A Master Stroke

I read almost exclusively non-fiction. One of the most enjoyable places to find well-written non-fiction is inside the pages of magazines. L. Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated's best tennis writer, has delivered a master stroke of his own, Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played.

As a tennis fan, I enjoyed the "inside story" feel of this book. I felt like I was courtside during the match with terrific historical context thrown in during the changeovers. Even though I knew the outcome of the match, I was riveted by Wertheim's skillful pacing.

I thought I was a fan of Federer with a grudging respect for Nadal. Now, however, I am a huge fan of both players. Wertheim managed to somehow elevate my love of the game and its combatants. And that is a gift I did not expect.

If are a fan of Federer or Nadal, of tennis, or just sports in general, do yourself a favor and immerse yourself in this wonderfully woven tale of competition, respect and rivalry.

On my Reading Table

Here is a list of what's on my reading table. This is at once intimidating and exciting:

Cooperstown Confidential by Zev Chafets
Right of Thirst by Frank Huyler
Retail Superstars by George Whalin
The First Family by Mike Dash
The Next 100 Years by George Friedman
Assisted Loving by Bob Morris
Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

New Books Out Today

Hardcover

Star Wars: Omen (Fate of the Jedi #2) by Christie Golden
Magnificent Desolation -- The Long Journey Home from the Moon by Buzz Aldrin & Ken Abraham
State of Jones (Civil War nonfiction) by Sally Jenkins & John Stauffer
Finger Licken' Fifteen (Stephanie Plum) by Janet Evanovich (Audio also)
Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
Catastrophe by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann (Audio also)
The Doomsday Key by James Rollins (Audio also)
The Fixer Upper by Mary Kay Andrews (Audio also)

Trade Paper

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Where the River Ends by Charles Martin
Take Two: Above the Line by Karen Kingsbury (Audio also)

Mass Market

My Life In France by Julia Child & Alex Prud'Homme
GI Joe: Rise of Cobra by Max Allan Collins
A Time to Kill by John Grisham (reissue)
Fractured by Karin Slaughter
Dark of Night by Suzanne Brockmann
Last Kiss by Luanne Rice
Larger Than Life by Kay Hooper
Run to Me by Christy Reece
Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum)by Janet Evanovich

Seeing in the Dark

Full disclosure: I am a cat lover and have two of my own.

I can't tell you how much I love cats. I have had at least one cat for almost all of my adult life and most of my childhood. As I said above, I own two now. I also feed a stray that lives under the bush in front of my apartment. I imagine I have the nickname "crazy old cat guy" behind some of the doors in the complex, but I would wear it as a badge of honor.

If you are one of those people who love cats, Gwen Cooper's Homer's Odyssey (Delacorte Press, 8/25/09), is for you. I fell in love with Homer immediately upon meeting him and gladly jumped for the chance to travel on his odyssey with him.

Thankfully, no one ever told Homer the odds were against him. Abandoned on the doorstep of a compassionate veterinarian, Homer had a virulent eye infection which necessitated removal of his eyes. As you may imagine, this made Homer's adoption odyssey a little more difficult.

If you know cats at all, you know that most of them are....uh....judicious with their affection. When you gain a cat's trust and affection, well, you have really done something. And, you've heard about cats who think they're dogs or even human. Well, Homer doesn't know the difference. You see, Homer is blind...but only in the physical sense. Homer doesn't know he's blind because he never had sight.

I don't want to ruin any of the tales of Homer's life by posting them here. Just suffice to say this book is at times uplifting, at times frightening, but always endearing. (And, he even survived 9/11.)I will tell you this: Homer is so wonderful and special that I feel now that I have three cats.

This book is subtitled "A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat." Please don't take my word for it, Homer is a wonder cat. Once you read of his adventures and the way he has lived his life, you'll wish you knew him.

Gwen Cooper lets us know how lucky she is to have Homer. I'm here to say that Homer is equally lucky to have a Mom like Gwen.

June 16, New Release Books

Real Change by Newt Gingrich
Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Fragment by Warren Fahy
Dune Road by Jane Green
The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner
Knockout by Catherine Coulter
Robin Rescues Dinner by Robin Miller
L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
Rogue of My Own by Johanna Lindsey
Below Zero by C.J. Box
Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Skeleton Justice by Dr. Michael Baden and Linda Kenney Baden
Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin

New Releases

New books are released every week. Some books can be put on the shelf when they are received. Others, though, have strict on-sale dates. I have been unable to find a good list of book new releases online. If you know of a fairly comprehensive list let me know. I'm not talking about amazon or barnes and noble. They seem to play favorites.

Here's my list (so far) of today's new releases:

Hardcover

Dean Koontz Relentless
Robert Wright The Evolution of God
Larry Tye Satchel
Julie Metz Perfection
Aravind Adiga Between the Assassinations
Melissa Gilbert Prairie Tale
Jeffery Deaver Roadside Crosses (Kathryn Dance series #2)
Shannon Hale The Actor and the Housewife
A.J. Baime Go Like Hell
Gary Jennings Apocalypse 2012 (Aztec series #3)
Greg Grandid Fordlandia
Matthew Aid The Secret Sentry
Kaspar Hauser Obama's Blackberry
Eric Van Lustbader The Bourne Deception
Alan Furst The Spies of Warsaw

Paperback

Donna Woolfolk Cross Pope Joan
Susan Swimmer Michelle Obama

C'mon folks, I know someone knows where a comprehensive list can be found.

email me @ book dot dude at hotmail dot com

Storm Polished Pearl

I just finished A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean by Tori Murden McClure (Harper Collins). If you like books wherein the protagonist ask you to tag along as they find themselves, then you will love this book. I enjoyed the journey with Ms. McClure; the one in the Atlantic Ocean and otherwise.

Tori McClure always felt she had to protect others and continuously pushed herself to experience life in hostile locations. This seems to be a metaphor for her journey from an embattled childhood to an impressively learned adulthood. Weaving literary allusions with real-life action, she tells her tale with the same drive she has applied to her life outside the boat.

I just have one thing I'd like to say to her. Tori, you never lost your heart.

Time Keeps on Ticking, Ticking, Ticking...Into the Future

Clearly, I need to find a way to post more regularly, if for no other reason to have another opportunity to talk about myself. What? What? Like you don't do it too!

The important thing today is it's the first day of the NFL draft. My favorite team sucked (actually the word "sucked" is offended by the usage) last season and so they are rewarded with the second pick in today's first round. I'll be drinking, eating and praying...all at the same time.

Another thing that's been on my mind lately is twitter. Many of the younger people at work are into twitter and talk about it lots. I have to admit that I'm not real interested in twitter because I wouldn't be interesting on twitter. I'm a 47-year-old guy who doesn't have the money to do much more than drive to work and back.

SO, I've decided that this place will be my twitter. No, I won't be posting my every move (driving to and from work, etc.) every ten minutes (see first paragraph, above). But, I will be inflicting the output of my few remaining functioning neurons on this space on a more consistent basis.

I apologize in advance.

Currently reading: Shooting War by Anthony Lappe & Dan Goldman

What I'm Reading....

At the moment, I have several books going. That's normal:

The Complete Game by Ron Darling

Summer World by Bernd Heinrich.

Tomorrow You Go Home by Tig Hague.

An Alphabetical Life by Wendy Werris.

Ramblings....

Well, it has been crazy lately, what with the two jobs to survive gig. But it hasn't been all work and no play. For the most part it has been work, read, sleep, work, work, read, sleep, and on and on.

I recently finished Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking. Having never read any of Ms. Fisher's work before, I have to say it was thoroughly enjoyable. She is one extremely funny lady. This book is an adaptation of her one-woman show of the same name. I highly recommend this very readable and insightful look into the crazy world she inhabits. (And I avoided mentioning Princess Leia even once....oh wait, doh!....) And, this has to be one of the funniest book covers in recent memory.

I also recently finished My Boring Ass Life by Kevin Smith, of Clerks fame. Kevin Smith is a new hero of mine and I'm ashamed I didn't worship him sooner. I will say that this book is subtitled "The uncomfortably candid diary of Kevin Smith", and it surely deserves that description.

Crazy For This Book

Well, I hate to sound overly dramatic, but I have just finished one of the best books I have read in a long time.

To be released in May from Ecco, an imprint of Harper, is Crazy For the Storm by Norman Ollestad.

On February 19, 1979, I was in a plane crash with my father;
his girlfriend, Sandra; and the pilot of our chartered Cessna.
Sandra was 30 years old. My dad was 43. I was 11.
Just after sunrise, we slammed into a rugged 8,600-foot mountain
engulfed in a blizzard. By the end of our nine-hour ordeal,
I was the only survivor.

In my estimation, it is a true test of a writer's abilities if they can tell you awful things in a beautiful way (see Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin'). In alternate chapters, Ollestad tells the story first of the plane crash and in the next chapter, wonderful tales of a young boy's relationship to the world around him, but especially the one with his own father.

Larger than life, Ollestad's dad had been a child actor and an FBI agent -- albeit one who dared to criticize in print the famed director, J. Edgar Hoover. This tidbit is merely spice in the soup which was the life the father led. Throughout the book it is proven that Ollestad's dad, also named Norman, was one of those people we often envy -- they live life on the edge, fast and rebellious, and far too often flame out early.

All the characters in the book, even the minor ones, are painted with such a realistic brush that I felt real empathy for young Norman throughout all the adventures with his dad. Despite what some people may see as a reckless and "pushy" style of fathering, what comes shining through is the real love between the two.

In later chapters, the son finally comes to grips with the loss of his father. With a decades later trip to the crash site, son talks to father in the solitude. He apologizes to the ghost of his dad's girlfriend. And, in one of those epiphanies we all experience from time to time, he realizes that memory is sometimes faulty but that there is always some mystical influence on our lives.

I cannot say enough how much I loved this book.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

http://www.normanollestad.com/

http://www.harpercollins.com

Quick ! Call 911

Having not read any Neil Strauss before, I wasn't sure upon beginning Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life whether or not the title was to be taken seriously or not. For all I knew, this was going to be another of those books which set the reader up for a "haha, gotcha" at the end.

Up until now the totality of my survival training has been "Survivor Man" with Les Stroud on the Discovery channel. This isn't too far removed from Strauss' own knowledge when he began this process as he states early in the book:

"In short, if the system ever did break down, the only useful skill I really had was the ability to write about it."

And what a great skill it is. Strauss surprised me . Even while inserting his sharp and biting humor, the subject matter is treated anything but lightly. Spurred by Hurricane Katrina, Strauss decided that living in America had changed. He launched a plan: escape the system.

Take a look at some chapter titles:

Tips On Death Cult Etiquette

A Beginner's Guide to Evil In the Twentieth Century

The Problem with Gas Masks

How to Become Immortal in One Easy Step

I have to give Strauss credit. He kept my interest while not frustrating me as I tried to figure out whether or not he was playing with my head. Gradually, I figured out that he was either serious about his subject or that he was one of those writers who lost themselves in their "research".

On the official website, http://neilstrauss.com/emergency , you can watch several videos and learn abouta special book club Neil is hosting. But, you may want to read the book first, as one video could ruin a surprise in the book.

There is also a browse inside widget located here: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060898779&WT.mc_id=WT.mc_id=BLOG_BI_FCS-EMER_022509

And, if you have facebook, there is this: http://apps.facebook.com/willyousurvive .

I've never had so much fun while getting more and more concerned about my future. I don't yet worry about aliens stealing my luggage, but I am contemplating tin foil over my windows.

I also can't think of anyone I'd rather have as my tour guide to invisibility than Neil Strauss.

Reading Emergency makes me want to read Strauss' other books. In between my survival classes that is.

Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life hits stores in paperback tomorrow.

ISBN 9780060898779
418 pages
Harper Collins
http://www.harpercollins.com
http://neilstrauss.com

False Start

Well, when I started this blog I was unemployed. It turned out that was a short window, because I was lucky enough to get a job offer the night I was laid off. Of course, I had to take a 20% pay cut in the process, so it's been a little crazy around BookSpin Manor.

I have been so busy trying to get money flowing the right way that I haven't had much opportunity to tend to this...my true love. But I promise I will do better. I will post something nearly every day, even if it's just a link to books news or reviews.

I am currently reading Emergency This Book Will Save Your Life by Neil Strauss and will post a review next week. Strauss is the author of The Game and Rules of the Game and the co-author of four other bestsellers including How to Make Love to a Porn Star with Jenna Jameson.