Carte Blanche - Jeffrey Deaver. A new Bond novel? Count me in.

This is Deaver’s first crack at Bond, and overall he does a nice job. It’s a classic relaunch, both bringing Bond to the modern era and placing him at the beginning of his secret agent career. We learn about how he became a Double-O three years earlier, his service history, and a little about his family.

As for the mission, he’s investigating intelligence that points towards a terrorist attack against Brisith interests. He follows the leads across England, to the Middle East, and finally to South Africa. He runs into a brilliant if twisted enemy. He encounters many attractive women. And there are the requisite twists and turns in what would be the final 20 minutes of the movie.

It’s not great literature but it’s entertaining enough for the beach or a flight or just wasting time during the winter.

The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach

One of the more talked about books of last year was this debut novel. Harbach received praise from several other “voices of our generation,” got an excerpt in Sports Illustrated, and landed on many Best Of lists for the year. So, it was with great anticipation I cracked this open.

Weird thing about having all that hype, though, is that it can turn into overhype and something that is perfectly enjoyable comes across as disappointing. That was the case for me and The Art of Fielding.

Parts of it are magical. The baseball elements of the story fall into that area of baseball mysticism that true fans of the game are suckers for. The core characters are all engaging and interesting. While I find some of the closing portions of the book slightly predictable, they were still enjoying to read.

From start to finish, The Art of Fielding is probably a better book than Next. But I was more affected by Next and it’s unreal finish. To put it in terms that Kevin Quinn, the protagonist of Next might understand, The Art of Fielding was the former lover you remember fondly if vaguely and don’t have a bad thing to say about. But Next was the one you had the crazy, great sex with and can’t ever get out of your head.

What It Was - George Pelecanos. I’m a sucker for Pelecanos and snapped up this experiment by him: a book released in electronic format for just 99 cents. He makes it clear in the introduction that it should not serve as a proper entry into the Derek Strange series. He wrote it quickly, and apparently with the pricing experiment in mind. And it comes across that way.

All his usual easy ways with race and language of the segments of Washington, D.C.’s population are there. The cultural references ground it firmly in 1972. That’s all stuff he does great. It’s a quick, fun read but not of the quality of his best work.

Next - James Hynes. A good start to 2012: the second week of the year, the first book that completely blew me away. Hynes’ Next appeared on many Best Of lists for 2010. It was a semifinalist in the Tournament of Books. But not everyone thought it was great. While I am one of those who loved it, I understand why others may not.

Next is the story of Kevin Quinn, a 50-year-old editor who has spent almost his entire life in Ann Arbor, MI. On a whim, he applies for a job in Austin, TX in the hopes of escaping the academic world he loathes and, perhaps, allow him to break free from his much younger, live-in girlfriend.

We join him on his flight from Ann Arbor, as he worries about a theoretical terrorist attack and fumbles his way through conversation with the attractive 20-something woman seated next to him. Upon landing, with hours to kill, he wanders around Austin. Weird stuff happens, and along the way we learn about his past and what a shallow person he is. Here is where the books loses many people. You keep wondering how a simple job interview can salvage a character who seems so joyless, soulless, and self-centered. Is this just another story of a sad, middle aged man struggling to come to terms with his lost youth?

Based on the accolades the book received, I figured the payoff would make the plodding worth it.

Boy did it.

The final 50 pages are some of the most amazing, powerful stuff I’ve ever read. It felt as though I raced through the last 10 pages on a single breath. Those pages will stay with me for a long, long time. And for me, they made what could have been an ok book an unforgettable one.

Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop - Edited by Otto Penzler. A fun volume I found at the library, a collection of short mysteries that Penzler, the owner of New York’s Mysterious Bookshop, solicited from authors each year to send out to his best customers. The catch is that the story must take place at Christmastime and have a connection to his store. No heavy lifting here, just some quick, entertaining tales.

A Christmas Story - Jean Shepherd. My annual reading of the posthumous collection of Shepherd’s short stories upon which the classic movie was based. Every year I read it, every year I love it.

The Snowman - Jo Nesbø. America is in love with Scandanavian mystery writers. Or so it seems. I had not heard of Nesboø before this popped up on the New York Times’ Best of 2011 list, but was intrigued when they called him the Stieg Larsson of Norway. That’s an easy, and obvious, comparison, but it sells Nesbø short. He’s better than Larsson. Or at least based on this book, he is.

The Snowman is, in fact, the seventh book in Nesbø’s Harry Hole series. Hole is a detective in Olso that operates on the fringes of the national police force. He’s an expert on serial killers and made his name capturing one in Australia. But the higher ups in the force think he’s egotistical and wants to turn every murder into another serial killer case.

That’s the set-up. As you might guess, Hole spends most of The Snowman hunting down an elusive killer that may, indeed, be a serial killer. There are all kinds of twists and turns, and some have said that Nesbø offers too many paths for the reader’s mind to take. I loved the many options he presented, and how he dealt with them. In fact, I thought it was a great book. Along with Declan Hughes, it appears I’ve found a second European mystery writer to catch up on in 2012.

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution - Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. My generation is easing into middle age, which means it’s time for retrospectives on the things that defined our youth. As the baby boomers did with all the nostalgia of their childhood that littered the 1980s, I’m going to eat all of Gen X’s history up. And what better way to start than with an oral history of the golden age of MTV: 1981-1992?

This is a great, honest look at everything from the birth of the network, it’s tentative first few years, it’s rise to prominence, it’s final music-centric years (which brought about the ‘alternative music revolution’), and finally the first Real World and its descent into non-music programing. Everyone from executives to on-air talent to producers to artists to directors offer their views what happened. It’s not scholarly or deep, but it’s a ton of fun.

Inferno - The World At War, 1939-1945 - Sir Max Hastings. It’s kind of amazing both how many books come out about World War II each year, and how many people still want to read them. Inferno was one of two well-reviewed new looks at the war that were released in 2011.

I’ve probably read dozens of World War II histories since I first got interested in the conflict in middle school. But it had been several years since my last crack at one. With this showing up on many year end Best Of lists, it seemed like the perfect time to jump back in.

Hastings does a fine job setting his work apart from the thousands of others than have piled up in the 70 years since the war began. He, first, makes his work a focus on how the war affected civilians and rank-and-file soldiers as much as the generals and politicians who are often the focus of histories. Next, when he does dive into the military aspects, he strips his discussion of much of the jargon that makes reading military histories so difficult for civilians. And, finally, he offers healthy doses of analysis rather than straight recounts of important battles. Big events like Pearl Harbor, D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, etc. get only a couple pages, and in some cases, a few paragraphs. He figures we’ve read about those events before.

In all, it’s a fine overview of the entire war, and honestly, changed my view of the war a bit. In the US we tend to think of the war as an event of constant conflict. While that was true for Russians and Germans on the eastern front, it took a long time for American troops to get actively involved in Europe. And in the Pacific, action, while ferocious, was mostly found on a much smaller scale than in Europe, and with lengthy breaks between engagements. While US involvement was critical to winning in Europe and obviously carried the bulk of the effort against the Japanese, this book is a reminder that we didn’t do all the heavy lifting, as popular American myth currently suggests.

The most important part of the book is Hastings’ constant focus on the massive number of deaths. Best current reckoning is that between 60-70 million people were killed in the war. We know of the troops that died, the Holocaust, Stalin’s purges, etc. But Hastings is careful to note that as many as 15 million Chinese were killed. We don’t often think about China being a battle ground here in the States. But the carnage there was on par with each of the worst elements of the European war.

If you’re well-versed on World War II, Inferno may not be worth your time. But if it has been awhile since you read an overview of the war, you could do much worse that this.

Beyond the Phog - Jason King. One of the highlights of serving as a beat writer for a successful team is the chance to parlay that into a book. King, who covered Kansas basketball for the Kansas City Star for several years, does just that here. He interviews a slew of players, and the two coaches, that guided the Jayhawks through the last decade.

As a fan and alum, I think my reaction is predictable. It’s fun to get some inside stories, to have some myths confirmed and others debunked. The more thoughtful players offer some fine insight into what it was like to play at KU. But the book loses steam as it goes on, mostly because the more recent players are still too young and not far enough removed to have the mature perspective most of the older players have. There’s also the discomfort factor in having some dirty laundry aired in public. There are few outright conflicts explored, but more confirmations of what it is like to be a basketball player at a big time basketball school. Not that any of it comes as a surprise.

Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson

Three things:

1) This book is not written for people like me, extreme lovers of Apple products who have already read books about the history of the company and Steve Jobs. It is written for people who don’t know much about Jobs beyond his role as CEO of Apple.

2) It feels rushed. The book was originally slated for a 2012 release. When Jobs retired from Apple in August, it was pushed up to late 2011. After his death, it was moved again, this time to early October. It feels much more like a collection of articles or short essays about various phases of Jobs’ life than an exhaustive accounting of it. Perhaps Isaacson would have made the same choices in format if he had more time, but I can’t help but think it would flow differently had he been given another six months.

3) I’m not convinced Isaacson was terribly interested in either Jobs or this project. As has been noted elsewhere, he clearly did not take the time to understand the areas of Jobs’ expertise. Much of it feels like a lazy rehash of what others have written, with Isaacson’s exclusive comments from Jobs added. It doesn’t feel like a David McCullough book, for example, where the author clearly throws himself into his subject matter for 4-5 years until a book emerges.

Many questions are left unanswered, many important periods in Jobs’ life glossed over. It could have been the definitive statement on Jobs’ life but instead doesn’t even come close.

A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo
What It Is Like To Go To War - Karl Marlantes

After reading Nixonland, I was motivated to read more about the Vietnam War era. Thus, I tackled these two books.

Caputo’s is a memoir of his year in Vietnam as a Marine officer. He details how he transformed from an optimistic, patriotic soldier willing to do whatever his commanding officers asked when he arrived in Vietnam to a bitter, jaded, cynic who openly questioned why he was losing friends and killing Vietnamese. He returns to Vietnam as a reporter in the 70s to cover the final days before Saigon’s collapse.

Marlantes, who also wrote the brilliant novel of Vietnam Matterhorn, shifts focus this time. Instead of being a novel or straight memoir, this book is an examination of the toll war takes on soldiers, how we can better prepare them for the horrors they must face, and how we can help them reintegrate into society when their duty is done. He sprinkles stories from his own tour as a Marine lieutenant as examples throughout.

While I enjoyed both, Marlantes really made me examine my views of war. It’s easy to say you’re pro or anti war in general, or a certain conflict in particular. His discussion is a deeply considered look at the price we all pay, from the soldiers in the field to those of us who stay at home, must pay when we do send soldiers to fight. It’s not just about the morality of war, or how to make sure a fight is just. It’s also about how to prepare every citizen for the inevitable times that we do fight. I don’t know that my views changed dramatically after reading the book, but I did spend some time really thinking about the biggest commitment a society can make.

The White Mountains,
The City of Gold and Lead,
The Pool of Fire
By John Christopher

It’s not often I reach back to my childhood to find something to read. There is the occasional book that is aimed at adults that I read as a kid and have reread since, The Lord of the Rings trilogy being the most notable example. But going the opposite direction, reading something written for teens, is not something I’ve done. Until now.

For years I’ve been trying to remember the books that went into this series. I recalled some vague details from when I first read them in fifth and sixth grades, but couldn’t remember important things like titles, the author, or enough details for a Google search to bring back what I needed. In The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, there is a reference to tripods, and suddenly I was back in the game.

I raced through these in less than a week. They brought back lots of memories, or at least the first two books did. I’m not sure if I ever read the third.

These books are perfectly paced for younger readers. Christopher didn’t lay out every single detail of the stories, just the most important ones. There are no long, drawn out scenes of confrontation. The action always begins and ends quickly.

The first two volumes are outstanding. The third feels even more rushed and suffers. I bought the series and have set it aside so my girls can take a crack at them when they are older. I hope they have their imaginations captured the same way I did when I was 11-12.

Nixonland - Rick Perlstein

My brother in books, Dave V., handed me this a couple months back. He promised it would be one of the best non-fiction books I had ever read. He did not lie.

Nixonland is a biography of both Richard Nixon and the 1960s. As much as it walks us through the many rises and falls in Nixon’s career, it also recounts just how crazy, insane, bizarre the 60s were. We tend to romanticize the decade when we look back, especially those of us who weren’t alive for it. But that was one wacked-out decade. Americans were literally killing each other because of political differences. And it wasn’t just politicians and civil rights leaders that were being murdered. Regular citizens were battling, and often killing, each other, too.

It was an age of radical change that was frightening to many Americans, and Richard Nixon was perfectly suited to thrive in such a dynamic time. He understood exactly what buttons to push, what lines to bump up against, and how to cast himself as the victim when he was, in fact, the bully.

Whether you are a fan of Nixon or loathe him, you can’t deny that he is one of the greatest politicians this country has ever seen. Now whether he was a great president or person is a whole other discussion…

Perlstein’s prose is fantastic. He builds the story much like a novel, with twists and turns and cliff hangers. He injects every page with a wonderful life that had me turning pages. And his central argument, that Nixon created a political system that still exists today, is compelling.

Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart. Sometimes book titles are tricky attempts to throw the reader off. Other times they are subtle hints to where the story is headed. In this case, the title is dead, solid, perfect. This is indeed a super sad love story, if not exactly true.

It is the story of Lenny, a balding, 39-year-old son of Russian immigrants who is returning from a year in Rome, where he attempted to recruit clients for his company. His company’s product? Extended life.

In his final hours in Rome, he meets Eunice Park, a 20-something daughter of Korean immigrants. He falls quickly and totally in love with the hip, attractive Euni, and soon begins plotting a way to get her to join him in New York.

She eventually agrees to his invitation and thus begins the super sad love story. They are a mismatched couple in every way. He loves her completely, she abides him simply because he provides safety and annoys her family.

The book takes place in the near future. Not the flying car future but the consumerism has trumped everything future. Looks and style and media savvy are the most important assets a person can have. Eunice has them. Poor Lenny does not. They are a doomed couple in a doomed world, and some parts of it are truly super sad, if also very funny.

This near future also sees America on her knees, as the economy collapses and Chinese bankers are in control of the country. The rifts between the economic haves and have nots is about to explode. It was a little frightening to see the resolution of that conflict as our current, real economy appears to be falling apart.

Super Sad True Love Story was on everyone’s list of best books for 2010. That recognition was well deserved.

Millennium Falcon - James Luceno. It’s taken some time, but I’ve finally realized every so often I need to knock off a book that speaks to my inner 12-year-old. A Tolkien-esque fantasy or a sci-fi thriller. It had been awhile, so, this…

It’s amazing how many Star Wars novels there are. I’ve read a few, but hardly enough to keep the chronology straight. This one is confusing, as it bridges several of the Star Wars “ages”. It is the story of the fabled starship most famously piloted by Han Solo. Our old pal and his wife, Leia, play a major role in the book. But there are also broad pieces of the rest of the Lucas Galaxy’s history intertwined. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read this year, but it also wasn’t awful.

Savages - Don Winslow. I enjoy most books I read, and thus can recommend just about all of them to anyone who is looking for something to dive into. Occasionally, though, a book comes along that I enjoy greatly, but have to be careful who I suggest it to. Savages is one of those books.

It’s a great book. I loved it. It made me laugh, shocked me in parts, had a distinct point-of-view, and had a terrifically dark and violent ending. There are surprises in each character, challenging your rooting interests throughout. The book’s place on many Best Of lists for 2010 was well deserved.

All that said, I bet only a few of my brothers and sisters in books would be interested in it. It’s loaded with violence. There are lots of drugs. Plenty of kinky sex, more for shock than titillation value. Throw in Winslow’s writing style, which not everyone will find the rhythm for, and this is a tough one to pass along to others. Savages reminds me of a hipper, more accessible Bret Easton Ellis novel. If you dug American Pyscho or any of Ellis’ other novels, chances are you’ll enjoy Savages. Otherwise, you might want to skip this one.

Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann. I’m still not quite sure what to write about this book. Even two weeks after finishing it, I’m struggling to find a way to do it justice.

The novel, for the most part, takes place in New York in August of 1974. Watergate is about to take Richard Nixon down. Vietnam is still a source of great pain for the nation. And New York City is falling apart. In the midst of this, French entertainer Philippe Petit is planning the greatest performance of his career: walking a tightrope stretched between the brand new Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Into this mix, McCann weaves the stories of a bevy of New Yorkers. A group of mothers who have lost their sons in Vietnam. Irish immigrant brothers, each grappling with the mysteries of America in very different ways. A group of prostitutes who own a particularly sad corner in the Bronx. A city judge. An artist trapped in a marriage that has lost its magic. And Petit himself, both as he prepares for his walk and during the walk itself. Each of these stories connects to the others, even if through the slightest interaction.

While many others have attempted to paint on such a broad canvas, McCann handles the challenge beautifully. Every character is well drawn. Every chapter a complete window into their lives. It’s the rare novel where every sentenace, every word feels perfect.

But it goes beyond that. There is a massive emotional component to this book. It’s difficult to describe, because it is very much something that is rippling just beneath the surface. I can’t quite put it into words. I don’t know if it the intense pain that so many of the characters go through. Or the juxstaposition of their grief with the pure elation of Petit’s walk. Or, as many have noted, the never stated but unmistakable connections to what happened at the Towers 27 years later.

Whatever it is, Let the Great World Spin is both one of the best books I’ve ever read and one of my favorites.

Slow Motion Riot - Peter Blauner. Blauner fits into the genre dominated by such luminaries as Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos: the prolific, modern crime writer. This is the first Blauner book I’ve read. I’d put him just behind those two for quality.

Slow Motion Riot takes place in New York in the late 80s. Crack has arrived and the already violent drug world is exploding to new levels of violence. Steven Baum is a probation officer doing his best not to lose faith in the people he is supposed to help. He comes across a teenager with a reputation, but who obviously has promise to do more than just lead a life of crime. Soon Baum gets sucked into the teen’s world, and he ends up being every bit as dangerous as thought.

Despite checking in at nearly 500 pages, Slow Motion Riot moves briskly, with few scenes that seem like filler. It’s a first-class crime novel. For his efforts, Blauner won the Edgar Award for best first novel.

Clemente - David Maraniss. As promised, after reading Wilfred Santiago’s graphic biography 21 earlier this year, I tackled a proper biography of Roberto Clemente. Maraniss, one of our better known American biographers, does a wonderful job working through the life of the biggest star of Latin American baseball. Clemente is viewed by many as a saint, not just because of how he died - attempting to deliver aid to victims of a massive earthquake in Nicaragua in 1972 - or for how he played the game, but also for his fierce defense of basic human rights for all. In a time when athletes, especially those of color, were expected to keep their mouths shut in the face of racism, Clemente was never afraid to point out injustice and stand up for the rights of minorities. He also was the first superstar to lend his voice to the players’ battle against the Reserve Clause.

Maraniss points out Clemente’s flaws, too, but there’s no doubting that the book does as much to fuel the heroic image of Roberto as any work. I believe there’s a holy trinity of baseball players who were not just fine players, but also stood for what was right off the field. Jackie Robinson, of course. Curt Flood, for being the first to put his career on the line to challenge the basic labor structure of the game. And Roberto, for doing a little of what both Robinson and Flood did, while also demanding the best of himself in helping people in need.

Boys Will Be Boys - Jeff Pearlman. My first iBooks selection. Following his entertaining look at the 1986 New York Mets, The Bad Guys Won, Pearlman tackled another legendarily debauched group of athletes: the Dallas Cowboys of the early 90s. Drawing on many sources, Pearlman examines both the building of the franchise under Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, and the extremes the players went to enjoying their success and celebrity. There’s no way to truly measure these things, but the Cowboys may have worked through as much liquor, drugs, and women as any collection of athletes ever. Their story is both impressive and offensive.

If you were a fan of the team, as I was, it’s a very fun and entertaining read. Pearlman shows both sides of the legendary Johnson-Switzer transition, illustrating how the change wasn’t nearly as cut-and-dried as many wanted to believe back then. As for the players, the books reinforces some common beliefs and shatters a couple others. Michael Irvin was a fearsome competitor and fantastic teammate, provided you didn’t cross him. But when the games were over, no one partied more than the Playmaker. Troy Aikman was the perfect quarterback for the Cowboys, and while not the saint some people believed him to be, certainly as important as anyone in the team’s success. Darren Woodson was a freaking stud.

The big surprise is how Emmitt Smith changed as his legend grew and how many of his teammates despised him. Not as big a surprise, but perhaps a story that didn’t receive great coverage at the time, was Deion Sanders’ legacy. He was as disruptive as any player on the roster, and his presence helped to destroy whatever chance the Boys had to continue their success into the late 90s.

My only complaints are that the book ends a bit abruptly. And it feels like a lot of Pearlman’s materiel comes not from direct interviews but from the works of others. But it was to read anyway.

Hell to Pay - George Pelecanos. This is another in Pelecanos’ large collection of tales of the darker side of life in the District of Columbia. In this case, two private investigators - one black, the other white, both former cops - get sucked into two investigations that are bigger than they first seem.

That is true of many modern crime novels. Pelecanos, as always, sets himself apart from the pack with terrific writing, characters with texture and depth, and some nice twists along the way. No contemporary novelist writes about race as well as Pelecanos. If you’ve read any of his other works and enjoyed them, you’ll enjoy this.

The Eagles Has Landed - Jack Higgins. I remember this sitting on my parents’ bookshelf when I was little, fascinated by the Swastika on the cover. When I got a little older and understood more about World War II, the book still seemed a little adult for me. Eventually I forgot about it completely. It was recently added to the Kindle store, and I picked it up to complete my vacation reading.

It takes place in late 1943, after Mussolini has fallen and been rescued from captivity in a daring Nazi raid. Looking for other propaganda-friendly missions, a group of German commanders hatch a plan to kidnap Winston Churchill during a weekend trip to the English countryside. Although dismissed at first, a key piece of intelligence makes the raid halfway realistic and gets the attention of one of the most influential people in the Nazi government. Soon the plot is in full motion, relying on paratroopers sentenced to prison detail, an IRA leader, and a key spy in England.

Although it is nearly 40 years old, the book is still a fine read. It’s a fun story that comes [] this close to succeeding. Higgins makes the IRA gunman and paratroopers sympathetic. The paratroopers, in particular, are professional German, not Nazi, soldiers who adhere to strict codes of conduct. They earned their prison time for standing up to the SS during the destruction of the Warsaw ghettos. It does what a good book should do: excites the reader and has us rooting for people we wouldn’t normally root for.

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters - Jason Stearns. I’ve read many books about the Rwandan genocide. I’ve read a couple books about the Congo. This one ties all of them together.

It’s focus is the nearly ten-year war that has ravaged the Congo. Called the Great War of Africa by some, it has sucked as many as ten countries into the battle and is responsible for the deaths of over five million people. Yet in the West, it has received little press attention.

Stearns, who may be the biggest non-governmental expert on the region, takes an unorthodox method of telling the story. Instead of a straight chronology of the war, he highlights its various twists and turns, but tells those stories through the experiences of people who experienced them directly. He talks to military and political leaders, aid workers, bureaucrats, refugees, and innocent civilians. Along the way he sheds some light on an incredibly complex war.

That’s not to say he tells a complete tale. As he admits, there is a lot of evil to go around in the war and other than the civilians trapped in the middle, few innocent actors. That makes it, in some ways, a frustrating book. But the frustration is not with Stearns, but with all the people who have sat by and let the war happen. In the end, it’s another tragic chapter in the history of a continent that has suffered far too much.

90% of the Game is Half Mental - Emma Span. I follow Span on Twitter, only because a bunch of national baseball writers do and occasionally I would see something of hers re-Tweeted. I didn’t know much about her and had no idea she had written a book until I saw this at the library. It’s a nice little accounting of her life as a fan, her brief move into the sports journalism world, her love of the Yankees and fascination with the Mets, and other assorted observations and thoughts about the game.

I must admit, I picked it up with a bit of an ulterior motive. While I tend to watch my sports in isolation, I hope at least one of my girls learns to love sports. It’s kind of fun when I turn the TV on each morning, when it’s still sitting on MLB.TV from the night before, and Meghan asks, “Dad, why are you always watching baseball?” The next step is to get one of them to watch with me. Reading Span’s book was a reminder that girls, and women, can love baseball, too. I didn’t need to read a book to understand that. One of my best friends grew up tagging along with her dad to Royals games and still loves baseball today. And while sports writing remains a male-dominated field, there are plenty of women out there writing about the game. Still, it’s nice to get confirmation that some daughters pick up their fathers’ love for the game.

Span is funny, smart, and loves baseball. I may just buy three copies and pass them on to each of my daughters when they are old enough.

Nickel Plated - Aric Davis. I discovered this book on the Kindle blog, where Gillian Flynn, who I love, wrote an endorsement of it.

Nickel is a fun spin on the off-the-grid do-gooder concept. He doesn’t have a phone or a car or a regular job. If you can track him down, he can probably help you do just about anything that needs to be done quietly. Spying on a cheating spouse. Laundering money. Finding out what your teenager is up to. He finances his lifestyle by scamming pedophiles online and cultivating an impressive marijuana garden that a trusty high schooler moves for him.

What’s the twist? Nickel is 12.

He’s an orphan, who passed through a particularly hideous foster home. He escaped, but refuses to either reenter the foster system or rely on any authorities to help him again. Through an impressive combination of guile, MacGyver-like tools, and a trusty bike, Nickel somehow thrives on his own.

In this case, he’s been hired by a 15-year-old to help find her younger sister, who disappeared and is feared kidnapped and perhaps dead. Over the next few days, Nickel follows leads, targets suspects, and eventually closes the case.

This is a brisk, fun story. The only criticisms are that Nickel sometimes talks and acts more like an adult that just a street-smart kid, almost as if he’s telling his story from ten or 15 years down the road. And a few of the book’s big moments happen very quickly. Davis is to be commended for not throwing 1000 twists in each confrontation scene, but at the same time some of them are resolved awfully quickly.

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Pr op. (Plume)

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. - Robert Coover. This book has been sitting on my To Read list for years. It’s out-of-print, not available at my library, and there is no Kindle edition. As I began my Baseball Book Extravaganza for the spring, I finally broke down and ordered a used copy from Amazon.

I have to say it was a disappointment. I knew going in it wasn’t a traditional baseball book. While I had not saved the description that prompted me to add it to my list, I recalled that it was about an interesting guy who had a tenuous grasp on reality, believing that his tabletop baseball game was in fact its own universe.

And that’s exactly what it is. J. Henry Waugh is a single man in his 50s, dissatisfied with his work, who finds escape from the banality of his life by playing a complex game he’s invented which is similar to Strat-O-Matic. Unlike Strat, however, his game is based not on actual Major League players but on players he’s dreamed up. And he doesn’t just dream up names, but broad biographies and personalities for each player. He’s done this, and kept meticulous records, for more than 50 seasons. He can safely be described as obsessive.

One night something odd happens that changes his view of the game. A rookie pitcher throws a perfect game. In his next start, the rookie is perfect through the first three innings. But when it is his turn to bat (No DH in the Universal Baseball Association), something extraordinary happens that causes Waugh to loose his tiny grasp on reality.

The book reflects that loss, and spins back-and-forth between Waugh’s real life, and the life of the players within his game. It’s more than a little confusing. I suppose there is some kind of grand statement made within that balance, but I missed it.

After several years of waiting, I can finally cross this book off my list. But I do so disappointed that the reward didn’t match the wait.

Big Hair and Plastic Grass - Dan Epstein. I approached this book with great anticipation. It promised to be a rollicking look back at baseball in the 70s. It was the era of the Swingin’ A’s and their white shoes in Oakland, Afros, the Bronx Zoo, Disco Demolition Night, and the decade when Astroturf changed the way the game was played. It was the time when I discovered and fell in love with baseball. It was the period in which the Kansas City Royals came to (brief) prominence. Good times, all around.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t quite deliver on its promise. Based on the title, and the fantastic cover which features Oscar Gamble’s Afro, I thought it would be an irreverent look back at the Me Decade. While there are moments of light heartedness, it is mostly a straight-forward history. It’s still fun to read, and I learned some things I didn’t already know. But I wish its tone fit its subject matter better.

Top Of The Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All-Time - Edited by Sean Manning. I am a sucker for a good gimmicky baseball book. I still remember buying a book in the summer of 1983 that, for it’s first half, was a series of mini biographies of both the best players of All-Time and the best players of the 1980s. The second half played the first four or five innings of a fictional All Star game between the best of All Timers and the Best of the Early 80s-ers. Then, the final quarter or so of the book was left blank so the reader could play out the rest of the game and write in the results. As you can imagine, this got 12-year-old me all fired up. I couldn’t wait to play it out and show that George Brett was better than Brooks Robinson. I didn’t have Strat-o-Matic or computer baseball, and since I was at my grandparents’ in central Kansas at the time, I couldn’t do any of my usual backyard baseball games. So I pulled out the Coleco Head-to-Head baseball game and completed the game. I don’t recall exactly what happened but I would place even odds that I somehow manipulated the outcome so that the modern players won, ideally with a key hit coming from Brett and little, if any, help from Reggie Jackson.

Anyway, this is another of those gimmick books. Take a bunch of semi-famous people and have them write short essays about their favorite players. Fortunately, few of these are straight-forward choices. Former player Doug Glanville writes of Garry Maddox, who taught him both how to be a better player and a better man. Comedian Michael Ian Black writes of Mookie Wilson, who forced a young Black to face his unrealized racism. Jonathan Eig shares the quiet dignity of Lou Gehrig as he faced death. Matt Taibbi writes of how sabermatics killed his love for his favorite player, Jim Rice.

Many of the essays are touching. Most are funny. All are fun to read.

21: The Story of Roberto Clemente - Wilfred Santiago. This is a graphic biography of the great Clemente’s life. Or at least parts of it. As with any graphic work, the story is pared down to its highlights and essentials. So we see young Roberto in Puerto Rico, dreaming of being a ball player. We see him struggle on the bench in Montreal. We see his arrival in Pittsburgh and his early troubles with the press. We go through the classic 1960 World Series against the Yankees and the 1971 Series against the Orioles. We get to see Clemente’s final moment on the field, when he collected his 3000th hit. Along the way, we see Clemente’s commitment to helping others, especially those who are poor and Latino. It was this commitment, of course, that ended his life as he was attempting to deliver aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua.

Roberto Clemente was unappreciated in his time, always regarded as a notch below Mays and Aaron and Mantle. His death brought about a new respect for his dignity both as a player and as a man. Today, Clemente and Jackie Robinson are seen as baseball’s two most noble men.

This book is a fine way of introducing his story to some who may not know about it. Now, I need to read a proper Clemente biography.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides. Many of you are familiar with this book. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2003. It was an Oprah Book Club selection. It was on the Best Seller list. I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been turned into a movie yet. 1

If you’ve not read it, I recommend it. It’s a funny, touching, sprawling story about identity. On one level, it’s the classic tale of immigrants fleeing war and death in the Old Country and arriving in America, where they struggle to survive, succeed, and assimilate while honoring their heritage. Over three generations, the identity of the two families at the core of the story undergo fundamental changes as they become more American. Along the way, secrets left behind in Asia Minor are forgotten, and the first generation, who crossed the sea and took root, are different people when they arrive than when they left. Despite the changes over the years, the young generation still has a distinct identity as different than normal Americans. As much as we change, there are some things we can’t leave behind.

But more than just being a fine immigrant tale, it has a far more interesting level. Cal, our narrator, is not what he seems. Or rather, he is not today who he was for the first 15 years of his life. Cal was once Calliope, a genetic male who was raised as a female thanks to a few chromosomal quirks and a less-than-thorough doctor who didn’t discover the testicles that were hidden in her abdomen. We read about Calliope’s childhood and all the moments where something didn’t feel right. We are witness to the moment when her true identity is revealed, her family’s reaction, her physician’s suggestions, and finally the emancipation of Cal. And we follow Cal through the early moments of an adult relationship, one that just might succeed where others have failed.

One criticism of this book is that a lot of the real interesting parts of Cal’s life aren’t shared. What happens between 16 and 40 is only lightly touched upon. We don’t know if the friendships of youth were continued or if they fell away. How did Cal handle college, dating, moving into the world of adults, and so on. We know he lands on his feet, for the most part. But the journey to successful male adult must have been an interesting one.

That’s a legitimate criticism. But the book is so good, and the core concept of identity addressed in so many ways, I was not bothered by that omission.