BOOKS THREAD

Good draft choice, Moddy.

Hell of a read.

 

I've read it and totally agree. All his books bear multiple readings, I find.

 

OK...Just re-read Bringing down the house. A must-get for any gambler or Vegas junkie.

Also, got Cubs Nation by Gene Wojciechowski. It's very good ... an easy read that's not about last season, but about the people surrounding the Cubs. It's a pretty cool idea the way he does it.

 

I just finished "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded" by Simon Winchester and enjoyed it as much as I anticipated. I'd previously read his "The Professor and the Madman" about the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary (if you can make that interesting, that's saying something). "Krakatoa" is an instructive book on many topics, something that Winchester is masterful in accomplishing. His trapses off the main storyline are insightful and interesting, but he teaches about plate techtonics, evolution, re-population of the new island, and Islam (there was a revolt following the eruption which foreshadowed current relations between East and West).

 

seconding "Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty." I've never learned so much about modern baseball in so little time. I'm watching the game totally differently now. Despite being a Sox fan, I'm not enjoying this for any schadenfreud-related reasons, but more for the storytelling, the characters, and the insight.

 

Same way I felt when reading Olney gamers in the Times when he was the Yankee beat. I never learned so much baseball. His ability to pick up little things was amazing.

 

"Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty" was one of the top three books I read last year.

Olney's a gifted writer/reporter, and did a wonderful job detailing how the Yankees morphed from a last place organization in the early 90s to a championship crew.

I just finished reading Mike Vaccaro's "Emperors and Idiots," and I highly recommend it. Vaccaro did a great job detailing the rich histories of the Red Sox and Yankees.

 

Timbo mentioned Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation"...here's an interesting article about her and the book from Newsday earlier this week:

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/ny-etvowell4225332apr21,0,2307787.story

Definitely sounds like a cool writer and a cool book...I'll check it out sooner rather than later...

 

Vowell is tremendous. Had read some of her stuff, and she was featured on the They Might Be Giants documentary-movie "Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns."

Very funny, but very deadpan.

 

I got that impression from the article. Let's face it, anyone who takes a vacation to visit assassination sites has to have a bit of the macabre in her.