Introducing BookSpin Reviewer Rita Hernandez

The second of the three new reviewers BookSpin has partnered with in order to bring more reviews to this space is Rita Hernandez, who tweets at @rita_liccious.  Rita's blog can be found here.

Please join me in welcoming Rita to the BookSpin family.

Those Guys Have All the Fun by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN
by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales
Little, Brown and Company 
Hardcover


I just finished this 700+ page book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Written in an "as told by" style instead of a narrative, this book fills in ALL the blanks on a sports fan's questionnaire on the inner workings of the 24/7/265 sports network.

Reading the comments from former employees as well as current ones, the love, anger, respect, rivalry and fun of working at ESPN are very apparent.  There are many sports fan who would give anything to work there and this is the closest most of us will ever come.  It is not surprising to hear that it is like many workplaces: full of rivalries, jealousy, unfair promotions and, at times, bad management.  Being a male-dominated workplace, the ugly beast of sexual harassment has reared its head from time to time, and this is handled pretty thoroughly in the book.

This is a great read for any sports fan who wants to know more about the behind the scenes story of the genesis, development and success of ESPN.  Among the personalities interviewed for the book:  Mitch Albom, Erin Andrews, Lance Armstrong, Michelle Beadle (my current crush), Chris Berman, Linda Cohn, Bob Costas, Colin Cowherd, Peter Gammons, Tony Hawk, Craig Kilborn, Suzy Kolber, Tony Kornheiser, Andrea Kremer, Bob Ley, Barack Obama, Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Robin Roberts, Stuart Scott, Charley Steiner, Mike Tirico and Michael Wilbon.

Not At All What One Is Used To by Marian Janssen

  BookSpin has recently hired 3 book reviewers to help us churn out reviews faster and more often.
I will be introducing them this week.

First up, is Doni Molony, whose twitter is @thebattleofme .  Doni has already provided her first review:

Not at All What One Is Used To: The Life and Times of Isabella Gardner
by Marian Janssen
Univ. of Missouri Press
2010, 392 pages, 20 illustrations

This is the well-researched, very readable story of the other Isabella Stewart Gardner.  Not the gilded-age patroness of the arts, whose mansion in Boston's Fenway became the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; but the story of her great-niece and namesake, a mid-20th century poet and rebellious wild-child.

Born in 1915, Isabella grew up in splendid surroundings, attended exclusive schools, and was raised in the posh Brookline neighborhood of Boston. Gardner made her debut into Boston Society, but her life was inexorably changed at age 18, when she was involved in a drunk-driving accident. Her family quickly moved to cover up the incident, and shipped her off to Europe.

The years in Europe helped Isabella crystalize her interests: in the theatre, in literature, and in men. She was married and divorced four times, with heart-wrenching results. "Belle" was brilliant, troubled, prodigious, refined, and generous-to-a-fault. She usually followed her heart, which led her to multiple relationships; some good, some bad, but none everlasting.

Seemingly at the right place at the right time, Isabella associated with many of the literary lions of her day, including Robert Penn Warren, Tennessee Williams, T.S. Eliot, and her cousin, Robert Lowell. She co-edited Poetry magazine in the 190's, and was an unsparing contributor of her time regarding the reading and writing of poems.

As troubled as Belle was in love, she was both a durable and stalwart friend. She was gracious and generous, and gave freely of both her time and her resources. Gardner helped many struggling young artists, and never "lent" money, but gave plenty away; to the consternation of her family.

Gardner was married for the fourth and final time to poet and southern writer Allen Tate, who left his wife of 35 years to marry Belle. She moved to Minneapollis, and tried to live life as a "faculty wife," further alienating her children and her family. She was shattered when after a few short years, Tate left her to marry a nun.

Gardner's story is unsettling. She spent her final years living in the Chelsea Hotel in New York, writing poems, and drinking with thieves and hangers-on. Her children's lives spiraled out of control in tandem with her alcoholism, ultimately with grim results. Gardner was named Poet Laureate of New York, preceding her untimely death in 1981 at age 66.

- - - - - - - - - -
Doni Molony is a native of South Louisiana, an East Tennessee transplant, and a sucker for anything with an engine.  She holds a pilot license and a motorcycle endorsement. She has a husband of 3 decades, 2 grown children, and a serious reading addiction.

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Gone Boy: A Father's Search for the Truth in his Son's Murder
by Gregory Gibson
North Atlantic Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Description:

On December 14, 1992, Gregory Gibson’s eighteen-year-old son Galen was murdered, shot in the doorway of his college library by a fellow student gone berserk. The killer was jailed for life, but for Gibson the tragedy was still unfolding. The morning of the shooting, he learned, college officials had intercepted but not stopped a box of ammunition addressed to the murderer. They were also anonymously warned of the intended killing but failed to call the police. After years of frustrated attempts to find peace, Gibson woke one morning to a terrible vision of his own rage and helplessness. He knew he had to do something before he destroyed himself, and he resolved to discover and document the forces that led to Galen’s death.

Gone Boy follows Gibson as he visits the gun seller, as well as detectives, lawyers, psychiatrists, politicians, and college bureaucrats— a cast of characters as vivid as those in a Raymond Chandler mystery. Hailed by the New York Times and others for its evocative style and courage in confronting guns, violence, and manhood in America today, this wrenching memoir speaks in the voice of a man struggling to turn grief and rage into acceptance and understanding.

Author Biography:

Gregory Gibson is an antiquarian bookseller. When Gone Boy was first published, he began speaking at conferences, seminars, schools, and churches on victim’s issues, gun violence, and school safety. He lives in Gloucester, MA.

Reviews/Endorsements:

“A poignant, insightful, and admirably honest chronicle of a father’s attempts to make sense—in both large and small ways—of his son’s murder.”—New York Times

“Powerful … must-reading for everyone troubled by the epidemic of shootings.”—Time

“Gibson is a fine writer whose work rivals the subtleties of Norman Mailer's best fiction.”—Boston magazine

“Complex, surprising. … This book should be seriously considered by educational professionals, as well as by violence survivors who might benefit from Gibson's singular odyssey.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Gibson is one of those rare birds whose humanism is a result of his innate curiosity about people. He's not interested in demonizing anyone, and he readily admits how people confound his expectations. To his great credit, Gibson writes about everyone he meets as an irreducibly complex human being.”—Salon

“Gone Boy is not merely a book; it’s a journey you experience. You move with Gregory Gibson as he looks down the barrel of the gun that killed his son, stands face to face with the man who sold it, comes to know the killer, comes to know the killer’s parents—and comes to know himself. You will never read a more honest book, and honestly, it changed me.”—Gavin de Becker, author of The Gift of Fear

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

A Nation Rising: Untold Tales from America's Hidden History
by Kenneth C. Davis
Harper
Trade Paperback

I previewed this book in hardcover and it has just been released in paperback.

From the publisher website:

In the dramatic period from 1800 through 1850, the United States went from a tiny newborn nation on the Atlantic seaboard to a near-empire that spanned the continent. But America's path to nationhood was vastly more complex than the tidily packaged national myth of a destiny made manifest by visionary political leaders and fearless pioneers. In A Nation Rising, bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis offers fascinating, intertwining stories about historical episodes whose great issues—ambition, power, territorial expansion, slavery, intolerance, civil rights, freedom of the press—reverberate to this day, including:

• Aaron Burr's 1807 trial, culminating in one of our nation's first media circuses
• The 1813 Indian uprising and ensuing massacre, exposing the powerful conflicts at the heart of America's expansion
• The mutiny aboard the slave ship Creole, illustrating how the institution of slavery both destroyed lives and warped our nation's founding
• The bloody "Bible Riots" in Philadelphia, erupting in an early episode of deadly anti-immigrant sentiment

Eye-opening history and riveting storytelling, A Nation Rising is a powerful reminder of the ways in which our past continues to shape our present.

Author/book website


Review of A Nation Rising

Author twitter feed

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

If You're Cracked, You're Happy: The History of Cracked Magazine, Part Won
by Mark Arnold
BearManor Media
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

For over 40 years CRACKED was the best-selling humor magazine in the world... if you don't count MAD! A remarkable and amusing retrospective by author MARK ARNOLD, recounting the secret origins of the magazine, covering its history with former and future MAD and MARVEL Comics contributors JOHN SEVERIN, JACK DAVIS, DON MARTIN, BILL ELDER, JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO and AL JAFFEE, along with CRACKED veterans BILL WARD, DON OREHEK, GEORGE GLADIR, as well its responsibility for launching the careers of award-winning alternative cartoonists including DAN CLOWES, PETER BAGGE and BOB FINGERMAN. Crammed with creator interviews, rare photos and art and a complete checklist of every issue! A must for comics fans and purveyors of popular media!

Volume 1 covers the 1950s through the 1980s, with a Foreword by Steve Ditko.

cracked.com


Cracked magazine wikipedia

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Governor's Travels: How I Left Politics, Learned to Back Up a Bus, and Found America
by Angus King
Down East
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

After two terms as Governor, Angus King, along with his wife and children, packed into an RV and set out on a five-and-a-half-month journey to circumnavigate the United States. Governor’s Travels describes the places they went and the people they met. Interspersed with the travelogue, Governor King reflects on the transition from public office to private life and includes helpful information about selecting the right RV, a daily pre-drive checklist, and tips for handling a vehicle that large on the road.

I have requested a review copy; you guys know I am a sucker for "on-the-road" books.  I plan on someday making my own 48-state trek, so we'll see if I can learn anything from Governor King's exploits.

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House 
by Meghan Daum
Vintage/Random House
Trade Paperback

I covered this book in hardcover and now it's in paperback....

From the publisher website:

From the acclaimed author and columnist: a laugh-out-loud journey into the world of real estate—the true story of one woman’s “imperfect life lived among imperfect houses” and her quest for the four perfect walls to call home.

After an itinerant suburban childhood and countless moves as a grown-up—from New York City to Lincoln, Nebraska; from the Midwest to the West Coast and back—Meghan Daum was living in Los Angeles, single and in her mid-thirties, and devoting obscene amounts of time not to her writing career or her dating life but to the pursuit of property: scouring Craigslist, visiting open houses, fantasizing about finding the right place for the right price. Finally, near the height of the real estate bubble, she succumbed, depleting her life’s savings to buy a 900-square-foot bungalow, with a garage that “bore a close resemblance to the ruins of Pompeii” and plumbing that “dated back to the Coolidge administration.”

From her mother’s decorating manias to her own “hidden room” dreams, Daum explores the perils and pleasures of believing that only a house can make you whole. With delicious wit and a keen eye for the absurd, she has given us a pitch-perfect, irresistible tale of playing a lifelong game of house.

New York Times review

Author website

Wall Street Journal review

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

Crazy: Notes On and Off the Couch
by Rob Dobrenski
Lyons Press
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

An average day in the life of a psychologist is a frenetic one. A 9 a.m. appointment to help a woman manage a husband who won't take out the garbage (at least with pants on) quickly shifts to a session with a convicted rapist at 10 a.m. After talking with a child about his fears of school an hour later, the psychologist then meets with a therapist to deal with his own fears, followed by lunch with his socially-phobic colleague who's already had four martinis by 1 p.m.  All this, and it's only Monday.

Is it any wonder, then, that therapists are often depressed, anxious, and prone to panic attacks?  Or that they take antipsychotics, self-medicate with booze, and struggle in their own relationships?

Crazy is the story of how one mental health professional deals with his own personal problems and those of the people he treats. Part exposé and part memoir, it reveals what therapists really think about their profession, their colleagues, their patients, and their own lives.

Author website

Author's twitter feed

Review of Crazy

Book Reviewers Wanted

BookSpin is looking for several people willing to review non-fiction books.  If you are interested, please email to the address in the top right area of this page.

There will be no pay for the reviews but you can keep any free books you may receive.  As stated above, this site primarily reviews non-fiction. I make the effort to promote "under the radar" titles, books that do not receive "front of store" placement and that are not backed by pricey advertising budgets.

If you are interested, what you need to do is identify a recent or forthcoming non-fiction title you'd like to review.  Let me know if I need to attempt to get a reader copy for you.   Then read it as soon as you can and provide a review for me to publish.  Again, you keep any books I provide.

One caveat:  I try to only publish positive reviews.  I feel no need to trash someone's artistic endeavors.  If I don't like a book, I don't review it.  I feel my job is to tell people about fantastic books I've found.

If you have any questions let me know.  If need be, I can provide my telephone number so we can talk more at length.

Thank you again for your interest and I hope to hear from you.

--Tim

Book Review: STATES OF CONFUSION by Paul Jury

STATES OF CONFUSION: My 19,000-Mile Detour to Find Direction
by Paul Jury
Adams Media
Hardcover


This is a fantastic Summer read.  We ride along as Paul Jury, a recent college graduate, drives systematically (yet aimlessly) around the lower 48 while trying to figure out this thing we all call life.

A book like this could easily be unreadable, especially from someone so....well, young.  But Jury is a really good writer in that he describes perfectly what is going on in his head even when the reader knows he is fouling up.  The inner dialouge is stellar, interesting and nicely-paced.

The angst felt by the author is typical for recent college graduates who have yet to fall into their careers.  Made more difficult by a relationship with his girlfriend that he hasn't quite figured out, Jury is unabashedly honest to a fault.  I can only imagine how the girlfriend felt reading the blog he updated as he drove on his madcap 48-state jaunt.

Jury encounters many frustrating events which turn into metaphors for learning examples:  financial budgeting, relationship balancing, troubleshooting, time management  and decision making.  The books is chock full of humor and the author is skillful at making you feel as if you are riding shotgun on his enjoyable trip.

I won't ruin the final pages, but suffice to say that ultimately the author does finally make some long-delayed decisions.  I recommend this book if you are looking for a low-key yet interesting adventure for a lazy weekend.  As I said before, in the hands of a less-skilled writer this book could have been boring but I found myself pulling for the author to reach the goals he listed for himself prior to the drive.

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures

by Robert K. Wittman with John Shiffman
Broadway/Random House
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.”

In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.

Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.

In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.

The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow.

By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless.

The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners.  The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat.  The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroes’ descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man.  The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched.

In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.

Read an excerpt

Profile of the author in the New York Times

Book/Author website

BookSpin Book Giveaway

We have a few books to give away to BookSpin readers.

To be entered to win, post a comment here with your twitter name and the title you wish to win.

Sorry about the formatting. I couldn't get blogger to work the way I wanted.

Post a comment here with your twitter name and the title you are interested in to be entered into the drawing.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

LICENSE TO PAWN: Deals, Steals and My Life at the Gold & Silver
by Rick Harrison
Hyperion
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

In Las Vegas, there’s a family-owned business called the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, run by three generations of the Harrison family: Rick; his son, Big Hoss; and Rick’s dad, the Old Man. Now License to Pawn takes readers behind the scenes of the hit History show Pawn Stars and shares the fascinating life story of its star, Rick Harrison, and the equally intriguing story behind the shop, the customers, and the items for sale.

Rick hasn’t had it easy. He was a math whiz at an early age, but developed a similarly uncanny ability to find ever-deepening trouble that nearly ruined his life. With the birth of his son, he sobered up, reconnected with his dad, and they started their booming business together.

License to Pawn also offers an entertaining walk through the pawn shop’s history. It’s a captivating look into how the Gold & Silver works, with incredible stories about the crazy customers and the one-of-a-kind items that the shop sells. Rick isn’t only a businessman; he’s also a historian and keen observer of human nature. For instance, did you know that pimps wear lots of jewelry for a reason? It’s because if they’re arrested, jewelry doesn’t get confiscated like cash does, and ready money will be available for bail. Or that WWII bomber jackets and Zippo lighters can sell for a freakishly high price in Japan? Have you ever heard that the makers of Ormolu clocks, which Rick sells for as much as $15,000 apiece, frequently died before forty thanks to the mercury in the paint?

Rick also reveals the items he loves so much he’ll never sell. The shop has three Olympic bronze medals, a Patriots Super Bowl ring, a Samurai sword from 1490, and an original Iwo Jima battle plan. Each object has an incredible story behind it, of course. Rick shares them all, and so much more—there’s an irresistible treasure trove of history behind both the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop and the life of Rick Harrison.

 Gold & Silver Pawn website

On My Radar (Weekend Edition)

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
by Daniel Okrent
Scribner/Simon & Schuster
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

A brilliant, authoritative, and fascinating history of America's most puzzling era, the years 1920 to 1933, when the U.S. Constitution was amended to restrict one of America's favorite pastimes: drinking alcoholic beverages.

From its start, America has been awash in drink. The sailing vessel that brought John Winthrop to the shores of the New World in 1630 carried more beer than water. By the 1820s, liquor flowed so plentifully it was cheaper than tea. That Americans would ever agree to relinquish their booze was as improbable as it was astonishing.

Yet we did, and Last Call is Daniel Okrent's dazzling explanation of why we did it, what life under Prohibition was like, and how such an unprecedented degree of government interference in the private lives of Americans changed the country forever.

Writing with both wit and historical acuity, Okrent reveals how Prohibition marked a confluence of diverse forces: the growing political power of the women's suffrage movement, which allied itself with the antiliquor campaign; the fear of small-town, native-stock Protestants that they were losing control of their country to the immigrants of the large cities; the anti-German sentiment stoked by World War I; and a variety of other unlikely factors, ranging from the rise of the automobile to the advent of the income tax.

Through it all, Americans kept drinking, going to remarkably creative lengths to smuggle, sell, conceal, and convivially (and sometimes fatally) imbibe their favorite intoxicants. Last Call is peopled with vivid characters of an astonishing variety: Susan B. Anthony and Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan and bootlegger Sam Bronfman, Pierre S. du Pont and H. L. Mencken, Meyer Lansky and the incredible—if long-forgotten—federal official Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who throughout the twenties was the most powerful woman in the country. (Perhaps most surprising of all is Okrent's account of Joseph P. Kennedy's legendary, and long-misunderstood, role in the liquor business.)


It's a book rich with stories from nearly all parts of the country. Okrent's narrative runs through smoky Manhattan speakeasies, where relations between the sexes were changed forever; California vineyards busily producing "sacramental" wine; New England fishing communities that gave up fishing for the more lucrative rum-running business; and in Washington, the halls of Congress itself, where politicians who had voted for Prohibition drank openly and without apology.

Last Call is capacious, meticulous, and thrillingly told. It stands as the most complete history of Prohibition ever written and confirms Daniel Okrent's rank as a major American writer.

Video interview with the author

New York Times review

NPR interview with the author

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Hitch 22: A Memoir
by Christopher Hitchens
Twelve Books/Hachette Book Group
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Most who have observed Christopher Hitchens over the years would agree that he possesses a ferocious intellect and is unafraid to tackle the most contentious subjects. Now 60, English-born and American by adoption; all atheist and partly Jewish; bohemian (even listing “drinking” along with “disputation” as “hobbies” in Who’s Who) he has held to a consistent thread of principle whether opposing war in Vietnam or supporting intervention in Iraq. As a foreign correspondent in some of the world’s nastiest places, a lecturer and teacher and an esteemed literary critic, Hitchens manifests a style that is at once ironic, witty, and tough-minded. A legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for literature, he has sometimes ridiculed those who claim that the personal is political, though he has often seemed to illustrate that very idea. Readers will find that his own many opposites attract, as do his many sketches of friendship and ex-friendship, from Martin Amis to Noam Chomsky. Condemned to be able to see both sides of any argument, Christopher Hitchens has contradictions that contain their own multitudes.

Washington Post review


NPR review & excerpt

New York Times review

On My Radar (Thursday Edition)

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
by Laura Vanderkam
Portfolio/Penguin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

There are 168 hours in a week. This is your guide to getting the most out of them.

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. We tell ourselves we'd like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of goals. But then we give up because there just aren't enough hours to do it all. Or if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.

There has to be a better way...and Laura Vanderkam has found one. After interviewing dozens of successful, happy people, she realized that they allocate their time differently than most of us. Instead of letting the daily grind crowd out the important stuff, they start by making sure there's time for the important stuff. When plans go wrong and they run out of time, only their lesser priorities suffer.

Vanderkam shows that with a little examination and prioritizing, you'll find it is possible to sleep eight hours a night, exercise five days a week, take piano lessons, and write a novel without giving up quality time for work, family, and other things that really matter.

Book website

Author website


Interview with the author



168 HOURS by Laura Vanderkam by expandedbooks

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Truth be Told: Off the Record about Favorite Guests, Memorable Moments, Funniest Jokes, and a Half-Century of Asking Questions
by Larry King
Weinstein Books
Hardcover

From the book description:

Truth Be Told is a revealing and irresistibly entertaining look back on Larry's remarkable run at CNN, and an honest look at Larry's own life behind the scenes. After more than a half-century of asking questions, Larry King suddenly found everyone wanted answers from him. Was Larry King Live, CNN's highest rated program, ending after three decades? Was Larry getting divorced again? The paparazzi aimed their cameras at Larry. Jay Leno and other late-night talk-show hosts were having fun at his expense. And a cloud of uncertainty hovered over CNN. All of this forced Larry to look at changes in all aspects of his life, ultimately leading to his decision to leave Larry King Live and devote more time to his marriage and children.Larry reflects on how much the world has changed around him over the course of his fifty-year career, and he has a lot to say about everything and everyone: from marriage, politics, sports, entertainment, to the justice system, broadcasting, and the American future. Truth Be Told is a candid and surprising look inside the monumental career of one of the most powerful and legendary talk-show hosts as he signs off from the nightly television program that has been close to all of our hearts.