BOOKS THREAD

I don't read a lot of fiction, but I finally started "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" after renting the movie.

I'm also exploring a renewed interest in Star Wars by reading a lot of expandd universe novels. Some are not half bad.

 

I've got a hold request at the library for "Gone Girl" and would like to hear anyone's reviews. Just read "Sharp Objects" and really loved it.

 

Plowed through a number of music books over the last few weeks:

Freddie Mercury: The Definitive Biography by Lesley-Ann Jones

Certainly a life worth chronicling, the music that made Mercury famous is largely secondary (save for a lengthy passage on the making and impact of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and a long look at the band's career reviving appearance at Live Aid) to Freddie's excessive personal life with the requisite drug use and sexual conquests, both male and female. The author, a longtime confidant of Queen, does a fine job detailing the final days of his life.

The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith

Highly recommended warts-and-all look at the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Terrific stuff.

You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After The Breakup by Peter Doggett

Just when I thought I had read every significant book about the Fab Four, along comes this tome which does a very thorough job of chronicling the final years of the band, the disaster that was Apple Corps, the various courtroom squabbles, reunion rumours and takes an objective look at The Beatles' solo efforts. McCartney comes off as a very unlikeable control freak.

Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Bittersweet Story of 1970 by David Browne

I was unimpressed with this, which got a rave review in Rolling Stone (probably because it was written by one its staffers). The Beatles stuff has been dealt with in many places previously (the book above to name one) and there was way too much on the drug-fueled dysfunction of CSNY. The Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel stuff was OK, book also touches on Apollo 13, Kent State and the beginnings of the Greenpeace movement.

Hotel California: The True-Life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends by Barney Hoskyns

Covers some of the same ground as Fire and Rain, but adds The Eagles, Warren Zevon, Little Feat and many others to the mix. Pretty good.

 

In response to requests about "Gone Girl," the book is a really fun read. I could not put it down. I basically read it in two sittings as it is a quick read. It's an interesting format with alternating voices, male and female. I don't want to give too much away but this book is full of surprises, with the biggest one coming at the end after you already think it's ended. It's very modern and it addresses many of the problems of the last decade: unemployment, job losses, homes underwater, even global warming, all as a part of the storyline of the book. But at its heart, the book is about a wife gone missing and what happens to her husband. I'd say, don't miss it.

 

Frank Deford's "Over Time" . . . if you've followed Deford's trail over the years, you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get, and he delivers.

Don't be swayed against by the haughty faint praise and nitpicking by Bruce Weber in a recent NYT book review. It shouldn't be held against Deford that he saw what Abe Rosenthal was about, didn't like the smell of it, and said no.

And the nitpicking? A creep from a family of creeps, Vince McMahon isn't worthy of any defense of his so-called "personality", and Weber doesn't help his case by putting up a backhanded one. And hate to break it to the world, but Joe Dimaggio had more problems -- personality-wise -- than a math book.

Well worth your time (the book -- not the review).

 

Calico Joe . . . what age bracket did Grisham write this for? It's not REALLY a book for adults . . .

The Art of Fielding . . . VERY-well written . . . and frequently hilarious . . . but at least a couple of the plot lines frankly aren't all that compelling . . .

 

Reading Connie Mack and the Early History of Baseball. Absolutely fantastic. Not just a bio of Cornelius Alexander but a great history of the Athletics and the American League. Well written and entertaining. After about 50 pages, I had to order the second volume, Connie mack: The Turbulent & Triumphant Years, 1915-1931. Highly recommended, but I wish it was footnoted, as I'd really like to check some of his sources.

 

What, 700 pages on the "early years" of Connie Mack isn't long enough for you?

Norman Macht's research is Caro-esque in its scope. This biography/trilogy will one day be regarded as one of the most important works of baseball research ever produced, IMO.

 

I'm surprised the Mack book is from an academic press.

 

I read the first one . . . a knockout. Enjoyed it immensely.

 

As you probably know, I'm a huge Baseball fan. Any recommendations? I've read over 40 of them, so just list your favorite ones.

 

I've got a few, but Buck Weaver... Buck Weaver to the white, courtesy phone, please. Buck Weaver...

We'll let Buck go first here By the time he's finished, he'll have mine covered... not to mention, everyone else's.