have if their teams made the World Series.

It was a different era even though Fellers, Paige, Veeck, and Doby were involved in the same game being played in Cleveland and around the country today. Someone jumping into a time machine and plopping down in 1948 probably wouldn't even recognize the world. But thanks to Epplin's time machine of a book, any baseball or Cleveland Indians fan will especially recognize and appreciate the detailed reporting of an era long gone.]]> 4.46 2021 Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball
author: Luke Epplin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/26
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves:
review:
It's easy to forget about some of the amazing players from mid-century MLB.

Especially when they played for the Cleveland Indians.

Today, and for the past several years, everything is on TV. Watch Fernando Tatis Jr.'s latest game-tying home run in the ninth on Twitter seconds after it happens. That awesome LeBron James three-point shot to win the game is on Facebook within minutes. Scroll through sports TikTok and you'll find highlights from any sport, anytime, anywhere.

Not so much in 1940s Cleveland.

But Our Team by Luke Epplin brings it all to life in modern fashion. After reading this book, it won't be easy to forget that Bob Feller was a giant both before and during his pitching career with the Indians. It won't be easy to forget that Indians owner Bill Veeck was an public relations genius who willed people into packing the park for Indians games. It won't be easy to forget that Satchel Paige was one of the most underappreciated superstars in baseball history. And it won't be easy to forget that Larry Doby was an unheralded superstar who was the final piece of the puzzle that brought the 1948 World Series title to Cleveland.

Meticulously researched -- there are nearly 100 pages of footnotes and acknowledgements representing hundreds of people, books, and articles that Epplin distilled into this book -- Our Team follows the foursome of Feller, Veeck, Paige, and Doby who came together in the 1940s to lead the Indians to their most recent World Series victory. It's a chronological treatment, starting with schoolboy Bob Feller's exploits amid the Iowa cornfields, jumping to Larry Doby's backstory, then moving onto Satchel Paige's Negro League Baseball and barnstorming history before linking them all through Bill Veeck. Epplin alternates chapters with each person's story before they unite with the Indians in 1948.

Though Our Team chronicles events that happened more than 70 years ago, it's not hard to read this book through a modern day lens. Bob Feller really was a LeBron James of his time, earning the hype while still in high school and living up to it the moment he reached the bigs. While Indians games especially don't draw big crowds any longer, it's something to read about 70,000-people crowds for games back before games were televised or even broadcast regularly on the radio. People found interesting ways to follow the action, even Bill Veeck who at times resorted to yelling out his car window in traffic jams to find out the score of the game. And knowing that players make millions of dollars a year playing baseball makes it all the more fascinating to know that the biggest stars of the 1940s and earlier could make many times their salaries playing barnstorming exhibition games after the regular season ended -- sometimes making even more than they would have if their teams made the World Series.

It was a different era even though Fellers, Paige, Veeck, and Doby were involved in the same game being played in Cleveland and around the country today. Someone jumping into a time machine and plopping down in 1948 probably wouldn't even recognize the world. But thanks to Epplin's time machine of a book, any baseball or Cleveland Indians fan will especially recognize and appreciate the detailed reporting of an era long gone.
]]> <![CDATA[Punched, Kicked, Spat On, and Sometimes Thanked: Memoirs of a Cleveland TV News Reporter]]> 55974433 “I was a TV news reporter for almost fifty years, most of them in Cleveland, specializing in investigative reports. During that time I saw a lot of things. Historic events. Horrific crimes. Bizarre behavior. Heartwarming deeds. And sometimes just hilarious, silly stuff …�

That’s Paul Orlousky. After five decades on Cleveland TV (nightly on channels 3, 5, and 19), this veteran newsman has a lot of stories to What went on behind the camera � Racing to the scene in a tiny helicopter or crouching inside a sweltering news van on a stakeout � What he heard in a judge’s chambers or a courtroom lobby after a tense trial � How the internal workings of a news operation shaped the reporting viewers saw onscreen � Threats from angry subjects of an investigation, like shady business owners, politicians, and sometimes even cops �

Yes, over the years, Orlousky got a lot of threats—and more. He was yelled at, punched, kicked, spat on, menaced by dogs � But he was also thanked—many more times—by regular people all over Northeast Ohio for digging into stories that mattered to them.Now, Orlousky shares his favorite behind-the-camera tales in these short, candid, informative, and often funny stories.

“My approach to life is simple,� Orlousky writes. “You can look at it either as a tragedy or a comedy. I chose comedy, in part because that was a way to get through many of the tragic situations I reported on and that people I encountered were forced to deal with.�

If you’ve ever watched local TV news, you’ll enjoy these backstories behind the news stories. You’ll get a few chuckles, and might even wind up a better informed news consumer.]]> 248 Paul Orlousky Mike 3
You'll read about the time he was assaulted by Prince's bodyguard. You'll learn how he found out a crematorium was dumping bones into graves. You'll cringe at the time Orlo's sting on some prostitutes in a hotel nearly went down a disastrous road.

It's a book that can be opened up at any part as it's just Paul Orlousky telling stories. They are grouped by type of story, but nothing that must be read beginning to end in order. There's also around 20 pages of pictures from Paul's vast career in television.

Anyone who enjoys following the Cleveland media will enjoy this book.]]> 3.71 Punched, Kicked, Spat On, and Sometimes Thanked: Memoirs of a Cleveland TV News Reporter
author: Paul Orlousky
name: Mike
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/13
date added: 2021/05/15
shelves:
review:
Veteran Cleveland newscaster Paul Orlousky delivers a memoir of sorts, describing his career in television news with memories of some of his most interesting encounters. Orlo, as he's known in Cleveland, writes with humor but also seriousness as he describes what it was like chasing down stories for more than 40 years in Cleveland as well as previous smaller stops like Youngstown and Almira, New York.

You'll read about the time he was assaulted by Prince's bodyguard. You'll learn how he found out a crematorium was dumping bones into graves. You'll cringe at the time Orlo's sting on some prostitutes in a hotel nearly went down a disastrous road.

It's a book that can be opened up at any part as it's just Paul Orlousky telling stories. They are grouped by type of story, but nothing that must be read beginning to end in order. There's also around 20 pages of pictures from Paul's vast career in television.

Anyone who enjoys following the Cleveland media will enjoy this book.
]]> Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio 50159458 From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the Eisner and ALA/YALSA Alex Award-winning tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form.

Named a “Best Book of the Year� by New York Times, Forbes, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and NPR!

Derf Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy: the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19).

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, four students were killed and nine shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children—a shocking event burned into our national memory.

The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than four million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in the history of the United States at that time. It was a day that shocked the nation and helped turn the tide of public opinion against America’s war in Vietnam.

A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike.

Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart.

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent—as relevant today as it was in 1970.]]> 280 Derf Backderf 1419734849 Mike 4
That's my response after finishing this graphic novel about the National Guard shooting of students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. There's so much more to it than I knew from cursory reading of stories about it and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Ohio."

It's just a graphic novel, you think. A bunch of pictures drawn of the participants, word balloons telling the tale. But this book is weighty. Literally. It feels heavy. And it is also filled with meticulous research about the event. Often it stops to provide fairly lengthy descriptions of people or events that led up to the May 4 shooting.

You hear the CSNY song and think of four dead in the shooting, but there was much more to it. There were many more wounded after the National Guard shot indiscriminately into the college crowd, two of whom were paralyzed. And most of those shot had nothing to do with any protesting that was going on that weekend at Kent. It was a normal school day when the shooting occurred, with many students and others going about their day and just walking between classes. Some of the bullets traveled hundreds of yards before hitting people who were nowhere near any of the goings-on.

And the bloodlust of those in charge -- despicable. Governor James Rhodes thought emulating Richard Nixon by cracking down on student protestors would win him votes. His two terms as Ohio governor were ending, so he was running for U.S. Senate. Polling showed him trailing badly, but he nearly came back to win when the Republican primary was held two days after the shootings. Sadly, his tough stance probably did help him win back the governorship of Ohio four years later when he ran and won after successfully arguing that the state constitution only limited politicians to two CONSECUTIVE four-year terms, not two overall four-year terms.

Then there were the Guard leaders who had poor plans regarding their troops involvement. Even some troops themselves were eager to fire on students. Their patience had been worn thin from protests, uprisings, and insults all weekend on campus. Hey, if you are going to be sent somewhere with a gun to control a situation, you're expected to eventually use that gun, right?

Anyway, John Backderf shows the backstory of those who were shot and killed along with the events leading up to May 4. When it gets to the actual shootings, he does the victims justice with jaw-dropping, full-page depictions of each death. They are freeze-frame moments in a medium that is all motionless to begin with. It's heartbreaking to see what actually happened and realize how the Guardsmen obfuscated and discarded evidence so no one would know who specifically was involved and what exactly happened. And the National Guard covered up the happenings for years, even to this day not revealing all aspects of what happened.

Footnotes and an epilogue reveal all the ways Derf researched the true events of the Kent State shootings.

Even more infuriating to realize that many believe everyone shot at Kent State got what was coming to them and methods like this should be used on protesters today.]]> 4.47 2020 Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
author: Derf Backderf
name: Mike
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/12
date added: 2021/05/15
shelves:
review:
Infuriating.

That's my response after finishing this graphic novel about the National Guard shooting of students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. There's so much more to it than I knew from cursory reading of stories about it and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Ohio."

It's just a graphic novel, you think. A bunch of pictures drawn of the participants, word balloons telling the tale. But this book is weighty. Literally. It feels heavy. And it is also filled with meticulous research about the event. Often it stops to provide fairly lengthy descriptions of people or events that led up to the May 4 shooting.

You hear the CSNY song and think of four dead in the shooting, but there was much more to it. There were many more wounded after the National Guard shot indiscriminately into the college crowd, two of whom were paralyzed. And most of those shot had nothing to do with any protesting that was going on that weekend at Kent. It was a normal school day when the shooting occurred, with many students and others going about their day and just walking between classes. Some of the bullets traveled hundreds of yards before hitting people who were nowhere near any of the goings-on.

And the bloodlust of those in charge -- despicable. Governor James Rhodes thought emulating Richard Nixon by cracking down on student protestors would win him votes. His two terms as Ohio governor were ending, so he was running for U.S. Senate. Polling showed him trailing badly, but he nearly came back to win when the Republican primary was held two days after the shootings. Sadly, his tough stance probably did help him win back the governorship of Ohio four years later when he ran and won after successfully arguing that the state constitution only limited politicians to two CONSECUTIVE four-year terms, not two overall four-year terms.

Then there were the Guard leaders who had poor plans regarding their troops involvement. Even some troops themselves were eager to fire on students. Their patience had been worn thin from protests, uprisings, and insults all weekend on campus. Hey, if you are going to be sent somewhere with a gun to control a situation, you're expected to eventually use that gun, right?

Anyway, John Backderf shows the backstory of those who were shot and killed along with the events leading up to May 4. When it gets to the actual shootings, he does the victims justice with jaw-dropping, full-page depictions of each death. They are freeze-frame moments in a medium that is all motionless to begin with. It's heartbreaking to see what actually happened and realize how the Guardsmen obfuscated and discarded evidence so no one would know who specifically was involved and what exactly happened. And the National Guard covered up the happenings for years, even to this day not revealing all aspects of what happened.

Footnotes and an epilogue reveal all the ways Derf researched the true events of the Kent State shootings.

Even more infuriating to realize that many believe everyone shot at Kent State got what was coming to them and methods like this should be used on protesters today.
]]> The End of October 52669505 In this medical thriller Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees.

At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city... A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare... already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic... Henry's wife Jill and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta... and the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population.]]> 374 Lawrence Wright 0525658653 Mike 3
There's the Saudi Prince who is also a trained doctor who simply wants to do what is best for his people, even if it means bending the rules to receive outside help. There's the boat skipper who is completely dedicated to his submariners even though he is suffering from leukemia and can barely receive proper treatment. And there is our protagonist, Henry Parsons, an epidemiologist and leader from the CDC who bravely uses himself as a guinea pig for vaccines to combat the deadly disease raging around the globe in Lawrence Wright's prescient, pre-COVID novel of a plague.

And I wouldn't have read it if not for the pandemic that has taken over our lives the last year-plus.

I knew of Lawrence Wright a while ago, from his nonfiction work, most notably The Looming Tower, about the rise of Al-Qaeda. He's also written about scientology and has a cool book about why Texas is so mythical. This one, his second novel and first in 20 years, got plenty of pub when it came out in April last year, not long after many things had shut down due to COVID-19. At that time I had little interest in reading it; who wants to read a book about a deadly pandemic while going through a deadly pandemic?

Turns out it's not so bad reading a book about a deadly pandemic toward the end of a deadly pandemic. Seeing this book on displays at my library day after day after day ... after day ... after day ... I finally broke down and grabbed it. It grabbed me back. The End of October was published after the pandemic began but was researched and written beforehand. But it felt like like I was reading a recap of the past year, albeit highly exaggerated.

There is the blaming of foreign countries for the Kongoli virus in the novel. There are those in denial of what is happening. There are shutdowns of industries -- schools, restaurants, sports. There are people masking up everywhere. There is the vice president being put in charge of a virus task force.

There are also cities of millions locked down in order to contain the spread. There are governments toppled because of the virus. There are hundreds of millions of people dead. There are cyberattacks. There is a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and an unofficial one between the United States and Russia.

Much of reading this book now, when the pandemic is dwindling, is to see the difference between what was and what could have been. We have seen close to 3½ million deaths worldwide from COVID-19, a tiny percentage of what happens in the book. But everything leading up to the events of the book is very similar to what we went through. Fortunately our virus was much less lethal than the one Lawrence Wright envisioned, and our vaccines were ramped up much more quickly than in The End of October.

But the book surmises that there is always another outbreak right around the corner, which could be even more deadly than before. And we've found out in the real world we don't have as many noble leaders as Wright creates for his book. When you have people barging into McDonald's and basically assaulting a cashier over policies requiring customers to wear a mask, it makes you wonder if humanity has a chance if there ever were a real crisis anywhere near the level of what happens in The End of October.

So reading this now? I enjoyed the parts that mirrored our pandemic, applauding Wright's meticulous research and imagination. It's comforting to realize that there is some level of planning for an event like this that Wright tapped into to create his novel. Not so comforting to realize how unwilling people are to implement, especially our leaders.]]> 3.68 2020 The End of October
author: Lawrence Wright
name: Mike
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/15
date added: 2021/05/15
shelves:
review:
Everyone in this book is so noble.

There's the Saudi Prince who is also a trained doctor who simply wants to do what is best for his people, even if it means bending the rules to receive outside help. There's the boat skipper who is completely dedicated to his submariners even though he is suffering from leukemia and can barely receive proper treatment. And there is our protagonist, Henry Parsons, an epidemiologist and leader from the CDC who bravely uses himself as a guinea pig for vaccines to combat the deadly disease raging around the globe in Lawrence Wright's prescient, pre-COVID novel of a plague.

And I wouldn't have read it if not for the pandemic that has taken over our lives the last year-plus.

I knew of Lawrence Wright a while ago, from his nonfiction work, most notably The Looming Tower, about the rise of Al-Qaeda. He's also written about scientology and has a cool book about why Texas is so mythical. This one, his second novel and first in 20 years, got plenty of pub when it came out in April last year, not long after many things had shut down due to COVID-19. At that time I had little interest in reading it; who wants to read a book about a deadly pandemic while going through a deadly pandemic?

Turns out it's not so bad reading a book about a deadly pandemic toward the end of a deadly pandemic. Seeing this book on displays at my library day after day after day ... after day ... after day ... I finally broke down and grabbed it. It grabbed me back. The End of October was published after the pandemic began but was researched and written beforehand. But it felt like like I was reading a recap of the past year, albeit highly exaggerated.

There is the blaming of foreign countries for the Kongoli virus in the novel. There are those in denial of what is happening. There are shutdowns of industries -- schools, restaurants, sports. There are people masking up everywhere. There is the vice president being put in charge of a virus task force.

There are also cities of millions locked down in order to contain the spread. There are governments toppled because of the virus. There are hundreds of millions of people dead. There are cyberattacks. There is a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and an unofficial one between the United States and Russia.

Much of reading this book now, when the pandemic is dwindling, is to see the difference between what was and what could have been. We have seen close to 3½ million deaths worldwide from COVID-19, a tiny percentage of what happens in the book. But everything leading up to the events of the book is very similar to what we went through. Fortunately our virus was much less lethal than the one Lawrence Wright envisioned, and our vaccines were ramped up much more quickly than in The End of October.

But the book surmises that there is always another outbreak right around the corner, which could be even more deadly than before. And we've found out in the real world we don't have as many noble leaders as Wright creates for his book. When you have people barging into McDonald's and basically assaulting a cashier over policies requiring customers to wear a mask, it makes you wonder if humanity has a chance if there ever were a real crisis anywhere near the level of what happens in The End of October.

So reading this now? I enjoyed the parts that mirrored our pandemic, applauding Wright's meticulous research and imagination. It's comforting to realize that there is some level of planning for an event like this that Wright tapped into to create his novel. Not so comforting to realize how unwilling people are to implement, especially our leaders.
]]> Shiver 55707640
How far would you go to win? Hyper-competitive people, mind games and a dangerous natural environment combine to make the must-read thriller of the year. Fans of Lucy Foley and Lisa Jewell will be gripped by spectacular debut novel Shiver.

When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go.

The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth.

In a deserted lodge high up a mountain, the secrets of the past are about to come to light.]]> 432 Allie Reynolds 147227024X Mike 3
Quite often, characters in books like this thriller are. After all, how can the plot advance if the characters don't do the stupid things required to get from Point A to Point B to Point C to Point D to ...

But who cares? After all, the thrill in such thrillers is all the twists and turns while trying to figure out who did what, who isn't who they seem to be, and who is dumb enough to do all the things that lead to their unveiling -- or worse.

In this one, we have dummies Milla, Curtis, Dale, Brent, and Heather who are invited to a reunion of sorts 10 years after their snowboarding group had a pretty nasty falling out. Four of them were strong international snowboarding competitors along with Saskia, Odette, and Julien. They love/hated, had relationships with, competed against each other, and regularly sabotaged each other. Their adventures culminated with Saskia missing and Odette paralyzed and the group melting away. A decade later, some of the group reunites at a snowy mountain lodge in the offseason.

The book alternates between chapters in the present and from 10 years ago. We follow the characters in the present as they slowly realize their predicament as they arrive at the abandoned resort, and in the past as the story of what led to all this is doled out. Narrated by Milla, we learn that someone is out for revenge for what happened -- and it could be any of the group or maybe even the supposedly dead Saskia.

No one would act like any of the people in this book, at least not in the present. No one would talk like any of them. And no one would be able to plan out all the things needed to make everything happen as it does.

But who cares?

It's what they call a page-turner. You're going to be dragged along by the short chapters, wanting to bite off just one more to find out what happens. If you like snowboarding, you'll like the book even more; if you don't it won't diminish the book. The author snowboarded in her youth, so she knows her stuff. But ultimately you'll stick around for the mystery that brought all the rest of the characters here as well.

Might not be the best thriller you'll ever read, but it's good enough to keep the pages turning.]]> 3.77 2020 Shiver
author: Allie Reynolds
name: Mike
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/07
date added: 2021/05/07
shelves:
review:
They're all dummies.

Quite often, characters in books like this thriller are. After all, how can the plot advance if the characters don't do the stupid things required to get from Point A to Point B to Point C to Point D to ...

But who cares? After all, the thrill in such thrillers is all the twists and turns while trying to figure out who did what, who isn't who they seem to be, and who is dumb enough to do all the things that lead to their unveiling -- or worse.

In this one, we have dummies Milla, Curtis, Dale, Brent, and Heather who are invited to a reunion of sorts 10 years after their snowboarding group had a pretty nasty falling out. Four of them were strong international snowboarding competitors along with Saskia, Odette, and Julien. They love/hated, had relationships with, competed against each other, and regularly sabotaged each other. Their adventures culminated with Saskia missing and Odette paralyzed and the group melting away. A decade later, some of the group reunites at a snowy mountain lodge in the offseason.

The book alternates between chapters in the present and from 10 years ago. We follow the characters in the present as they slowly realize their predicament as they arrive at the abandoned resort, and in the past as the story of what led to all this is doled out. Narrated by Milla, we learn that someone is out for revenge for what happened -- and it could be any of the group or maybe even the supposedly dead Saskia.

No one would act like any of the people in this book, at least not in the present. No one would talk like any of them. And no one would be able to plan out all the things needed to make everything happen as it does.

But who cares?

It's what they call a page-turner. You're going to be dragged along by the short chapters, wanting to bite off just one more to find out what happens. If you like snowboarding, you'll like the book even more; if you don't it won't diminish the book. The author snowboarded in her youth, so she knows her stuff. But ultimately you'll stick around for the mystery that brought all the rest of the characters here as well.

Might not be the best thriller you'll ever read, but it's good enough to keep the pages turning.
]]> A Red Death (Easy Rawlins #2) 84548 When an income tax officer makes him an offer he can't refuse, Easy Rawlins is forced out of retirement and into the infiltration of his local church, the First African Baptist, and the surveillance of local radicals. Murderers strike and he becomes the prime suspect of the Los Angeles Police Department, who lose no sleep over the fate of 'freelance' private eyes.]]> 284 Walter Mosley 1852427698 Mike 3
I mean, I requested the book because I wanted to read the second in the Easy Rawlins series. But when the book came from the big downtown library, I knew right away I would enjoy it because of the cover.

It was red, a solid red. No author pictures, no book jacket, no fancy font for the title and author name. Nothing. Just a red cover, front and back, with the title etched on the side. And not even correctly a that; Red Death it said in black letters.

That was it. A solid hardbacked book built 30 or so years ago for reading and nothing else. No Instagrammable cover, nothing fancy to display on your bookshelf, too big to fit in your pocket. This is a sturdy edition built to be read on the subway or the bus or on your porch or to fall off your chest and onto the floor when you fall asleep reading it deep into the ninth. It's built to pass on to many people and still be readable decades after the publication date.

Utility. That's what this book is made for. This edition was made to be used. To be enjoyed for it's purpose -- a great Easy Rawlins tale. That's what it is, and it doesn't need to be dressed up. The story deserves exactly this, to be bound in a solid red cover that tells you what's inside is important. It's like handing someone The Great Gatsby or a John Steinbeck novel or a Dickens novel from the 1800s which has nothing on it but the title. You don't need anything more from it; you just know.

This one furthers the story of Easy Rawlins, a kind-of private eye in 1950s Los Angeles. After falling in with some ne'er do-wells while trying to find a missing woman, World War II vet Easy Rawlins has done well for himself, compiling a bit of a real estate empire through money acquired from that caper. Except that he never paid taxes on the money and can't quite let people know he's the landlord rather than the maintenance man because there might be questions about where the money came from. The questions come anyway directly from the tax man. And the Easy way out is when the FBI also comes calling, asking Rawlins to find out what a supposed communist and Union man Chaim Wenzler is trying to rile up in the Black community. See, Easy Rawlins can easily cruise through that world, but the FBI can't.

So that's what Easy does, flitting between meetings with his "landlord," the church people Chaim Wenzler is helping (or maybe not), and meetings with the IRS and FBI and various policemen who think he had something to do with the various dead bodies that turn up anytime he's around. All the while Easy wonders "why me" as he invariable just falls into episodes while trying to appease everyone on all sides.

All in all, a satisfactory second entry in the Easy Rawlins saga. And a VERY satisfactory cover. I'm already onto the third entry.]]> 3.96 1991 A Red Death (Easy Rawlins #2)
author: Walter Mosley
name: Mike
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/21
date added: 2021/05/07
shelves:
review:
I judged it for the cover.

I mean, I requested the book because I wanted to read the second in the Easy Rawlins series. But when the book came from the big downtown library, I knew right away I would enjoy it because of the cover.

It was red, a solid red. No author pictures, no book jacket, no fancy font for the title and author name. Nothing. Just a red cover, front and back, with the title etched on the side. And not even correctly a that; Red Death it said in black letters.

That was it. A solid hardbacked book built 30 or so years ago for reading and nothing else. No Instagrammable cover, nothing fancy to display on your bookshelf, too big to fit in your pocket. This is a sturdy edition built to be read on the subway or the bus or on your porch or to fall off your chest and onto the floor when you fall asleep reading it deep into the ninth. It's built to pass on to many people and still be readable decades after the publication date.

Utility. That's what this book is made for. This edition was made to be used. To be enjoyed for it's purpose -- a great Easy Rawlins tale. That's what it is, and it doesn't need to be dressed up. The story deserves exactly this, to be bound in a solid red cover that tells you what's inside is important. It's like handing someone The Great Gatsby or a John Steinbeck novel or a Dickens novel from the 1800s which has nothing on it but the title. You don't need anything more from it; you just know.

This one furthers the story of Easy Rawlins, a kind-of private eye in 1950s Los Angeles. After falling in with some ne'er do-wells while trying to find a missing woman, World War II vet Easy Rawlins has done well for himself, compiling a bit of a real estate empire through money acquired from that caper. Except that he never paid taxes on the money and can't quite let people know he's the landlord rather than the maintenance man because there might be questions about where the money came from. The questions come anyway directly from the tax man. And the Easy way out is when the FBI also comes calling, asking Rawlins to find out what a supposed communist and Union man Chaim Wenzler is trying to rile up in the Black community. See, Easy Rawlins can easily cruise through that world, but the FBI can't.

So that's what Easy does, flitting between meetings with his "landlord," the church people Chaim Wenzler is helping (or maybe not), and meetings with the IRS and FBI and various policemen who think he had something to do with the various dead bodies that turn up anytime he's around. All the while Easy wonders "why me" as he invariable just falls into episodes while trying to appease everyone on all sides.

All in all, a satisfactory second entry in the Easy Rawlins saga. And a VERY satisfactory cover. I'm already onto the third entry.
]]> Paul is Dead 48933315
John Lennon can't speak, he can't take his eyes off a photo of a car in flames with the body of Paul McCartney inside. His friend is no longer there, and that means the Beatles are no longer there, either. But John wants to know the truth, and with George and Ringo, he starts to re-examine the final hours in Paul's life.

Set in the magical atmosphere of Abbey Road Studios during the writing sessions for Sgt. Pepper , the definitive version of the legend of the Paul McCartney's death.]]> 128 Paolo Baron 1534316299 Mike 3 3.00 2018 Paul is Dead
author: Paolo Baron
name: Mike
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/04/21
shelves:
review:
Really cool art, designed to look like an acid trip that members of The Beatles might take. Neat story in the beginning, then runs out of steam and says "Just Kidding" at the end. Read it in 10 minutes. Wouldn't have spent five on it if not for the art.
]]> Homeland Elegies 50358133 Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of belonging and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque adventure -- at its heart, it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and our ideals have been sacrificed to the gods of finance, where a TV personality is president and immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds of 9/11 wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one -- least of all himself -- in the process.]]> 368 Ayad Akhtar 0316496421 Mike 4
There is definitely no Kamal Morse, All-Pro linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, who retired from the NFL to start a mosque. There appears to be no Kamal Morse, period, not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on LinkedIn.

There is a Khalil Mack, former All-Pro linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, who did not retire from the NFL to start a mosque or do anything else. Instead, he was traded to the Chicago Bears for wanting more money than the Raiders thought he was worth. He still toils in the Windy City. And he's a Christian.

And this is when I realized Homeland Elegies is a fantasy.

It's billed as an inventive memoir, a mixture of fact and fiction to tell the story of what it is like to be a Muslim in Trump's America, what life is like for immigrants and their American-born children. It is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar, featuring a character named Ayad Akhtar who is purportedly the author, but not really. He has the author's job, he has the author's parents and family, he has the author's background, he has the author's friends -- but does he have all the author's experiences? Does the author have all the character's experiences? For that matter, do the other real people in the book, such as Akhtar's father, Sikander, have their actual experiences? For example, was the author's father actually Donald Trump's heart doctor at one time?

And does it matter?

The book may not be true, but it is definitely real. The themes, the experiences, the realizations, they are all things and events that Muslims and other people of color are facing in America in recent years. Were Ayad and Sikander harassed in a gas station and told to go back to their country because Ayad did a poor parking job? Was Ayad pulled over on the highway by a seemingly friendly cop who helped Ayad with an engine problem by directing him to the policeman's relative's shady repair shop, where Ayad was hustled for a couple thousand dollars? Did Ayad use someone's sage -- possibly insider -- advice and turn a $300,000 inheritance into millions of dollars through a timely investment? Maaaaaybe. Probably not? And who cares? Those and countless similar stories happened and continue to happen to plenty of people much like Ayad Akhtar.

I suspect about 20% of the book is true. It appears that most of the people book Ayad Akhtar spends time with are not real. There's Riaz Rind, the Muslim who started a hedge fund named Avasani. Neither exists, not as described in the book. There's no Mike Jacobs, son of former Alabama politician Jerry Jacobs, at least not as Akhtar tells it. Who knows if Akhtar's father was ever sued for medical malpractice as described in the book; there certainly wasn't a lawyer named Chip Slaughter advocating for the aggrieved. I'm going to guess many if not all of Akhtar's sexual conquests are part of the fantasy.

There are plenty of clues that point to the book being all made up, even though it is billed as a fictional memoir. Akhtar writes plenty about the meaning of dreams, how he came upon a method to transcribe his, how he spent years analyzing and interpreting them. In the introduction, he even states that he wrote the book in a bit of a fever dream after his mother died. He uses family members and lovers as proxies for belief in psychics and horoscopes. He uses long, detailed, dialogue-filled arguments, mostly with his parents, to take sides against himself and his own thoughts on the Muslim religion. Many of these wind up with people saying his is hiding his anti-Muslim sentiments through his plays. So is the the author even who he thinks he is?

But does it matter? Does it matter if it all of it is true, if part of it is true, or if none of it is true? You could spend all your time looking up Kamal Morse online, looking up Riaz Rind online, looking up Mike Jacobs and Jerry Jacobs and Langford -v- Reliant, trying to find answers from Akhtar himself as to what's true and what's imagined. Or what's been dreamed.

Or ultimately you can just give in to it. Not worry about whether everything or most things are true. Just accept that they are all real. And enjoy the darn good stories that are told. Because Akhtar is an excellent writer. Based on this book, the Pulitzer was well-deserved.

Maybe there's no hedge funder who uses his wealth to raise the boats of his fellow Muslims. Maybe an All-Pro football player didn't quit the sport to start a mosque. Maybe Akhtar didn't have all the relationships with women he claims. Maybe his father didn't ride off to the Pakistan sunset. Maybe those are all just the fantasy outcomes Akhtar would like after dealing with the things he and his fellow Muslims have dealt with the last couple of decades.

Maybe that's all just fine and you get an excellent book from it.]]> 4.11 2020 Homeland Elegies
author: Ayad Akhtar
name: Mike
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/05
date added: 2021/03/10
shelves:
review:
There is no Kamal Morse.

There is definitely no Kamal Morse, All-Pro linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, who retired from the NFL to start a mosque. There appears to be no Kamal Morse, period, not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on LinkedIn.

There is a Khalil Mack, former All-Pro linebacker for the Oakland Raiders, who did not retire from the NFL to start a mosque or do anything else. Instead, he was traded to the Chicago Bears for wanting more money than the Raiders thought he was worth. He still toils in the Windy City. And he's a Christian.

And this is when I realized Homeland Elegies is a fantasy.

It's billed as an inventive memoir, a mixture of fact and fiction to tell the story of what it is like to be a Muslim in Trump's America, what life is like for immigrants and their American-born children. It is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar, featuring a character named Ayad Akhtar who is purportedly the author, but not really. He has the author's job, he has the author's parents and family, he has the author's background, he has the author's friends -- but does he have all the author's experiences? Does the author have all the character's experiences? For that matter, do the other real people in the book, such as Akhtar's father, Sikander, have their actual experiences? For example, was the author's father actually Donald Trump's heart doctor at one time?

And does it matter?

The book may not be true, but it is definitely real. The themes, the experiences, the realizations, they are all things and events that Muslims and other people of color are facing in America in recent years. Were Ayad and Sikander harassed in a gas station and told to go back to their country because Ayad did a poor parking job? Was Ayad pulled over on the highway by a seemingly friendly cop who helped Ayad with an engine problem by directing him to the policeman's relative's shady repair shop, where Ayad was hustled for a couple thousand dollars? Did Ayad use someone's sage -- possibly insider -- advice and turn a $300,000 inheritance into millions of dollars through a timely investment? Maaaaaybe. Probably not? And who cares? Those and countless similar stories happened and continue to happen to plenty of people much like Ayad Akhtar.

I suspect about 20% of the book is true. It appears that most of the people book Ayad Akhtar spends time with are not real. There's Riaz Rind, the Muslim who started a hedge fund named Avasani. Neither exists, not as described in the book. There's no Mike Jacobs, son of former Alabama politician Jerry Jacobs, at least not as Akhtar tells it. Who knows if Akhtar's father was ever sued for medical malpractice as described in the book; there certainly wasn't a lawyer named Chip Slaughter advocating for the aggrieved. I'm going to guess many if not all of Akhtar's sexual conquests are part of the fantasy.

There are plenty of clues that point to the book being all made up, even though it is billed as a fictional memoir. Akhtar writes plenty about the meaning of dreams, how he came upon a method to transcribe his, how he spent years analyzing and interpreting them. In the introduction, he even states that he wrote the book in a bit of a fever dream after his mother died. He uses family members and lovers as proxies for belief in psychics and horoscopes. He uses long, detailed, dialogue-filled arguments, mostly with his parents, to take sides against himself and his own thoughts on the Muslim religion. Many of these wind up with people saying his is hiding his anti-Muslim sentiments through his plays. So is the the author even who he thinks he is?

But does it matter? Does it matter if it all of it is true, if part of it is true, or if none of it is true? You could spend all your time looking up Kamal Morse online, looking up Riaz Rind online, looking up Mike Jacobs and Jerry Jacobs and Langford -v- Reliant, trying to find answers from Akhtar himself as to what's true and what's imagined. Or what's been dreamed.

Or ultimately you can just give in to it. Not worry about whether everything or most things are true. Just accept that they are all real. And enjoy the darn good stories that are told. Because Akhtar is an excellent writer. Based on this book, the Pulitzer was well-deserved.

Maybe there's no hedge funder who uses his wealth to raise the boats of his fellow Muslims. Maybe an All-Pro football player didn't quit the sport to start a mosque. Maybe Akhtar didn't have all the relationships with women he claims. Maybe his father didn't ride off to the Pakistan sunset. Maybe those are all just the fantasy outcomes Akhtar would like after dealing with the things he and his fellow Muslims have dealt with the last couple of decades.

Maybe that's all just fine and you get an excellent book from it.
]]> <![CDATA[Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice]]> 33517784 A journalist-turned-private investigator returns to the case that has haunted her for decades--a death row execution that may have killed an innocent man--in a deeply personal quest to sort truth from lies.

In 1990, Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter for the Miami Herald when she covered the execution of Jesse Tafero, a man convicted of murdering two police officers. When it later emerged that Tafero may not have committed the murders, McGarrahan became haunted by that grisly execution--and appalled by her unquestioning acceptance of the state's version of events.

Decades later, in the midst of her successful career as a private investigator, McGarrahan finally decides to find out the truth of what really happened. Her investigation takes her back to Florida, where she combs through court files and interviews everyone involved in the case. She plunges back into the Miami of the 1960s and 1970s, where gangsters and drug kingpins and beautiful women inhabit a dangerous world of nightclubs, speed boats, and cartels. Violence is everywhere. The tragedy of the two murdered police officers, she discovers, is only the start of the mystery. But even as McGarrahan circles closer to the truth, the story of guilt and innocence becomes more complex. She gradually discovers that she hasn't been alone in her need for closure, because whenever a human life is forcibly taken--by bullet, or by electric chair--the reckoning is long and difficult for all.]]> 368 Ellen McGarrahan 0812998669 Mike 4
Too bad, cuz I could kiss 'em.

Or at least get more recommendations.

I suppose I could find out. You see, it was someone I follow on Twitter. Someone who posted about the book, said YOU MUST read this book, it's as good as it gets, it's by a former reporter who witnessed an electric-chair execution that went bad and caused her to leave journalism, become a private investigator, and finally return to the case that has haunted her pretty much her entire adult life.

And what she does to track down as much of the truth as she can ...

You see, Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter in Miami when she was assigned to cover the execution of Jesse Tafero in 1990. The execution was botched -- when Tafero was strapped to the electric chair and the power turned on, something caused him to catch fire and buckle and gasp instead of just succumb to the voltage. So they tried it again. And then one more time after his head caught fire again. Seven minutes and much burning later, Tafero was dead.

That was bad enough, especially in front of a room full of witnesses. But with it came the suspicion that Tafero was not guilty of the crimes for which he was being executed. In 1976, he was sleeping in a car with his friend Walter Rhodes his girlfriend Sonia Jacobs, and two children when a pair policemen approached. Moments later the two policemen had been shot dead and the group was on the move in their squad car.

Eventually the case made its way through the courts, with each suspect blaming the others, before Rhodes' testimony eventually sent Tafero and Jacobs to death row. Tafero was finally executed and Jacobs eventually exonerated, with Rhodes violating his parole a few years later before being apprehended again.

That would probably have been that if not for the botched execution. Watching a possibly innocent man suffer so much in death caused McGarrahan to go somewhat into a spiral. It haunted her for years to come, caused her to change professions, and eventually track down just about everyone involved with the case and write a book about it.

And the process of reporting the book is more fascinating than the case itself. As a private investigator, McGarrahan learned how to track people down, often walking right up to their front door, knocking, and asking uncomfortable questions.

That's what she does while trying to find the truth to this case. The lengths she goes to in order to track down Rhodes, Jacobs and her son in different trips rivals the Quest for the Ring. She spends weeks poring over case files in Florida and digs up long forgotten evidence. She continually asks herself why she is doing all this while doling out the true-crime story. There are connection to luminaries such as Mickey Rourke and celebrity criminal Jack Murphy. And Jacobs' version of events has been turned into a TV movie and Broadway play, acted out by many superstars.

McGarrahan eventually comes to a conclusion that isn't necessarily the truth she wants but satisfies her anyway. The book itself is also very satisfying. I just marvel at the way the author tracks people down, talks to them, gets the information she is looking for -- usually -- and moves on to the next event. She's like a glacier, nothing will stop her.

So Twitter person, I don't remember who you are. Like McGarrahan, I could probably sleuth around and find you. And while I'm probably not going to be able to give you that kiss, I'll give you a like if I find you. And hopefully you'll give me some more fantastic recommendations.]]> 3.50 2021 Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice
author: Ellen McGarrahan
name: Mike
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/21
date added: 2021/02/21
shelves:
review:
I forget who told me to read this book.

Too bad, cuz I could kiss 'em.

Or at least get more recommendations.

I suppose I could find out. You see, it was someone I follow on Twitter. Someone who posted about the book, said YOU MUST read this book, it's as good as it gets, it's by a former reporter who witnessed an electric-chair execution that went bad and caused her to leave journalism, become a private investigator, and finally return to the case that has haunted her pretty much her entire adult life.

And what she does to track down as much of the truth as she can ...

You see, Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter in Miami when she was assigned to cover the execution of Jesse Tafero in 1990. The execution was botched -- when Tafero was strapped to the electric chair and the power turned on, something caused him to catch fire and buckle and gasp instead of just succumb to the voltage. So they tried it again. And then one more time after his head caught fire again. Seven minutes and much burning later, Tafero was dead.

That was bad enough, especially in front of a room full of witnesses. But with it came the suspicion that Tafero was not guilty of the crimes for which he was being executed. In 1976, he was sleeping in a car with his friend Walter Rhodes his girlfriend Sonia Jacobs, and two children when a pair policemen approached. Moments later the two policemen had been shot dead and the group was on the move in their squad car.

Eventually the case made its way through the courts, with each suspect blaming the others, before Rhodes' testimony eventually sent Tafero and Jacobs to death row. Tafero was finally executed and Jacobs eventually exonerated, with Rhodes violating his parole a few years later before being apprehended again.

That would probably have been that if not for the botched execution. Watching a possibly innocent man suffer so much in death caused McGarrahan to go somewhat into a spiral. It haunted her for years to come, caused her to change professions, and eventually track down just about everyone involved with the case and write a book about it.

And the process of reporting the book is more fascinating than the case itself. As a private investigator, McGarrahan learned how to track people down, often walking right up to their front door, knocking, and asking uncomfortable questions.

That's what she does while trying to find the truth to this case. The lengths she goes to in order to track down Rhodes, Jacobs and her son in different trips rivals the Quest for the Ring. She spends weeks poring over case files in Florida and digs up long forgotten evidence. She continually asks herself why she is doing all this while doling out the true-crime story. There are connection to luminaries such as Mickey Rourke and celebrity criminal Jack Murphy. And Jacobs' version of events has been turned into a TV movie and Broadway play, acted out by many superstars.

McGarrahan eventually comes to a conclusion that isn't necessarily the truth she wants but satisfies her anyway. The book itself is also very satisfying. I just marvel at the way the author tracks people down, talks to them, gets the information she is looking for -- usually -- and moves on to the next event. She's like a glacier, nothing will stop her.

So Twitter person, I don't remember who you are. Like McGarrahan, I could probably sleuth around and find you. And while I'm probably not going to be able to give you that kiss, I'll give you a like if I find you. And hopefully you'll give me some more fantastic recommendations.
]]> <![CDATA[Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1)]]> 37100 263 Walter Mosley Mike 4
He's been around for awhile, since 1990. I've known about him for awhile, not all that time, but a decent amount. He's the protagonist of Walter Mosley's noir detective series, 14 novels in all, the most recent in 2016. Something prompted me to finally pick up the first, Devil in a Blue Dress.

Everyone's looking for that comforting series. You've got these television shows serving up the same dinner week after week, year after year -- CSI, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods all the Chicago series. Something familiar to come back to that gives you familiarity, pleasure, and a little bit of a twist. I've been looking for that in a book series for awhile.

It could have been the Doc Ford series. Might still be. There's 26 of those. I'm drawn to it because they take place on Sanibel Island in Florida, where my sister and her husband live, where I've visited. The first one of that is Sanibel Flats. Interestingly, it was published just two months after Devil in a Blue Dress.

But Devil in a Blue Dress was the choice. A good one. Easy Rawlins is just a Black working man in 1948 Los Angeles, trying to make enough to pay the mortgage on the house he loves. He hangs out at Joppy's bar and a couple different speakeasys listening to jazz music and visiting with friends. Originally from Houston, he's set his flag in LA while trying to leave behind a shady past after returning from World War II.

One day, Joppy turns DeWitt Albright on to Easy. Albright wants to hire Easy to find a woman that travels in Easy's circles. This leads to a series of meetups with many unsavory characters -- Frank Green, Matthew Teran, Todd Carter, officers Miller and Mason -- and plenty of beatings and murders. Along the way Easy gets help from a lot of his friends, good and bad, such as Mouse from back home in Houston, Odell Jones, and Jackson Blue. And of course he strikes up a special friendship with the object of everyone's pursuit, Daphne Monet.

Hopefully some of these people will show up in the next 13 novels. I think I found my comfort food in book form. A few more servings will be on the menu.]]> 3.89 1990 Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins, #1)
author: Walter Mosley
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/31
date added: 2021/01/31
shelves:
review:
I like Easy Rawlins. Really like him. And I just met him.

He's been around for awhile, since 1990. I've known about him for awhile, not all that time, but a decent amount. He's the protagonist of Walter Mosley's noir detective series, 14 novels in all, the most recent in 2016. Something prompted me to finally pick up the first, Devil in a Blue Dress.

Everyone's looking for that comforting series. You've got these television shows serving up the same dinner week after week, year after year -- CSI, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, Blue Bloods all the Chicago series. Something familiar to come back to that gives you familiarity, pleasure, and a little bit of a twist. I've been looking for that in a book series for awhile.

It could have been the Doc Ford series. Might still be. There's 26 of those. I'm drawn to it because they take place on Sanibel Island in Florida, where my sister and her husband live, where I've visited. The first one of that is Sanibel Flats. Interestingly, it was published just two months after Devil in a Blue Dress.

But Devil in a Blue Dress was the choice. A good one. Easy Rawlins is just a Black working man in 1948 Los Angeles, trying to make enough to pay the mortgage on the house he loves. He hangs out at Joppy's bar and a couple different speakeasys listening to jazz music and visiting with friends. Originally from Houston, he's set his flag in LA while trying to leave behind a shady past after returning from World War II.

One day, Joppy turns DeWitt Albright on to Easy. Albright wants to hire Easy to find a woman that travels in Easy's circles. This leads to a series of meetups with many unsavory characters -- Frank Green, Matthew Teran, Todd Carter, officers Miller and Mason -- and plenty of beatings and murders. Along the way Easy gets help from a lot of his friends, good and bad, such as Mouse from back home in Houston, Odell Jones, and Jackson Blue. And of course he strikes up a special friendship with the object of everyone's pursuit, Daphne Monet.

Hopefully some of these people will show up in the next 13 novels. I think I found my comfort food in book form. A few more servings will be on the menu.
]]> <![CDATA[Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?]]> 54313675
Jimmy Olsen must die! Wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Jimmy Olsen lives! Superman's best friend and Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen tours the bizarre underbelly of the DC Universe in this new series featuring death, destruction, giant turtles, and more! It's a centuries-spanning whirlwind of weird that starts in Metropolis and ends in Gotham City.

Award-winning writer Matt Fraction (Sex Criminals, Hawkeye) makes his DC debut with Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, an irreverent, hijinks-filled journey across the weirdest and wildest corners of the DCU, illustrated by Eisner Award-winning artist Steve Lieber.

Collects Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #1-12.]]> 320 Matt Fraction 1779504624 Mike 3
It's part of a recent trend where an A-list writer takes a minor character, builds a series around him or her, colors in more of a backstory and motivation, and makes them cool. A graphic novel follows. See Tom King's The Vision or Omega Men or Mister Miracle, Steve Orlando's Martin Manhunter, and Greg Rucka's Lois Lane.

And now Matt Fraction's take on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.

Ostensibly a whodunit about Jimmy Olsen's murder (not!), this is a freewheeling series that incorporates Jimmy Olsen's new Vegas-style wedding, The Porcadillo (you're telling me), Jimmy's brother and sister who I'm not sure existed before, and Jimmy's relationship with Superman and The Daily Planet. All is played as a slapstick comedy where most people can't believe what's going on. It's presented as a dozen little vignettes per issue, spanning a couple pages each, that bounce around in time to keep you guessing at what's going on.

It mostly kept me guessing as to when it would end. It's just all too much.

Listen, I love Matt Fraction. He reinvented Hawkeye in the comics world. His independent Sex Criminals book is as imaginative as it gets. And he and artist Steve Lieber definitely try something here, playing it all for laughs and making something unique. It's just that all the side-splitting, whoops-look-over-HERE-now masks over a story that is a few issues too long. A 12-issue miniseries is fine when there's 12 issues of story to tell.

So it felt too long and meandering and a little repetitive. It wraps up well. It just takes awhile to get there. Maybe Fraction even knew it, as when the final issue was published as a monthly it was titled, "Finally!"

Yes, it's supposed to be for me. It might be better for someone else. I liked-it-not-loved-it. Good try, good effort.]]> 4.06 2020 Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?
author: Matt Fraction
name: Mike
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/29
date added: 2021/01/29
shelves:
review:
This is supposed to be for me.

It's part of a recent trend where an A-list writer takes a minor character, builds a series around him or her, colors in more of a backstory and motivation, and makes them cool. A graphic novel follows. See Tom King's The Vision or Omega Men or Mister Miracle, Steve Orlando's Martin Manhunter, and Greg Rucka's Lois Lane.

And now Matt Fraction's take on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.

Ostensibly a whodunit about Jimmy Olsen's murder (not!), this is a freewheeling series that incorporates Jimmy Olsen's new Vegas-style wedding, The Porcadillo (you're telling me), Jimmy's brother and sister who I'm not sure existed before, and Jimmy's relationship with Superman and The Daily Planet. All is played as a slapstick comedy where most people can't believe what's going on. It's presented as a dozen little vignettes per issue, spanning a couple pages each, that bounce around in time to keep you guessing at what's going on.

It mostly kept me guessing as to when it would end. It's just all too much.

Listen, I love Matt Fraction. He reinvented Hawkeye in the comics world. His independent Sex Criminals book is as imaginative as it gets. And he and artist Steve Lieber definitely try something here, playing it all for laughs and making something unique. It's just that all the side-splitting, whoops-look-over-HERE-now masks over a story that is a few issues too long. A 12-issue miniseries is fine when there's 12 issues of story to tell.

So it felt too long and meandering and a little repetitive. It wraps up well. It just takes awhile to get there. Maybe Fraction even knew it, as when the final issue was published as a monthly it was titled, "Finally!"

Yes, it's supposed to be for me. It might be better for someone else. I liked-it-not-loved-it. Good try, good effort.
]]> Such a Fun Age 43923951 Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone family, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.]]> 310 Kiley Reid 052554190X Mike 3
They sold the book as being about a confrontation between a young black woman serving as a babysitter for a white toddler and a security guard in a grocery store. What are YOU doing with that child? You don't look like a babysitter! You're black, she's white. You've got some explaining to do! And of course it is recorded on a smartphone.

That's what all the previews said. The book even purports to be how all those involved deal with the fallout from the confrontation and the eventual release of the video.

It says all this right inside the book jacket!

Except that after the first chapter this confrontation is barely discussed. It does come back some 250 pages later, almost as a deux ex machina, when the video is finally released, merely leading to the denouement of the plot. There's barely any fallout from the billed confrontation as it relates to the state of race in the world today.

No, they tricked me. Because this book is really ... chicklit?

Yea, yea, yea, that word is kinda used as an insult when describing books. Only the ladies will want to read this. Chicklit is not really worth of intense study. It's just light fluff. It's for those who don't want to be caught with a Harlequin romance. And this book does have some things to say about race and class and finding your place in the world.

It just doesn't really say much of it through the billed confrontation.

Really, it's a setup for a Meet Cute. And with the Meet Cute comes an Extraordinary Coincidence. The Meet Cute leads to a lot of Ping-Ponging Between Relationships -- in this case, that of babysitter Emira and Alix Chamberlain and her daughter Briar, for whom Emira babysits, and Emira and her new Meet Cute man, Kelley Copeland. The Extraordinary Coincidence bonds Kelly and Alix, making sense of the seesawing relationship Emira has with each of them. But all it leads to is a few awkward and angry confrontations leading to an ultimate gotcha moment that seems like it is supposed to be very funny but is more of an eye roll.

Any thoughts on racism and classism that the book dips into don't go much beyond the surface and are almost all developed from the Emira/Alix relationship. They have very little to do with the security guard confrontation. If that was never part of the book, it wouldn't be worse for the wear.

Ultimately the book reads very fast and does have some fun scenes when the main characters meet up with their friend groups. I suppose both Emira's and Alix's friend groups are supposed to mirror each other, one being a quartet of twentysomethings just starting out in life while the other their few-years-older version that has settled into marriages, jobs, children, and divorces while still figuring out what they want to do with their lives. I truly have no idea if the twentysomethings of today act this way when they are out and about, and Kiley Reid is a few years older than these characters, but I'll take her word for it. Those parts are funny.

Don't read it if you're looking for a deep discussion on those topics, or a book that deals with the fallout from a confrontation such as the one billed here; this isn't that story. Read this one if you want a breezy story that makes you think a little about race and class. And maybe if you are in a book club that would rather spend more time on drinking the wine than discussing the book.]]> 3.76 2019 Such a Fun Age
author: Kiley Reid
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/21
date added: 2021/01/20
shelves:
review:
They duped me.

They sold the book as being about a confrontation between a young black woman serving as a babysitter for a white toddler and a security guard in a grocery store. What are YOU doing with that child? You don't look like a babysitter! You're black, she's white. You've got some explaining to do! And of course it is recorded on a smartphone.

That's what all the previews said. The book even purports to be how all those involved deal with the fallout from the confrontation and the eventual release of the video.

It says all this right inside the book jacket!

Except that after the first chapter this confrontation is barely discussed. It does come back some 250 pages later, almost as a deux ex machina, when the video is finally released, merely leading to the denouement of the plot. There's barely any fallout from the billed confrontation as it relates to the state of race in the world today.

No, they tricked me. Because this book is really ... chicklit?

Yea, yea, yea, that word is kinda used as an insult when describing books. Only the ladies will want to read this. Chicklit is not really worth of intense study. It's just light fluff. It's for those who don't want to be caught with a Harlequin romance. And this book does have some things to say about race and class and finding your place in the world.

It just doesn't really say much of it through the billed confrontation.

Really, it's a setup for a Meet Cute. And with the Meet Cute comes an Extraordinary Coincidence. The Meet Cute leads to a lot of Ping-Ponging Between Relationships -- in this case, that of babysitter Emira and Alix Chamberlain and her daughter Briar, for whom Emira babysits, and Emira and her new Meet Cute man, Kelley Copeland. The Extraordinary Coincidence bonds Kelly and Alix, making sense of the seesawing relationship Emira has with each of them. But all it leads to is a few awkward and angry confrontations leading to an ultimate gotcha moment that seems like it is supposed to be very funny but is more of an eye roll.

Any thoughts on racism and classism that the book dips into don't go much beyond the surface and are almost all developed from the Emira/Alix relationship. They have very little to do with the security guard confrontation. If that was never part of the book, it wouldn't be worse for the wear.

Ultimately the book reads very fast and does have some fun scenes when the main characters meet up with their friend groups. I suppose both Emira's and Alix's friend groups are supposed to mirror each other, one being a quartet of twentysomethings just starting out in life while the other their few-years-older version that has settled into marriages, jobs, children, and divorces while still figuring out what they want to do with their lives. I truly have no idea if the twentysomethings of today act this way when they are out and about, and Kiley Reid is a few years older than these characters, but I'll take her word for it. Those parts are funny.

Don't read it if you're looking for a deep discussion on those topics, or a book that deals with the fallout from a confrontation such as the one billed here; this isn't that story. Read this one if you want a breezy story that makes you think a little about race and class. And maybe if you are in a book club that would rather spend more time on drinking the wine than discussing the book.
]]> <![CDATA[Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last]]> 53232311
“A warm and loving reflection that, like good bourbon, will stand the test of time.”—Eric Asimov, The New York Times

The story of how Julian Van Winkle III, the caretaker of the most coveted cult Kentucky Bourbon whiskey in the world, fought to protect his family's heritage and preserve the taste of his forebears, in a world where authenticity, like his product, is in very short supply.

Following his father’s death decades ago, Julian Van Winkle stepped in to try to save the bourbon business his grandfather had founded on the mission “We make fine bourbon—at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine bourbon.� With the company in its wilderness years, Julian committed to safeguarding his namesake’s legacy or going down with the ship.

Then he discovered that hundreds of barrels from the family distillery had survived their sale to a multinational conglomerate. The whiskey that Julian produced after recovering those barrels would immediately be hailed as the greatest in the world—and soon would be the hardest to find. Once they had been used up, a fresh challenge preserving the taste of Pappy in a new age.

Wright Thompson was invited to ride along as Julian undertook the task. From the Van Winkle family, Wright learned not only about great bourbon but about complicated legacies and the rewards of honoring your people and your craft—lessons that he couldn’t help but apply to his own work and life. May we all be lucky enough to find some of ourselves, as Wright Thompson did, in Pappyland .]]> 256 Wright Thompson 0735221251 Mike 3
The book barely makes it past 220 pages with dozens of three-page chapters. In effect, it’s a long magazine article, the likes of which Thompson has built a fine career on. You’ll learn a bit about Van Winkle III and the history of his family’s brand, the cult of bourbon, and Thompson’s own family, which is growing throughout the book. The goal is to tie it all together as a commentary on family. It works, kinda.

Here’s a fine companion piece; someone searching for an affordable bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. Spoiler alert: good luck.

Ultimately, I’d rather have the whiskey. ]]> 3.85 2020 Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last
author: Wright Thompson
name: Mike
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/31
date added: 2021/01/01
shelves:
review:
Wright Thompson. Or is it Write Thompson? The very prolific ESPN.com writer brings us a short book about Julian Van Winkle III and his iconic Pappy Van Winkle whiskey.

The book barely makes it past 220 pages with dozens of three-page chapters. In effect, it’s a long magazine article, the likes of which Thompson has built a fine career on. You’ll learn a bit about Van Winkle III and the history of his family’s brand, the cult of bourbon, and Thompson’s own family, which is growing throughout the book. The goal is to tie it all together as a commentary on family. It works, kinda.

Here’s a fine companion piece; someone searching for an affordable bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. Spoiler alert: good luck.

Ultimately, I’d rather have the whiskey.
]]> Station Eleven 21792828 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 354 Emily St. John Mandel Mike 4 4.13 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2020/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Holdout 51211417
Flash forward ten years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jurors, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya's hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence--by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.

As the present-day murder investigation weaves together with the story of what really happened during their deliberation, told by each of the jurors in turn, the secrets they have all been keeping threaten to come out--with drastic consequences for all involved.

From the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and bestselling author of The Last Days of Night : a jury on a murder trial is deadlocked when a young woman manages to turn the tide to acquit; now, a decade later, she must face the consequences when a fellow juror is killed and she is the prime suspect. ]]> 336 Graham Moore 039959177X Mike 2
I knew I would finish this book after reading the first page.

A hate read? Not really. It held my attention. It entertained me. But The Vanderpump Rules do the same for some people. No one calls that art.

Hey, Graham Moore knows how to write a solid yarn and sell a lot of books. He’s done it with a couple before this, winning awards and hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. He’s written successful screenplays (The Imitation Game) and television scripts. And now he’s got a slam-bang idea -- Maya Seale is the lone holdout on a jury in a case of a teacher on trial for the murder of one of his students. Only there is no body.

The book concentrates on the aftermath of the trial. We’re already a decade past what happened in the courtroom. Maya is now a defense attorney herself and has moved past the case, which brought notoriety to everyone involved at the time. But a reunion of the jury is planned for an upcoming podcast and soon old secrets start spilling out.

The Holdout is successful in one aspect. It thinks of itself as an Agatha Christie novel. Think And Then There Were None. I did. A few pages before the book started talking about Agatha Christie novels. Clearly Moore is a fan and patterned his book after the grand dame of mystery novels. And clearly he is correct as I picked up on it before he claimed it.

Beyond that, it’s a traditional thriller with dead bodies, cliffhanger chapter endings, ludicrous findings -- good thing everyone involved lives pretty much right next to each other a decade later so Maya can run around with limited time and interview them all -- and two or three different endings right on top of each other.

It’s also preoccupied with naming its characters. Seems like the first thing you learn about everyone is their name. This has always put me off, especially when the names strike you as made up. Maya Seale, Jessica Silver, Rick Leonard, Bobby Nock. All these names feel like they came from a focus group. Like the most important thing was to get each character’s name just right.

Well, plenty of people will like this book because it’s a breezy thriller, not too long, and quick to read. That’s fine and dandy for plenty of books. Fine and dandy enough for me, even though I was correct -- I didn’t really like it all that much.
]]> 3.83 2020 The Holdout
author: Graham Moore
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2020/12/08
shelves:
review:
I knew I would hate this book after reading the first paragraph.

I knew I would finish this book after reading the first page.

A hate read? Not really. It held my attention. It entertained me. But The Vanderpump Rules do the same for some people. No one calls that art.

Hey, Graham Moore knows how to write a solid yarn and sell a lot of books. He’s done it with a couple before this, winning awards and hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. He’s written successful screenplays (The Imitation Game) and television scripts. And now he’s got a slam-bang idea -- Maya Seale is the lone holdout on a jury in a case of a teacher on trial for the murder of one of his students. Only there is no body.

The book concentrates on the aftermath of the trial. We’re already a decade past what happened in the courtroom. Maya is now a defense attorney herself and has moved past the case, which brought notoriety to everyone involved at the time. But a reunion of the jury is planned for an upcoming podcast and soon old secrets start spilling out.

The Holdout is successful in one aspect. It thinks of itself as an Agatha Christie novel. Think And Then There Were None. I did. A few pages before the book started talking about Agatha Christie novels. Clearly Moore is a fan and patterned his book after the grand dame of mystery novels. And clearly he is correct as I picked up on it before he claimed it.

Beyond that, it’s a traditional thriller with dead bodies, cliffhanger chapter endings, ludicrous findings -- good thing everyone involved lives pretty much right next to each other a decade later so Maya can run around with limited time and interview them all -- and two or three different endings right on top of each other.

It’s also preoccupied with naming its characters. Seems like the first thing you learn about everyone is their name. This has always put me off, especially when the names strike you as made up. Maya Seale, Jessica Silver, Rick Leonard, Bobby Nock. All these names feel like they came from a focus group. Like the most important thing was to get each character’s name just right.

Well, plenty of people will like this book because it’s a breezy thriller, not too long, and quick to read. That’s fine and dandy for plenty of books. Fine and dandy enough for me, even though I was correct -- I didn’t really like it all that much.

]]> Cuyahoga 50891495 Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

�Cuyahoga is tragic and comic, hilarious and inventive—a 19th-century legend for 21st-century America� (The Boston Globe).

Big Son is a spirit of the times—the times being 1837. Behind his broad shoulders, shiny hair, and church-organ laugh, Big Son practically made Ohio City all by himself. The feats of this proto-superhero have earned him wonder and whiskey, but very little in the way of fortune. And without money, Big cannot become an honest husband to his beloved Cloe (who may or may not want to be his honest wife).

In pursuit of a steady wage, our hero hits the (dirt) streets of Ohio City and Cleveland, the twin towns racing to become the first great metropolis of the West. Their rivalry reaches a boil over the building of a bridge across the Cuyahoga River—and Big stumbles right into the kettle. The resulting misadventures involve elderly terrorists, infrastructure collapse, steamboat races, wild pigs, and multiple ruined weddings.

Narrating this “very funny, rambunctious debut novel� (Los Angeles Times) tale is Medium Son—known as Meed—apprentice coffin maker, almanac author, orphan, and the younger brother of Big. Meed finds himself swept up in the action, and he is forced to choose between brotherly love and his own ambitions. His uncanny voice—plain but profound, colloquial but poetic—elevates a slapstick frontier tale into a “breezy fable of empire, class, conquest, and ecocide� (The New York Times Book Review).

Evoking the Greek classics and the Bible alongside nods to Looney Tunes, Charles Portis, and Flannery O’Connor, Pete Beatty has written “a hilarious and moving exploration of family, home, and fate [and] you won’t read anything else like it this year� (BuzzFeed).]]> 265 Pete Beatty 1982155558 Mike 3
پ’t.

Didn’t hate it.

Liked it enough.

But I wanted to love it. It’s a novel about historical Cleveland (and Ohio City) written by a guy who graduated from Kent State University and grew up in the Cleveland suburbs. He also lived somewhere near where I currently live and I think it was during the time I’ve been living there which means he could have have been writing this book within a square mile or so from me. Probably not, though.

Anyway � here’s a book about the building of a bridge over the Cuyahoga River in 1837 Cleveland starring a Paul Bunyanesque character who goes by Big Son, narrated by his brother Medium Son. Big Son is known for great feats such as saving widows and babies and pets from burning homes, wrestling bears, eating a thousand pound cakes in a day, and digging a well into dry rock. He is every tall tale you’ve ever heard, only taller.

And in 1837, Cleveland is a growing city as is its counterpart on the western bank of the Cuyahoga, Ohio. Now Ohio City is merely a neighborhood of Cleveland. In this imagining, the residents of both Cleveland and Ohio want a bridge -- maybe two -- to connect the cities and make trade and travel that much easier. The book is a comic mishmash of Big and Medium and all the people from their neighborhoods as the politics over the bridge take over. Big, who is well-known for his feats but not well compensated from them, is tasked with building a bridge on his own. It doesn’t go so well.

All that is interesting enough, but the most intriguing part is the language of the book. Beatty writes in a style you haven’t seen before. There are plenty of sound effects, dialogue is set in italics, and plenty of nouns becomes verbs, such as termiting of the brain. Beatty can be vivid at times, like when he describes men scurrying atop a bridge they are building as like ants crawling atop a cake. There’s a lot to like here.

But not a lot to love, I guess, since I didn’t. Maybe it was the writing style, which makes you pay extra attention. Those who do are rewarded. Plenty will give up just because of this. But that’s OK and isn’t the real reason I didn’t love it. I think.

Ultimately, I’m not sure why I didn’t love it. Chalk it up to je ne sais quoi? It’s way closer to a great book than a bad book. We’ll settle on simply a good book.
]]> 3.49 2020 Cuyahoga
author: Pete Beatty
name: Mike
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/12/08
shelves:
review:
I wanted to love it.

پ’t.

Didn’t hate it.

Liked it enough.

But I wanted to love it. It’s a novel about historical Cleveland (and Ohio City) written by a guy who graduated from Kent State University and grew up in the Cleveland suburbs. He also lived somewhere near where I currently live and I think it was during the time I’ve been living there which means he could have have been writing this book within a square mile or so from me. Probably not, though.

Anyway � here’s a book about the building of a bridge over the Cuyahoga River in 1837 Cleveland starring a Paul Bunyanesque character who goes by Big Son, narrated by his brother Medium Son. Big Son is known for great feats such as saving widows and babies and pets from burning homes, wrestling bears, eating a thousand pound cakes in a day, and digging a well into dry rock. He is every tall tale you’ve ever heard, only taller.

And in 1837, Cleveland is a growing city as is its counterpart on the western bank of the Cuyahoga, Ohio. Now Ohio City is merely a neighborhood of Cleveland. In this imagining, the residents of both Cleveland and Ohio want a bridge -- maybe two -- to connect the cities and make trade and travel that much easier. The book is a comic mishmash of Big and Medium and all the people from their neighborhoods as the politics over the bridge take over. Big, who is well-known for his feats but not well compensated from them, is tasked with building a bridge on his own. It doesn’t go so well.

All that is interesting enough, but the most intriguing part is the language of the book. Beatty writes in a style you haven’t seen before. There are plenty of sound effects, dialogue is set in italics, and plenty of nouns becomes verbs, such as termiting of the brain. Beatty can be vivid at times, like when he describes men scurrying atop a bridge they are building as like ants crawling atop a cake. There’s a lot to like here.

But not a lot to love, I guess, since I didn’t. Maybe it was the writing style, which makes you pay extra attention. Those who do are rewarded. Plenty will give up just because of this. But that’s OK and isn’t the real reason I didn’t love it. I think.

Ultimately, I’m not sure why I didn’t love it. Chalk it up to je ne sais quoi? It’s way closer to a great book than a bad book. We’ll settle on simply a good book.

]]> Eternal 40204619 What war destroys, only love can heal.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment.]]> 480 Lisa Scottoline 052553976X Mike 0 to-read 4.22 2021 Eternal
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Mike
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Welcome to the New World 52079711 Now in a full-length book, the New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic story of a refugee family who fled the civil war in Syria to make a new life in America

After escaping a Syrian prison, Ibrahim Aldabaan and his family fled the country to seek protection in America. Among the few refugees to receive visas, they finally landed in JFK airport on November 8, 2016, Election Day. The family had reached a safe harbor, but woke up to the world of Donald Trump and a Muslim ban that would sever them from the grandmother, brothers, sisters, and cousins stranded in exile in Jordan.

Welcome to the New World tells the Aldabaans� story. Resettled in Connecticut with little English, few friends, and even less money, the family of seven strive to create something like home. As a blur of language classes, job-training programs, and the fearsome first days of high school (with hijab) give way to normalcy, the Aldabaans are lulled into a sense of security. A white van cruising slowly past the house prompts some unease, which erupts into full terror when the family receives a death threat and is forced to flee and start all over yet again. The America in which the Aldabaans must make their way is by turns kind and ignorant, generous and cruel, uplifting and heartbreaking.

Delivered with warmth and intimacy, Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan's Welcome to the New World is a wholly original view of the immigrant experience, revealing not only the trials and successes of one family but showing the spirit of a town and a country, for good and bad.]]> 176 Jake Halpern 1250305594 Mike 5
It’s a full page of exhaustion and breakdown. Everything he knows he is leaving behind. No words. Just a drawing of a man sitting in his seat, hand up to his head, a tear rolling down his face. His father, sitting next to him, consoles him.

And it’s real. This book is the real story of a family that fled war-torn Syria for Jordan but found difficulties living there as refugees. The family was able to leave Jordan for the United States, landing on the very day Donald Trump was elected as president.

If Middle Easterners coming to the United States was difficult before, it was about to become even harder.

Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan -- a New York Times author and illustrator -- humanize the immigrant experience, showing it from the point of view of people going through it. And through no fault of their own. Based on a true story and reported in the NYT for several years, the duo have now made a graphic novel of the Aldabaan family’s quest. They would have been happy to stay in their home country living they life they always lived. War forced them to find a different way.

The graphic novel is a magnificent example of what the format can do. The story is intense, the art simple yet descriptive. As the family tries to integrate into American life, the anxiety exudes from the pages. Nothing is easy for the Aldabaan’s -- a married couple and their five children, and also the father’s brother and his family, though we don’t follow them as much. They need to learn English, enroll their children in school, find stable housing and jobs. Add to it the stress and rigors of everyday life. They get help, and definitely need it, but the refugee program they are in can only do so much and has a limited shelf life.

And still it’s all better than what they suffered through in Jordan.

People are too willing to buy into Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric that immigrants are rapists and terrorists and destroying American life. This real story shows the exact opposite. This family just wants to live their life in peace, like most of the people coming to their new world. And many of them have no choice, as the places they come from have been basically destroyed, many by American foreign policy.

If you read just one graphic novel in your life, this should be the one. It’s magnificent.]]> 4.06 2017 Welcome to the New World
author: Jake Halpern
name: Mike
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/01
date added: 2020/11/18
shelves:
review:
Page 20 when the son looks out the window of the airplane after finally leaving Jordan for America with his family just kills me.

It’s a full page of exhaustion and breakdown. Everything he knows he is leaving behind. No words. Just a drawing of a man sitting in his seat, hand up to his head, a tear rolling down his face. His father, sitting next to him, consoles him.

And it’s real. This book is the real story of a family that fled war-torn Syria for Jordan but found difficulties living there as refugees. The family was able to leave Jordan for the United States, landing on the very day Donald Trump was elected as president.

If Middle Easterners coming to the United States was difficult before, it was about to become even harder.

Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan -- a New York Times author and illustrator -- humanize the immigrant experience, showing it from the point of view of people going through it. And through no fault of their own. Based on a true story and reported in the NYT for several years, the duo have now made a graphic novel of the Aldabaan family’s quest. They would have been happy to stay in their home country living they life they always lived. War forced them to find a different way.

The graphic novel is a magnificent example of what the format can do. The story is intense, the art simple yet descriptive. As the family tries to integrate into American life, the anxiety exudes from the pages. Nothing is easy for the Aldabaan’s -- a married couple and their five children, and also the father’s brother and his family, though we don’t follow them as much. They need to learn English, enroll their children in school, find stable housing and jobs. Add to it the stress and rigors of everyday life. They get help, and definitely need it, but the refugee program they are in can only do so much and has a limited shelf life.

And still it’s all better than what they suffered through in Jordan.

People are too willing to buy into Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric that immigrants are rapists and terrorists and destroying American life. This real story shows the exact opposite. This family just wants to live their life in peace, like most of the people coming to their new world. And many of them have no choice, as the places they come from have been basically destroyed, many by American foreign policy.

If you read just one graphic novel in your life, this should be the one. It’s magnificent.
]]> <![CDATA[Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West]]> 28715 Blood Meridian is an epic tale of the violence and corruption that attended America’s westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the “Wild West.� Its wounded hero, the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean, must confront the extraordinary brutality of the Glanton gang, a murderous cadre on an official mission to scalp Indians. Seeming to preside over this nightmarish world is the diabolical Judge Holden, one of the most unforgettable characters in American fiction.

Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, Blood Meridian represents a genius vision of the historical West, one whose stature has only grown in the twenty-five years since its publication.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy 0679641041 Mike 4 4.24 1985 Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Mike
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2020/11/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Eternal 54783425 #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline offers a sweeping and shattering epic of historical fiction fueled by shocking true events, the tale of a love triangle that unfolds in the heart of Rome...in the creeping shadow of fascism.

What war destroys, only love can heal.

Elisabetta, Marco, and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. In time, everything that the three hold dear--their families, their homes, and their connection to one another--is tested in ways they never could have imagined.

As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. The Nazis invade Rome, and with their occupation come new atrocities against the city's Jews, culminating in a final, horrific betrayal. Against this backdrop, the intertwined fates of Elisabetta, Marco, Sandro, and their families will be decided, in a heartbreaking story of both the best and the worst that the world has to offer.

Unfolding over decades, Eternal is a tale of loyalty and loss, family and food, love and war--all set in one of the world's most beautiful cities at its darkest moment. This moving novel will be forever etched in the hearts and minds of readers.]]> 480 Lisa Scottoline 0525539778 Mike 0 to-read 4.44 2021 Eternal
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Mike
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Florida Man 48806812
Meanwhile, there are other Florida men with whom Crowe must contend. Hector "Catface" Morales, a Cuban refugee, trained assassin, and crack-addicted Marielito, is seeking revenge on Reed for stealing his stash of drugs and leaving him for dead (unbeknownst to Reed) in the wreckage of a plane crash in the Everglades decades ago. Loner and misanthrope Henry Yahchilane, a Seminole native, has something to hide on the island. So does irascible and pervy Wayne Wade, Reed Crowe's childhood friend turned bad penny. Then there are the Florida women, including Heidi Karavas, Reed Crowe's ex-wife, now a globe-trekking art curator, and Nina Arango, a Cuban refugee and fiercely protective woman with whom Reed Crowe falls in love. There are curses. There are sea monsters. There are biblical storms. There's something called the Jupiter Effect.

Ultimately, Florida Man is a generation-spanning story about how a man decides to live his life, and how despite staying landlocked and stubbornly in one place, the world nevertheless comes to him.]]> 416 Tom Cooper 0593133315 Mike 2
He's got nothing to do with Florida. Very little, at least. Tiger King, Joe Exotic, Joe Maldonado, whichever of his names you want to call him, isn't even from Florida. He was born in Kansas, raised in Texas, and lived most of his life in Oklahoma. At least most of the life you see in the Tiger King series. For some reason, maybe because much of the documentary is also centered around Floridian Carol Baskin, I associate Tiger King Joe Exotic with Florida.

So I was expecting a much more colorful Florida Man from this book. It revolves around Reed Crowe, a Florida man who lives on Emerald Island in Florida. Which doesn't exist, but seems to be somewhere in southern Florida near the Everglades and maybe near Sanibel Island or Captiva or maybe even on the Fort Lauderdale side. It's not quite clear. And doesn't really matter. What's supposed to matter is Reed Crowe's adventures. He has a love/hate relationship with native American Henry Yachilane. He's on again/off again with his ex-wife Heidi. He runs a couple of businesses and has misfit employes Wayne Wade and Eddie Maldonado. He fights for his life when a Cuban drug dealer known as Catface comes to seek revenge.

And it's all kind of boring. Tom Cooper writes short, choppy sentences that sometimes leave you wondering what is really going on. The bits with Catface engaged me the most; he's the one guy who isn't even a Florida man. Everything he does is outlandish and colorful -- blowing up a fireworks store, bringing down a bridge -- so the book diminishes when he's not involved.

The rest of what Crowe does isn't all that interesting. He sells marijuana. He drinks a lot. He runs a tourist trap business, helps refugees, drinks some more. Rides out hurricanes. Has a beach bum beard. Oh, he kills someone. Even that's kind of boring.

Then the last 40 pages are about someone else.

I don't remember why I grabbed the book. Something somewhere brought it to my attention. What it was is long gone. Nothing in the book reminded me of why I wanted to read it. I finished it, so I suppose I should give it three stars. I'm not gonna, because sometimes I finish my broccoli and I don't like that either.

Tiger King is way more memorable than Florida Man. But I recommend neither.]]> 3.49 2020 Florida Man
author: Tom Cooper
name: Mike
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2020/10/01
date added: 2020/10/18
shelves:
review:
I kept thinking about Tiger King.

He's got nothing to do with Florida. Very little, at least. Tiger King, Joe Exotic, Joe Maldonado, whichever of his names you want to call him, isn't even from Florida. He was born in Kansas, raised in Texas, and lived most of his life in Oklahoma. At least most of the life you see in the Tiger King series. For some reason, maybe because much of the documentary is also centered around Floridian Carol Baskin, I associate Tiger King Joe Exotic with Florida.

So I was expecting a much more colorful Florida Man from this book. It revolves around Reed Crowe, a Florida man who lives on Emerald Island in Florida. Which doesn't exist, but seems to be somewhere in southern Florida near the Everglades and maybe near Sanibel Island or Captiva or maybe even on the Fort Lauderdale side. It's not quite clear. And doesn't really matter. What's supposed to matter is Reed Crowe's adventures. He has a love/hate relationship with native American Henry Yachilane. He's on again/off again with his ex-wife Heidi. He runs a couple of businesses and has misfit employes Wayne Wade and Eddie Maldonado. He fights for his life when a Cuban drug dealer known as Catface comes to seek revenge.

And it's all kind of boring. Tom Cooper writes short, choppy sentences that sometimes leave you wondering what is really going on. The bits with Catface engaged me the most; he's the one guy who isn't even a Florida man. Everything he does is outlandish and colorful -- blowing up a fireworks store, bringing down a bridge -- so the book diminishes when he's not involved.

The rest of what Crowe does isn't all that interesting. He sells marijuana. He drinks a lot. He runs a tourist trap business, helps refugees, drinks some more. Rides out hurricanes. Has a beach bum beard. Oh, he kills someone. Even that's kind of boring.

Then the last 40 pages are about someone else.

I don't remember why I grabbed the book. Something somewhere brought it to my attention. What it was is long gone. Nothing in the book reminded me of why I wanted to read it. I finished it, so I suppose I should give it three stars. I'm not gonna, because sometimes I finish my broccoli and I don't like that either.

Tiger King is way more memorable than Florida Man. But I recommend neither.
]]> Mexican Gothic 53152636
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 320 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0525620788 Mike 2
That's why people will read it. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest novel is basically about a haunted house. And we get very detailed descriptions of the house, the mountain on which it stands, the small town just below, and it's creepy inhabitants.

We also get a lot of exposition through conversation.

Oh, things happen. And then things stop happening and characters will spend time cryptically telling each other what is happening. This is mostly what happens for the first half of the book. Then the truth comes out, mostly through dialogue, like a Bond villain explaining his plot.

The gist is that Noemi is summoned via letter by her cousin Catalina to the house known as The High Place. Catalina has married into a family of strange people and has become increasingly isolated from the outside world. Noemi visits in order to find out what has led to this situation so she can report back to her father. What she finds is a bit more than anyone could ever imagine.

For the first third of the book I wondered why I kept going. I understood there was a payoff. It comes in the final third of the book. And it may not even have been worth it. The ultimate premise is original -- I won't spoil it -- but the final confrontations with the villains is a bit cliched. Our heroes kill them off! They escape! But the bad guys are still alive! And now there's someone else to defeat! If you've seen a horror movie, you've seen the ending to this book.

So maybe you should just wait for the upcoming Hulu series. Kelly Ripa and her husband will produce it. It will be interesting to see the foreboding settings of The High Place in Mexican Gothic brought to life.]]> 3.66 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Mike
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2020/10/08
date added: 2020/10/08
shelves:
review:
It's atmospheric.

That's why people will read it. Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest novel is basically about a haunted house. And we get very detailed descriptions of the house, the mountain on which it stands, the small town just below, and it's creepy inhabitants.

We also get a lot of exposition through conversation.

Oh, things happen. And then things stop happening and characters will spend time cryptically telling each other what is happening. This is mostly what happens for the first half of the book. Then the truth comes out, mostly through dialogue, like a Bond villain explaining his plot.

The gist is that Noemi is summoned via letter by her cousin Catalina to the house known as The High Place. Catalina has married into a family of strange people and has become increasingly isolated from the outside world. Noemi visits in order to find out what has led to this situation so she can report back to her father. What she finds is a bit more than anyone could ever imagine.

For the first third of the book I wondered why I kept going. I understood there was a payoff. It comes in the final third of the book. And it may not even have been worth it. The ultimate premise is original -- I won't spoil it -- but the final confrontations with the villains is a bit cliched. Our heroes kill them off! They escape! But the bad guys are still alive! And now there's someone else to defeat! If you've seen a horror movie, you've seen the ending to this book.

So maybe you should just wait for the upcoming Hulu series. Kelly Ripa and her husband will produce it. It will be interesting to see the foreboding settings of The High Place in Mexican Gothic brought to life.
]]> <![CDATA[Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre]]> 52454426
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing—and too earth-shattering in its implications—to be forgotten.

In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.

Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us—and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it—and like none you’ve ever read before.]]> 286 Max Brooks 1984826786 Mike 4
And you were pulled along and engaged. You were just waiting for the craziness to begin. It was all sun and fun (except for the very first scene, where a woman commits a murder-suicide of her parents), a commune in Sweden very welcoming to a few American visitors one summer. The group welcomes the Americans with a large shared dinner, some drink, some dance. Everything seems perfect.

But you know something’s coming. It’s just a matter of how bad.

(Oh, it’s bad.)

The scene finally hits. You find out what the commune is all about. The characters don’t necessarily react in the way you think you would. People disappear. They are found. Boy, are they found. Sometimes just parts of them.

You get what you came for by the end. Even if you don’t know it. Disaster for some, everyone else staring straight ahead, smiling, dancing, enjoying life at the commune. Until next time �

That’s Devolution. A small group of people living away from most of society. They greet the newest members with a delicious communal dinner. They all seem to connect, to get along. Everything is exactly as it should be in life.

But you know something’s coming. It’s just a matter of how bad.

(Oh, it’s bad.)

Foreboding throughout, just like Midsommer. You, but they, don’t know Bigfoot is coming. But first, a volcanic eruption which cuts off the commune. Then noises and bones. Big rocks come flying through windows, roofs, doors, all tossed by -- by what, Sasquatches?

You get what you came for by the end. Even if you don’t know it. Disaster for most, maybe someone else staring straight ahead, no smiling, dancing, or enjoying life at the commune.

It’s the devolution of life at the commune. By a species that hasn’t evolved all the way into human. But you knew it was coming. They said so in the beginning. It’s why you read the book.

And while you’ll watch the movie. Maybe even directed by the guy who made Midsommer and Hereditary.
]]> 3.88 2020 Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
author: Max Brooks
name: Mike
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/28
date added: 2020/08/04
shelves:
review:
You went to see Midsommer. You heard great things about it, the next movie from the director of Hereditary. That movie contained some shocking scenes; surely Midsommer would follow.

And you were pulled along and engaged. You were just waiting for the craziness to begin. It was all sun and fun (except for the very first scene, where a woman commits a murder-suicide of her parents), a commune in Sweden very welcoming to a few American visitors one summer. The group welcomes the Americans with a large shared dinner, some drink, some dance. Everything seems perfect.

But you know something’s coming. It’s just a matter of how bad.

(Oh, it’s bad.)

The scene finally hits. You find out what the commune is all about. The characters don’t necessarily react in the way you think you would. People disappear. They are found. Boy, are they found. Sometimes just parts of them.

You get what you came for by the end. Even if you don’t know it. Disaster for some, everyone else staring straight ahead, smiling, dancing, enjoying life at the commune. Until next time �

That’s Devolution. A small group of people living away from most of society. They greet the newest members with a delicious communal dinner. They all seem to connect, to get along. Everything is exactly as it should be in life.

But you know something’s coming. It’s just a matter of how bad.

(Oh, it’s bad.)

Foreboding throughout, just like Midsommer. You, but they, don’t know Bigfoot is coming. But first, a volcanic eruption which cuts off the commune. Then noises and bones. Big rocks come flying through windows, roofs, doors, all tossed by -- by what, Sasquatches?

You get what you came for by the end. Even if you don’t know it. Disaster for most, maybe someone else staring straight ahead, no smiling, dancing, or enjoying life at the commune.

It’s the devolution of life at the commune. By a species that hasn’t evolved all the way into human. But you knew it was coming. They said so in the beginning. It’s why you read the book.

And while you’ll watch the movie. Maybe even directed by the guy who made Midsommer and Hereditary.

]]> <![CDATA[Valkyrie: Jane Foster, Vol. 1: The Sacred and The Profane]]> 51803507
COLLECTING: VALKYRIE: JANE FOSTER (2019) 1-5, MATERIAL FROM WAR OF THE REALMS: OMEGA (2019) 1]]> 128 Al Ewing 1302920294 Mike 3
Then why did it take two weeks to read it? It should have taken an hour. Maybe I was burned out on reading graphic novels at the moment. Maybe the story just didn’t grab my attention. Maybe it wasn’t as good as I hoped.

Whatever the case, there’s better graphic novel collections out there. This one is perfectly fine, but that’s all.]]> 3.83 2020 Valkyrie: Jane Foster, Vol. 1: The Sacred and The Profane
author: Al Ewing
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/07/04
date added: 2020/07/04
shelves:
review:
I wanted to like this book. It has the elements � minor characters getting their shot (Valkyrie vs. Bullseye and then the Grim Reaper? A Mephisto appearance? Heimdall and a talking horse?), Jason Aaron and Al Ewing at the helm, Doctor Strange showing up.

Then why did it take two weeks to read it? It should have taken an hour. Maybe I was burned out on reading graphic novels at the moment. Maybe the story just didn’t grab my attention. Maybe it wasn’t as good as I hoped.

Whatever the case, there’s better graphic novel collections out there. This one is perfectly fine, but that’s all.
]]> The Glass Hotel 45754981 From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients� accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.]]> 307 Emily St. John Mandel 0525521143 Mike 4
I only just started your newest novel, The Glass Hotel. I’m already on page 90. I don’t want to stop. I need to be awake in seven hours, but the next chapter is only about 16 pages. That won’t take long to finish �

Now I’m 140 pages in. I’m nearly halfway done. I’ve been waiting for this novel since before anyone outside of China heard of Coronavirus. It took me months to get it. I must finish it �

OK, Emily, it’s the next day. I went to sleep. But I have to get through the work day, I have to get home to continue reading this book. I’m probably going to wind up putting off dinner. I’m probably not going to waste time on Facebook. I’m probably not going to fall asleep on the couch �

Why do you have me so engrossed, Emily? Well, you'be written another apocalyptic novel. You hooked me with Station Eleven a few years ago -- back when I liked reading about the apocalypse rather than living it -- which followed a ragtag group trying to live through an epidemic that wiped out 99% of people. This is also about an apocalypse, though on a much smaller scale. I didn’t keep track of the people it wiped out, but it’s up there. And it’s not the entire world, just a small group of people. But it’s apocalyptic to them, as they and those attached to them get wiped out in different ways by a Bernie Madoff-like Ponzi scheme.

The weird thing, Emily, is that it’s hard to figure out what the book is about. Is it about Paul, the protagonist at the beginning, and his messed-up relationship with both work and his family? That includes his half-sister Vincent, who soon takes over the narrative and winds up with Jonathan Alkaitis, who runs the Ponzi scheme. Then we’re following some of the victims. Then some of Alkaitis� employees. Then back to Vincent and Paul and � well, let’s just say that more than the Ponzi scheme connects many of them.

Really, it’s a mini Cloud Atlas. That's high praise, Emily. The book starts at the end and ends at the beginning, climbing a mountain on one end before descending in the second half and connecting the dots. We learn fates along with the characters, most of them not great, Bob. It really is an apocalypse. But unlike Station Eleven, where 99% of the world dies and 100% is affected, it’s a very tiny fraction of people affected and pretty much no one else really cares. That might be even more apocalyptic.

Thanks a lot, Emily St. John Mandel. I have to be at work in about six hours. But I also have to finish this book. Now it’s the next day. It's 1:20 in the morning.]]> 3.66 2020 The Glass Hotel
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mike
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/02
date added: 2020/07/03
shelves:
review:
It’s 12:39 a.m. I’m lying in bed wide awake. Thanks a lot, Emily St. John Mandel.

I only just started your newest novel, The Glass Hotel. I’m already on page 90. I don’t want to stop. I need to be awake in seven hours, but the next chapter is only about 16 pages. That won’t take long to finish �

Now I’m 140 pages in. I’m nearly halfway done. I’ve been waiting for this novel since before anyone outside of China heard of Coronavirus. It took me months to get it. I must finish it �

OK, Emily, it’s the next day. I went to sleep. But I have to get through the work day, I have to get home to continue reading this book. I’m probably going to wind up putting off dinner. I’m probably not going to waste time on Facebook. I’m probably not going to fall asleep on the couch �

Why do you have me so engrossed, Emily? Well, you'be written another apocalyptic novel. You hooked me with Station Eleven a few years ago -- back when I liked reading about the apocalypse rather than living it -- which followed a ragtag group trying to live through an epidemic that wiped out 99% of people. This is also about an apocalypse, though on a much smaller scale. I didn’t keep track of the people it wiped out, but it’s up there. And it’s not the entire world, just a small group of people. But it’s apocalyptic to them, as they and those attached to them get wiped out in different ways by a Bernie Madoff-like Ponzi scheme.

The weird thing, Emily, is that it’s hard to figure out what the book is about. Is it about Paul, the protagonist at the beginning, and his messed-up relationship with both work and his family? That includes his half-sister Vincent, who soon takes over the narrative and winds up with Jonathan Alkaitis, who runs the Ponzi scheme. Then we’re following some of the victims. Then some of Alkaitis� employees. Then back to Vincent and Paul and � well, let’s just say that more than the Ponzi scheme connects many of them.

Really, it’s a mini Cloud Atlas. That's high praise, Emily. The book starts at the end and ends at the beginning, climbing a mountain on one end before descending in the second half and connecting the dots. We learn fates along with the characters, most of them not great, Bob. It really is an apocalypse. But unlike Station Eleven, where 99% of the world dies and 100% is affected, it’s a very tiny fraction of people affected and pretty much no one else really cares. That might be even more apocalyptic.

Thanks a lot, Emily St. John Mandel. I have to be at work in about six hours. But I also have to finish this book. Now it’s the next day. It's 1:20 in the morning.
]]> <![CDATA[Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale]]> 42972014
In Secondhand, Adam Minter delves into the vast, multibillion-dollar industry that resells used stuff around the world. He follows the trail of unwanted objects from the closets, garages, and storage units of Middle America to huge used-goods markets in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Ghana, India, Malaysia, and beyond. Secondhand takes us through the often painful and heartbreaking process of cleaning out a lifetime’s worth of possessions and shows that used stuff still has a place in a world that values the new and shiny--it entertains us, makes fortunes, fulfills needs, and transforms the way we live and work.]]> 300 Adam Minter 1635570107 Mike 4 3.91 2019 Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale
author: Adam Minter
name: Mike
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/03
date added: 2020/05/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Americanah 15796700 477 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Mike 4 4.32 2013 Americanah
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Mike
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/21
date added: 2020/04/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates]]> 7099273
Selected by Stephen Curry as his “Underrated� Book Club Pick with Literati

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.

Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered thatthe other Wes had had a life not unlike his Bothhad had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.]]> 233 Wes Moore 0385528191 Mike 3 3.85 2010 The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
author: Wes Moore
name: Mike
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/26
date added: 2020/04/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Rust Belt Femme 53127663
Raechel and her mother struggled for money: they were evicted, went days without utilities, and took their trauma out on one another. Raechel escaped to the progressive suburbs of Cleveland Heights, leaving the tractors and ranch-style homes home in favor of a city with vintage marquees, music clubs, and people who talked about big ideas. It was the early 90s, full of Nirvana songs and chokers, flannel shirts and cut-off jean shorts, lesbian witches and local coffee shops.

Rust Belt Femme is the story of how these twin foundations—rural Ohio poverty and alternative 90s culture—made Raechel into who she is today: a queer femme with PTSD and a deep love of the Midwest.]]> 150 Raechel Anne Jolie 1948742632 Mike 4
Remember Cherry? Couple of summers ago, novel written by a guy in jail, Nico Walker, who had been arrested for robbing banks around Northeast Ohio, mostly the East Side suburbs. A Buzzfeed editor picked up on an article about Walker, started a communication, convinced Walker to send some writing to him, then turned it into a novel. Though it was fiction, it was pretty much all true -- stories of how a listless life before and after the Army became the epitome of the opioid crisis which led into a life of crime. It was almost all true, though presented as a novel.

Now Spider-man (Tom Holland) is (was? Will be?) filming a movie about it in Cleveland. Not bad for a drug-addicted bank robber.

Maybe Raechel Anne Jolie should have fictionalized her story. Could have been a movie in the offing. Because she’s done the same thing that Cherry did, only better.

Hers is the story of growing up poor and listless in Ohio, only without the drugs. Plenty of tragedy and trauma, though. And it’s written as a series of vignettes, kind of connected but really only informing each other, much like Cherry. We go through her life, from when her father was nearly killed by a drunk driver in the family’s front yard to where she is now, living in Minnesota with a PhD and diagnosed with a type of PTSD. The book is her attempt to chronicle her trauma, to let others know what it’s like to live a life of near poverty, to try and mostly escape from it while others you care about don’t.

It focuses mostly on her school-age years, from just before kindergarten through high school. Its about how her family deals with the aftermath of her father’s debilitating accident -- he’s not killed, but incapacited for life from the accident -- but also about her friendships, her love life, her coming of age, her searching for meaning. And it’s about Cleveland; from Valley View to Lakewood to Coventry to finding fellow goths or punks or whatever scene you want to call it. She writes toward the conclusion that she’s spent more of her life away from Cleveland than she spent in it. But she still loves Cleveland, still visits regularly to see family, still has vivid memories of the Cedar-Lee, of music clubs, of the Centrum theater, of the various houses she lived in.

And it’s certainly depressing. How could a book with tragic accidents, evictions, family trauma, and molestation not be? But it’s also uplifting, as it’s a book about coming to terms with all of it and uplifting yourself. And she realizes her mother all along was trying to uplift her even though she might not have understood it at the time. Sound familiar?

Many will nod their heads in agreement while reading this. Yep, that’s me. Or yep, that could have been me. Or yep, I know people like this. And hopefully those who have no familiarity with it will empathize.

Because that’s what Jolie is after. Understanding and empathy. Apart from her own recovery, of course. Read it and find out. It’s not even 200 pages, so you can knock it out in an afternoon. Lord knows we have plenty of those free right now. Plus there’s a very cool playlist in the back that might be available online somewhere � eventually.

It’s not Cherry. It’s better. Call it Cherry with the cherry on top.]]> 4.06 2020 Rust Belt Femme
author: Raechel Anne Jolie
name: Mike
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/21
date added: 2020/04/11
shelves:
review:
This is the book Cherry thinks it is.

Remember Cherry? Couple of summers ago, novel written by a guy in jail, Nico Walker, who had been arrested for robbing banks around Northeast Ohio, mostly the East Side suburbs. A Buzzfeed editor picked up on an article about Walker, started a communication, convinced Walker to send some writing to him, then turned it into a novel. Though it was fiction, it was pretty much all true -- stories of how a listless life before and after the Army became the epitome of the opioid crisis which led into a life of crime. It was almost all true, though presented as a novel.

Now Spider-man (Tom Holland) is (was? Will be?) filming a movie about it in Cleveland. Not bad for a drug-addicted bank robber.

Maybe Raechel Anne Jolie should have fictionalized her story. Could have been a movie in the offing. Because she’s done the same thing that Cherry did, only better.

Hers is the story of growing up poor and listless in Ohio, only without the drugs. Plenty of tragedy and trauma, though. And it’s written as a series of vignettes, kind of connected but really only informing each other, much like Cherry. We go through her life, from when her father was nearly killed by a drunk driver in the family’s front yard to where she is now, living in Minnesota with a PhD and diagnosed with a type of PTSD. The book is her attempt to chronicle her trauma, to let others know what it’s like to live a life of near poverty, to try and mostly escape from it while others you care about don’t.

It focuses mostly on her school-age years, from just before kindergarten through high school. Its about how her family deals with the aftermath of her father’s debilitating accident -- he’s not killed, but incapacited for life from the accident -- but also about her friendships, her love life, her coming of age, her searching for meaning. And it’s about Cleveland; from Valley View to Lakewood to Coventry to finding fellow goths or punks or whatever scene you want to call it. She writes toward the conclusion that she’s spent more of her life away from Cleveland than she spent in it. But she still loves Cleveland, still visits regularly to see family, still has vivid memories of the Cedar-Lee, of music clubs, of the Centrum theater, of the various houses she lived in.

And it’s certainly depressing. How could a book with tragic accidents, evictions, family trauma, and molestation not be? But it’s also uplifting, as it’s a book about coming to terms with all of it and uplifting yourself. And she realizes her mother all along was trying to uplift her even though she might not have understood it at the time. Sound familiar?

Many will nod their heads in agreement while reading this. Yep, that’s me. Or yep, that could have been me. Or yep, I know people like this. And hopefully those who have no familiarity with it will empathize.

Because that’s what Jolie is after. Understanding and empathy. Apart from her own recovery, of course. Read it and find out. It’s not even 200 pages, so you can knock it out in an afternoon. Lord knows we have plenty of those free right now. Plus there’s a very cool playlist in the back that might be available online somewhere � eventually.

It’s not Cherry. It’s better. Call it Cherry with the cherry on top.
]]> Deacon King Kong 51045613 The funny, sharp, and surprising story of the shooting of a Brooklyn drug dealer and the people who witnessed it—from James McBride, author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird

In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known in the neighborhood as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Causeway Housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range.

The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local NYPD cops assigned to investigate what happened, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.

As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters—caught in the tumultuous swirl of New York in the late 1960s—overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth finally emerges, McBride shows us that not all secrets can be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in compassion and hope.]]> 370 James McBride 073521672X Mike 4 4.11 2020 Deacon King Kong
author: James McBride
name: Mike
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/08
date added: 2020/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All]]> 7570350
How do you pick yourself up after the one thing you most feared happens to you? Alexandra Penney's revealing, spirited, and ultimately redemptive true story shows us how.

Throughout her life, Alexandra Penney's worst fear was of becoming a bag lady. Even as she worked several jobs while raising a son as a single mother, wrote a bestselling advice book, and became editor in chief of Self magazine, she was haunted by the image of herself alone, bankrupt, and living on the street. She even went to therapy in an attempt to alleviate the worry that all she had worked for could crumble.

And then, one day, that's exactly what happened.

Penney had taken a friend's advice and invested nearly everything she had ever earned--all of her savings--with Bernie Madoff. One day she was successful and wealthy; the next she had almost nothing. Suddenly, at an age when many Americans retire, Penney saw her worst nightmares coming true. Based on her popular blog posts on The Daily Beast, this memoir chronicles Penney's struggle to cope with the devastating financial and emotional fallout of being cheated out of her life savings and illuminates her journey back to sanity, solvency, and security.

"I will work harder than I ever have before--which was pretty hard indeed--and see what happens. I have the feeling something good will come of tough, challenging work and laserlike focus have always paid off for me. . . . Was it better to have it and then lose it? Yes, yes, yes! Even though I lived with horrible bag lady fears of losing it all, now that those financial fears have materialized, I'm in pretty good shape and looking to what's next. Experiences -- good and bad, exciting and boring, tragic and absurd -- make up a life. Not to have lived to the fullest is the saddest, most irresponsible life I can think of."
--- from The Bag Lady Papers]]> 240 Alexandra Penney 1401341187 Mike 2
Granted, Alexandra Penney worked her way into the � elite? Rich? Well-to-do? Comfortable? -- lets just say she made herself into the American dream, working hard, saving her money, becoming successful through talent and effort. All excellent and all things everyone wants.

Then she put her money with Bernie Madoff. And then we all know what Bernie Madoff did. (He was running a pyramid scheme, in case you don’t know.) One day, her life savings is gone. Most of it, at least. The book doesn’t give specifics, but it sure reads as if it’s all gone. Terrible enough.

And, sure, I didn’t want to read of someone driven to the streets in days and who never got back on her feet. Though Penney always had bag lady fears, and they intensified during this period, she was always resourceful with resources. She was connected to many in the elite society of New York, so her hardships consisted of worrying, having to sell a property in Florida while maintaining her NYC apartment and studio, wondering if she could keep her weekly maid (she did), and not paying when friends invited her to meals at The Four Seasons and offered to pay for her salon appointments.

The hate reading comes from finding her utter lack of awareness. Madoff ruined many. Penney is not one of them. Not sure if she every really was in danger of that. Yes, it’s bad enough to lose pretty much everything you worked your entire life for. Money, that is.

But she had plenty more and was able to use it to bounce back in months, if not weeks. Perhaps not to where she had been, but still to a comfortable living.

Contrast that with everything going on in the world today with COVID-19, with Rust Belt Femme, the other short memoir I just finished about a person who truly overcame some tough conditions, and I just couldn’t find myself sympathizing with Penney. She’s a fine writer, as evidenced by bestsellers she’s written and magazines she’s written for and edited. But this comes across as unaware piffle.

I finished it because it was quick and short and easy. And maybe I needed someone to be irrationally mad it. I mean, I was mad at her a few weeks ago, so it wasn’t the Coronavirus that did it. But, man, it sure didn’t mitigate the situation.

Glad you rose from the Madoff tragedy, Alexandra. Just didn’t enjoy reading about it.]]> 2.73 2010 The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All
author: Alexandra Penney
name: Mike
average rating: 2.73
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2020/03/21
date added: 2020/03/21
shelves:
review:
A hate read when I started it a few weeks ago; even more so now.

Granted, Alexandra Penney worked her way into the � elite? Rich? Well-to-do? Comfortable? -- lets just say she made herself into the American dream, working hard, saving her money, becoming successful through talent and effort. All excellent and all things everyone wants.

Then she put her money with Bernie Madoff. And then we all know what Bernie Madoff did. (He was running a pyramid scheme, in case you don’t know.) One day, her life savings is gone. Most of it, at least. The book doesn’t give specifics, but it sure reads as if it’s all gone. Terrible enough.

And, sure, I didn’t want to read of someone driven to the streets in days and who never got back on her feet. Though Penney always had bag lady fears, and they intensified during this period, she was always resourceful with resources. She was connected to many in the elite society of New York, so her hardships consisted of worrying, having to sell a property in Florida while maintaining her NYC apartment and studio, wondering if she could keep her weekly maid (she did), and not paying when friends invited her to meals at The Four Seasons and offered to pay for her salon appointments.

The hate reading comes from finding her utter lack of awareness. Madoff ruined many. Penney is not one of them. Not sure if she every really was in danger of that. Yes, it’s bad enough to lose pretty much everything you worked your entire life for. Money, that is.

But she had plenty more and was able to use it to bounce back in months, if not weeks. Perhaps not to where she had been, but still to a comfortable living.

Contrast that with everything going on in the world today with COVID-19, with Rust Belt Femme, the other short memoir I just finished about a person who truly overcame some tough conditions, and I just couldn’t find myself sympathizing with Penney. She’s a fine writer, as evidenced by bestsellers she’s written and magazines she’s written for and edited. But this comes across as unaware piffle.

I finished it because it was quick and short and easy. And maybe I needed someone to be irrationally mad it. I mean, I was mad at her a few weeks ago, so it wasn’t the Coronavirus that did it. But, man, it sure didn’t mitigate the situation.

Glad you rose from the Madoff tragedy, Alexandra. Just didn’t enjoy reading about it.
]]> Cherry 36521370
Hammered out on a prison typewriter, Cherry marks the arrival of a raw, bleakly hilarious, and surprisingly poignant voice straight from the dark heart of America.]]> 336 Nico Walker 178733094X Mike 3 3.47 2018 Cherry
author: Nico Walker
name: Mike
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Booklover's Guide to New York]]> 41554412
A Booklover's Guide to New York is a love letter to everything literary in New York City. It is a book all about books. The book is an object in itself, designed as the ultimate little tome any book collector would love to acquire, layered with witty Pierre Le-Tan drawings, as well as photographs of some of the most precious bookish locations.
Rediscover New York in the most fashionably literate whether you are in need of an exceptionally rare edition of your favorite novel (perhaps to be found in the dark and musty backroom of The Center for Fiction), or the most tranquil place to devour a short story on a wintry day (an empty underground food court in a Midtown skyscraper), or if you are looking to follow in the footsteps of a beloved author or novella character (like Capote's Grady and Clyde in Central Park Zoo), this will be your ultimate companion.
Part guide, part sophisticated scrapbook and part desirable object, A Booklover's Guide to New York is an absolute must for any book-savvy person--the young bookworm or old scholar, the visiting tourist or homegrown New Yorker, the aspiring writer or doting parent.]]> 216 Cléo Le-Tan 0847863662 Mike 5
Or so I thought.

Last year, well after my brother had moved from NYC and my free place to stay had vanished, he was back offering another free place to stay for a few days. Feeling New Yorked out, I wasn’t too sure -- until I realized the Indians were in town over a weekend and playing both the Yankees and Mets.

So my final trip to New York City actually came last August, with trips to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, Times Square the Brooklyn Public Library, Tom’s Diner, Columbia University, and hour-plus subway trips and a $60 Uber ride to the airport.

Or so I thought.

Upon discovering A Booklover’s Guide to New York, I realize my final trip to New York City has yet to come. For within the pages of this beautiful, wonderful, fun-filled books is a guide to about every bookstore, literary hideout, and booklover’s place of note anyone could imagine. Every place that Cleo Le-Tan writes about gets at least a page, with most of them illustrated by her father Pieree Le-Tan, a famous cartoonist for The New Yorker.

The Strand bookstore -- which I’ve visited -- of course gets six pages, including an interview with its owner. So does the NY Public Library, with an interview of the chief librarian. Then there are places I’ve never heard of that get extended treatment, like Pete’s Tavern, known as the place O. Henry made famous. Open to a random page and you might find a dedication to the Gramercy Typewriter Company or the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Even a description of a corner street vendor.

Each entry reads like a ŷ review. Le-Tan says she visited 80-90% of the places. She’s especially exuberant about bookstores and libraries and other literary haunts as places, somewhere to go and be among books and book lovers and have conversations or just sit and enjoy.

You can take your Follet guidebooks, your Rick Steves, your Frommers or Lonely Planets. This is the best guidebook about New York City ever printed. Another final trip to the Big Apple is warranted, with this book on my hip. Perhaps a stay in the Library Hotel, exquisitely outlined here. A trip to the Minetta Tavern, where Hemingway and ee cummings used to hang out. Definitely a visit to the Japan-inspired bookbook on West 45th.

There’s enough in this book to make another trip of hourlong subway rides, $60 Uber trips, and traipsing through Newark Airport worth it all.]]> 4.28 A Booklover's Guide to New York
author: Cléo Le-Tan
name: Mike
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/02
date added: 2020/02/20
shelves:
review:
My final trip to New York City came some 10 years ago when my brother lived there.

Or so I thought.

Last year, well after my brother had moved from NYC and my free place to stay had vanished, he was back offering another free place to stay for a few days. Feeling New Yorked out, I wasn’t too sure -- until I realized the Indians were in town over a weekend and playing both the Yankees and Mets.

So my final trip to New York City actually came last August, with trips to Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, Times Square the Brooklyn Public Library, Tom’s Diner, Columbia University, and hour-plus subway trips and a $60 Uber ride to the airport.

Or so I thought.

Upon discovering A Booklover’s Guide to New York, I realize my final trip to New York City has yet to come. For within the pages of this beautiful, wonderful, fun-filled books is a guide to about every bookstore, literary hideout, and booklover’s place of note anyone could imagine. Every place that Cleo Le-Tan writes about gets at least a page, with most of them illustrated by her father Pieree Le-Tan, a famous cartoonist for The New Yorker.

The Strand bookstore -- which I’ve visited -- of course gets six pages, including an interview with its owner. So does the NY Public Library, with an interview of the chief librarian. Then there are places I’ve never heard of that get extended treatment, like Pete’s Tavern, known as the place O. Henry made famous. Open to a random page and you might find a dedication to the Gramercy Typewriter Company or the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Even a description of a corner street vendor.

Each entry reads like a ŷ review. Le-Tan says she visited 80-90% of the places. She’s especially exuberant about bookstores and libraries and other literary haunts as places, somewhere to go and be among books and book lovers and have conversations or just sit and enjoy.

You can take your Follet guidebooks, your Rick Steves, your Frommers or Lonely Planets. This is the best guidebook about New York City ever printed. Another final trip to the Big Apple is warranted, with this book on my hip. Perhaps a stay in the Library Hotel, exquisitely outlined here. A trip to the Minetta Tavern, where Hemingway and ee cummings used to hang out. Definitely a visit to the Japan-inspired bookbook on West 45th.

There’s enough in this book to make another trip of hourlong subway rides, $60 Uber trips, and traipsing through Newark Airport worth it all.
]]> QualityLand (QualityLand, #1) 36216607
Trotzdem beschleicht den Maschinenverschrotter Peter immer mehr das Gefühl, dass mit seinem Leben etwas nicht stimmt. Wenn das System wirklich so perfekt ist, warum gibt es denn Drohnen, die an Flugangst leiden, oder Kampfroboter mit posttraumatischer Belastungsstörung? Warum werden die Maschinen immer menschlicher, aber die Menschen immer maschineller?

Eine verblüffende Zukunftssatire über die Verheißungen und die Fallstricke der Digitalisierung.]]> 384 Marc-Uwe Kling 3550050232 Mike 4 4.14 2017 QualityLand (QualityLand, #1)
author: Marc-Uwe Kling
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/25
date added: 2020/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> House of X/Powers of X 45032046
COLLECTING: House of X 1-6, Powers of X 1-6]]> 448 Jonathan Hickman 1302915703 Mike 3
But graphic novels DO count as books read. It’s a book. You read it. So what if it is shorter than a novel. Aren’t some novels 300 pages and others 550 pages? Don’t they count the same? It’s not like a track meet where the starts are staggered for each lane so everyone runs the full mile.

That’s cheating. You’re adding it to your list to show off on ŷ about how many books you’ve read. House of X/Powers of X is not The Great Gatsby, even though that’s barely 200 pages. What about graphic novels that are just collections of several issues of a comic? Do House of X 1-6 and Powers of X 1-6 count as 12 different books if you read them one by one, but just one if you read them collected as a graphic novel? Not only isn’t House of X The Great Gatsby, it isn’t even Maus or March.

It doesn’t matter if it goes toward a ŷ count or my own personal diary that no one sees. I read a book. An entire books. Now it has to be something that qualifies for someone Best of The Century list to be counted as a book read? If I read a Paddington bear book, I’m counting it. If I read Green Eggs and Ham, I’m counting it. If I read House of X, I’m counting it. That book is nearly 450 pages -- beautiful pages I might add -- with a story you have to think about, plenty of words to read. It’s not something you finish in 20 minutes; you have to work to finish it.

Yeah, but so what if Magneto and Professor X take 450 pages to set up an island nation for mutants. Big deal if there are some beautiful illustrations of Wolverine and Nightcrawler destroying a space station building Sentinels to kill all mutants. That’s great, Apocalypse and Emma Frost and Black Tom Cassaday all align with Professor X to create a nation so all mutants can have a better chance against humans. It’s a graphic novel. It’s a collection of comic books. Give yourself a little checkmark and add to your book count, but you didn’t read a book. You read a bunch of comics.

I’m counting it. It’s a book. It’s hundreds of pages. I read it. Make that two for me so far this year, and I’m almost done with number three.

You’re delusional. Congrats on padding your book count. Add your 20-page Berenstein Bears books as well. You’re the Astros of ŷ.

What, I’m wearing a sensor and someone’s alerting me about what’s coming up on the next page? I know ahead of time how to turn the page to make reading easier? You sound like some bitter millennial upset no one’s giving him enough credit for reading A Confederacy of Dunces and Infinite Jest. Call me in July when you’ve finished two books this year.

Yeah, it takes more than three days to read one of those. Why did it take you three days to read a bunch of comic books anyway? Couldn't get to them between all the video game playing?

Shut up.

You shut up.]]> 4.44 2019 House of X/Powers of X
author: Jonathan Hickman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/17
date added: 2020/01/18
shelves:
review:
Graphic novels do not count as books read. Technically, they are books. Technically, you are reading them. But a graphic novel filled with mostly pictures and not even one tenth of the words that are in your average novel cannot be counted when adding up your books read at the end of the year.

But graphic novels DO count as books read. It’s a book. You read it. So what if it is shorter than a novel. Aren’t some novels 300 pages and others 550 pages? Don’t they count the same? It’s not like a track meet where the starts are staggered for each lane so everyone runs the full mile.

That’s cheating. You’re adding it to your list to show off on ŷ about how many books you’ve read. House of X/Powers of X is not The Great Gatsby, even though that’s barely 200 pages. What about graphic novels that are just collections of several issues of a comic? Do House of X 1-6 and Powers of X 1-6 count as 12 different books if you read them one by one, but just one if you read them collected as a graphic novel? Not only isn’t House of X The Great Gatsby, it isn’t even Maus or March.

It doesn’t matter if it goes toward a ŷ count or my own personal diary that no one sees. I read a book. An entire books. Now it has to be something that qualifies for someone Best of The Century list to be counted as a book read? If I read a Paddington bear book, I’m counting it. If I read Green Eggs and Ham, I’m counting it. If I read House of X, I’m counting it. That book is nearly 450 pages -- beautiful pages I might add -- with a story you have to think about, plenty of words to read. It’s not something you finish in 20 minutes; you have to work to finish it.

Yeah, but so what if Magneto and Professor X take 450 pages to set up an island nation for mutants. Big deal if there are some beautiful illustrations of Wolverine and Nightcrawler destroying a space station building Sentinels to kill all mutants. That’s great, Apocalypse and Emma Frost and Black Tom Cassaday all align with Professor X to create a nation so all mutants can have a better chance against humans. It’s a graphic novel. It’s a collection of comic books. Give yourself a little checkmark and add to your book count, but you didn’t read a book. You read a bunch of comics.

I’m counting it. It’s a book. It’s hundreds of pages. I read it. Make that two for me so far this year, and I’m almost done with number three.

You’re delusional. Congrats on padding your book count. Add your 20-page Berenstein Bears books as well. You’re the Astros of ŷ.

What, I’m wearing a sensor and someone’s alerting me about what’s coming up on the next page? I know ahead of time how to turn the page to make reading easier? You sound like some bitter millennial upset no one’s giving him enough credit for reading A Confederacy of Dunces and Infinite Jest. Call me in July when you’ve finished two books this year.

Yeah, it takes more than three days to read one of those. Why did it take you three days to read a bunch of comic books anyway? Couldn't get to them between all the video game playing?

Shut up.

You shut up.
]]> Every Day Is for the Thief 2320230 A young Nigerian writer living in New York City returns to Lagos in search of a subject-and himself.

Visiting Lagos after many years away, Teju Cole's unnamed narrator rediscovers his hometown as both a foreigner and a local. A young writer uncertain of what he wants to say, the man moves through tableaus of life in one of the most dynamic cities in the world: he hears the muezzin's call to prayer in the early morning light, and listens to John Coltrane during the late afternoon heat. He witnesses teenagers diligently perpetrating e-mail frauds from internet cafes, longs after a woman reading Michael Ondaatje on a public bus, and visits the impoverished National Museum. Along the way, he reconnects with old school friends and his family, who force him to ask himself profound questions of personal and national history. Over long, wandering days, the narrator compares present-day Lagos to the Lagos of his memory, and in doing so reveals changes that have taken place in himself.]]> 128 Teju Cole 978080515X Mike 3
That’s how many books I’ve read this year, a good start with the year not even a week old.

Of course I started this one a couple days before the new year. And it’s only 155 pages long. Really, I should have finished on New Year’s Day and be onto my second book of 2020 now.

I figure I’ve got about 750 books left to read. That’s 30 a year for 25 more years. Then I’m dead, based on average life expectancy in the U.S. Average books per year times average life expectancy minus current age. And I’m probably being optimistic about one side or the other in that equation.

But what if I could increase it to 50 books a year, like some people on ŷ are able to do? That’s 1,250 more books in my lifetime. Not quite double, but enough to read all of the books on some self-important list of best novels of all-time, or greatest books by millennials from the 2010s, or most important nonfiction books of this century. (I’ve actually read four off that last list already.) And I’d still have time to read hundreds of more books.

I could also read all the books my friends write. I don’t have a lot of writer friends, but I have enough that this could amount to a couple dozen over the next 25 years. Then some dumb sports books, like if anyone ever wrote one about the REAL behind-the-scenes story of the Cleveland Browns dysfunction since they came back from the dead. Or some stupid thrillers that you want to put down but just can’t, then say “I can’t believe I read the whole thing� at the end.

I’ve already made a list of 600 books to read from the past several years that sounded interesting at the time. As a librarian, I’m privy to advance notice of upcoming books, so I note anything that I want to read. Then another hundred books or so that I own and haven’t read yet. Plus all the graphic novels that haven’t even come out yet that I know I’m going to want to read. Really, my lifetime reading could already be covered by that.

That leaves little time for books like Every Day is For the Thief by Teju Cole. It’s one of those I marked as sounds interesting from the coming soon lists I read. It’s his first novel from 2007, reprinted recently after he hit it big with Open City a few years ago. It’s basically a memoir in fiction form, following a narrator who returns from years living in New York City to his birthplace of Nigeria. More like a collection of essays that recount the experiences and thoughts during his return, you can easily place Cole in place of the book’s unnamed narrator. Yes, one of the first things he talks about is going to Internet cafes and watching people, almost all young men, sending those emails you’ve received about claiming your millions of dollars in reward money if you’ll only send a few thousand right now to reserve your spot. That’s what Americans think about Nigeria.

But there’s much more depicted here. I wonder what has changed in the decade-plus since Cole wrote the book. He writes extensively about the bribery system that is basically accepted as the way to live, extending even to the consulate in New York where travelers apply for visas and passports. Driving is mostly a free-for-all. He’s upset by the lack of art. Fast food joints are becoming commonplace, though there are few American chains there. That might have changed in the past decade.

I give it three starts. To tell the truth, I am running out of time for three-star books. With 1,250 left, I need them to be four or five stars. But reading about places I know nothing about, like Nigeria, needs to be part of my future reading. I’ll need to more closely cultivating my book lists so I can read great books about foreign places in my final quarter century.

On to two.
]]> 3.68 2007 Every Day Is for the Thief
author: Teju Cole
name: Mike
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2020/01/05
date added: 2020/01/06
shelves:
review:
One.

That’s how many books I’ve read this year, a good start with the year not even a week old.

Of course I started this one a couple days before the new year. And it’s only 155 pages long. Really, I should have finished on New Year’s Day and be onto my second book of 2020 now.

I figure I’ve got about 750 books left to read. That’s 30 a year for 25 more years. Then I’m dead, based on average life expectancy in the U.S. Average books per year times average life expectancy minus current age. And I’m probably being optimistic about one side or the other in that equation.

But what if I could increase it to 50 books a year, like some people on ŷ are able to do? That’s 1,250 more books in my lifetime. Not quite double, but enough to read all of the books on some self-important list of best novels of all-time, or greatest books by millennials from the 2010s, or most important nonfiction books of this century. (I’ve actually read four off that last list already.) And I’d still have time to read hundreds of more books.

I could also read all the books my friends write. I don’t have a lot of writer friends, but I have enough that this could amount to a couple dozen over the next 25 years. Then some dumb sports books, like if anyone ever wrote one about the REAL behind-the-scenes story of the Cleveland Browns dysfunction since they came back from the dead. Or some stupid thrillers that you want to put down but just can’t, then say “I can’t believe I read the whole thing� at the end.

I’ve already made a list of 600 books to read from the past several years that sounded interesting at the time. As a librarian, I’m privy to advance notice of upcoming books, so I note anything that I want to read. Then another hundred books or so that I own and haven’t read yet. Plus all the graphic novels that haven’t even come out yet that I know I’m going to want to read. Really, my lifetime reading could already be covered by that.

That leaves little time for books like Every Day is For the Thief by Teju Cole. It’s one of those I marked as sounds interesting from the coming soon lists I read. It’s his first novel from 2007, reprinted recently after he hit it big with Open City a few years ago. It’s basically a memoir in fiction form, following a narrator who returns from years living in New York City to his birthplace of Nigeria. More like a collection of essays that recount the experiences and thoughts during his return, you can easily place Cole in place of the book’s unnamed narrator. Yes, one of the first things he talks about is going to Internet cafes and watching people, almost all young men, sending those emails you’ve received about claiming your millions of dollars in reward money if you’ll only send a few thousand right now to reserve your spot. That’s what Americans think about Nigeria.

But there’s much more depicted here. I wonder what has changed in the decade-plus since Cole wrote the book. He writes extensively about the bribery system that is basically accepted as the way to live, extending even to the consulate in New York where travelers apply for visas and passports. Driving is mostly a free-for-all. He’s upset by the lack of art. Fast food joints are becoming commonplace, though there are few American chains there. That might have changed in the past decade.

I give it three starts. To tell the truth, I am running out of time for three-star books. With 1,250 left, I need them to be four or five stars. But reading about places I know nothing about, like Nigeria, needs to be part of my future reading. I’ll need to more closely cultivating my book lists so I can read great books about foreign places in my final quarter century.

On to two.

]]> <![CDATA[If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now]]> 43245858
Like so many young American couples, Chris Ingraham and his wife Briana were having a difficult time making ends meet as they tried to raise their twin boys in the East Coast suburbs. One day, Chris � in his role as a “data guy� reporter at the Washington Post � stumbled on a study that would change his life. It was a ranking of America’s 3,000+ counties from ugliest to most scenic. He quickly scrolled to the bottom of the list and gleefully wrote the words “The absolute worst place to live in America is (drumroll please) � Red Lake County, Minn.� The story went viral, to put it mildly.

Among the reactions were many from residents of Red Lake County. While they were unflappably polite � it’s not called “Minnesota Nice� for nothing � they challenged him to look beyond the spreadsheet and actually visit their community. Ingraham, with slight trepidation, accepted. Impressed by the locals� warmth, humor and hospitality � and ever more aware of his financial situation and torturous commute � Chris and Briana eventually decided to relocate to the town he’d just dragged through the dirt on the Internet.

If You Lived Here You’d Be Home by Now is the story of making a decision that turns all your preconceptions � good and bad -- on their heads. In Red Lake County, Ingraham experiences the intensity and power of small-town gossip, struggles to find a decent cup of coffee, suffers through winters with temperatures dropping to forty below zero, and unearths some truths about small-town life that the coastal media usually miss. It’s a wry and charming tale � with data! -- of what happened to one family brave enough to move waaaay beyond its comfort zone.]]> 288 Christopher Ingraham 0062861476 Mike 4
I think I DID know how to live like this at one point, because I kinda did live like this at one point. Not quite like Ingraham, not quite in as sparsely populated a place as Ingraham, and not as a responsible adult like Ingraham. But the demographics were the same, the sense of relying on your neighbor was the same, the aw shucks attitude was the same.
Growing up, I lived out in the country with my family. That's what we called it then; now we say in a rural area. Until I was 15, we lived just outside a one stop-sign town while I went to a school where I wound up graduating with about 78 others, many of whom, like me, went to the school all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade.
People were bootstrappers in today's parlance. My dad, like many others I went to school with, ran his own business. And he was basically the business, as he only employed one or two others -- one of whom was my mom. You went to school, you did business with your neighbor, you were self-sufficient and reached out for help when you needed it, and you liked it.
Now I don't know that life anymore or the life Christopher Ingraham chose to take on by moving from the exurbs of Washington, D.C., to one of the most remote counties in Minnesota, about as far northwest as you can go and still be in both Minnesota and the United States. Winters aren't quite yearlong, but they take up most of the year. Neighbors are sparse, as only around 1,500 people live there. And pretty much no one moves there for a job, as most in the area are farmers or work for the school.
Ingraham, a Washington Post reporter, wrote about a study that ranked every county in the U.S. from most scenic to ugliest. Red Lake County in Minnesota lost. So Ingraham poked fun. And Red Lake County poked back. Friendly poking, as Minnesotans do, but they poked. And cajoled him into a visit. Somehow, Ingraham fell in love with the place. He and his wife decided to uproot themselves and their twin toddler boys and move to the ugliest county in the country. It was a new way of living for a couple who had lived many places and found themselves in the revolving door of hours-long commutes and moving up the work ladder.
I started reading this book the moment I got it, which usually doesn’t happen. It grabbed me right away. A few days later I was finished. That’s partly because it’s short and simple, but also because it’s interesting, a bit whimsical but with a seriousness to it. Ingraham didn’t move there on a lark, didn’t set out to try an experiment and write a about it. He and his family moved there to move there � to be part of a community, to change their lifestyle, to get out of the rat race they felt stuck in. Eventually he did write the book, but not until they were there a few years.
While I don’t feel I’m stuck in the rat race, I have fallen into a similarity to my life that’s extended over a decade. I work the same schedule most every week at the same place I’ve worked for almost 18 years with many of the same people who have been here with me for that amount of time or longer. So much so that it’s hard to imagine any other way to make a living. I mean, I did make a living before my current job. I wouldn’t want to go back to that. I’ve also been doing it this way for so long I’ve kinda forgotten how I did it before. And now I find it hard to imagine how other people get by every day, even when I find out the details.
Maybe I’ve lost my imagination, if I ever had much of one. Maybe it’s a sign I’m stuck in a rut and need to break out. Maybe I need to try something different, go on a sojourn to try out something new. Maybe I need to meet more new people.
At the very least, this book opened my eyes to the fact that I need to open my eyes more. This is a vast world and there are millions of different opportunities and ways to live. Christopher Ingraham’s is but one way, one that was enjoyable to read about. I don’t know what will change about mine, if anything, and doubt there will ever be a book about it that anyone would want to read. But it’s something to think about.]]> 3.92 2019 If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now
author: Christopher Ingraham
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/10
date added: 2019/10/31
shelves:
review:
I don't know how to live like this.

I think I DID know how to live like this at one point, because I kinda did live like this at one point. Not quite like Ingraham, not quite in as sparsely populated a place as Ingraham, and not as a responsible adult like Ingraham. But the demographics were the same, the sense of relying on your neighbor was the same, the aw shucks attitude was the same.
Growing up, I lived out in the country with my family. That's what we called it then; now we say in a rural area. Until I was 15, we lived just outside a one stop-sign town while I went to a school where I wound up graduating with about 78 others, many of whom, like me, went to the school all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade.
People were bootstrappers in today's parlance. My dad, like many others I went to school with, ran his own business. And he was basically the business, as he only employed one or two others -- one of whom was my mom. You went to school, you did business with your neighbor, you were self-sufficient and reached out for help when you needed it, and you liked it.
Now I don't know that life anymore or the life Christopher Ingraham chose to take on by moving from the exurbs of Washington, D.C., to one of the most remote counties in Minnesota, about as far northwest as you can go and still be in both Minnesota and the United States. Winters aren't quite yearlong, but they take up most of the year. Neighbors are sparse, as only around 1,500 people live there. And pretty much no one moves there for a job, as most in the area are farmers or work for the school.
Ingraham, a Washington Post reporter, wrote about a study that ranked every county in the U.S. from most scenic to ugliest. Red Lake County in Minnesota lost. So Ingraham poked fun. And Red Lake County poked back. Friendly poking, as Minnesotans do, but they poked. And cajoled him into a visit. Somehow, Ingraham fell in love with the place. He and his wife decided to uproot themselves and their twin toddler boys and move to the ugliest county in the country. It was a new way of living for a couple who had lived many places and found themselves in the revolving door of hours-long commutes and moving up the work ladder.
I started reading this book the moment I got it, which usually doesn’t happen. It grabbed me right away. A few days later I was finished. That’s partly because it’s short and simple, but also because it’s interesting, a bit whimsical but with a seriousness to it. Ingraham didn’t move there on a lark, didn’t set out to try an experiment and write a about it. He and his family moved there to move there � to be part of a community, to change their lifestyle, to get out of the rat race they felt stuck in. Eventually he did write the book, but not until they were there a few years.
While I don’t feel I’m stuck in the rat race, I have fallen into a similarity to my life that’s extended over a decade. I work the same schedule most every week at the same place I’ve worked for almost 18 years with many of the same people who have been here with me for that amount of time or longer. So much so that it’s hard to imagine any other way to make a living. I mean, I did make a living before my current job. I wouldn’t want to go back to that. I’ve also been doing it this way for so long I’ve kinda forgotten how I did it before. And now I find it hard to imagine how other people get by every day, even when I find out the details.
Maybe I’ve lost my imagination, if I ever had much of one. Maybe it’s a sign I’m stuck in a rut and need to break out. Maybe I need to try something different, go on a sojourn to try out something new. Maybe I need to meet more new people.
At the very least, this book opened my eyes to the fact that I need to open my eyes more. This is a vast world and there are millions of different opportunities and ways to live. Christopher Ingraham’s is but one way, one that was enjoyable to read about. I don’t know what will change about mine, if anything, and doubt there will ever be a book about it that anyone would want to read. But it’s something to think about.
]]> The Escape Room 41150380 Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style―but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room challenge as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?]]> 357 Megan Goldin 1250219655 Mike 1
I read it all anyway.

I tend to get drawn into stories like this. Just ask all the Saw movies. Yes, all of them. They'll tell you I paid to see two of them in the theater. I did not pay to see the recent movie Escape Room, but I did read up and watch enough scenes online to know what happens.

Stupidity.

Apparently I'm drawn to the stupid.

In this one, a quartet of Wall Streeters are drawn to an empty Manhattan high-rise where an elevator turns into an escape room. A real escape room. As in, escape or die. The chapters alternate between the action in the elevator and the story of a person who came to work for the company as the veritable deer in the headlights. (If it takes you more than a half-dozen chapters to figure out who put everyone in the elevator, YOU'RE stupid.)

For awhile the book gives decent clues and draws the story forward through cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Kind of like the traps in all those Saw movies. There's a feeling that everything is leading up to a brilliant, grand climax. But then things stop happening. The characters just argue with each other and start panicking over little things. And the story outside the elevator doesn't become all that compelling.

Eventually it all ends and, like those Saw movies, I stumbled into the light wondering why I put myself through all of it. But Chris Rock is planning a new Saw movie that I'm going to have to see. And Megan Goldin probably has more ideas like this that I'm going to have to read. And I'll probably hate myself after getting through them. It's like binge-eating a pizza; I just can't stop myself, it winds up not being nearly as fun as I thought it would be, and I'm going to do it again.

Stupid, right?]]> 3.80 2018 The Escape Room
author: Megan Goldin
name: Mike
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2019/08/10
date added: 2019/10/08
shelves:
review:
This book is stupid.

I read it all anyway.

I tend to get drawn into stories like this. Just ask all the Saw movies. Yes, all of them. They'll tell you I paid to see two of them in the theater. I did not pay to see the recent movie Escape Room, but I did read up and watch enough scenes online to know what happens.

Stupidity.

Apparently I'm drawn to the stupid.

In this one, a quartet of Wall Streeters are drawn to an empty Manhattan high-rise where an elevator turns into an escape room. A real escape room. As in, escape or die. The chapters alternate between the action in the elevator and the story of a person who came to work for the company as the veritable deer in the headlights. (If it takes you more than a half-dozen chapters to figure out who put everyone in the elevator, YOU'RE stupid.)

For awhile the book gives decent clues and draws the story forward through cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Kind of like the traps in all those Saw movies. There's a feeling that everything is leading up to a brilliant, grand climax. But then things stop happening. The characters just argue with each other and start panicking over little things. And the story outside the elevator doesn't become all that compelling.

Eventually it all ends and, like those Saw movies, I stumbled into the light wondering why I put myself through all of it. But Chris Rock is planning a new Saw movie that I'm going to have to see. And Megan Goldin probably has more ideas like this that I'm going to have to read. And I'll probably hate myself after getting through them. It's like binge-eating a pizza; I just can't stop myself, it winds up not being nearly as fun as I thought it would be, and I'm going to do it again.

Stupid, right?
]]> Vox 37796866 VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.]]> 336 Christina Dalcher 0440000785 Mike 4 3.52 2018 Vox
author: Christina Dalcher
name: Mike
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/12/11
date added: 2019/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America]]> 43261201
"We devoured [this] engrossing account of the battle for supremacy between three fantasy gaming sites. ... Chen flips the script with a character-driven narrative, exposing the people who fueled the industry (not necessarily the folks you’d expect) and what motivated them (not necessarily unadulterated greed). Gamers will find this book impossible to put down, as will anyone who loves a good origin story." � Apple Books, Best of the Month selection

"Fans of financial thrillers such asBarbarians at the Gate will be excited by this insider account of the dizzying rise of fantasy sports websites" � Publishers Weekly

You've seen the commercials. Here is the untold story behind the clash of billion dollar companies that unleashed an unprecedented advertising war.

From Sports Illustrated's Albert Chen comes the story of two companies whose battle unleashed a carpet bombing of advertising as they sought supremacy in an exploding fantasy sports and gambling market: In a time of gushing venture capital money, FanDuel and DraftKings turned into billion-dollar companies seemingly overnight � then, just as quickly, found themselves the target of FBI and Department of Justice investigations, and facing likely destruction.

Chen tells the story of the improbable individuals behind the saga: An Irishman who knew nothing about American sports. A fantasy geek who felt it was his destiny to change the way fellow nerds watched the games they loved. A conflicted poker player. A mother of three in Scotland.

In a character-driven narrative with excursions into the strange and unexpected, Chen takes us from casinos to board rooms, from Edinburgh to Wall Street to the Vegas Strip, to tell a sprawling and intimate tale of the new world that this group of accidental disruptors helped to create. It’s a story of ideas and dreams, about a world of risk, luck, hubris, greed and redemption—a story for our high-stakes times.]]> 304 Albert Chen 0544911148 Mike 2
Me, after reading this.

Albert Chen details the rise and almost fall of DraftKings and FanDuel, the fantasy sports websites whose ubiquitous ads you probably saw even on your bedroom ceiling just before you fell asleep a couple years ago. DraftKings came about when Jason Robins bought out a rival and started spending money like others breathe air; FanDuel was mostly the creation of husband-and-wife team Nigel and Lesley Eccles. Pages and pages detailing meetings with possible funders for the websites, with lawyers for the websites, with workers for the websites, with just about anyone you could think of related to the websites go by. Just not a lot of interesting things in there.

Then there's the players, a couple of which are profiled in here. One duo won a million dollars in one of the early contests one of the websites offered. They got to meet Bo Jackson because of it. And ... that's about it. Maybe if they would have spent all their winnings on hookers and blow it would have made a more compelling story.

Or maybe if the founders did the same. Instead, they just go about their business, fight with regulators and politicians, and eventually emerge as millionaires when the online fantasy sports sites slowly become legal across the United States, one state at a time. One section, about 100 pages in and 20 pages long, gets a bit exciting as it details the decisions behind those ads we saw every commercial break. They made most everyone mad, even those who liked to play on the sites, and drew the attention of powerful people who wanted them to go away.

At only 250 or so pages, I expected a quick and breezy read. Instead, I could only make it through 20 pages at a time before wishing a bill collector would call or a neighbor would knock to ask for some sugar. Anything to add a little pep to the day. Maybe it's because I'm midway through the fourth season of Billions, which is full of conflict between billionaire Wall Street hedge funders and the politicians who both enable and deter them.

Of course, made up Wall Street stories can always be more exciting because anything can happen since they are made up. But then, Michael Lewis and Ben Mezrich have made real Wall Street stories page-turners. Albert Chen's a fine writer. He just didn't make this one compelling to me.]]> 3.64 Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America
author: Albert Chen
name: Mike
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2019/10/06
date added: 2019/10/08
shelves:
review:
Who knew a book detailing the building of a billion-dollar industry, sprinkled with a few stories about those who won millions playing the online sports games the industry built, could be so boring?

Me, after reading this.

Albert Chen details the rise and almost fall of DraftKings and FanDuel, the fantasy sports websites whose ubiquitous ads you probably saw even on your bedroom ceiling just before you fell asleep a couple years ago. DraftKings came about when Jason Robins bought out a rival and started spending money like others breathe air; FanDuel was mostly the creation of husband-and-wife team Nigel and Lesley Eccles. Pages and pages detailing meetings with possible funders for the websites, with lawyers for the websites, with workers for the websites, with just about anyone you could think of related to the websites go by. Just not a lot of interesting things in there.

Then there's the players, a couple of which are profiled in here. One duo won a million dollars in one of the early contests one of the websites offered. They got to meet Bo Jackson because of it. And ... that's about it. Maybe if they would have spent all their winnings on hookers and blow it would have made a more compelling story.

Or maybe if the founders did the same. Instead, they just go about their business, fight with regulators and politicians, and eventually emerge as millionaires when the online fantasy sports sites slowly become legal across the United States, one state at a time. One section, about 100 pages in and 20 pages long, gets a bit exciting as it details the decisions behind those ads we saw every commercial break. They made most everyone mad, even those who liked to play on the sites, and drew the attention of powerful people who wanted them to go away.

At only 250 or so pages, I expected a quick and breezy read. Instead, I could only make it through 20 pages at a time before wishing a bill collector would call or a neighbor would knock to ask for some sugar. Anything to add a little pep to the day. Maybe it's because I'm midway through the fourth season of Billions, which is full of conflict between billionaire Wall Street hedge funders and the politicians who both enable and deter them.

Of course, made up Wall Street stories can always be more exciting because anything can happen since they are made up. But then, Michael Lewis and Ben Mezrich have made real Wall Street stories page-turners. Albert Chen's a fine writer. He just didn't make this one compelling to me.
]]> The Goldfinch 27886778 WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review

Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his longing for his mother, he clings to the one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.

As an adult, Theo moves silkily between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty labyrinth of an antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love--and at the center of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a mesmerizing, stay-up-all-night and tell-all-your-friends triumph, an old-fashioned story of loss and obsession, survival and self-invention, and the ruthless machinations of fate.]]> 962 Donna Tartt 0316055425 Mike 0 to-read 3.97 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Mike
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Dreamers 34409176
Mei, an outsider in the cliquish hierarchy of dorm life, finds herself thrust together with an eccentric, idealistic classmate. Two visiting professors try to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. A father succumbs to the illness, leaving his daughters to fend for themselves. And at the hospital, a new life grows within a college girl, unbeknownst to her—even as she sleeps. A psychiatrist, summoned from Los Angeles, attempts to make sense of the illness as it spreads through the town. Those infected are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, more than has ever been recorded. They are dreaming heightened dreams—but of what?]]> 303 Karen Thompson Walker 0812994167 Mike 4 3.61 2019 The Dreamers
author: Karen Thompson Walker
name: Mike
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Ohio 36373372
There’s Bill Ashcraft, a passionate, drug-abusing young activist whose flailing ambitions have taken him from Cambodia to Zuccotti Park to post-BP New Orleans, and now back home with a mysterious package strapped to the undercarriage of his truck; Stacey Moore, a doctoral candidate reluctantly confronting her family and the mother of her best friend and first love, whose disappearance spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel; Dan Eaton, a shy veteran of three tours in Iraq, home for a dinner date with the high school sweetheart he’s tried desperately to forget; and the beautiful, fragile Tina Ross, whose rendezvous with the washed-up captain of the football team triggers the novel’s shocking climax.

Set over the course of a single evening, Ohio toggles between the perspectives of these unforgettable characters as they unearth dark secrets, revisit old regrets and uncover—and compound—bitter betrayals. Before the evening is through, these narratives converge masterfully to reveal a mystery so dark and shocking it will take your breath away.]]> 484 Stephen Markley 1501174479 Mike 5 3.86 2018 Ohio
author: Stephen Markley
name: Mike
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Astroball: The New Way to Win It All]]> 37822619 Sports Illustrated declared on the cover of a June 2014 issue that the Houston Astros would win the World Series in 2017, people thought Ben Reiter, the article's author, was crazy. The Astros were the worst baseball team in half a century, but they were more than just bad. They were an embarrassment, a club that didn't even appear to be trying to win. The cover story, combined with the specificity of Reiter's claim, met instant and nearly universal derision. But three years later, the critics were proved improbably, astonishingly wrong. How had Reiter predicted it so accurately? And, more important, how had the Astros pulled off the impossible?

Astroball is the inside story of how a gang of outsiders went beyond the stats to find a new way to win--and not just in baseball. When new Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and his top analyst, the former rocket scientist Sig Mejdal, arrived in Houston in 2011, they had already spent more than half a decade trying to understand how human instinct and expertise could be blended with hard numbers such as on-base percentage and strikeout rate to guide their decision-making. In Houston, they had free rein to remake the club. No longer would scouts, with all their subjective, hard-to-quantify opinions, be forced into opposition with the stats guys. Instead, Luhnow and Sig wanted to correct for the biases inherent in human observation, and then roll their scouts' critical thoughts into their process. The numbers had value--but so did the gut.

The strategy paid off brilliantly, and surprisingly quickly. It pointed the Astros toward key draft picks like Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman; offered a path for developing George Springer, Jos� Altuve, and Dallas Keuchel; and showed them how veterans like Carlos Beltr�n and Justin Verlander represented the last piece in the puzzle of fielding a championship team.

Sitting at the nexus of sports, business, and innovation--and written with years of access to the team's stars and executives--Astroball is the story of the next wave of thinking in baseball and beyond, at once a remarkable underdog story and a fascinating look at the cutting edge of evaluating and optimizing human potential.]]> 235 Ben Reiter 0525576649 Mike 4
And now finally one about the geniuses in a front office who won the World Series.

Yeah, I've read (most of) them all. And Astroball touches on it (as did Moneyball) -- the playoffs are a roll of the dice. The geniuses in the Houston Astros front office made mistakes along the way (they cut JD Martinez, who turned into one of the most fearsome hitters in baseball a few weeks later; they wasted a No. 1 pick on Brady Aiken) and needed seven games to win the ALCS and the World Series last season. Oakland A's GM Billy Bean famously said that his shit don't work in the playoffs. Tampa Bay lost in the World Series which was still a victory because many said they couldn't even have a winning season playing where they play. The Pirates couldn't advance in the playoffs and are now back to being lousy. The minor league team won it all, but lost the championship game before and after they won.

So these books are about the process more than they are about the results. Two men in the Astros front office is run by two men, GM Jeff Luhnow and Special Assistant Sig Mejdal, are big on probabilities. Something might not work one time, but if you're playing the correct odds often enough, you'll eventually hit. And it could turn into a World Series victory, provided you get enough chances to overcome earlier misses.

In Astroball, we learn the stories of how Luhnow and Mejdal came up with their methods and moved into the Astros front office. We learn how the stories of some of the Astros superstars -- Jose Altuve, Carlos Carrasco, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, and Carlos Beltran. Some were known stars from the beginning, some overcame things like height (the 5-foot-6 Altuve).

They still write books filled with stories mythologizing great baseball players, great rivalries, great teams, and great eras. Writing about the front offices is more of a recent trend. Astroball is an excellent addition to that trend. There will surely be more to come as baseball teams continue to use more and more data to back their million-dollar decisions, rather than gut knowledge.]]> 4.18 Astroball: The New Way to Win It All
author: Ben Reiter
name: Mike
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/08/28
shelves:
review:
Moneyball started it. Since then there's been The Extra 2% by Jonah Keri, Big Data Baseball by Travis Sawchik, and The Only Rule Is It Has to Work by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. They are about the geniuses in the Oakland A's front office (Moneyball), the Tampa Bay Rays front office (Extra 2%), the Pittsburgh Pirates front office (Big Data), and an independent minor league team front office (Only Rule).

And now finally one about the geniuses in a front office who won the World Series.

Yeah, I've read (most of) them all. And Astroball touches on it (as did Moneyball) -- the playoffs are a roll of the dice. The geniuses in the Houston Astros front office made mistakes along the way (they cut JD Martinez, who turned into one of the most fearsome hitters in baseball a few weeks later; they wasted a No. 1 pick on Brady Aiken) and needed seven games to win the ALCS and the World Series last season. Oakland A's GM Billy Bean famously said that his shit don't work in the playoffs. Tampa Bay lost in the World Series which was still a victory because many said they couldn't even have a winning season playing where they play. The Pirates couldn't advance in the playoffs and are now back to being lousy. The minor league team won it all, but lost the championship game before and after they won.

So these books are about the process more than they are about the results. Two men in the Astros front office is run by two men, GM Jeff Luhnow and Special Assistant Sig Mejdal, are big on probabilities. Something might not work one time, but if you're playing the correct odds often enough, you'll eventually hit. And it could turn into a World Series victory, provided you get enough chances to overcome earlier misses.

In Astroball, we learn the stories of how Luhnow and Mejdal came up with their methods and moved into the Astros front office. We learn how the stories of some of the Astros superstars -- Jose Altuve, Carlos Carrasco, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander, and Carlos Beltran. Some were known stars from the beginning, some overcame things like height (the 5-foot-6 Altuve).

They still write books filled with stories mythologizing great baseball players, great rivalries, great teams, and great eras. Writing about the front offices is more of a recent trend. Astroball is an excellent addition to that trend. There will surely be more to come as baseball teams continue to use more and more data to back their million-dollar decisions, rather than gut knowledge.
]]> The Captives 36204083 The riveting story of a woman convicted of a brutal crime, the prison psychologist who recognizes her as his high-school crush—and the charged reunion that sets off an astonishing chain of events with dangerous consequences for both

As an inmate psychologist at a state prison, Frank Lundquist has had his fair share of surprises. But nothing could possibly prepare him for the day in which his high school object of desire, Miranda Greene, walks into his office for an appointment. Still reeling from the scandal that cost him his Manhattan private practice and landed him in his unglamorous job at Milford Basin Correctional Facility in the first place, Frank knows he has an ethical duty to reassign Miranda’s case. But Miranda is just as beguiling as ever, and he’s insatiably curious: how did a beautiful high school sprinter and the promising daughter of a congressman end up incarcerated for a shocking crime? Even more compelling: though Frank remembers every word Miranda ever spoke to him, she gives no indication of having any idea who he is.

Inside the prison walls, Miranda is desperate and despairing, haunted by memories of a childhood tragedy, grappling with a family legacy of dodgy moral and political choices, and still trying to unwind the disastrous love that led to her downfall. And yet she is also grittily determined to retain some control over her fate. Frank quickly becomes a potent hope for her absolution—and maybe even her escape.

Propulsive and psychologically astute, The Captives is an intimate and gripping meditation on freedom and risk, male and female power, and the urges toward both corruption and redemption that dwell in us all.]]> 276 Debra Jo Immergut 0062747541 Mike 3
Prison psychologist Frank Lundquist realizes his latest client is his high school crush, Miranda Greene. She didn't know he existed then and barely remembers him now. How can he help her -- or make her fall in love with him -- without revealing their connection?

You'll keep waiting for something big to happen. When it kinda does, you'll wonder if it was worth the wait. ]]> 2.86 2018 The Captives
author: Debra Jo Immergut
name: Mike
average rating: 2.86
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2018/07/13
date added: 2018/07/23
shelves:
review:
I was 58 pages in before I knew it. A couple hundred pages later, I thought, "That's it?" It's a fast read that goes nowhere fast.

Prison psychologist Frank Lundquist realizes his latest client is his high school crush, Miranda Greene. She didn't know he existed then and barely remembers him now. How can he help her -- or make her fall in love with him -- without revealing their connection?

You'll keep waiting for something big to happen. When it kinda does, you'll wonder if it was worth the wait.
]]> Baby Teeth 35410511
She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.

Meet Suzette.

She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette's husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that there’s something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isn’t the best place for their baby girl after all.]]> 304 Zoje Stage 1250170753 Mike 4
Yes, that's what this book is about. A child is awful and wants to kill her mother. The blurb from Entertainment Weekly is spot on -- Gone Girl meets The Omen.

And I loved The Omen. Even when it scared me to death as a child. I remember asking to stay up late to watch it on TV one night, then being so scared by it that I asked to go to bed 20 minutes in. I remember that night, and The Omen, very fondly.

Much like no one in The Omen believed Damien was evil until they were forced to believe he was evil, no one believes 7-year-old Hanna is evil in Baby Teeth, except her mother, Suzette. Even the reader has doubts. Is Hanna really this nasty? Is she just acting out? Did something cause her to react in the ways she does? A little kid can't be simply inherently evil, can she? Hanna's father Alex certainly doesn't believe she is evil. Hanna saves her best for her daddy, never showing him the side that Suzette and select others see.

There is a great sense of foreboding in this one. Bad things happen. And then we wait for something even worse to come. Things build and build, much like in the recent movie Hereditary. Little Hanna is very good at getting kicked out of schools. She is great at freaking out her mother. And she is excellent at making it look like it was all coincidences or accidents. Sometimes too great -- can 7-year-olds really think the way Hanna thinks? Ah, it's all a book, so suspend your disbelief on that one.

Thought there are riveting scenes and tense moments, even worse things could have happened. Baby Teeth ventures there but doesn't quite cross the line like Stephen King would have. Still, it's tough to put down and very deserving of its book-of-the-summer hype. And it's certain to be turned into a movie. The final scene will be a doozy. Imagine a certain character, sitting alone in the dark, plotting something far worse to come, the camera panning closer and closer to the face, to the eyes, then fade to black. A sequel is sure to come.

]]> 3.56 2018 Baby Teeth
author: Zoje Stage
name: Mike
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/21
date added: 2018/07/21
shelves:
review:
What an evil child.

Yes, that's what this book is about. A child is awful and wants to kill her mother. The blurb from Entertainment Weekly is spot on -- Gone Girl meets The Omen.

And I loved The Omen. Even when it scared me to death as a child. I remember asking to stay up late to watch it on TV one night, then being so scared by it that I asked to go to bed 20 minutes in. I remember that night, and The Omen, very fondly.

Much like no one in The Omen believed Damien was evil until they were forced to believe he was evil, no one believes 7-year-old Hanna is evil in Baby Teeth, except her mother, Suzette. Even the reader has doubts. Is Hanna really this nasty? Is she just acting out? Did something cause her to react in the ways she does? A little kid can't be simply inherently evil, can she? Hanna's father Alex certainly doesn't believe she is evil. Hanna saves her best for her daddy, never showing him the side that Suzette and select others see.

There is a great sense of foreboding in this one. Bad things happen. And then we wait for something even worse to come. Things build and build, much like in the recent movie Hereditary. Little Hanna is very good at getting kicked out of schools. She is great at freaking out her mother. And she is excellent at making it look like it was all coincidences or accidents. Sometimes too great -- can 7-year-olds really think the way Hanna thinks? Ah, it's all a book, so suspend your disbelief on that one.

Thought there are riveting scenes and tense moments, even worse things could have happened. Baby Teeth ventures there but doesn't quite cross the line like Stephen King would have. Still, it's tough to put down and very deserving of its book-of-the-summer hype. And it's certain to be turned into a movie. The final scene will be a doozy. Imagine a certain character, sitting alone in the dark, plotting something far worse to come, the camera panning closer and closer to the face, to the eyes, then fade to black. A sequel is sure to come.


]]> <![CDATA[The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life]]> 36298843 In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend, and reader. From a commencement speech he gave at Colby College, to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain's value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery, The Destiny Thief reflects the broad interests and experiences of one of America's most beloved authors. Warm, funny, wise, and poignant, the essays included here traverse Russo's writing life, expanding our understanding of who he is and how his singular, incredibly generous mind works. An utter joy to read, they give deep insight into the creative process from the prospective of one of our greatest writers.]]> 224 Richard Russo Mike 4
Similarly, a few weeks ago I received a Richard Russo book that I didn’t know was being published. But clearly I did know it was being published, because I had put a hold on it at the library months ago that was finally fulfilled. I simply had forgotten all about it in the meantime. So when it came it, I was surprised and overjoyed by the little gift I had given myself. “How could Richard Russo have a new book out that I didn’t know about?� I thought. But clearly I did know about it since I now had it. I had just forgotten that I knew about it. Kinda like Brooks Koepka and the U.S. Open.
What I didn’t forget is that Richard Russo is a brilliant author. Every essay in “The Destiny Thief� is a reminder of that. The title essay is evidence of that, as Russo explores his history as a writer, comparing it to a friend of his who thought he was going to have the career Russo has enjoyed. Instead, Russo wound up with a career beyond his imagination, and in some ways feels imposter syndrome as it was never written in the stars for him. Other essays � some previously published, others unclear on the status � show he is an expert in Mark Twain and Charles Dickens� “The Pickwick Papers,� and a very good writing teacher.

Whatever the subject, Russo is as smooth a writer as it gets. He tells us that “show, don’t tell� is for beginning writers, makes an essay about grappling with his friend’s transition from man to woman as funny and heartfelt as it can be, and made me want to learn more about “The Pickwick Papers� when I couldn’t have cared less about it heading into this book.

I hope I forget all about Richard Russo’s next book right after I put a hold on it at the library. And then I hope I am as overjoyed when the book arrives as I was this time. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it just as much, as Russo always comes through. Unlike Brooks Koepka, who I might forget about again as soon as I post this review, I’ll never forget about Richard Russo. I’ll just lose track of when his books come out.]]> 3.78 2018 The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life
author: Richard Russo
name: Mike
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/08
date added: 2018/07/10
shelves:
review:
I had never heard of Brooks Koepka until he won the U.S. Open golf championship a couple of weeks ago. Scratch that. I’m pretty sure I said the same thing a year ago, when Brooks Koepka won the U.S. Open golf championship. Never heard of that guy! Now that he’s won it two years in a row, I can say I have heard of him, I just immediately forgot all about him.

Similarly, a few weeks ago I received a Richard Russo book that I didn’t know was being published. But clearly I did know it was being published, because I had put a hold on it at the library months ago that was finally fulfilled. I simply had forgotten all about it in the meantime. So when it came it, I was surprised and overjoyed by the little gift I had given myself. “How could Richard Russo have a new book out that I didn’t know about?� I thought. But clearly I did know about it since I now had it. I had just forgotten that I knew about it. Kinda like Brooks Koepka and the U.S. Open.
What I didn’t forget is that Richard Russo is a brilliant author. Every essay in “The Destiny Thief� is a reminder of that. The title essay is evidence of that, as Russo explores his history as a writer, comparing it to a friend of his who thought he was going to have the career Russo has enjoyed. Instead, Russo wound up with a career beyond his imagination, and in some ways feels imposter syndrome as it was never written in the stars for him. Other essays � some previously published, others unclear on the status � show he is an expert in Mark Twain and Charles Dickens� “The Pickwick Papers,� and a very good writing teacher.

Whatever the subject, Russo is as smooth a writer as it gets. He tells us that “show, don’t tell� is for beginning writers, makes an essay about grappling with his friend’s transition from man to woman as funny and heartfelt as it can be, and made me want to learn more about “The Pickwick Papers� when I couldn’t have cared less about it heading into this book.

I hope I forget all about Richard Russo’s next book right after I put a hold on it at the library. And then I hope I am as overjoyed when the book arrives as I was this time. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it just as much, as Russo always comes through. Unlike Brooks Koepka, who I might forget about again as soon as I post this review, I’ll never forget about Richard Russo. I’ll just lose track of when his books come out.
]]> Less (Arthur Less, #1) 36204260 Who says you can't run away from your problems? You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes--it would be too awkward--and you can't say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

What would possibly go wrong? Arthur Less will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Saharan sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and encounter, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to face. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. Through it all, there is his first love. And there is his last.

Because, despite all these mishaps, missteps, misunderstandings and mistakes, Less is, above all, a love story.]]> 263 Andrew Sean Greer 031631613X Mike 0 to-read 3.62 2017 Less (Arthur Less, #1)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Mike
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #3]]> 38200939 *Scarlet Witch and Rogue make a terrible discovery that will haunt them forever!
*The UNCANNY AVENGERS feel the full might of Red Skull's S-Men.]]> 23 Rick Remender Mike 4 3.83 2015 Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #3
author: Rick Remender
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2018/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #2]]> 33539453 23 Rick Remender Mike 3 3.93 2012 Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #2
author: Rick Remender
name: Mike
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2018/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #1]]> 32468124 24 Rick Remender Mike 3 3.80 2012 Uncanny Avengers (2012-2014) #1
author: Rick Remender
name: Mike
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2018/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]>