BOOKS THREAD

How old?

 

Mike Lupica has a bunch.

No, really, he has written a bunch of books with 12-year-old and 14-year-old and sixth-grade protagonists that are well-received and popular:

Mike Lupica's Official Website - Books

Former NFL player Tim Green has a series of similar books:

Tim Green | Books for Middle Grades

Don't know if your son is old enough for these, but he might enjoy some of these.

 

Huggy Jr read one of Lupica's books years ago and liked it. And he never reads despite loving sports and having a father who has been an SI subscriber forever

 

He's nearing seven, but reads well above his pay grade. Teachers put him in the advanced reading group and said he's reading at a third-grade level, while in the first grade.

Any of those Lupica books good for that age group?

 

Halfway through the Brian Wilson memoir and it is awful, bounces around all over the place, seems to have no direction and at times it seems to have been written by a child. The Elvis Costello memoir bounced all over too but it is lights years better than this - and highly recommended. Mike Love wins the Battle of the Beach Boys books in an early KO.

 

Finished a " A Man came out a Door In the Mountain" and started King's "End of Watch" the finale of Mr. Mercedes trilogy.
A Man ... was short read, almost a novella. Good, phantasmagorical story in the King vein about a group of 20-something mixed race poor kids encountering the devil and a witch.

 

Finished End of Watch. Really enjoyed it. Easily my favorite of the trilogy and the series is one of my favorite King stories.
I'm huge fan of King's short stories. His novels are good, I would put Mr Mercedes series among his best work. It's not 11/22/63 great, but it's good.

 

Peter Ames Carlin's new Paul Simon bio, Homeward Bound, is terrific, especially if you are a guy like me who is familiar with much of his music but not so familiar with other parts of his life aside from his contentious relationship with Art Garfunkel. Great stuff.

 

Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s Hardcover – March 4, 2014
by Jeff Pearlman (Author)

This was a fun read. While the overall story has been told before, Jeff puts in a great deal of insider/funny/tragic stories while maintaining the narrative.

If you are a senior like me I would not recommend the paperback, the font is small; but if you have good eyesight the paperback can be found on the cheap.

Jeff has an interesting style here, taking a theme (a character or trope) and weaving it back into the narrative in each chapter.

 

I don't read a lot of military history but somehow stumbled upon Rogue Heroes, a new book by Ben McIntyre on the creation of the British SAS and its role in WWII. While there is plenty in here on the SAS's operational successes and failures (and there is no shortage of graphic descriptions) in the war what really makes the book for me is the way McIntyre brings the soldiers to life, often with a healthy dose of dry wit, as he discusses their bravery, resourcefulness, recklessness, capacity for violence and ingenuity under impossible circumstances.

Worth hunting for by anybody with an interest in military history or anyone who loves a damn good adventure story.

 

I just ordered Ben Montgomery's "The Leper Spy" about a Filipina who was a Allied spy in WWII. The Japanese were afraid to touch her, which made her so effective.

Ben's a reporter at the Tampa Bay Times and a really nice guy. Here's a little about his previous work (and, no, I'm not him): In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school.