World Book Day

April 23 is World Book Day, so here’s a picture of 2/3 of what I’ve read this year. The other books are either back at the library or were an audiobook. So far, so good this year, although quarantine is giving me plenty of time to feel bad about not reading enough, even though I’m ahead of the 52 in a year pace.

Hinkie Forever

Welcome to easily my most biased book review. I’m a Sixers fan and Process-truster, so a book about the Sixers Process years and all of the palace intrigue seems tailored made for me, and it was. I read it in a day. To make this review more structured and sensical, I’m dividing it into 2 parts: a review as a Sixers fan, and a review as a book, straight-up.

For those who don’t know, The 76ers are a basketball team who recently lost a lot of games in order to improve their team through the draft. Essentially, the worse you are, the higher your draft pick will be, and thus, the higher the chance you have to draft a superstar. Since basketball is only 5-on-5, having a superstar on your team is a game-changer. The sixers decided to lose for a couple of years in order to get the best chances to draft one or two superstars, but that made most people pretty angry, save for some fans. ThThis book is a history of that time for the Sixers, also know as: The Process.

For Sixers Fans

As a Sixers fan, the first thing that stood out to me were the chapters. Each one is a perfect moment that will immediately bring back thoughts of “….that sucked.” Honestly, it seemed unrealistic that so many unlucky or bad things happened to them in such a short amount of time. Of course, you probably know the highlights: Hinkie hired, Hinkie fired, Nerlens, Jo, Jah, Colangelo 1, Colangelo 2, Ben, Fultz, Boston, Butler, Kawhi. This book does a great job synthesizing sources into a coherent timeline. It also does a good job capturing the fan reaction to The Process, specifically through The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, which serves both as a mouthpiece for process trusters, as well as a time-capsule for real-time reactions to certain events. It also has an extensive number of quotes and sources from some Process favorites like TJ McConnell and Tony Wroten.

If you’re a Sixers fan, this book will be extremely interesting as a behind the scenes look at some recent history, and also as a look into who currently runs the team. It will also probably make you frustrated about those two things too. Interestingly Yaron Weitzman doesn’t set out to paint anyone in a bad light, directly, at least. I thought the descriptions of everyone involved was fair and balanced. Nobody got preferential treatment because they were a star or an owner. He presented the subjects, and let the reader come to their own conclusions. For me, that means the Sixers are simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest team out there. They had a plan, but not the guts to stick to that plan, they have owners who flip-flop, they got their superstars, but they don’t mesh 100%, and they’ve lost one a game 7 on one of the most ridiculous shots I’ve ever seen. It’s worth a read just to relive the ride, because it seems unbelievable. And also, there’s nothing much going on currently.

For Book Fans

For a book, this was an easy read. It’s a straightforward recounting of the Process, a period of about 10 years, with interviews with some of the people involved. It reads like a long-form sports article, which is not a bad thing, but won’t be the most compelling for some people. It doesn’t do anything crazy, like drawing a larger point about life itself or anything, but the power dynamics between the ownership group, front office, and team itself is interesting enough to grab your attention. It might be tough if you have no idea what basketball is, but even then Weitzman does a good job of giving you the basics before diving in.

Another reason it might be tough to jump into it blindfolded is because there are a lot of names in the book that are referenced often but, if you don’t follow the Sixers, might be annoying (Brown, Brand, Ben, and Brothers are all people that consistently show up). Honestly though, I would be so interested to hear what someone who has no idea about The Process thinks about it all. The palace intrigue and bad luck that has befallen the team would be compelling to anyone I think.

Conclusions

So I would recommend it on the condition that the reader has even a slight interest in basketball, or the political stuff of, say, Game of Thrones, with a different theme. If you don’t care about that stuff, this book isn’t really for you.

Sixers fans, this is a must-read. It’s the definitive history of the Process.

No player comparison this time because… c’mon, too easy.

Follow the Birds

There are a lot of travel/journey type books out there. Basically a person goes on some kind of adventure - climbs a mountain, road-trips across a country, etc. - then writes about their experiences. It’s a great type of book because if the writer is proficient enough, they can take you on the journey as well. Basically, the type of book you want to read during a pandemic. Usually these books, at least the ones that I’ve seen, are people who needed some kind of change in their lives, or went on the trip on a whim or something like that. They need a new experience.

What makes this book different from all of those other books is: 1) This is written by someone actually in the nature field, a biologist, and 2) someone from the area they are journeying through: The North American Northwest (Alaska and Canada basically). The journey the author has chosen is about a 7 month hike, paddle, and ski to the Arctic, starting in Washington State.

The reason this book works better than just any old travel journal is the specific expertise Van Hemert brings. She constantly brings up specific birds and what they’re doing, whether it be migrating (which is a big theme), defending their young, or making a deal for some food. This type of information would only get written down as ‘birds chirping’ or whatever in a less experienced person’s travel book. So the extra information is not only welcome, it’s encouraged because I learn something new and it plays into one of the main themes of the book.

Since this is a book about the journey, I won’t talk about what happens specifically, but the journey is full of excitement and danger. It can get a bit repetitive, but nothing that really overstays it’s welcome. She mixes the actual journey with personal details that fit together really well, and don’t seem forced in at all, especially because the journey itself required help from others ‘on the outside’, so it makes sense to include other people.

This is a really good quarantine book because it takes you on a journey with the right guide. You are going to learn something, either about birds, traveling, or the author herself. I’d give it a 4.5/5, but, more importantly, I’d recommend it to everyone. It’s like Chris Paul, or any good point guard.

March Wrap-up

I felt like I should’ve gotten more reading done this month, especially with the stay-at-home orders and quarantine, but I only got 4 books done in March. I guess that’s really a good sign because that’s basically still the pace I need to stay on to get to 52 for the year. So hopefully that number goes up in April.

This month was probably lower on the star-ratings because of the variety I read. First was The Perfect Kill, a book about assassination that reminded me of the TV show Burn Notice. Next was Contact, which was an amazing but dense novel. 3rd was Das Reboot, a book about the German National Team’s World Cup win in 2014. I rounded it out with The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which I liked, but didn’t like as much as most people have. Overall the books added up to a 13.5/20 or 67.5% which isn’t bad. I’m still on a roll when it comes to liking books which either means my tolerance for bad books is pretty high, I choose only good books, or other people choose bad books because it seems like I should be not finishing as many books, based on what I’ve seen in the ol’ book community.

Basically: another month on pace down, hopefully April is even better. I choose only good books.

Short but Sweet

When you play Dungeons and Dragons one of the things you do outside of the game is makes characters. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a DM or a player, because a DM needs characters, and players need extra characters, in case death or worse occurs.

In the acknowledgements of this book, Neil Gaiman talks about how the Hempstocks as characters have been in his head for a while, and he needed a story for them, which he finds in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. They are certainly the most shining star of the novel, with Gaiman’s writing style playing a supporting role. The story is simple enough on the surface: bad thing takes over, must be stopped. The spice of the story comes from the little details that Gaiman throws in about the Hempstocks. How they’ve probably been around for eons, there are other dimensions or something like that, there are other creatures who can come to this world, pacts, treaties, agreements have all been made. These things get maybe one line of dialogue in the whole story, and I’m totally ok with that. Some people might want a whole 1,000 page book with explanations of The Mouse Wars, but the fact that Gaiman only mentions the mouse wars as a one-off really pleases me. It seems like, for a story that is so sad, (we’ll get to how depressing the main character is) Gaiman is having fun with it. Anything involving the Hempstocks is so much fun to read. And making the main character a little boy who is a friend of Lettie, the youngest (“youngest”) Hempstock, means that Gaiman can get away with the Hempstocks being mysterious or not making sense, because a lot doesn’t make sense to the main character. He’s 7.

He might be the one of the saddest 7 year olds out there too. No one comes to his birthday party, he has one friend, his sister doesn’t like him, his cat gets killed, he almost drowns, and SPOILER, literally gets his heart ripped out. It makes reading about his goings on, especially early in the book, tough. I’d rather start almost right from the introduction of Lettie and the Hempstocks. Maybe that’s just Gaiman’s writing though. This is the first book I’ve read of his, and he has a style that comes across as dark-fairytale, so maybe that’s why.

Once you get past the dreary beginning, this book surprisingly doesn’t stop. The Hempstocks are constantly doing things that the main character understands maybe 10% of. Which is fine with me, actually. It allows room for the imagination to run wild, which I find more interesting than a 30 page compendium of fleas and varmints.

This novel avoids that, though. It’s barebones in a good way. A bedtime story about a boy becoming brave through the help of some friends. I’m sure there’s some subtext I’m missing, but even if that’s the only thing I take from it, I’m happy. This didn’t really blow my socks off, but it was short, interesting, and fun.

3/5 - perfectly serviceable, not lighting the world on fire, so it’s Evan Turner, who is one of the most average NBA players according to Google.

the villain making a surprise appearance

Das Reboot

Winning the World Cup is one of the most difficult things to do in soccer. Germany has usually been one of the most consistent contenders for it, but had been on a bit of a losing streak going into 2014, and even worse, seemed to be moving in the wrong direction. Das Reboot, a great name for a book about Germans, tells the story of how the German football team, and the football association as a whole, updated themselves, and evolved into World Champions.

Of course, the Reboot reminds me of one thing: The Process. The 76ers were not happy being middling contenders in the NBA, and hired a General Manager, Sam Hinkie, who decided to try and use the system to his advantage. By putting together teams that would lose, he would guarantee high draft picks, and better chances at a game changing player. In the NBA, one player can make all the difference, since there are only 5 on the court at the same time. Turns out, the Sixers got 2.

If there’s anyone who occupies the Sam Hinkie role for Germany, it’s Jürgen Klinsmann. He brought radically different ways of thinking to the extremely conservative German National Team. The Germans didn’t tank for better picks though, they invested in their young players, making sure there were development centers in as many places as possible in order to try and develop the best talent possible.

They also invested in the players minds, not just their bodies. As we get farther and farther into the Cup run, the players keep saying how important it was that they: 1) Got along with each other, and 2) had time to get away from soccer. Like the Cura Personalis (care of the whole person in Latin) that the Jesuits practice. It just proves that the great teams all have some kind of X-factor when it comes to winning, not just being the best, whatever that means.

Raphael Honigstein does a great job moving between the 2014 World Cup run, and all of the history that has lead up to it, including interviews with almost everyone involved. If you’re a soccer fan, there’s a who’s who of the football here, including Klinsmann, Jurgen Klopp, Messi, Pep, and Alejandro Bodeya… Wait that should read Bedoya. Sorry Raph, as a Union fan I’m gonna have to deduct a point for that typo.

Overall, this serves as a great piece of history on the culmination of a lot of work for a lot of people, and one of the greatest runs in soccer. It also shows how a reinvention of things can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered. That’s why I’m ranking it a full point higher than The Perfect Kill. This gave me something cool to read, and a little something more to think about. It would have been easy enough to just write about the World Cup run, but the inclusion of the history of the rebuild makes this Process fan very happy. It’s a shame about that Bedoya typo though.

3.5/5. Shoutout Alejandro Bedoya.

also 2018 lol

Houston, We Have Book Review, Over

If you’ve ever talked to someone intelligent, like really intelligent, you don’t have to know their background or have them brag about it. You can just tell by the way they talk. If I didn’t know anything about Carl Sagan, at the very least I could tell you that he’s actually, legitimately smart. The way he writes isn’t even to show off, it’s just that a book about astronomy and the real world implications of a message from outer space requires a certain kind of precision and intelligence, otherwise it would seem corny and unbelievable. But with this kind of intelligent writing, it comes off as realistic, and even possible.

Contact is a book about what would happen if humanity received a message from outer space. The person who first discovers the message and its origin, the star Vega, is Dr. Ellie Arroway. She’s passionate, smart, hard-nosed, and not afraid to get into an argument. As the book goes on, it is revealed that the message is blueprints to build a machine, a machine that ends up being a transportation system to the “Grand Central Station” of the galaxy. Only 5 people are permitted on the machine and on the trip, and it is decided, eventually, that Ellie, Vaygay, a Russian, and three other of the smartest people on the planet go. The machine takes them through various Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes, to this grand central station, where the aliens have recreated an Earth beach for the Five to get acclimated. Eventually they find a door, just on the beach, and each go through, except Ellie. She is hesitant, and after a while, her long dead father appears, and starts talking to her. She quickly figures out that this is an alien that has taken on the form of her father in order to make her more comfortable. After asking some questions, she and the other four return to Earth, only to find that virtually no time has passed and their recording equipment showing nothing. The only thing they have are their memories.

The book also involves some political intrigue and philosophical discussions, and Sagan does a remarkable job weaving the different story pieces together. It’s worth reading for that alone, but I think the larger themes are equally important and interesting. The biggest themes that stood out to me were progress, optimism for the future, religion and science, and faith. The combination of religion and science is especially interesting because Sagan makes it more nuanced than what we are used to seeing, which is just people yelling at each other. Palmer Joss and Ellie (later on in the book) are actually willing to listen to each other, even if they have opposing viewpoints. Also, I’m sure it gets mentioned a lot, but the fact that Sagan puts Ellie into Joss’ shoes of having to explain a religious experience without proof is some great storytelling.

I’ll probably add more to this post later because I liked this book so much, but for now just know: it’s a riveting mix of science, science-fiction, political intrigue, and philosophy that is totally worth your time if you can get through some dense prose. 4.5/5, or Michael Jordan in Space Jam. You get to see the best player Earth has to offer dealing with a potential alien threat (listen this metaphor is the best I can do. Basketball and space rarely mix, ok?).

Also, the movie is really good too! A little different, but still worth watching.

View fullsize

check out this photoshop I did in like 10 minutes. amazing stuff, should win some awards I think

The Perfect Kill

I want to start off by saying this book isn’t bad. In fact there were some parts that I found really interesting. However, it is extremely niche, and doesn’t offer much other than exactly what’s on the cover, so if that’s your thing, great. Otherwise, probably not worth your time.

The book is not a typical novel, instead it is a guidebook on how to be an assassin, more or less, with each chapter being a new law. This format is like the TV show Burn Notice, how each episode is framed around teaching new spies some sort of tactic in voiceover. The laws also help Baer talk about Hajj Radwan, a higher up in Hezbollah, and, according to Baer, one of the most efficient assassins of the modern day. Baer was in the CIA, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East, so his insights here are pretty interesting, especially when it comes to why certain people are targeted for assassination. Some of his writing comes across as ‘old man yelling at cloud’, but for the most part it’s clear, concise, and matter-of-fact.

The chapters being focused on laws of assassins is fun and a smart way to divide up the story, since Baer, and nobody really, has all of the facts. So it lets Baer throw in his assumptions without having to be bound by the typical non-fiction rule of being 100% fact, because this is a guidebook, not a history book. And the tactic works well enough, though it gets repetitive at times.

There’s not too much to say about it really. If you’re into assassinations, why and how they happen, and the political structure of the middle east from about the 80s to the early 2000s, you’ll probably enjoy this book, otherwise, look somewhere else, this isn’t the book for you. It’s a quick read, but only for a select audience, and even then you’ll only get so much out of it.

For me it’s a 2.5/5, not because it’s a huge miss or anything, just because of how niche it is. It’s a fine book, but nothing more. Like Shake Milton before he tied the record for most threes made in a row. A fine player, but not for everyone… also a sniper.

Check This One Out!

I’ve been on a non-fiction roll recently and been really digging it. A good non-fiction book has a way of creating a type of nostalgia for a place you’ve never been to, it’s such a weird feeling. This entry’s deja-vu/nostalgia trip comes to us from Susan Orlean and it’s about some of my favorite places in the world, libraries. Specifically, this book focusses on the Los Angeles Central Public Library. Central is the hub for all of the other LA branches. It also basically burned to the ground (ish. The inside was completely burnt out, although the building remained standing) in 1986.

The book starts out a blistering (hah) pace, going into the fire, who might have started it, and the immediate aftermath. The chapters that follow are then a history of the library, along with various chapters from current library employees. It serves as both a modern and historical tour, which works very well with the thesis Orlean puts forth that libraries are important gathering places of knowledge, people, and progress. She writes about how Central was one of the first libraries to digitize, and how libraries are adjusting to that modern problem called the internet.

She also writes about how most librarians and library directors see the library as a place not to check out books, but as a place for the community to gather. All of her points ring extremely true, and while I could see an argument that the historical segments of the book seem out of place and like filler, I would argue that the history is part of what makes the fire in 1986 so devastating. By learning the history of the place, you learn what it contains, if that makes sense. It also makes it’s revival that much more heartening.

For the most part, I found this book excellent. Maybe because I’m the target audience for this type of book, but I think most people will find it endearing and interesting. The only part that really lagged for me was the investigation into the potential arsonist, but that might just be because of the lack of closure in that story. Even so it wasn’t bad at all, just not on the same level of the rest of the book. Don’t want to write too much about this book because I think it’s worth finding out for yourself, but let’s just say if you’ve ever loved a book, you’ll appreciate what Orlean has to say about books, libraries, the people who work in them, and how they affect their communities.

Overall this is something that is worth your time, even though you might not expect it. Like how Shake Milton went off today. Gonna call it a 5/5 right now (I’m still wondering if the lag is enough to drop it to a 4.5/5 but for now we’ll stick with a 5/5).

PS: This might be my favorite cover of the year. So simple, but the shiny gold really plays well with the red. My leader in the clubhouse so far!

February Wrap-Up

Month 2 of the 52 in 52 challenge is over and we’re chugging along steadily, albeit a bit more slowly. Only 5 books this month instead of 7. Still good though! Review for The Library Book coming soon. Didn’t get to a couple on my TBR from the beginning of the month but that’s ok! Still got done the amount of books I wanted to.

1) The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons - 3/5

2) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger - 5/5

3) Three Women by Lisa Taddeo - 3/5

4) Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview - 3/5

5) The Library Book by Susan Orlean - (spoiler) 5/5

That’s a total of 19/25 or roughly 76%. High highs this month, but lower lows than last month, which isn’t a bad thing I think!

I Love You, Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview, contrary to what the title might tell you, is not just the last interview he ever did. It’s a compilation of interviews, ranging from the release of his first book all the way to the last time he ever answered questions for a reporter. I’m not here to say this is some love letter to Tony, because 1) all of these interviews were already out there for the world to see, and 2) this seems to be part of a series “____: The Last Interview". So it’s nothing new, and nothing super special. But it’s still Anthony Bourdain’s voice in writing, and that is something I will always enjoy.

If anything, I’m going to use this “review” as a plea to read his books and watch his show if you haven’t. Parts Unknown is my favorite TV show ever made.

3/5. It’s basically like going to youtube and searching “Kobe career highlights”.

Talking About Sex, Baby

When you were in school, did you ever have a time when you did an assignment, followed the instructions to the letter, and got like a B, even though you technically did nothing wrong? Maybe because the professor took off points for not going above and beyond or something like that? Yeah me neither. Definitely never happened. But that’s what this book is. It talks about what it says it’s going to talk about, but doesn’t give me that extra something needed to push it into ‘greatness’ territory, especially for a non-fiction piece.

Three Women is a book that follows, wildly enough, three women, and specifically follows their sex lives during a roughly 8 year gap. Lina, Sloane, and Maggie are each dealing with different things in their sex lives, but the general theme is that they’re not 100% happy with them. One is having an affair with their high school sweetheart, one is a self-proclaimed submissive who has sex with other men that her husband chooses, and another is dealing with the aftermath of a relationship with her teacher when she was in high school.

The writing itself is engaging and entertaining, and the subject matter is something that is new, honest, and worth reporting on. I was never bored reading it. It gives the reader the same interest one might get if they were hearing some hot gossip about one of their friends. You’ll almost always be interested if someone says, “did you hear what x did last night?” Lina and Sloane specifically fit this. You’re basically hearing their gossip in a more stylized package. Maggie’s story is more depressing and sad, but is still compelling, though not in the same way as Lina or Sloane.

The description calls it the “deepest nonfiction portrait of desire we’ve ever seen,” and, to be sure, this book is about desire. Sex is one of the prime drives of humanity, and, in some circles, the least talked about. So to pull back the curtain on these three women’s lives does prove that desire drives their lives too. And it’s a good thing it is being written about. The problem I have with this book is actually best described by another person who wrote a review on Goodreads that I agree with, so I will shamelessly quote them here: “[Taddeo] fails to build a compelling argument about what, collectively, these case studies really tell us about “female desire.” I found this book’s lack of a clear thesis profoundly frustrating, and, for what it’s worth, I’m not even convinced that “female desire” is the most interesting undercurrent in this book.” This reviewer goes on to mention themes like exploitation, manipulation, and disappointment as themes that are more prevalent than female desire.

That pretty much sums up my feeling on it. Without some argument about female desire, why it’s the connection between these stories, or what it means, or something, this book feels more like someone sharing some gossip than someone making a point that makes me think about female desire in some way other than “it exists.”

3/5 for me. Maybe 2.5/5

Sixers fans look away. This book is Markelle Fultz: had all the tools to be something great, but didn’t get there.

Read Claire’s review here.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

If you’re a football player at Permian you get one year. One year to be treated like kings, not have to do work, skip class if you want. Win and you’re a legend forever, lose and you’re never remembered. Boom or Bust.

The town of Odessa also adheres to the Boom or Bust lifestyle. Oil is king there, and if it’s good, it’s real good. More often, though, it’s not.

The parallels between the football team and the town are almost too good to be true, and H.G. Bissinger does an amazing job of drawing conclusions from the two. Self destruction and excess are two big themes that are prevalent throughout the book, which makes sense for a football-obsessed oil town.

The writing itself is extremely entertaining, taking the best parts of the sports section for the football stuff, and the best parts of a character study for the town-stuff. Mixed with the fact that Bissinger came away with some clear-cut and expertly written conclusions makes this one of the better books I’ve read this year. I am also sure that Bissinger chose his subjects carefully. The people he chose to include in the book both from the town and the team serve as symbols for the people who inhabit Odessa as a whole.

So we’ve established that this book does well as a study on a late 80s town and how it’s obsession with football pretty much changed 90% of these kids’ lives for the worse, but the actual football drama is super entertaining as well. To give an example, (Spoilers) there’s a section where three teams are tied at the end of the season, and only two can advance to the playoffs. So the three head coaches meet at an undisclosed location at one in the morning in order to FLIP A COIN to determine how their seasons officially ended. It’s ridiculous and dramatic at the same time. And it also illustrates how football-crazed Texas is, because all three teams were wide awake in their respective gymnasiums waiting to hear the result.

Bissinger makes it pretty clear that a lot goes wrong in Odessa. Kids are allowed to pretty much skip school in order to play football, there is a ton of overt racism, coaches are basically abused by supporters, as are the players. It’s a mess. But maybe it’s the football romantic in me, because I do find something admirable about how they put it all on the line every Friday night. To live and die for something you care about so much is something that most people can only hope to have in their lifetimes. The famous Jim Valvano quote goes, “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.” Not too many people do that, but the high school seniors who played football did. Bissinger writes about the systemic problems in Odessa with extreme clarity, but he also writes about the Friday Night Addiction with such love that the reader can’t help but at least understand why people in that town feel the way they do about football. There’s a certain magic about it.

Anyway, this is a great book that reminds me a lot of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, but a bit easier to read. Definitely worth your time to check out.

It’s 5/5 from me because of it’s entertainment, honest reporting, intelligence, and conclusions. I’m gonna say it’s like this smartest plays compilation. Guys at the top of their game who know exactly what they’re doing.

Basketball is My Favorite Sport

I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about this book. I think I like it, but there are some circles that I just can’t quite square. I’ve liked Bill Simmons forever, and this book is uniquely his, but something about it is just not getting it over the hill.

Let’s start out with the things I know for sure. This is one of the definitive books on basketball history in general, one of the most well researched, and one of the most entertaining. It is divided into 3 parts: Before the Pyramid, The Pyramid, and After the Pyramid.

The Before the Pyramid section sets the table, with the most important chapter being “The Secret”. That is, the secret to basketball. The secret to basketball is easy enough to grasp: it’s not about basketball. In order to be successful at the game, the team must gel. Players must eschew individual stats and instead do whatever is best for the team. Some players understand The Secret (like Jerry West) and some don’t (like Karl Malone). If you understand, your chances of winning drastically increase. This is the thesis of The Book of Basketball.

The Pyramid is Simmons’ replacement for the Hall of Fame. It’s a pyramid (duh) of the 100 greatest basketball players of all time, with the top 12 being ‘The Pantheon’. I’m not really worried about the ranking themselves, though. It’s Bill’s book, let him put Larry Bird wherever he wants. My issues start to arise when I’ve been reading about Paul Azirin and Bailey Howell for 400 pages and still haven’t gotten to the top 20. My eyes glazed over at about the 50th paragraph of just numbers I had to read. Bill does his best to be entertaining, and for about 300 pages, it is! But then there are about 400 more pages wondering which The OC star Bob Cousy is or who is on the Mt. Rushmore of ‘Guys who would’ve been better if they played with a mullet”. Also if I have to read about someone’s ‘peak’ one more time it’ll be too soon.* Ok, rant over.

The good news is, Simmons’ is very self aware. Every time I was about to give up, he pulled me back to his side with a self aware comment about how long the book was, or how he’s a homer. He knows. And there are a bunch of gems. Each player ranked has their own profile of sorts, and it would feel cheap not for each player to have one. In total, the Pyramid is Bill’s love letter to the players of the game. My favorite is Oscar Robertson’s. The entry does have the typical sophomoric humor, but is also the most empathetic and beautiful out of all 96 entries.

After the Pyramid consists of Simmons ranking the best teams of all time, and drafting a team together to play some aliens, Space Jam style. The Space Jam game was an exercise in putting together the best team possible, not just putting the best players together. The After the Pyramid section also contains the epilogue, which might just be the best part of the book. Bill interviews Bill Walton, yes that Bill Walton, who is just livin’ life, man. But he also is extremely humble. He doesn’t want to talk, read, or probably even think about himself playing. He looks forward. And, as weird as it may seem, it sort of invalidates the book. Simmons’ just spent 700 pages writing the ultimate love letter to the sport he loves, and Bill Walton has almost no interest in reading it. All of these great players, great teams, biggest what-if’s… and Bill can’t be bothered. He has other things going on. It’s a strange ending, but almost fitting in a way. To me, it sort of lets the reader take what they want from it, because, hey, Bill Walton did the same thing.

This is a great book to read in chunks, I think. If you try to power through it you’ll have a tough time appreciating it. Your eyes will glaze after the 90th statline, your brain will start to think that, yeah, maybe a case can be made that the Celtics are the best team of all time. Don’t let it get to you. Put the book down, and go chapter by chapter with some solid breaks in between. If you do that, you won’t have any problems.

This book gets points for its depth and thorough research, its love and passion, and its entertainment. It loses points for its length, humor (which can get tired), and because Bill is a Celtics fan. Yeah that’s right, it’s my review! I can do what I want!

All of this to say, it’s a 3/5 for me. Good in small bites, but you need to take your time. Like, say Alex Caruso (Eff you, Bill! Your book is a Laker!).

*oh and the footnotes. Just too many!

Round 2

The plan for February is 5 books, running the gamut of genre/type:

1) The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

2) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

3) Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

4) Tip of the Iceberg by Mark Adams

5) Down the River Unto the Sea by Walter Mosley

Excited for the month! Got some good ones in here.

January Wrap-Up

Month 1 of the 52 in 52 challenge is over and we’re already starting off with some controversy. Although I have only done reviews for 6 books, I have, in fact, read 7 this month.

I know, I know. Relax. It’s gonna be ok. The first book I read this year was A River in Darkness, but I don’t have it with me currently, so I can’t take a picture of it/write a review of it. That will be coming at some point in time in the future when I have it. It’ll be a bonus review at some point. Now get off my back, and onto the month in review.

1) The Picture of Dorian Gray* - 5/5

2) 11/22/63 - 4/5

3) Say Nothing - 5/5

4) Normal People - 4/5

5) Born a Crime - 3.5/5

6) Blood, Bones, and Butter - 4/5

7) A River in Darkness - REVIEW UPCOMING

Overall, it was a great month for reading. Nothing was even unlikable, let alone bad. The worst book I read was Born a Crime, which is not a bad book at all! Total ratings ended up being 25.5/30, or an average of a 85% positive, which is spectacular for an out-of-5 scale.

I’ll have a February To Be Read up soon. First book of the month is Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball. Can’t wait to dock it a point each time he talks about how the Celtics are the best basketball team in the galaxy (which would make it my first -1000/5). Hit me up with suggestions! Turns out 52 is a pretty big number of books to read.

*Dorian Gray not photographed because I had to return it to the library

Blood, Bones, and Butter

It’s memoir time again! Memoirs and autobiographies are such interesting books because they fall into such a unique category when trying to decide if you like them or not. How can you say that someone’s life story was ‘bad’? I think some memoir review ground rules are in order.

First - Is the writing itself good? Does it meet or rise above the standard in order to be considered good writing on its own? Pretty obvious.

Second - Is this a story worth telling? I could tell my life story right now and about 80% of readers would be left wondering why I had written it. My vacation to Vermont can be saved for an Instagram. To write a whole book about your life requires either a big ego, or to be extremely self aware that the author has lived an extraordinary life. For example: A River in Darkness is a memoir about a man who escaped from North Korea after living there for 30+ years. Writing about that experience makes sense.

Third - Is the story engaging? Some people might not have the most extraordinary life, but can use language to make their slice of it seem like the most extraordinary thing. Sometimes a strong personality can make a memoir with a less exciting story engaging.

So, how does Gabrielle Hamilton’s memoir hold up to these extremely rigorous and definitely well thought out standards? Pretty well I’d say.

The writing is very crisp, with special attention to details and emotions. This is no surprise since Hamilton has a Master’s in Fiction Writing, so she knows her way around the english language. She describes how she’s feeling in a way I only wish I could. When her husband asks about buying a new iPhone, the reader is really extremely aware that this is not what she wants to hear at that point in time. Her love for her mother-in-law is also eloquently and lovingly described. I have no problems with the writing; the story is where the issues arise.

The book itself is divided into three parts - Blood, Bones, and Butter - and they can basically be described as childhood to teens, teens to late twenties, and late twenties to roughly forty. More-so though, they describe the beginning of her adulthood, the beginning of her writing and cooking career, and the beginning of her family. This book has all of the trappings of a chef memoir: it’s title involves ingredients or things you can eat, the cover is a chicken head, even the subheading says that it’s the EDUCATION of a CHEF. But I don’t really think it’s a Kitchen Confidential, “How I got my start in the Industry”, type of book. It’s more a “personal journey” memoir, with cooking as the seasoning (ha).

The problem is there is no overarching story, really. The first part is just some vignettes about her parents, her siblings, and what life was like then. The second part deals with Hamilton getting her Master’s in writing, trying to figure out where she fits in, and opening her restaurant, and the third deals with her marriage, and, more importantly, her relationship with her mother-in-law. It really seems like three essays pushed together in one book. which doesn’t really lend itself to having that overarching story that, say Educated by Tara Westover does.

Luckily, the way Hamilton writes reminds me of a cool aunt or older cousin you look up to, which makes reading the vignettes so enjoyable. She definitely hits that third category of having a strong personality hard, and I think it makes up for the lack of overarching narrative. Reading about her years working as a summer-camp chef was worth it to me, even if it only played a small role in the story. Reading the book was like listening to someone really engaging telling maybe not their best story, but one you still like listening to because you like how they tell it so much. I definitely understand that some people will think this could’ve been 50 pages shorter, or more focused, or different in some way, but I didn’t need it to be any of that.

To me, this was not quite a spiritual successor, but a spiritual cousin to Kitchen Confidential, and that’s enough.

4/5 - Kinda like late-era Shaq, not exactly the best, but doing exactly what he wants to do.

Also, I’m changing the rating system to just any NBA player I feel is comparable. Deal with it.

Growing Up is Tough

Born a Crime is a good memoir, and in some places, it’s really good. You should read it. There are insights in it that only Trevor Noah would know about. I think when he talks about his mom or his identity, the writing is at its best. Noah proves to be not only an intelligent comedian, but also an intelligent and thoughtful writer. It does run into a couple of pacing/chapter placement problems.

The memoir takes place during his most formative years in South Africa, and doesn’t touch much on his roots as a comic, it mostly stays away from his comedy career, with only one or two references to his career taking off and things like that. Noah uses the chapters to mostly tell singular stories from his youth, with some overlapping characters, mostly family members. His school friends or work friends mostly come and go with the chapters. These chapters are also preceded by their own ‘prologue’ where Noah makes a point that probably wouldn’t fit in the chapter naturally, which I think is a strength for the writing. It helps an audience that might be ignorant of the complex political and social climate get on board with the story Noah is about to tell.

The memoir is presented as “stories from a South African childhood”, and the memoir fulfills that promise. More than that though, it is about a mother who will do almost anything for her son (except let him stay home from church). About 90% of the stories told involve Noah’s mom in some way, and that’s a good thing. For one, she is an interesting character: fiercely independent, ran away from home, lived in a predominantly white area, had a mixed son on purpose. She is a dynamo of a person, and is really the star of this book. Not only is she an interesting character, it is also clear that she is the one most influential person in Noah’s life. Every aspect of his character can be related back to her in some way. Her love for him is biggest theme of the book.

The stories also involves other themes, including identity and fitting in. One scenario that keeps coming up is: where should Trevor Noah sit? At school, at lunch, and even in jail, Trevor is presented with this dilemma. Because of where he is and what his skin color is, the answer is never cut and dry, and of course, the answer depends on the situation. Noah does a great job explaining why things are the way that they are, why he can fit in here or why he should hang out with those kids at lunch, etc, etc. It’s a smart writing tool, I think. He takes a common enough scenario - who hasn’t been the new person somewhere, and not known where to sit? - and turns it on its head multiple times. He can’t sit with them because he’ll be too white, and he can’t sit with them because he’ll be too black. Then he can’t sit with them for another reason, and he can’t sit with them for another, different reason, on and on.

This memoir is at its best when Noah strays away from his comedian roots. His writings about his mother, and where he fits in in South Africa’s Post-Apartheid world are the most real and illuminating. Of course, I understand why he needs to include stories of him taking someone to the prom, or shoplifting. The reader needs time to catch their breath before another big emotional beat, but It almost felt like two different people were writing this book. Trevor the Comedian, and Trevor the person. I know enough about the comedian, so I was more drawn to the person.

The biggest problems I had were more editorial than story based, but they were still jarring. At least three times we were introduced to a character in one chapter, then in the next chapter we are re-introduced as if we had never met this character before. Another editorial issue is the amount of time jumps that take place. For the most part, the stories take place from the time Noah was around 4 or 5 to his early 20s. The problem seems to be that the book was written chronologically, and then some chapters were cut and pasted in other parts of the book. This might’ve been to separate the book into themes rather than chronology, but it comes off as confusing. Instead of knowing where all of the players are on the field, I found myself without orientation at the start of each chapter. The best example I have of this is near the beginning of the book, when Noah goes to visit his father. He’s 24 at this point, and everything that has or will happen in the book has already happened to him. So it was confusing to go to essentially the end of the story when I’ve only read a third of the pages, if that makes sense. Noah also likes to mention something, and then tell the reader that he’ll come back to it later. This would be fine in a normal, chronologically straightforward book, but the fact that it isn’t leads to some more confusion.

Overall, this is a great memoir about one of the most interesting comedians out there, with gripping and insightful stories that is marred by confusing pacing and issues with context. It’s still worth a read because the parts that are good are home-runs, and the errors are really foul-tips, not strikeouts.

This memoir is a 3.5/5. Think the TJ McConnell game vs. Boston.

Millennial Love

What does a modern relationship look like? In Normal People, it’s something like 1917 or Birdman. Those movies that don’t seem to have any cuts, they just go from scene to scene without stopping. And this storytelling choice works well; in 1917 it helps the audience feel the pressure the main character is under, the time crunch. In Normal People, Sally Rooney makes two unique choices: the first is to write primarily in the present tense, and the other is to not use quotation marks around quotes. This gives the book a feeling of movement, like the reader is watching it happen, and the writer is only copying down a transcription. Very similar to those two movies. And for this kind of story it works.

The story mainly deals with Connell and Marianne, two high school/college students who have an on again/off again relationship. But they are also dealing with many different personal things, like adjusting to school, trying to fit in, trying to find love, struggling with life. This feeling of life moving fast, almost too fast, is something that many people, millennials especially, can relate to. Even though it was set in Ireland, this American couldn’t help but feel the exact things Rooney writes about. She captures that feeling extremely well, in fact she articulates this feeling better than most millennials could.

Independence vs. Dependence and domination vs. submission are both themes in this story that both main characters struggle with. Do I depend on people too little? Too much? Do they care about me at all? So what if they don’t? The themes remind me of something Anthony Bourdain once wrote about cooking and eating: “"Cooking professionally is a dominant act, at all times about control. Eating well, on the other hand, is about submission. It’s about giving up all vestiges of control, about entrusting your fate entirely to someone else. It’s about turning off the mean, manipulative, calculating, and shrewd person inside you, and slipping heedlessly into a new experience as if it were a warm bath. It's about shutting down the radar and letting good things happen. Let it happen to you."

It’s like a balance, and, in Normal People, both characters are trying to find it. Often times they swing too violently to one side or another. Connell does things because he’s unsure of his place in the world, or he’s embarrassed to be with Marianne, and she does things because she thinks she is impossible to love, or too independent. These problems, also mixed with the fact that the two come from two different economic backgrounds makes for a dynamic that is always on the cusp of working out. They’re the kind of couple that you hope get together at the end of the movie.

Speaking of the end, I really enjoyed the end of this book. Another parallel theme is one of control. Connell feels like he doesn’t have control of his life at various points of the story, and Marianne feels like she goes through life “moving around inside a protective film, floating like mercury” (195). Eventually, they start to find their footing in life and end up together, with no problems! Then Connell, an aspiring writer, gets into a school in New York. Throughout the book Marianne talks about this power he has over her, how she would do anything to make him happy, whatever he said. She’s in love, but with this dynamic of control still there. In the end though, he gives control over everything, their relationship, his life, her life, over to her: “Say you want me to stay and I will” (273). She tells him to go, “I’ll always be here”. And I assume they part ways there, not as people in or out of a relationship, but as people who have changed each others lives. In a way, that is one of the deepest loves a person can show another. “He brought her goodness like a gift and now it belongs to her. Meanwhile his life opens out before him in all directions at once. They’ve done a lot of good for each other. Really, she thinks, really. People can really change one another” (273).

The writing itself is simple in a Hemingway-esque kind of way. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. It can be sweet, emotional, or poignant when it needs to be, but often times it doesn’t need to be, so it isn’t. The only problems I have with Normal People are the side characters often feel paper thin. Peggy, Helen, Jamie, Niall, and the rest all felt like widow dressing. Only Lorraine, Connell’s mother, did’t feel this way. I suppose they were probably meant to feel this way, as Connell and Marianne both didn’t really have strong connections with these people, but for some emotional beats to hit a bit harder (Spoiler: Rob’s suicide) I would’ve liked to know them a bit more.

This is a book I think everyone should read, even though I know some people will not like it. It’s themes, it’s unabashed-ness towards sex (which I found refreshing), and it’s time-jumping will turn some people off to this, but it is the millennial experience to a T.

For me, it’s a 4/5. Like this Lou Will dunk. Awesome, but Ersan Illyasova isn’t happy about it.

Early Contender for Book of the Year

Say Nothing is a book about many things - compromise, peace, murder, the past and how it affects the present - but is really about one thing, The Troubles. It is one of the greatest pieces of modern Irish history and non-fiction in general, like wide-angle version of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

The book opens with the kidnapping of Jean McConville, a recently widowed mother of 10, in 1972. The McConville’s are what keep this story grounded. The book also follows the Provisional IRA (Provos), the Irish Nationalists who use violence in order to get what they want. Specifically, the book follows Dolours Price, her sister, Marian, and the two ‘heads’ of the IRA: Brendan Hughes and Gerry Adams. Hughes was the man on the ground, going on missions, getting his hands dirty, while Adams usually didn’t get directly involved. It’s easy to get swept up in the action movie elements of what the IRA did (escaping from a prison using a hijacked helicopter, using triple (not double) agents, and jason bourne-ing through streets) but the McConville’s always bring the reader back to the toll that the conflict had, on both sides. Over 3,500 people died.

And while the first part of the book sets the scene, the second part of the book really drives home what makes this story so compelling. The Good Friday Agreement ended fighting between the Provos and unionists, but still allowed for a non-united Ireland. This left many of the members of the IRA to wonder if what they did was worth it. Throughout the book, these big IRA players did some nasty things: kill traitors who were informing on them to the other side (touts), set off car bombs in metropolitan areas, and arrange hits on certain targets thought to be British. And almost everyone told themselves that these were necessary evils in order to achieve a united Ireland. But then the Good Friday Agreement was signed, and the fighting stopped. Without a united Ireland. Which leads to one of the biggest themes of the book: compromise. The Good Friday Agreement is a compromise, in order to achieve peace. The Belfast Project, in which members of both sides give interviews as to what happened, only to be released on their deaths, was a compromise. The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, which helped find many people who were ‘disappeared’, was a compromise. And while this led to peace as we know it today, it left many who fought at that time in the past.

The whole book is an achievement in, as Patrick Radden Keefe calls it, narrative nonfiction. I cannot recommend it enough. It asks important questions, and weaves together deeply personal stories with the defining conflict in modern day Irish history that needs to be read. I have nothing bad to say about it.

It’s an easy 5/5, like Larry Bird knowing he hit the last three to win the three-point contest before it goes in.