On My Radar;

The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created
by Jane Leavy
Harper Collins
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

From Jane Leavy, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Boy and Sandy Koufax, comes the definitive biography of Babe Ruth—the man Roger Angell dubbed "the model for modern celebrity."

He lived in the present tense—in the camera’s lens. There was no frame he couldn’t or wouldn’t fill. He swung the heaviest bat, earned the most money, and incurred the biggest fines. Like all the new-fangled gadgets then flooding the marketplace—radios, automatic clothes washers, Brownie cameras, microphones and loudspeakers—Babe Ruth "made impossible events happen." Aided by his crucial partnership with Christy Walsh—business manager, spin doctor, damage control wizard, and surrogate father, all stuffed into one tightly buttoned double-breasted suit—Ruth drafted the blueprint for modern athletic stardom.

His was a life of journeys and itineraries—from uncouth to couth, spartan to spendthrift, abandoned to abandon; from Baltimore to Boston to New York, and back to Boston at the end of his career for a finale with the only team that would have him. There were road trips and hunting trips; grand tours of foreign capitals and post-season promotional tours, not to mention those 714 trips around the bases.

After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927—a total that would not be exceeded until 1961, when Roger Maris did it with the aid of the extended modern season—he embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. Walsh called the tour a "Symphony of Swat." The Omaha World Heraldcalled it "the biggest show since Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and seven other associated circuses offered their entire performance under one tent." In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times. 

Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.

On My Radar:

Gender: Your Guide
by Lee Airton
Adams Media
Hardcover

From the distributor's website:

The days of two genders—male, female; boy, girl; blue, pink—are over, if they ever existed at all. Gender is now a global conversation, and one that is constantly evolving. More people than ever before are openly living their lives as transgender men or women, and many transgender people are coming out as neither men or women, instead living outside of the binary. Gender is changing, and this change is gaining momentum.

We all want to do and say the right things in relation to gender diversity—whether at a job interview, at parent/teacher night, and around the table at family dinners. But where do we begin?

From the differences among gender identity, gender expression, and sex, to the use of gender-neutral pronouns like singular they/them, to thinking about your own participation in gender, Gender: Your Guide serves as a complete primer to all things gender. Guided by professor and gender diversity advocate Lee Airton, PhD, you will learn how gender works in everyday life, how to use accurate terminology to refer to transgender, non-binary, and/or gender non-conforming individuals, and how to ask when you aren’t sure what to do or say. It provides you with the information you need to talk confidently and compassionately about gender diversity, whether simply having a conversation or going to bat as an advocate.

Just like gender itself, being gender-friendly is a process for all of us. As revolutionary a resource as Our Bodies, Ourselves, Gender: Your Guide invites everyone on board to make gender more flexible and less constricting: a source of more joy, and less harm, for everyone. Let’s get started.

In My TBR Stack:

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Graphix
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life.  His father is a mystery; Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents, two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.

Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father.

Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive.

In My TBR Stack:

The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape
by Mark Braude
Penguin Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than a hundred square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe’s rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power. After ten months of exile, he escaped Elba with just of over a thousand supporters in tow, landed near Antibes, marched to Paris, and retook the Tuileries Palace–all without firing a shot. Not long after, tens of thousands of people would die fighting for and against him at Waterloo.

Braude dramatizes this strange exile and improbable escape in granular detail and with novelistic relish, offering sharp new insights into a largely overlooked moment. He details a terrific cast of secondary characters, including Napoleon’s tragically-noble official British minder on Elba, Neil Campbell, forever disgraced for having let “Boney” slip away; and his young second wife, Marie Louise who was twenty-two to Napoleon’s forty-four, at the time of his abdication. What emerges is a surprising new perspective on one of history’s most consequential figures, which both subverts and celebrates his legendary persona. The Invisible Emperor is both a riveting story and an original examination of how preposterous, quixotic, and grandiose ideas can suddenly leap from the imagination and into reality.

In My TBR Stack:

The Burn Zone: A Memoir
by Renee Linnell
She Writes Press
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

After seven years of faithfully following her spiritual teacher, Renee Linnell finally realized she was in a cult and had been severely brainwashed. But how did that happen to someone like her? She had graduated magna cum laude with a double degree. She had traveled to nearly fifty countries alone before she turned thirty-five. She was a surf model and a professional Argentine tango dancer. She had started five different companies and had an MBA from NYU. How could someone like her end up brainwashed and in a cult? 


The Burn Zone is an exploration of how we give up our power―how what started out as a need to heal from the loss of her parents and to understand the big questions in life could leave a young woman fighting for her sanity and her sense of self. In the years following her departure from the cult, Linnell struggled to reclaim herself, to stand in her truth, and to rebuild her life. And eventually, after battling depression and isolation, she found a way to come out the other side stronger than ever. Part inspirational story, part cautionary tale, this is a memoir for spiritual seekers and those who feel lost in a world that makes them feel less than perfect.

In My TBR Stack:

The Dream Daughter
by Diane Chamberlain
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam war, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970, and she is told that nothing can be done to help her child. But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby. What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion that Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed. Something that will mean an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part.

And all for the love of her unborn child.

The Dream Daughter is a rich, genre-spanning, breathtaking novel about one mother's quest to save her child, unite her family, and believe in the unbelievable. Diane Chamberlain pushes the boundaries of faith and science to deliver a novel that you will never forget.

On My Radar:

When Violence is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life is at Stake
by Tim Larkin
Little Brown
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

The sound of breaking glass downstairs in the middle of the night. 

The words, “Move and you die.” 

The hands on your child, or the knife to your throat. 

In this essential book, self-protection expert and former military intelligence officer Tim Larkin changes the way we think about violence in order to save our lives. By deconstructing our assumptions about violence-its morality, its function in modern society, how it actually works-Larkin unlocks the shackles of our own taboos and arms us with what we need to know to prevent, prepare for, and survive the unthinkable event of life-or-death violence. Through a series of harrowing true-life stories, Larkin demonstrates that violence is a tool equally effective in the hands of the “bad guy” or the “good guy”; that the person who acts first, fastest and with the full force of their body is the one who survives; and that each and every one of us is capable of being that person when our lives are at stake. 

An indispensable resource, When Violence is the Answer will remain with you long after you’ve finished reading, as the bedrock of your self-protection skills and knowledge. 

On My Radar:

The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire
by John Eisenberg
Basic Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

The National Football League is a towering, distinctly American colossus spewing out $13 billion in annual revenue. Yet its current dominance has obscured how professional football got its start. 

In The League, John Eisenberg reveals that Art Rooney, George Halas, Tim Mara, George Preston Marshall, and Bert Bell took an immense risk by investing in the professional game. At that time the sport barely registered on the national scene, where college football, baseball, boxing, and horseracing dominated. The five owners succeeded only because at critical junctures in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s each sacrificed the short-term success of his team for the longer-term good of the League.  At once a history of a sport and a remarkable story of business ingenuity, The League is an essential read for any fan of our true national pastime.

In My TBR Stack:

The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life
by Sandra Ingerman
Sounds True
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

We perform ceremonies to mark important events and celebrate holidays—yet our modern approach to ceremony only scratches the surface of its true potential. With The Book of Ceremony, shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman presents a rich and practical resource for creating ceremonies filled with joy, purpose, and magic. “We are hungry to connect with more than what we experience with our ordinary senses in the material world,” writes Sandra. “By performing ceremonies, you will find yourself stepping into a beautiful and creative power you might never have imagined.”
 
Weaving shamanic teachings together with stories, examples, and guiding insights, The Book of Ceremony explores:
 
• The elements of a powerful ceremony—including setting strong intentions, choosing your space, preparing ceremonial items, and dealing gracefully with the unexpected
• Stepping into the sacred—key practices for leaving behind your everyday concerns and creating a space where magic can happen
• Guidance for working alone, in community, and across distances with virtual ceremonies
• Invoking spiritual allies—the power of working with the elements, the natural world, ancestor spirits, and the creative energy of the divine
• Sacred transitions—including ceremonies for weddings, births, rites of passage to adulthood, funerals, honorable closure, and new beginnings
• Ceremonies for energetic balance—healing and blessing, resolving sacred contracts, getting rid of limiting beliefs, creating Prayer Trees, and more
• Life as a ceremony—how to infuse your entire life with ceremonial practice, from planting a garden to revitalizing your home or office to helping heal our planet
 
The Book of Ceremony is more than a “how-to” guide—it will inspire you to create original ceremonies tailored to your own needs and the needs of your community. When you invoke the sacred power of ceremony, you tap into one of the oldest and most effective tools for transforming both yourself and the world. As Sandra writes, “If you perform one powerful and successful ceremony for yourself, the principle of oneness ensures that all of life heals and evolves.”

On My Radar:

Ghost: My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent
by Michael R. McGowan and Ralph Pezullo
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

Within FBI field operative circles, groups of people known as “Special” by their titles alone, Michael R. McGowan is an outlier. 10% of FBI Special Agents are trained and certified to work undercover. A quarter of those agents have worked more than one undercover assignment in their careers. And of those, less than 10% of them have been involved in more than five undercover cases. Over the course of his career, McGowan has worked more than 50 undercover cases. 

In this extraordinary and unprecedented book, McGowan will take readers through some of his biggest cases, from international drug busts, to the Russian and Italian mobs, to biker gangs and contract killers, to corrupt unions and SWAT work. Ghost is an unparalleled view into how the FBI, through the courage of its undercover Special Agents, nails the bad guys. McGowan infiltrates groups at home and abroad, assembles teams to create the myths he lives, concocts fake businesses, coordinates the busts, and helps carry out the arrests. Along the way, we meet his partners and colleagues at the FBI, who pull together for everything from bank jobs to the Boston Marathon bombing case, mafia dons, and, perhaps most significantly, El Chapo himself and his Sinaloa Cartel.

Ghost is the ultimate insider's account of one of the most iconic institutions of American government, and a testament to the incredible work of the FBI.

On My Radar:

Knock on Wood: Luck, Chance, and the Meaning of Everything
by Jeffrey S. Rosenthal
Harper Collins
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

For centuries, people around the world have prayed for good luck and warded against bad. Every language features a good luck greeting. Sailors have long looked for an albatross on the horizon as a symbol of good fortune. Jade, clovers, rabbits’ feet, wishbones: these items have lined the pockets of those seeking good fortune. For some, it’s bad luck to walk under a ladder, to enter and leave a home through different doors or to say “Macbeth” in a theatre. But is there such a thing as luck, or does luck often just explain common sense? Don’t walk under a ladder because, well, that’s just dangerous. You won the lottery not because of any supernatural force but because a random number generator selected the same numbers that you picked out at the corner store. You run into a neighbour from your street on the other side of the world: Random chance or pure fate? (Or does it depend on how much you like your neighbour?)

Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, author of the bestseller Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, was born on a Friday the thirteenth, a fact that he discovered long after he had become one of the world’s pre-eminent statisticians. Had he been living ignorantly and innocently under an unlucky cloud for all those years? Or is thirteen just another number? As a scientist and a man of reason, Rosenthal has long considered the value of luck, good and bad, seeking to measure chance and hope in formulas scratched out on chalkboards.

In Knock on Wood, Rosenthal, with great humour and irreverence, divines the world of luck, fate and chance, putting his considerable scientific acumen to the test in deducing whether luck is real or the mere stuff of superstition.

On My Radar:

It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree
by A.J. Jacobs
Simon and Schuster
Trade Paperback

From the publisher's website:

A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.”

That’s enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A.J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. In It’s All Relative, he “muses on the nature of family and the interconnectedness of humanity in this entertaining introduction to the world of genealogy” (Publishers Weekly).

Jacobs’s journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.

“Whether he’s posing as a celebrity, outsourcing his chores, or adhering strictly to the Bible, we love reading about the wacky lifestyle experiments of author A.J. Jacobs” (Entertainment Weekly). Now Jacobs upends, in ways both meaningful and hilarious, our understanding of genetics and genealogy, tradition and tribalism, identity and connection. “Whimsical but also full of solid journalism and eye-opening revelations about the history of humanity, It’s All Relative is a real treat” (Booklist, starred review).

In My TBR Stack:

Nobody Cares What You Think (Book 1)
by Brian Barton
Fifth Street Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:


“That’s pure genius.” — Alan T. Saracevic of San Francisco Chronicle

“Barton knows firsthand.” — Janet Kornblum of USA Today

“Good clean style ...” — Jeff Cohen of Playboy



In Los Angeles, Hollywood creatives struggle for survival. They go to work and try to manage daily life in Southern California: wildfires, earthquakes, traffic. They also have problems.

These creatives are in competition to create the best stories—and they’ll do anything to succeed. They crave praise because, well, what they’re doing is hard. And they hate criticism because it stings. You don’t like their latest story? You obviously don’t get it. That’s what they think. But the next thing they’re doing? It’s gonna be huge—a blockbuster. They hope. Nobody Cares What You Think is about what happens in Hollywood when things don’t go according to plan. 

Note: This is 90 pages and the first part in a series. 



Brian Barton is an author of books and essays, including Never Going Home, Brooklyn Girls Don’t Cuddle, and Words with Steve Jobs. His dramatic series Nobody Cares What You Think has become his most popular book to date. Barton’s work has been featured in Esquire, Playboy, and USA Today. Click his name at the top of this page to see all of his writing.