In My TBR Stack:

Two Hours: The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon
by Ed Caesar
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Two hours to cover twenty-six miles and 385 yards. It is running’s Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. But now we can glimpse the mountaintop. The sub-two hour marathon will require an exceptional combination of speed, mental strength, and endurance. The pioneer will have to endure more, live braver, plan better, and be luckier than anyone who has run before. So who will it be?

In this spellbinding book, journalist Ed Caesar takes us into the world of elite marathoners: some of the greatest runners on earth. Through the stories of these rich characters, like Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai, around whom the narrative is built, Caesar traces the history of the marathon as well as the science, physiology, and psychology involved in running so fast for so long. And he shows us why this most democratic of races retains its brutal, enthralling appeal—and why we are drawn to test ourselves to the limit.

Two Hours is a book about a beautiful sport few people understand. It takes us from big-money races in the United States and Europe to remote villages in Kenya. It’s about talent, heroism, and refusing to accept defeat. It is a book about running that is about much more than running. It is a human drama like no other.

In My TBR Stack:

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik
Dey Street Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Irin Carmon: I heard you can do 20 pushups.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Yes, but we do ten at a time. And then I breathe for a bit and do the second set.

Nearly a half-century into being a feminist and legal pioneer, something funny happened to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: the octogenarian won the internet. Across America, people who weren’t even born when Ginsburg made her name are tattooing themselves with her face, setting her famously searing dissents to music, and making viral videos in tribute. In a class of its own, and much to Ginsburg’s own amusement, is the Notorious RBG Tumblr, which juxtaposes the diminutive but fierce Jewish grandmother with the 350-pound rapper featuring original artwork submitted from around the world.

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg offers a visually rich, intimate, unprecedented look at the Justice and how she changed the world. From Ginsburg’s refusal to let the slammed doors of sexism stop her to her innovative legal work, from her before-its-time feminist marriage to her perch on the nation’s highest court—with the fierce dissents to match—get to know RBG as never before. As the country struggles with the unfinished business of gender equality and civil rights, Ginsburg stands as a testament to how far we can come with a little chutzpah.

In My TBR Stack:

Almost Interesting: The Memoir

by David Spade

Dey Street Books

Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

A hilarious and biting memoir from the actor, comedian and Saturday Night Live alumni David Spade.

David Spade is best known for his harsh “Hollywood” Minute Sketches on SNL, his starring roles in movies like Joe Dirt and Tommy Boy,  and his seven-year stint as Dennis Finch on the series Just Shoot Me. Now, with a wit as dry as the weather in his home state of Arizona, the “comic brat extraordinaire” tells his story in Almost Interesting.

First Taking fans back to his childhood as a wannabe cool younger brother and recounting his excruciating road-tour to fame—when he was regularly mistaken for a ten year-old, Spade then dishes about his time crisscrossing the country as a comedian, for low-paying gigs and dragging along his mother’s old suitcase full of props. He also covers his years on SNL during the beloved Rock/Sandler/Farley era of the 1990s, including his close working relationship and friendship with Chris Farley and brags about the ridiculous perks that fame has brought into his life, including the constant fear of being fired, a crazy ex-assistant who attached him while he was sleeping, a run-in with Eddie Murphy on the mean streets of Beverley Hills, and of course an endless supply of hot chicks.  

Sometimes dirty, always funny, and as sharp as a tack, Almost Interesting reminds you why David Spade is one of our generation’s favorite funny guys.

In My TBR Stack:

The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong: Table Tennis as a Journey of Self-Discovery
by Guido Mina di Sospiro
Quest Books
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

“There are two breeds of Ping-Pong players: empiricists and metaphysicians,” says Guido Mina di Sospiro. “By adopting anti-spin paddles, empiricists declare explicitly who they are and what they stand for. Metaphysicians, on the other hand, are fascinated by the mysteries of spin, which propels them, willy-nilly, into the realm of four-dimensional, nonlinear geometry. They strive to bend the laws of physics by giving the ball the exact arc it needs to touch the deep end of the table rather than go long.”

The author clearly plays in the latter court. He explores the worldwide passion for table tennis by bringing in Plato and Aristotle, the Perennial Philosophy, and the psychology of C. G. Jung. Topics range from the importance of finding one’s guru in the game, to the shadow side of competition, to ping pong as a form of initiation vis-a-vis Chaos Theory. The higher the level of the game, the more its players are aligned with the Taoist Way, self-actualized in harmony with the cosmos.

As Mina di Sospiro shows, Ping-Pong has so many refreshingly illogical qualities about it that the “humble” sport becomes a metaphor for understanding the entire human condition. “If mankind dedicated more time to playing,” he says, “there would be less hostility in the world and probably fewer wars. And table tennis, both enormously popular and thoroughly cosmopolitan, points precisely in this direction.” As with planet Earth herself, it’s all in the spin.

On My Radar:

Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home
by Joe Klein
Simon and Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

This is the true story of two decorated combat veterans linked by tragedy, who come home from the Middle East and find a new way to save their comrades and heal their country.

In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn’t been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan—a saga of lives saved, not wasted.

Greitens, a Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar, spends years working in refugee camps before he joins the military. He enlists because he believes the innocent of the world need heavily armed, moral protection. Wounded in Iraq, Greitens returns home and finds that his fellow veterans at Bethesda Naval Hospital all want the same thing: they want to continue to serve their country in some way, no matter the extent of their injuries. He founds The Mission Continues to provide paid public service fellowships for wounded veterans.

One of the first Mission Continues fellows is charismatic former Marine sergeant Jake Wood, a natural leader who began Team Rubicon, organizing 9/11 veterans for dangerous disaster relief projects around the world. “We do chaos,” he says.

The chaos they face isn’t only in the streets of Haiti after the 2011 earthquake or in New York City after Hurricane Sandy—it’s also in the lives of their fellow veterans, who’ve come home from the wars traumatized and looking for a sense of purpose. Greitens and Wood believe that the military virtues of discipline and selflessness, of sacrifice for the greater good, can save lives—and not just the lives of their fellow veterans. They believe that invigorated veterans can lead, by personal example, to stronger communities—and they prove it in Charlie Mike. Their personal saga is compelling and inspirational: Greitens and Wood demonstrate how the skills of war can also provide a path to peace, personal satisfaction, and a more vigorous nation.

On My Radar:

I Feel Like Going On: Life, Game, and Glory
by Ray Lewis with Daniel Paisner
Touchstone Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Ray Lewis, legendary Baltimore Ravens linebacker and one of the greatest defensive players of his generation, holds nothing back on the state of football as well as his troubled childhood, his rise to athletic greatness, the storm that threatened to ruin his NFL career, and the devastating injury that nearly cost him a final moment of glory.

A lot of folks, they know my game, but they don’t know my deal. This book right here, it tells the story of my seventeen-year NFL career. It tells of my two Super Bowls, the mark I was blessed to be able to make on the game, on the city of Baltimore. But it also tells the story of how I grew up—abandoned by my no-account father, raised with my siblings by our God-fearing, hardworking single mother. It tells how I sometimes struggled off the field. It tells of the anguish and controversy that found me away from the game.

Mostly, it tells how heartbreak can sometimes lift you to greatness and glory—if you find a way to put your focus in faith, and faith in your focus.

When I left the game, confetti raining down on me and my teammates after winning the Super Bowl, I made a promise to myself to show how the game is really played at the highest level. That’s what you’ll find in these pages—a raw, honest look at the business of football and a look behind the scenes at some of the most torturous aspects of the game. The grind of the NFL—that’s what shines through.

My deal? That grind is a given. Every player who wears an NFL uniform has to slog through the same battles just to get to the league. But it’s how you prepare for those battles that defines you—and here I hope to show how an unwavering trust in God and an unbreakable sense of purpose can lift you from tragedy to triumph. From strength to strength, man—that’s the deal.

On My Radar:

Home is Burning: A Memoir
by Dan Marshall
Flatiron Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

For the Marshalls, laughter is the best medicine. Especially when combined with alcohol, pain pills, excessive cursing, sexual escapades, actual medicine, and more alcohol.

Meet Dan Marshall. 25, good job, great girlfriend, and living the dream life in sunny Los Angeles without a care in the world. Until his mother calls. And he ignores it, as you usually do when Mom calls. Then she calls again. And again.

Dan thought things were going great at home. But it turns out his mom's cancer, which she had battled throughout his childhood with tenacity and a mouth foul enough to make a sailor blush, is back. And to add insult to injury, his loving father has been diagnosed with ALS.

Sayonara L.A., Dan is headed home to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Never has there been a more reluctant family reunion: His older sister is resentful, having stayed closer to home to bear the brunt of their mother's illness. His younger brother comes to lend a hand, giving up a journalism career and evenings cruising Chicago gay bars. His next younger sister, a sullen teenager, is a rebel with a cause. And his baby sister - through it all - can only think about her beloved dance troop. Dan returns to shouting matches at the dinner table, old flames knocking at the door, and a speech device programmed to help his father communicate that is as crude as the rest of them. But they put their petty differences aside and form Team Terminal, battling their parents' illnesses as best they can, when not otherwise distracted by the chaos that follows them wherever they go. Not even the family cats escape unscathed.

As Dan steps into his role as caregiver, wheelchair wrangler, and sibling referee, he watches pieces of his previous life slip away, and comes to realize that the further you stretch the ties that bind, the tighter they hold you together.

On My Radar:

A Life on Nashville's Music Row
by Bobby Braddock
Vanderbilt University Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

If you know country music, you know Bobby Braddock. Even if you don't know his name, you know the man's work. "He Stopped Loving Her Today." "D-I-V-O-R-C-E." "Golden Ring." "Time Marches On." "I Wanna Talk About Me." "People Are Crazy." These songs and numerous other chart-topping hits sprang from the mind of Bobby Braddock. A working songwriter and musician, Braddock has prowled the streets of Nashville's legendary Music Row since the mid-1960s, plying his trade and selling his songs. These decades of writing songs for legendary singers like George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and Toby Keith are recounted in Bobby Braddock: A Life on Nashville's Music Row, providing the reader with a stunning look at the beating heart of Nashville country music that cannot be matched.

If you're looking for insight into Nashville, the life of music in this town, and the story of a force of nature on the Row to this day, Bobby Braddock will take you there.

In My TBR Stack:

Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta
by Richard Grant
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Adventure writer Richard Grant takes on “the most American place on Earth”—the enigmatic, beautiful, often derided Mississippi Delta.

Richard Grant and his girlfriend were living in a shoebox apartment in New York City when they decided on a whim to buy an old plantation house in the Mississippi Delta. Dispatches from Pluto is their journey of discovery into this strange and wonderful American place. Imagine A Year In Provence with alligators and assassins, or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with hunting scenes and swamp-to-table dining.

On a remote, isolated strip of land, three miles beyond the tiny community of Pluto, Richard and his girlfriend, Mariah, embark on a new life. They learn to hunt, grow their own food, and fend off alligators, snakes, and varmints galore. They befriend an array of unforgettable local characters—blues legend T-Model Ford, cookbook maven Martha Foose, catfish farmers, eccentric millionaires, and the actor Morgan Freeman. Grant brings an adept, empathetic eye to the fascinating people he meets, capturing the rich, extraordinary culture of the Delta, while tracking its utterly bizarre and criminal extremes. Reporting from all angles as only an outsider can, Grant also delves deeply into the Delta’s lingering racial tensions. He finds that de facto segregation continues. Yet even as he observes major structural problems, he encounters many close, loving, and interdependent relationships between black and white families—and good reasons for hope.

Dispatches from Pluto is a book as unique as the Delta itself. It’s lively, entertaining, and funny, containing a travel writer’s flair for in-depth reporting alongside insightful reflections on poverty, community, and race. It’s also a love story, as the nomadic Grant learns to settle down. He falls not just for his girlfriend but for the beguiling place they now call home. Mississippi, Grant concludes, is the best-kept secret in America.

On My Radar:

A Boy From Georgia: Coming of Age in the Segregated South
by Hamilton Jordan; edited by Kathleen Jordan
University of Georgia Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

When Hamilton Jordan died of peritoneal mesothelioma in 2008, he left behind a mostly finished memoir, a book on which he had been working for the last decade. Jordan’s daughter, Kathleen—with the help of her brothers and mother—took up the task of editing and completing the book. A Boy from Georgia—the result of this posthumous father-daughter collaboration—chronicles Hamilton Jordan’s childhood in Albany, Georgia, charting his moral and intellectual development as he gradually discovers the complicated legacies of racism, religious intolerance, and southern politics, and affords his readers an intimate view of the state’s wheelers and dealers.

Jordan’s middle-class childhood was bucolic in some ways and traumatizing in others. As Georgia politicians battled civil rights leaders, a young Hamilton straddled the uncomfortable line between the southern establishment to which he belonged and the movement in which he believed. Fortunate enough to grow up in a family that had considerable political clout within Georgia, Jordan went into politics to put his ideals to work. Eventually he became a key aide to Jimmy Carter and was the architect of Carter’s stunning victory in the presidential campaign of 1976; Jordan later served as Carter’s chief of staff. Clear eyed about the triumphs and tragedies of Jordan’s beloved home state and region, A Boy from Georgia tells the story of a remarkable life in a voice that is witty, vivid, and honest.

On My Radar:

The Old Man and the Cat: A Love Story
by Nils Uddenberg
Thomas Dunne Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The Old Man and The Cat is a story of how Nils Uddenberg, retired Professor of Psychology became a beloved cat-owner even though he had never wanted a pet of any kind.

One winter morning the author discovered a cat—whom he would later find was homeless—sitting outside his bedroom window, staring at him with big yellow eyes. Slowly but surely the cat worked itself into his life.

This award-winning writer who has a background in psychology could not stop himself from going deeper into the cat's inner life. Does she have a sense of humor? Is it possible to attach human feelings to her? And the trickiest question of all: Is our little cat actually interested in our attachment to her?

With humor and self-awareness, Nils describes how his existence changed after the cat moved into his house. The feelings she stirs up are a surprise to him and he quickly finds himself falling in love with this speckled grey-brown little lady.

On My Radar:

Bad Paper: Inside the Secret World of Debt Collectors
by Jake Halpern
Picador
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

"The book teems with eccentric characters and scenes that made my skin crawl.... Explained simply, read easily, Bad Paper defies expectations. It should also raise quite a few alarms."-Colin Dwyer, NPR

The Federal Trade Commission receives more complaints about rogue debt collecting than it does about any activity besides identity theft. In Bad Paper, journalist Jake Halpern reveals why. He tells the story of Aaron Siegel, a former banking executive, and Brandon Wilson, a former armed robber, who become partners and go in quest of "paper"-the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Aaron and Brandon learn, the world of consumer debt collection is an unregulated shadowland, where operators often make unwarranted threats and even collect debts that are not theirs.

Introducing an unforgettable cast of characters, Halpern chronicles Aaron and Brandon's lives as they manage high-pressure call centers, hunt for paper in Las Vegas casinos, and meet in parked cars to sell the social security numbers and account information of unsuspecting consumers. The result is a vital exposé on the cost of a system that compounds the troubles of hardworking Americans and an astonishing feat of storytelling.

On My Radar:

Raw: My 100% Grade A, Unfiltered, Inside Look at Sports
by Colin Cowherd
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In his no-holds-barred, unapologetically controversial voice, New York Times bestselling author and ESPN radio show host Colin Cowherd gives an insider’s look into all things sports, including behind-the-scenes scandals, inter-team rivalries, and players’ lives on and off the field.

There’s a lot you don’t see or hear sitting high up in the stands. But Colin Cowherd knows what really goes on—and he’s not afraid to share the vivid details of everything we don’t see on ESPN. From hotel parties for athletes and other industry professionals, to gossip from the road between games, to what happens at ESPN behind closed doors, Cowherd draws on personal experiences to offer you an exclusive look into the rarefied, outrageous, ego-stuffed sphere of the professional sports world.

If you want honest, unvarnished opinions on current sports rivalries, scandals, and statistics, it’s all in Raw—from one of America’s most outspoken sports broadcasters on air today.

On My Radar:

Slaughterhouse 90210: Where Great Books Meet Pop Culture
by Maris Kreizman
Flatiron Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The perfect book for anyone with a Netflix account and a library card.

"Smart, sharp, and hilarious, Slaughterhouse 90210 is the perfect pick-me-up and never-put-me-down book." - Jami Attenberg, bestselling author of The Middlesteins

Slaughterhouse 90210 pairs literature's greatest lines with pop culture's best moments.

In 2009, Maris Kreizman wanted to combine her fierce love for pop culture with a lifelong passion for reading, and so the blog Slaughterhouse 90210 was born. By matching poignant passages from literature with popular moments from television, film, and real life, Maris' work instantly caught the attention (and adoration) of thousands. And it's easy to see why.

Slaughterhouse 90210 is subversively brilliant, finding the depth in the shallows of reality television, and the levity in Lahiri. A picture of Taylor Swift is paired with Joan Didion's quote, "Above all, she is the girl who 'feels things'. The girl ever wounded, ever young." Tony Soprano tenderly hugs his teenage son, accompanied by a line from Middlemarch about, "The patches of hardness and tenderness [that] lie side by side in men's dispositions." The images and quotes complement and deepen one another in surprising, profound, and tender ways.

With over 150 color photographs from some of popular culture's most iconic moments, Kreizman shows why comparing Walter White to Faust makes sense in our celebrity obsessed, tv crazed society.

On My Radar:

Killing and Dying
by Adrian Tomine
Drawn & Quarterly
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Killing and Dying is a stunning showcase of the possibilities of the graphic novel medium and a wry exploration of loss, creative ambition, identity, and family dynamics. With this work, Adrian Tomine (Shortcomings, Scenes from an Impending Marriage) reaffirms his place not only as one of the most significant creators of contemporary comics, but as one of the great voices of modern American literature. His gift for capturing emotion and intellect resonates here: the weight of love and its absence, the pride and disappointment of family, the anxiety and hopefulness of being alive in the twenty-first century.

“Amber Sweet” shows the disastrous impact of mistaken identity in a hyper-connected world; “A Brief History of the Art Form Known as Hortisculpture” details the invention and destruction of a vital new art form in short comic strips; “Translated, from the Japanese,” is a lush, full-color display of storytelling through still images; the title story, "Killing and Dying", centers on parenthood, mortality, and stand-up comedy. In six interconnected, darkly funny stories, Tomine forms a quietly moving portrait of contemporary life.

On My Radar:

Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music
by John Fogerty
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The long-awaited memoir from John Fogerty, the legendary singer-songwriter and creative force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of the most important and beloved bands in the history of rock, and John Fogerty wrote, sang, and produced their instantly recognizable classics: "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Born on the Bayou," and more. Now he reveals how he brought CCR to number one in the world, eclipsing even the Beatles in 1969. By the next year, though, Creedence was falling apart; their amazing, enduring success exploded and faded in just a few short years. 

FORTUNATE SON takes readers from Fogerty's Northern California roots, through Creedence's success and the retreat from music and public life, to his hard-won revival as a solo artist who finally found love.

On My Radar:

Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) In Song
by Sara Bareilles
Simon & Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

With refreshing candor, Sounds Like Me reveals Sara Bareilles, the artist—and the woman—on songwriting, soul searching, and what’s discovered along the way. 

Sara Bareilles shares the joys and the struggles that come with creating great work, all while staying true to yourself. Imbued with humor and marked by Sara’s confessional writing style, this collection tells the inside story behind some of her most popular songs. Most recently known for her chart-topper “Brave,” Sara first broke through in 2007 with her multi-platinum single “Love Song.” She has released five albums that have sold 2.5 million copies and spawned several hits. More than a privileged view inside the experience of a remarkable musical talent—this is a moving tribute to the universal search for growth, healing, and self-acceptance.

BookSpin Review:

Playboy Swings: How Hugh Hefner and Playboy Changed the Face of Music
by Patty Farmer (with contributions by Will Friedwald)
Beaufort Books
Hardcover

If you would like to think of Hugh Hefner as something more than a pajama wearing old man who "dates" several young women at once on a tv show, then you will be happy to know that the Playboy magazine founder is a very central figure in jazz history.

I haven't quite finished the book yet, but Patty Farmer's deeply researched and (vividly)-written account of the founding of the Playboy clubs is fun, intimate, and surprisingly weighty in a readable way.

Playboy Swings contains lots of name dropping.  Celebrities and other famous people show up on seemingly every page, but it isn't obtrusive, instead Farmer's narrative flows smoothly through the history of what many call the "only true American music."

In addition to many of the artists whose careers were helped by Hefner and his clubs, we are introduced to many others who played crucial roles in the promotion of jazz.  These relatively minor characters flesh the history out in ways no amount of research ever could.

It's not Patty Farmer's fault I haven't yet finished the book.  I am in the midst of one of the busiest times of my life, but I am determined to finish this master class on a subject I didn't know I wanted to take.

I have already decided that this book will make a wonderful Christmas gift for one of my jazz crazy friends.  This book is truly a hidden gem.  You would do well to read it yourself and I know you have a friend or two that would enjoy it as well.