What Are You Reading Right Now?

[cooperstownersincanada]

Next on my list to read is Stengel by Robert W. Creamer.

[Cod]

Moved to Hawaii recently and picked up Even the Browns: Baseball During WWII by William B. Mead for $2 at a local farmer's market. Plan to read it next week.

[epaddon]

"The Last Real Season-1975" by Mike Shropshire. A hilarious look at the year through his perspective as the irreverent beat writer for the Texas Rangers. It's nice to find a book about this year that is not primarily concerned with the World Series, and the stories about the wacky behavior of Billy Martin in his final months as Rangers manager reveal again what a destructive personality he was.

[marklaker]

Just finished Season of Dreams: The Minnesota Twins' Drive to the 1991 Championship. Decent read....enjoyed Tom Kelly's perspective on the game and it's players. About to finish Bruce Markusen's The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. You'll enjoy this one if you love 70's era baseball. Also have Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders on my nightstand for those final five minutes before the eyelids come crashing down.

[cooperstownersincanada]

This isn't baseball book, but I'm about to start reading "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich."

[Cap78]

Last nine innings: inside the real game....just started it...about the last game of the 2001 WS

[O'sFan1997]

An oldie but I finally read Bill James Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame because we're in between the announcement by the Vets committee and BBWAA. Interesting to see many names named in that book since elected. Not sure what I'm going to read next. Has anyone hear read the Howard Allen, Hank Aaron biography? The 50's and 60's is my favorite era to read about so I've read in the past couple years: Maraniss's Clemente, Hirsch's Mays, and Leavy's Mantle. Also wouldn't mind reading about a team.

[TerryB]

Next on my list to read is Stengel by Robert W. Creamer.

Good read on an iconic character.

[TerryB]

Has anyone hear read the Howard Allen, Hank Aaron biography? The 50's and 60's is my favorite era to read about so I've read in the past couple years: Maraniss's Clemente, Hirsch's Mays, and Leavy's Mantle. Also wouldn't mind reading about a team.

I read the latest book about Henry (don’t call me hank) Aaron and it was good. I read an earlier book about him that was too much about racism and not enough about baseball or Aaron as a player. Clemente's book was good, I really like Mays' book and I enjoyed the book about Mantle until the last third of the book made me sad because it was mostly about his alcoholism and what it did to his relationships, health and career.

[TerryB]

I have just been re-reading The Glory of Their Times, the updated edition with the four additional biographies, and marveling anew at the wonders of baseball, baseball history, and Larry Ritter.

I have this in my small library of baseball books and I could read it once a year. This is definitely one of the all-time best baseball books.

[TerryB]

Can't Anybody Here Play this Game? by Jimmy Breslin, while we're talking Mets books.

I thought this book was hilarious, entertaining and a quick read.

[TerryB]

I can't believe that I haven't read this until now, but I just finished Dirk Hayhurst's first book "The Bullpen Gospels." This book is as good as advertised: poignant, comical and a great inside look at life in the minors. I would recommend it.

One of the best and most overlooked baseball books ever written in my opinion and I have read more than one-hundred-fifty books on the subject.

[toomanyhatz]

Don't know how seriously this book is taken in these circles,as it is a bit of a novelty, and light on facts, but it's pretty well written and highly amusing (by a guy I'm pretty sure I've played softball with):

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[Cap78]

One of the best and most overlooked baseball books ever written in my opinion and I have read more than one-hundred-fifty books on the subject.

My absolute favorite...never laughed so hard

[epaddon]

"Chasing October" the story of the Dodgers-Giants pennant race of 1962. Ironically, it's written by David Plaut, a longtime producer at NFL Films.

[Patrick Murtha]

I'm a newcomer here, but I wanted to say that this thread and the Books Sticky Request thread are grand sources of reading ideas. I have combed carefully through both threads and added hundreds of titles to my reading lists. Not that I'll get to them all soon, because I read pretty widely in a number of areas (I'm a professor of humanities, so it's an occupational hazard). But I love having a comprehensive picture of what's out there.

The last new baseball title I read was Edward Achorn's Fifty-nine in '84, which I enjoyed immensely. Despite the controversies surrounding Matt McCarthy's Odd Man Out, I liked that book as well (partly, no doubt, because McCarthy is a fellow Yalie; I was Class of 1980).

[Herr28]

One Last Strike by Tony LaRussa with Rick Hummel. I will never forget that amazing 2011 Cardinals team! Some of my favorite baseball memories ever came from that September and October! And I was also one of those Cardinals fans that began to wonder if we would've been better off with another skipper during Tony's last couple years (batting the pitcher 8th? I understood his reasoning, but never got on with it), but I always admired his skill and abilities. So far it is a great read, perfect for this Cardinal fan!

It was also the final season that my little brother, a fellow Army SGT that survived many deployments, got to see without the horrible battle with cancer that kept him from watching the Cardinals last summer. We would sit around the hospital and watch those amazing moments of Game 6 again and again, it kept giving him strength to see how Berkman and Freese came back when down to their last strike. He wanted to read this book, but the cancer in his eyes ruined his vision. It has been a month since his funeral, and I was bumming around a book store and saw it. Had to pick it up, and it is not disappointing at all!

[TonyK]

I am reading Dennis Lehane's new novel The Given Day. Lehane wrote Mystic River and Shutter Island, and I can't wait to see a movie about this book. The setting is Boston in the late teens, and one of the characters is none other than Babe Ruth of the Red Sox. Tremendous prose and a book you don't want to put down. I can't believe it was laying in the fifty cent bin at K Mart.

[Ben Grimm]

I can't believe it was laying in the fifty cent bin at K Mart.

With so many people using e-readers and such, I wouldn't be surprised to see many more in these types of bins over time. But I definitely agree, finding a good read at a great price is awesome.

[Cowtipper]

Finished reading Treasury of Baseball by Paul Adomites (among others). This was a really great book that covered all the bases - from star players, to baseball's impact on American culture. One of the better baseball books I've read recently.

[Swiss]

Still reading Sports Illustrated The Baseball Book Expanded Edition and Fantography.

The first one is nice, very good text to read and its pictures are wonderful, some of them were unknown for me.

The other is a small jewel very, very recommendable for everyone.

[Phils V. Pirates]

Recently finished Under Pallor, Under Shadow: The 1920 American League Pennant Race That Rattled and Rebuilt Baseball by Bill Felber. It looks at the major events of 1920--the investigation into the Black Sox scandal; the death of Ray Chapman from a pitched ball; and Babe Ruth shattering the home run record books. I don't think there is any new info here, but I confess I had not clearly understood how these various events related chronologically. The book is (as advertised) only concerned about the AL. The NL is only acknowledged at the end for the World Series. And, really, the book is primarily concerned with the Yankees, White Sox and Indians. And the ending (a quick review of the 1920 World Series) seemed rushed. Still, I consider the book worth the read.

I am currently reading the most recent issue of Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game from McFarland (Fall 2012).

[SDL]

Reading Lords Of The Realm again...haven't picked it up frim my bookshelf in a while.

[dougw]

I thought the Hank Aaron biography was very good. Well-written and researched, went beyond the headline stuff. Also it offered good insight for the reasons for Aaron's well-publicized caution around the press and outsiders. Overall one of the better baseball books of the past few years.

[hairmetalfreek]

In the mailbox this week: Mike Piazza's biography, "Long Shot." Can't wait to dig into it tonight.