Best of 2011 (Sort of)....

For the last post of 2011, I am revisiting some of my favorite books from the past year.  Feel free to comment with your own reviews or suggestions for BookSpin 2012.

Endgame by Frank Brady

Ice by Ice-T

States of Confusion by Paul Jury

Moscow December 25, 1991: The Last Day of the Soviet Union by Conor O'Clery

Drama: An Actor's Education by John Lithgow

On My Radar (Thursday Edition)

How to Walk a Puma: And Other Things I Learned While Stumbling Through South America
by Peter Allison
Lyons Press
Trade Paperback

On his nineteenth birthday, Peter Allison flipped a coin. One side would take him to Africa and the other to South America, the two places he wanted to explore before he died. He recounted his time spent as a safari guide in Africa to much acclaim inWhatever You Do, Don’t RunandDon’t Look Behind You. Sixteen years later, he makes his way to Santiago, Chile, ready to seek out the continent’s best, weirdest, and wildest adventures, and to chase the elusive jaguar.

In just the first six months, Allison is bitten by a puma (several times), knocked on his ass by a bad empanada, and surrounded by piranhas while rafting down a Bolivian river—all because of his unusual fear of refrigerators and of staying in any one place for too long. Ever the gifted storyteller and cultural observer, Allison makes many observations about life in humid climes, the nature of nomadism, and exactly what it is like to be nearly blasted off a mountain by the famous Patagonia wind.

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True
by Guy P. Harrison
Prometheus Books

Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you’re trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. Or you met someone at a party who insisted the Holocaust never happened or that no one ever walked on the moon.

How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? Longtime skeptic Guy P. Harrison shows you how in this down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims.

A veteran journalist, Harrison has not only surveyed a vast body of literature, but has also interviewed leading scientists, explored “the most haunted house in America,” frolicked in the inviting waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and even talked to a “contrite Roswell alien.”
Harrison is not out simply to debunk unfounded beliefs. Wherever possible, he presents alternative scientific explanations, which in most cases are even more fascinating than the wildest speculation. For example, stories about UFOs and alien abductions lack good evidence, but science gives us plenty of reasons to keep exploring outer space for evidence that life exists elsewhere in the vast universe. The proof for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster may be nonexistent, but scientists are regularly discovering new species, some of which are truly stranger than fiction.

Stressing the excitement of scientific discovery and the legitimate mysteries and wonder inherent in reality, Harrison invites readers to share the joys of rational thinking and the skeptical approach to evaluating our extraordinary world.

My Current Reading List

Like you, I have several books going at the same time.  Here is my current list:

WAR ROOM by Michael Holley

THE GREAT TYPO HUNT by Jeff Deck & Benjamin D. Herson

SHOCKAHOLIC by Carrie Fisher

GOD, IF YOU'RE NOT UP THERE, I'M F*CKED by Darrell Hammond

Would love to see your current list....

On My Radar (Tuesday Edition)

The Weasel: A Double Life in the Mob
by Adrian Humphreys
John Wiley & Sons

Hardcover

From the publisher website:

In the world of organized crime the bosses grab the headlines, as the names Capone, Gotti, Bonnano, Cotroni and Rizzuto attest. But a crime family has many working parts and the young mobster known as The Weasel was the epitome of a crucial, invisible cog-the soldier, the muscle, the driver, the gopher.

By a quirk of fate, Marvin Elkind-later The Weasel-was placed in the foster home of a tough gangster family, immersing him from the age of nine in a daring world of con men, cheats, bootleggers, loan sharks, bank robbers, leg breakers and Mafia bosses. During a Golden Age of underworld life in New York, Detroit and across Canada, The Weasel found himself working with a surprising cast of colourful characters. He befriended powerful gangsters by smuggling bottles of Scotch to their tables as a waiter at New York's famed Copacabana; he was pushed to be Jimmy Hoffa's chauffeur.

But his disenchantment with the broken promises of mob life brought him into another fraternity, one offering the same adrenaline rush, danger and dark comedy he craved. After a startling confrontation, he was embraced by law enforcement, and a cop with a reputation for results. Now a career informant, The Weasel learned he was a far better fink than he ever was a crook.

With his impeccable gangland pedigree, enormous girth, cold stare and sausage-like fingers adorned with chunky rings, no one questioned The Weasel's loyalty. The backroom doors were flung open and The Weasel slipped in, bringing undercover cops with him. For case after case over two decades, he worked for the FBI, U.S. Customs, Scotland Yard, RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and other law enforcement agencies on three continents, trapping and betraying mobsters, mercenaries, spies, drug traffickers, pornographers, union fat cats and corrupt politicians.

With unflinching honesty, The Weasel and many of the undercover officers he worked with revealed their successes and failures to award-winning crime reporter and best-selling author Adrian Humphreys.

The Weasel is the riveting chronicle of a unique and engaging figure who lived a most dangerous and rare experience.

It is a story that was never supposed to be told.

Monday Review: FICTION RUINED MY FAMILY by Jeanne Darst

I am just finishing Jeanne Darst's FICTION RUINED MY FAMILY.  Some of the best memoirs, of course, are the ones that examine dysfunctional families.  That may be why it is said that everyone has a book in them...all families are dysfuncitonal.

Jeanne Darst's father is a writer with an overload of  delusional behavior, always one book away from the Great American Novel.  Her mother was an alcoholic with social pretension, which always leads to dysfunction of the highest order.

How anyone ever turns out normal in our society is amazing to me after reading these memoirs, but the truth is that Darst comes off endearing, quirky and "normal".  Her sense of humor, evident throughout this cute little book, is clearly her coping mechanism and becomes the reader's tipping point of acceptance for Darst and her family.  Perhaps we see a little bit of them in ourselves.

If you like quirky memoirs that let you peek inside the lives of the people next door, this will make a terrific addition to your stack.

FICTION RUINED MY FAMILY
by Jeanne Darst
Riverhead Books / Penguin
Hardcover

On My Radar (Friday Edition)

Disaster Preparedness: A Memoir
by Heather Havrilesky
Riverhead / Penguin
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

A memoir from a writer who's "smart, hilarious, unique-just terrific" (Anne Lamott).


A thoughtful, funny memoir about surviving the real and imagined perils of childhood and early adulthood, Disaster Preparedness charts how the most humiliating and painful moments in Havrilesky's past forced her to develop a wide range of defense mechanisms, some adaptive, some piteously ill-suited to modern life. By turns offbeat, sophisticated, uproarious and wise, Disaster Preparedness is a road map to the personal disasters we all face from an irresistible voice that gets straight to the unexpected grace at the heart of every calamity.

On My Radar (Wednesday Edition)

Mirror on America: Essays and Images from Popular Culture (Textbook)
by Joan T. Mims & Elizabeth M. Nollen

Bedford / St. Martins
Trade Paperback

From the publisher website:

Mirror on America meets students where they are right now. Whether they have lived in America all their lives or have only just arrived, they can consider themselves experts in pop culture. After all, they participate in it every day. Brief, current essays and images on topics like hip-hop, our online lives, and, of course, vampires and zombies spark discussion and critical thinking. And because critical thinking should lead to solid writing, the book’s editorial apparatus gives students clear instruction and support for every step of the reading and writing process. Always engaging and always accessible, Mirror on America reflects the interests of students and the instructors who want them to become confident writers.

On My Radar (Monday Edition)

One on One: Behind the Scenes with the Greats of the Game
by John Feinstein
Hardcover

Hachette/Little, Brown & Company

From the publisher website:

After numerous beloved and bestselling sports books, John Feinstein returns to the subjects of his first ten books, crafting a narrative of the most revealing encounters he's had.

Feinstein has interviewed some of the most enduring figures in sports--from hallowed coaches such as Bob Knight, Jim Valvano, Mike Krzyzewski, and Dean Smith to beloved athletes including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, and John McEnroe, and here we have John Feinstein at his very best. He goes behind the scenes of his reporting from The Final Four, Wimbledon, The US Open, the Army/Navy game, the Olympics, and more, opening up sport's most private, closed-door places and sharing exclusive stories from the reporting of books like Season on the Brink, A Good Walk Spoiled, A Season Inside, and A Civil War.

These are the coaches and athletes who know their games the best, and the legends and legendary moments that gave inherent shape to our favorite pastimes.