BOOKS THREAD

Been reading this and second this recommendation. Guinn clearly outlines the gradual progression of Jones and his followers in a way that helps to understand how they ended where they did. Definitely worth reading.

 

Is it weird that I'm disappointed she tackled the Babe? I don't care about him that much. I loved the Koufax bio because he was so little known and such an interesting character. I'd almost rather she did Willie Mays or Stan Musial or Bob Gibson.

Which great player is still waiting for his defining bio?

I think of those still playing, Joey Votto might be worth a book one day.

 

LeBron James.

 

I was thinking baseball. I could give a shit about hoops.

 

I talked to Jane, and she told me that there is a lot new information in this book. It will be hard to top her book on The Mick and Koufax, however, I am really excited about this one since I am a big fan of the Babe and his life.

 

Magpie Murders - started a bit formulaic but changes midbook to something very interesting.

 

Loved Magpie and want to read his next one too, which sounds similarly twisty. My parents have become huge fans of British murder mysteries on PBS, especially Midsomer Murders. They're also huge mystery book fans so I told Mom to get Magpie since Horowitz created Midsomer too.

 

This is a really good, kinda under-the-radar book on the Babe and his trade from Boston to the Yankees:

This is a very good Musial bio:

 

Not loading for me. This one? If so, I agree. It's a really great book.

 

Yes, that's the book. Sheds a lot of new light on the "legend" that is the trade of Ruth to the Yankees.

 

Bob Marley's career has always interested me, how a guy from the streets of Kingston, Jamaica took a music form little known outside the Caribbean around the world and packed so much, on record, on stage and elsewhere, into only 36 years.

I have read a couple of Marley books over the years, Catch a Fire by Timothy White is the best, but So Much Things to Say: the oral history of Bob Marley, by Roger Stefffens, is a worthy addition to the library. The author, a reggae historian and Marley expert, had interviewed all the key players in Marley's story at one time or another: Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Rita Marley and so many others who grew up with him, played with him, worked with him and covered him.

There are a lot of conflicting stories here of the major events in Marley's often chaotic life and career and the patois and slang most of the speakers use can be a bit tough to decipher, but this is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in his life.

We touched on Jane Leavy's new Babe Ruth bio in one of the baseball threads but this is a tremendous book, less about baseball and more about Ruth in his early days and away from the field and how his "agent" Christy Walsh basically created the Babe Ruth brand, making him the first sports celebrity.

 

The dust jacket for Roger Daltrey's new memoir hypes it as the definitive story of The Who and while that isn't the case (for my money Before I Get Old, a probably long out-of-print book by Dave Marsh, is the best Who book by miles, even if it wraps after their first farewell tour) it certainly adds a lot to the band's story, especially over the last 30 years or so with the endless tours repackaging Tommy, Quadrophenia and all the old hits (and yes, I have seen them all) that he admits they did because they needed the money.

Daltrey portrays himself as the sober guy amidst all the drug and alcohol fueled times with Townshend, Moon and Entwistle (Marsh's book did too) and he often writes of the tug of war for control of the band, and its future, with Townshend who held all the cards because he wrote all the songs.

It isn't the slog Townshend's book was at times and there are no shortage of good stories - and a solid recap of the band's early days - and like the books by Phil Collins and Rod Stewart, lots of sly British humour.