The First Fall Classic, The Red Sox, The Giants, the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos who Reinvented the World Series in 1912 by Mike Vaccaro; 290 pages; $26.95; 2009; Doubleday, New York, NY; 978-0-385-5624-1; Checked out from Multnomah County Library,Central; 7/22-7-27

…”any man who would choose a day’s work over a day of baseball is a fool not worthy of friendship.”

William Howard Taft

In 1912 the New York Giants and Boston Red Sox played a eight  game World Series.  They played eight because the owners were greedy and games were permitted to end in a tie.  The Red Sox owner made the manager change to a pitcher who didn’t know he was going to pitch until the morning of the game, he had been out drinking until the wee hours of the morning.  The games featured their share of bad and great plays, 5 future Hall of Famers played in the series.  The cast of characters in the series includes the gambler who would be indicted in the fix of the 1918 series, Arnold Rothstein, who happened to be the partner of manager John McGraw in a chain of billiard halls.  Also Honey Fitz, the mayor of Boston, was the Sox biggest booster and grandfather of President Kennedy.  This is a terrific account of how the World Series became the fall classic and in now written in capital letters. Each chapter covers a specific game or time during the series, the background on each of the players and participants in the series is thoroughly covered, a wonderful engaging account of a great series.   Grade-A

Finding Oz, How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story by Evan I. Schwartz; 2009; $28.00; 374 pages; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY; 978-0-547-05510-7; Checked out from Multnomah County Library, Central; 7/14-7/21

Part biography, part literary detective story this book purports to show where L. Frank Baum got his ideas for the Oz  series.  This is the second tale of how Baum came up for the idea.  This one seems to be very well researched and the suppositions could very well be right.  Baum’s interest in Theosophy and woman’s suffragette could well be the inspiration for the four paths in the land of Oz and the strong women in the story.  Baum’s Mother in Law was a compatriot of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and was more radical than either of them.  I am looking forward to reading the Wizard of Oz, which I have  never read.  I have seen the movie multiple times but I guess there are major differences.  This was an interesting look at a classic American story.Grade-B

Angel Fire East, The Word and The Void by Terry Brooks

I have been reading Terry Brooks Shannara books since the 80’s and this is the final book in the prequel series.

“Monday, December 22″

Back to School For Grown-Ups, Everything You Should Have Learned in Class by Stephen Evans, M.A. and Ian Whitelaw; 2009; 256 pages; $18.99; Quid Publishing, Hove, England; 978-0-7641-6271-8; Checked out from Multnomah County Library, Hollywood; 6/11-6/14

100 two pages lessons that cover everything from When was the earth formed? to When did the Cold War end? .  Each lesson has interesting trivia, quotes and a short summary of the lesson.  The book is broken up by general subject areas such as science, religion, phys ed, art, literature and so on.  It is arranged in such a way that you can read straight through or in periods on specific days and each day concludes with a quiz covering that days topics. Most of the topics seem to be fair and balanced and well researched.  I was a little disappointed in some of the answers because occasionally the authors bias in some of the answers.  Some of the items were refresher courses and some were something I had never heard before. Grade-B

Troubled Water; Race, Mutiny and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk by Gregory A. Freeman; 2009; 246 pages; $27.00; Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY; 978-0-230-61361-4; Checked out from Multnomah County Library, Central; 6/8-6/11

On October 12 & 13, 1972 the USS Kitty Hawk was conducting flight operations off the coast of Vietnam.  At some point a riot broke out along racial lines.  Groups of African-American sailors pummeled Caucasian sailors, pulling them out of their bunks, breaking into sick bay to beat on those already injured.  The captain and executive office both tried in their own ways to defuse the situation.  Some of the participants have intended to take control of the ship, but were never able to.  Some that were on board that day say it was a mutiny, however it was at best an attempted mutiny. Some of those who participated were court martialed and discharged.

This is an interesting account of a race riot on board an active US Navy ship, I am not completely able to understand the complaints of the African American sailors because some of the things they complained about were things that all new recruits were subject too, however because of my race I will never fully understand the history and all that infuses the thoughts of the African American people.  If you are interested in hidden incidents in history and seeing a light shined on them, this is a good book for you.  Grade-A

The First Fall Classic; The Red Sox, The Giants And the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912 by Mike Vaccaro

The first World Series was played in 1903, but the series in 1912 elevated it to the Fall Classic that those of us today know.

“‘Not your fault, Ray,’ he said.  ‘Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, Duffy catches that ball blind-folded and we’re already out this dammed inning.’”

The Fourth Star; Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army by David Cloud and Greg Jaffe

I always want to know whom is leading our nation and that doesn’t always mean those we elect.  The men who lead our armed forces have a very firm grasp on a very powerful position.  Checks and balances don’t mean a whole lot if one of those checks is holding a very big gun.

“It was a plea to study the operations in northern Iraq and Somalia and not dismiss them as aberrations.”

Sizzling Sixteen, A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich; 2010; 309 pages; $27.99;  St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY; 978-.-312-38330-5; Checked out from Multnomah County Library,  Hillsdale; 6/27-6/29

Stephanie and her supporting players are in a heap of trouble when someone kidnaps Vinnie, her cousin and her boss.  As Stephanie, Lulu and Connie try and find Vinnie and keep the bail bond business they run into an alligator, hobbits, a mob, and much more.  Janet Evanovich has crafted a Stephanie Plum novel that while giving us what we expect has also set up the characters for some life changes.

I like the Stephanie Plum novels because they are suspensful but contain enough humor that they are not dreary.  Each of the characters plays off the other in an intriguing way.  In this book Evanovich has taken the characters to a different level and set them up for a possible new direction.

Grade-A

The Opposite Field by Jesse Katz

I was first attracted to this because it seemed to be about baseball.  As I read the dust jacket it is about the author’s tenure as a little league commissioner.  As I read more I found out the author is the son I never knew our former mayor, Vera Katz had.  It should be an interesting read.

“Whether my genuflections to Chris were paying off or I was merely starting to engender sympathy, it felt like progress: forty eight kids on our third Saturday, thirty one a week after that.”

61 Hours, A Reacher Novel by Lee Child; 2010; 383 pages; $28.00; Delacorte Press, New York, NY; 978-0-385-3458-8; Checked out from the Multnomah County Library, Gresham; 6/26-6/27

Jack Reacher catches a tour bus through the frozen north of South Dakota.  When the bus finally makes it to the town of Bolton, Reacher finds himself in the middle of a drug war, a conflict which stretches from Bolton to Mexico to Russia to England and back in time to the end of World War II.  Reacher helps the local police protect and work on solving a case.  We find out more about Reachers life and his career before he got out of the Army.  It took me less than 24 hours to read this exciting page turner.  I am looking forward to the next Reacher novel which is scheduled for October.  Grade-A