In My TBR Stack:

Cooking With Amar'e: 100 Easy Recipes for Pros and Rookies in the Kitchen
Amar'e Stoudemire and Chef Maxcel Hardy III with Rosemary Black
It Books (Dey Street Books)
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An All-Star on the court and in the kitchen

New York Knicks power forward Amar'e Stoudemire receives loud cheers from excited fans when he's on the court, and he wanted to receive those same cheers when he's in the kitchen at home cooking for his family. After one particularly unsuccessful day of grilling for his kids, the frustrated hoops star called his personal chef, Maxcel Hardy III, who tried his best to explain some of the finer points of cooking on a charcoal grill.

The dinner was not a hit with his family, but it was important milestone for Amar'e. Though his cooking experience up until then had been more limited to the basics, the popular pro ball player resolved to learn to cook crowd-pleasing, healthy meals for his family. And he wanted Chef Max to teach him.

Cooking with Amar'e expands upon the in-home cooking lessons that began to take shape as Chef Max guided Amar'e through basic kitchen skills and techniques, ultimately imbuing him with enough know-how to host a dinner party for family and friends—and brag that he'd cooked the meal himself.

An engaging chronicle of their seasons, Cooking with Amar'e features stories and more than 100 recipes, tips, and instructions on cooking techniques and preparation for home cooks at all levels. With delicious and easy-to-replicate meals, it allows beginners and practiced cooks to hone their kitchen skills and master dishes at their own pace. Amar'e proves that dads everywhere can be superstars in the kitchen.

In My TBR Stack:

The Yankee Way: Playing, Coaching, and My Life in Baseball
Willie Randolph
It Books / Dey Street Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

From a dusty diamond in Brooklyn to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium, Willie Randolph has always loved the game of baseball, and over the course of his storied career, he has amassed a remarkable list of accomplishments—All-Star second baseman, World Series champion, manager—but, above all, he has been a Yankee. For almost thirty years, Randolph was a part of Yankee lore and mythology, whether playing with the legends Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson and witnessing the infamous Bronx Zoo at its rowdiest, or coaching as the Core Four of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada rose to fame and ushered in a new era of Yankee dominance.

In his long-awaited memoir, Willie Randolph shares stories from his life in pinstripes, opening up about the team that raised him and the city that molded him. With unparalleled perspective into three generations of team history, the former Yankee captain offers fresh, firsthand insight into some of the greatest players to ever play the game and the greatest teams ever to call the Bronx their home. From Don Mattingly to Bernie Williams, Goose Gossage to Mariano Rivera, and Billy Martin to Joe Torre, Randolph presents a view of baseball history from the inside, describing how teams became dynasties and managers became legends—all in the shadow of the man who brought them together, the Boss, George Steinbrenner.

But though Randolph is a Yankee through and through, he is first and foremost a quintessential New Yorker. Brooklyn raised and groomed, he shares memories of a rise that could only happen in the Big Apple—from the projects of East New York to the house that Ruth built. Along the way, he discusses his triumphs and struggles on and off the field, as well as his time spent as manager of the Mets.

As fascinating and thoughtful as Randolph himself, The Yankee Way is a moving portrait of a legendary team, a unique city, and a remarkable man.

In My TBR Stack:

Auto Biography: A Classic Car, an Outlaw Motorhead, and 57 Years of the American Dream
Earl Swift
It Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

An unforgettable ode to American car culture, award-winning author Earl Swift's wise, funny, and captivating narrative follows an outlaw-genius motor head as he attempts to restore an iconic 1957 Chevy from rusted-out wreck to gleaming, chromed work of American art—before the FBI closes in.

A classic '57 Chevy, in wretched shape: Its surviving paint is sun-bleached, salt-pocked, and cracked like a dry lakebed. Its engine hasn't turned over in years. Slumped among hundreds of other rusting hulks on a windswept patch of eastern North Carolina, the Chevy evokes none of the Jet Age optimism that made it the most beloved and instantly recognizable car to ever roll off an assembly line.

But for its unlikely rescuer—a felon arrested seventy-odd times, and a man who's been written off as a ruin himself—the Chevy isn't junk, it's a fossil of the twentieth-century American experience, of a people devoted to and forever changed by the automobile. For Tommy Arney, it's a piece of history, especially so because its decrepit skin conceals a rare asset: a complete provenance, stretching back more than fifty years through twelve previous owners. So, hassled by banks and the FBI, the Chevy's thirteenth owner embarks on a mission to save the car and preserve the long record of human experience it carries with it—before his own volatile demons doom him and the car.

Earl Swift's masterful narrative charts the shifting dreams and fortunes of the people who've gripped this endangered icon's steering wheel, and in the process captures America's strange and abiding relationship with the automobile as no book has before.

On My Radar:

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation
Blake J. Harris
It Books
Hardcover


From the publisher's website:

A mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the video game industry—in development as a feature film from Sony Pictures

In 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the videogame industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But all that would change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a former Mattel executive who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat, and bold ideas of his renegade employees, completely transformed Sega and led to a ruthless, David-and-Goliath showdown with Nintendo. Little did he realize that Sega's success would create many new enemies and, most important, make Nintendo stronger than ever.

The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and school yards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the United States against Japan.

Based on more than two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the tale of how Tom Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punch line into a market leader. Blake J. Harris brings into focus the warriors, the strategies, and the battles and explores how they transformed popular culture forever. Ultimately, Console Wars is the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, give birth to a sixty-billion-dollar industry.

In My TBR Stack:

The $11 Billion Year: From Sundance to the Oscars, an Inside Look at the Changing Hollywood System
Anne Thompson
Newmarket Press / it Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

"This chronicle of 2012 is a slice of what happened during a watershed year for the Hollywood movie industry. It's not the whole story, but it's a mosaic of what went on, and why, and of where things are heading."

What changed in one Hollywood year to produce a record-breaking box office after two years of decline? How can the Sundance Festival influence a film's fate, as it did for Beasts of the Southern Wild and Searching for Sugar Man, which both went all the way to the Oscars? Why did John Carter misfire and The Hunger Games succeed? How did maneuvers at festivals such as South by Southwest (SXSW), Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, and New York and at conventions such as CinemaCon and Comic-Con benefit Amour, Django Unchained, Moonrise Kingdom,Silver Linings Playbook, Les Misérables, The Life of Pi, The Avengers, Lincoln, andArgo? What jeopardized Zero Dark Thirty's launch? What role does gender bias still play in the industry? What are the ten things that changed the 2012 Oscar race?

When it comes to film, Anne Thompson, a seasoned reporter and critic, addresses these questions and more on her respected daily blog, Thompson on Hollywood. Each year, she observes the Hollywood machine at work: the indies at Sundance, the exhibitors' jockeying at CinemaCon, the international scene at Cannes, the summer tentpoles, the fall's "smart" films and festivals, the family-friendly andbig films of the holiday season, and the glamour of the Oscars®. Inspired by William Goldman's classic book The Season, which examined the overall Broadway scene through a production-by-production analysis of one theatrical season, Thompson had long wanted to apply a similar lens to the movie business. When she chose 2012 as "the year" to track, she knew that box-office and DVD sales were declining, production costs were soaring, and the digital revolution was making big waves, but she had no idea that events would converge to bring radical structural movement, record-setting box-office revenues, and what she calls "sublime moviemaking."

Though impossible to mention all 670-plus films released in 2012, Thompson includes many in this book, while focusing on the nine Best Picture nominees and the personalities and powers behind them. Reflecting on the year, Thompson concludes, "The best movies get made because filmmakers, financiers, champions, and a great many gifted creative people stubbornly ignore the obstacles. The question going forward is how adaptive these people are, and how flexible is the industry itself?"

Now in Paperback:

Outlaw: Waylon Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville
Michael Streissguth
It Books
Trade Paperback (available 2/25/14)

From the publisher's website:

The definitive story of how three country music legends -- Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson -- changed music in Nashville.

By the late 1960’s, young people from all over the country were streaming into Nashville, Tennessee. The city was the center of the booming country music industry and home to what was known as the Nashville Sound, characterized by slick production and an increasingly overused formula.

But three trailblazing artists would soon rock the foundations of Nashville’s music business. Tapping into the burgeoning underground scene and the traditions of civil rights leaders and antiwar protestors, Waylon, Willie and Kris resisted Nashville’s music-making machine and forged their own paths, creating music that was more personal, not easily categorized, and in the vein of rock acts of the time.

Drawing on extensive research and probing interviews with Kris Kristofferson, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Cowboy Jack Clement and others, Michael Streissguth brings to life an incredible chapter in musical history and reveals for the first time a surprising outlaw zeitgeist in Nashville. Outlaw is a fascinating glimpse into three of the most legendary artists of our times.

New Nonfiction Paperbacks This Week

Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
by Jeff Speck
North Point Press
Trade Paperback

“Timely and important, a delightful, insightful, irreverent work . . . Should be required reading.” —The Christian Science Monitor

A Best Book of the Year according to Planetizen and the American Society of Landscape Architects

Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.

Making downtown into a walkable, viable community is the essential fix for the typical American city; it is eminently achievable and its benefits are manifold. Walkable City—bursting with sharp observations and key insights into how urban change happens—lays out a practical, necessary, and inspiring vision for how to make American cities great again.

The Fat Lady Sang

by Robert Evans

it Books

Trade Paperback

From the legendary producer and author of the Kid Stays in the Picture - one of the greatest Hollywood memoirs ever written - comes a long-awaited second work with all the elements of a star-studded blockbuster; glamour and conflict, giddy highs and near-fatal lows, struggle and perseverance, tragedy and triumph.

On My Radar (Harper Collins Edition)

God, If You're Not Up There, I'm F*cked: Tales of Stand-Up, Saturday Night Live, and Other Mind-Altering Mayhem
by Darrell Hammond

Harper Collins
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Tina Fey’s Bossypants meets David Carr’s The Night of the Gun in Darrell Hammond’s groundbreaking memoir, God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F*cked—a raw look inside the troubled life and mind of an American comic genius. By turns poignant and hilarious, Hammond takes readers from the set of Saturday Night Live, where he was the show’s longest-tenured cast member, to the drug-ridden streets of Harlem and into the twisting corridors of his own unflaggingly humorous consciousness. Mingling behind-the-scenes stories from television’s best-loved comedy series with a dark look inside a world-class funnyman, God If You’re Not Up There, I’m F*cked is a book sure to resonate with anyone who shares a talent for performance, a love of comedy, or a desire to know how an artist can climb from the deepest despair to the very top of his profession.

Book Description 

A raw, poignant, and often hilarious look inside the troubled life and mind of an American comic icon

From his harrowing childhood filled with physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his parents, to a lifetime of alcoholism and self-mutilation, psychiatric hospitalizations, and misdiagnoses, to the peak of fame and success as the longest-tenured cast member of Saturday Night Live, Darrell Hammond delves into the darkest corners of his life, both in front of and behind the camera, with brutal honesty and fierce comic wit. On the back of his hilarious dead-on impressions of Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Chris Matthews, and a hundred other prominent figures, Hammond was invited into the inner sanctums of the country's political leaders, including three presidents, all the while suffering debilitating and largely undiagnosed mental anguish that resulted in horrifying flashbacks, shocking benders, a hair-raising stint in a Bahamian jail, and ultimately a dark night in a Harlem crack house. His long fight for sobriety, filled with heartbreaking relapses, was propelled by a desire to do right by his young daughter and to set the record straight about how he fell so low while achieving such heights. Throughout, Hammond lays bare the real inner workings of an iconic television show.

- - - - - - - - - -


War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team
by Michael Holley

It Books
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today’s game of football. Now, sports commentator and bestselling author Michael Holley follows three NFL teams—the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons—from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick’s influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players who make the game what it is—including new insights from Bill Parcells, Todd and Dick Haley, and Belichick himself. For true fans of the game, and for readers of Badasses, Patriot Reign, and Boys Will Be Boys, Holley’s War Room is not to be missed.

Book Description

 

Football games aren’t won on Sundays in the fall. They’re won on draft day in the spring— in the war room.

In this landmark book, New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley takes readers behind the scenes of three contending National Football League teams and into the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his two former protégés Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli.

Holley masterfully shows how a single idea conceived by Belichick in 1991—how to build the perfect team—triggered a journey filled with miraculous finishes, heartbreaking losses, broken relationships, and Super Bowl championships. Readers are given unprecedented access—from the draft room to the locker room to the sidelines—and insights into why Belichick is considered to be the NFL’s best coach and premier strategist.

Before he achieved success, though, Belichick was barely surviving as a coach. War Room opens in Cleveland, where Belichick, a young head coach, worked in an office with two employees in their late twenties: Pioli, a low-paid scouting assistant, and Dimitroff, a groundskeeper and part-time scout. After Belichick was fired by the Browns in 1996, the three men were in separate cities and seemingly a lifetime away from being recognized as leaders and champions. But soon they were reunited in New England, where they refined and burnished Belichick’s method for constructing a winning team, overseeing one of the greatest franchises in modern NFL history.

These three master strategists are now competitors. Belichick continues at the helm of the New England Patriots, while Pioli is now in charge of the Kansas City Chiefs and Dimitroff is running the Atlanta Falcons. And even though they no longer work for the same franchise, they do have a common goal: building the perfect team, one draft pick and one trade at a time.

War Room is their unique and often astonishing story. It is packed with never-been-told anecdotes and new observations from team officials, players, coaches, and scouts, all leading to surprising and groundbreaking insights into the art of building a champion.