BOOKS THREAD

Just read an excerpt of Jim Nantz's book on Golf Digest online.
Not exactly what I expected. The book - the excerpt anyway - was little more than Nantz name-dropping.
I thought it might be interesting - saw Nantz plugging the book on NBC's Today a few weeks ago - until I read this. Now? I'm pretty turned off.
Is anyone planning on reading it?

 

I picked up a copy and heard Nantz speak a month ago. I thought the book was about his relationship with his father, who now has alzheimer's, through the prism of sports.

I haven't read it yet. I loaned it out and am currently tearing through the latest Grisham (which sounds a lot like every other Grisham, FYI). I'll check with my friend about Nantz's book, and report back if he's gotten to it.

 

That's what I thought, until I read the excerpt.

 

After reading the thread on Pete Hamill's RFK article, I picked up "A Drinking Life" from the library. Nearly finished and I'm a bit underwhelmed.

Also finsished a couple of the Rabbi mystery books which Harry Kellerman wrote in the 60s-70s. Good easy reads.

Toobin's "The Nine" and the Bissinger book on LaRusa are on deck.

 

I certainly don't want this thread to get too political, but I wanted to mention that I just finished Hanna Rosin's "God's Harvard" about Patrick Henry College in Virginia, which trains Christian Right acolytes (most of whom were homeschooled previously). Many enter directly into Republican politics.

Anyway, I appreciated Rosin's treatment of her subject, because despite her views, she writes with more even-handedness and empathy than I ever could. In a way, you have to admire the schools' efficiency, but there is some pretty chilling and unnerving stuff in there. Some of the school president's views are especially extreme.

 

According to the book, he ran for Lt. Gov. in '93 and lost 54-46 percent.

 

Recently finished "The Long Road Home" by Martha Raddatz, on one of the early Sadr City ambushes in 2004. I haven't read many "war" books, but if they all read like this one, I'll be sure to add them to my list. Well done.

 

I know this book has been mentioned before on this thread, but I just picked it up as it's newly out in paperback.

"Legacy of Ashes," by Tim Weiner, is a devastating look at the history of the CIA. It's 600-plus pages, but it's completely readable -- a page-turner, really. And everything's on the record -- no anonymous quotes.

It's also completely bipartisan, in that everyone comes off looking bad, no matter what party they're in.

 

I read it recently and I agree that I was really impressed with how Rosin wrote about the kids and the school. She was able to deal with the dichotomy between the fact that these really are good kids and their theology without letting one overwhelm how she viewed the other.

 

Just finished "Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson. I liked it, enjoyed learning about radio and the narrative was good, but for all the detail Larsen was able to dig up about the murder case depicted in the book, he still wasn't able to get to the "why" of it, and as a reader I was disappointed. It wasnt' as good as Devil in the White City or Isaac's Storm and he seemed to wrap up the book very quickly. I would have liked to know how they were able to go from Morse code travelling on radio waves to voice travelling on radio waves. Still an interesting read, it just didn't have enough of a payoff.