May was busy at work and personally, so the quantity of reading that got done was limited. Still, I have a couple I can recommend wholeheartedly.
Maximum Bob, Elmore Leonard. A prime example of what made him the big deal he is today, taken from the period where he made hi8s reputation for being hip and funny while still keeping it real on the crime and violence front. The best thing about Leonard’s books from this period is, no matter how he portrays a character, or how much humor is dropped into the story, you never know for sure who will make it to the end until you get there. (Re-read.)
The Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James. The King of Sabremetrics magnum opus. Updating the original while maintaining the writing and research what makes all of James’s work sing. A must for any serious fan of the history of the game, especially if you care about how its periods connect. (Not quite a re-read. I’d almost finished it before, and finally got around to it.
2 comments:
And now a compendium on true crime from Mr. James.
I'm looking forward to reading that. I've been reading James since his Baseball Abstracts first found mass market publications in the early 80s. He gets a lot of attention as a stat head, but it's his writing that sets him apart. I'm a seam head through and through, but I've never read any of the knockoffs. They're just numbers. He's the real deal.
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