BOOKS THREAD

From the new nonfiction category: "Next Stop, Reloville" by Peter Kilborn (longtime NYT writer/correspondent)

Pretty good mix of stats and individual stories about the constantly-moving, mid-level management types who frequently swap $350K and up homes in far-flung suburbs that surround metro areas like Atlanta, Denver, and Las Vegas.

I guess we all have different definitions about "the American dream."

Overall, a good, quick read that makes you think a bit.

 

I'm on a Norman Mailer jag. I'll get to some more famous stuff ("Naked and the Dead," "Executioner's Song") later but "An American Dream" was awesome in its sickness. Next up is "Barbary Shore" and then "The Deer Park."

 

Took me a while but I finally got through the Bret (Hitman) Hart book. I don't watch rassling much any more but I was a big fan of the Hitman back in the day. This book has loads of juicy backstage gossip in addition to providing a great look at his father's legendary Stampede Wrestling promotion.

More than a little ego here too, which isn't surprising, I guess, from a guy who said he was the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.

 

500 pages into the Simmons book, which means I have about 200 to go. It's good. Simmons put a lot of work into this book and deserves the kudos he's receiving.

 

The Machine is solid, mostly in it's Pete Rose treatment. I think Poz needs to write the definitive Pete Rose biography.

 

To me, Naked and the Dead is best, although I haven't read all of them, I must admit. But I can't believe he insisted to his death that soldiers really said "fuggin' " instead of the actual f-word.

 

Does anyone know of a good J. Edgar Hoover book?

 

I don't know if it's the best, but Puppetmaster has a lot of under the fingernails stuff. Hoover is endlessly fascinating.

 

Just read Henning Mankell's first Wallander book "Faceless Killers". Great stuff with an interesting look at Swedish society at a crossroads.

 

Puppetmaster's what you want.

 

Just finished "The Machine."

Not sure how I feel about it yet. Light, easy read -- finished in two nights. Enjoyable stories, like reading 100 Joe Poz columns in a row.

The style felt like "The Soul of Baseball," but I don't think the story was suitable for that, if you know what I mean. It's unlike most "here's the story of this team/season/league" historical books that have come out lately, and I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing.

It felt like Poz relied a bit too much on interviews and the charm of his (and their) storytelling -- and as someone who knows how faulty players' memories can be, that would alarm me if I didn't trust the writer as much as I trust this one.

Maybe I'm just looking at this too much as a writer. As a reader, it was highly enjoyable.

I'll have to read Frost's "Game Six" soon to compare.

 

It was a process, but I just finished Halberstam's "Best and the Brightest." One of the breeziest 650+ page books I've ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wish I had forced myself to read it well before now (I've been lugging it around for about two years). It's a work that combines the amazing breadth of research of a great historian with the storytelling and reporting of a great journalist. It's scary how many of the problems with the government and the public's discourse about major issues are still very much alive today.

I've decided I need a couple quick reads so I started "Far Afield," S.L. Price's sportswriting memoir and I'm already 70 pages in. On the docket to finish by the end of the year are "Three Bricks Shy of a Load" (can't believe, as a Steelers' fan, this has eluded me until now), Moehringer's "The Tender Bar" and Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five." Depending on when I finish those I also plan on re-reading "Friday Night Lights" and "The Great Gatsby" soon.