BOOKS THREAD

Getting ready to read "Army vs. Carlisle" by Lars Anderson, which talks about the 1912 game between the two schools and the circumstances/environment surrounding it. Basically, it was Jim Thorpe vs. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Need I say more?

 

I read Holy Ghost Girl in one sitting last night/early this morning.

A memoir of a girl who grew up with a mother who played piano for a tent revival preacher, moving to a new town -- mostly in the South -- every few weeks. It was a times heartbreaking, and while every stereotype you can think of about tent preachers is pretty much true, some of the things she saw as a teenager could be classified as miracles, maybe.

http://www.holyghostgirlbook.com

 

I just started reading "The Umpire Strikes Back" (1982), by Ron Luciano with David Fisher (re-reading actually, I haven't looked at it since the 1980's). I can't believe how long Luciano got away with all of his antics...that would NOT fly in today's game. It's also a little sad knowing that he committed suicide in 1995, from Wiki: "In January 1995 Luciano was found dead at age 57 in his garage at his home in Endicott, a victim of suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning. He reportedly suffered from depression for many years, and he was hospitalized for its treatment in early 1994." Makes you wonder if mental illness was an issue during his umpiring days.

 

Just completed "The Devil All the Time" by Donald Ray Pollock. It was described somewhere -- and now I can't remember where -- as Flannery O'Connor meets "Kalifornia," and that's about right. It's absolutely beautifully written, and about as haunting as anything I've read. Highest recommendation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/books/review/the-devil-all-the-time-by-donald-ray-pollock-book-review.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

HC -- get on this.

 

Just added it on Goodreads and put the library request in!

 

I think Conroy played in the 1960s. In a lot of places, college basketball wasn't played all that seriously.

 

This. I think I was seven or eight years old and tired of reading "Then Again, Maybe I Won't" and "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing." I looked at my parents' bookshelf and saw a book with a football player on the back. Started reading and loved it. My mother took me to the bookstore soon after where I picked up "They Call me Assassin" and Johnny Sample's "Confessions of a Dirty Ballplayer." Have been hooked on sports books ever since.

 

Loved this book as a kid. Remember my favorite line was about Nolan Ryan and how he told the batter, "sounded like a strike."

 

The Antagonists by James F. Simon. A really good (if short at 260 pages) dual biography of Felix Frankfurter and Hugo Black and their intense rivalry.

 

Read Who I Am by Pete Townshend, exactly the kind of memoir I expected from him. I am a huge Who fan, but it reminded me a lot of Clapton's book - which was a major disappointment - choosing to almost ignore the music that made him famous in favour of endless tales about his substance abuse and turbulent personal life. Some good looks behind the scenes at he dynamics of The Who and Townshend did a good job of discussing his post-Who solo stuff and the development of the Tommy musical.

Just finished The Presidents Club which I really enjoyed.

 

Thomas Dewey and His Times by Richard Norton Smith. The definitive bio of a forgotten GOP figure. Dewey's political life demonstrates how different his party is now as then. In 1948, Dewey actually campaigned on preserving Social Security and raising the minimum wage and refused calls to outlaw the American Communist Party.

Throughout the book, Senator Robert Taft serves as Dewey's chief protagonist. Taft is much like Ted Cruz today: elite education, ambitions for the White House, right-wing and hated by fellow GOPers.

Dewey stands as a reminder that he was the last prominent figure in the GOP before his party slipped tragically into McCarthyism, Goldwaterites and the current Tea Party.

 

It's been a while since I have read the book, but I don't remember him ripping the coach that much. In the 1960s, college basketball wasn't taken seriously in a lot of places.