Author Archives: booksandbookmarks8

*I decided to tell a story and/or give a little baseball trivia at the end of each practice this season. Partly to give some background of the game we’re playing, the history of the game – I believe you can’t truly love and respect something until you know its history – but also partly forContinue reading “End of Practice Speech #1”

Clayton Kershaw has been compared to Sandy Koufax his entire career, so much so that the great Vin Scully would sometimes call him Koufax during a broadcast. They are tied by their Dodger lineage, their high release southpaw deliveries from the mound at Dodger Stadium, the K in their last names hinting at the strikeoutsContinue reading “The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare”

The Authenticity Project is a wonderful book that sucked me in from page one. It begins with aging artist Julian (more on that name to come) who decides to write down the truth he’s been denying to himself in a notebook and leave it for a stranger to find. The notebook is read by othersContinue reading “The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley”

(Kindle Book) The Poet is narrated by Jack McEvoy, a reporter in Denver who investigates the apparent suicide of his twin brother. Jack and his brother are both called “Mac” by their coworkers of course, so there was an obvious temptation to use a Willie McCovey card. Willie Mac is one of the most belovedContinue reading “The Poet by Michael Connelly”

“I am 439 years old,” says Tom Hazard in How to Stop Time. “I am 49 years old and just won a Major League game,” Jamie Moyer might have said on May 16, 2012, when he extended his record as the oldest pitcher ever to win a game (He also became the oldest player toContinue reading “How To Stop Time by Matt Haig”

(Audibook) The Midnight Library is a bit like It’s a Wonderful Life with a nod to quantum physics. The book opens with Nora unhappy with her life and the choices she’s made, and she decides to end her life. Rather than dying, she finds herself in the midnight library, a place where each book allowsContinue reading “The Midnight Library by Matt Haig”

(Audiobook) It would have been easy to just choose a Willie Mays card as a bookmark. I have several, and since this is all theoretical as I was listening to the audiobook, I wouldn’t even need to worry about damaging any of them. But this book is not like all the other Willie Mays biographies,Continue reading “24: Life Stories And Lessons From The Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays and John Shea”

There are 333 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. That includes players, executives, pioneers, managers, and umpires. Joe Morgan, one of those 333, wrote a letter to Hall of Fame voters in 2017 in which he states that he speaks on behalf of “many Hall of Fame members” when he says “Steroid users don’tContinue reading “Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes by John Rosengren”

(Audiobook) All Adults Here is a story about three generations of the Strick family set in Clapham, New York, a fictional town just south of Rhinebeck, New York. It’s a wonderful book about the relationships between parents and children and the continuous discovering of your own self. There is absolutely no baseball in it, noContinue reading “All Adults Here by Emma Straub”

There’s a beautiful tradition in Iceland of gifting books on Christmas Eve then spending the evening inside reading. It’s the reason for Jolabokaflod, or “Christmas Book Flood,” where the majority of book purchases in Iceland occur between September and December in anticipation of the Christmas Eve exchange. For the past few years my wife andContinue reading “Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu”