Read Books This will provide a list of the books I've read with a brief review. Users are blocked, contact me for access. I welcome discussions, but I'm tired of spam.

October 27, 2023

The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun

Filed under: Mystery — Tags: , — Randolph @ 1:33 pm

This is the seventh book in The Cat Who series, Jim Qwilleran and his cats are settling into their mansion in Pickax. Jim had turned his mansion into a part-time museum, he is living in quarters behind the mansion above the garage.

This time, the town newspaper, running with outdated equipment and processes is having trouble when the owner dies and the only source of news in the town is threatened. Qwill, being a newsman doesn’t want that to happen, he starts looking into things, including the death. Koko, as usual, knows more than Jim and starts knocking Shakespeare books of the shelf trying to communicate.

There isn’t much of a mystery beyond the investigation of the man’s death, the book ends with a fire in the mansion, I guess to be continued. This wasn’t one of the better in the series, but it is light and fast.

October 20, 2023

Dad Jokes by Slade Wentworth

Filed under: Humor — Tags: , — Randolph @ 1:28 pm

What’s to say? It’s a collection of dad jokes, some of them will actually make you laugh. It’s worth a quick read. Go to the library and read it while you’re in the checkout line.

October 14, 2023

Three Nights in August by by Buzz Bissinger

Filed under: Nonfiction,Sports — Tags: , , — Randolph @ 1:05 pm

This is a detailed analysis of the three-game baseball series in August 2003 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. It is told through the eyes of Tony La Russa and delves into many details of baseball that are invisible to most fans. The author goes into Tony’s thoughts on the strategy for the game going beyond just the play-by-play thoughts. He describes the psychology of player selection, both the egos and goals of the players and the opposing lineup. He looks into the player rituals, revenge hit-by-pitcher strategies, if he can afford to hurt a player’s ego.

It does go into pitch-by-pitch commentary at times, discussing how the game and the psychology changes at each point, what options La Russa is considering and what counters he anticipates.

The writing is ok. But the author does repeatedly use bad metaphors to emphasize points at times, I’m not quite sure he knows what his target audience is, but it did kind of remind me of some baseball announcers I’ve heard.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it is a good read for the baseball enthusiast.

Powered by WordPress