Saturday, December 28, 2013

Weekend Picks for Book Lovers

(from USA Today)

What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY's picks for book lovers include a grand slam of a book about Red Sox great Ted Williams, and a K-9 cop mystery by Theresa Schwegel.

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr.; Little, Brown; 784 pp.; non-fiction

When Ted Williams was a boy growing up in an unhappy home and hanging out at San Diego's playgrounds playing ball, whenever he'd see a shooting star, he'd make a wish: "Make me the greatest hitter who ever lived."

Not unusual for a boy in the 1920s and '30s, when baseball truly was the national pastime, but Williams worked obsessively to make that wish come true.

Of the game's many baseball legends, arguably none matches the career stats and extraordinary life of Hall of Famer Williams. And chances are, no "Teddy Ballgame" biography will ever match up with Ben Bradlee Jr.'s exhaustive book about baseball's greatest hitter.

The last major leaguer to post a batting average above .400, Williams' pursuit of hitting perfection produced stats that today would blow the Sabermetrics' mind.

Baseball heroics aside, what turns this book's pages is the complex, contradictory and volatile character Williams was.

USA TODAY says **** out of four. "Remarkable …This unmistakably is the definitive biography of a fascinating American icon."

Autobiography by Morrissey; Putnam, 454 pp.; non-fiction

A memoir by the lead singer of the 1980s cult British band The Smiths, and a successful solo act for decades.

USA TODAY says ***½ stars. "A first-rate confessional that serves up Morrissey on the only terms he'll accept: his, and rightfully so."

The Good Boy by Theresa Schwegel; Minotaur, 357 pp.; fiction

K-9 cop Pete Murphy and his partner Butch, a German Shepherd mix, stop the wrong minivan, leading to trouble with the brother of a figure out of Murphy's past.

USA TODAY says ***½. "A brooding, world-wise, humane piece of crime fiction."

Stella Bain by Anita Shreve; Little, Brown, 261 pp.; fiction

In Marne, France, in 1916, a woman drifts into consciousness on a battlefield hospital cot and realizes "that she does not know her own name."

USA TODAY says ***. "An intriguing character study that delivers compelling mystery without melodrama."

Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books by Nick Hornby; McSweeney's, 464 pp.; non-fiction

Collects Hornby's "Stuff I've Been Reading" columns from Believer magazine.

USA TODAY says ***½. "Ten Years in the Tub is something to soak in and savor."


Contributing critics: Don Oldenburg, Matt Damsker, Charles Finch, Jocelyn McClurg, Korina Lopez

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