Thomas Hauser’s Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times was one of the most influential books I have read. So many times I found myself thinking about people, politics, government, society, racism, sexism, or ableism.
While I typically don’t enjoy biographies, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times was a true exception. Of all the people that have ever lived, Muhammad Ali is one of the people I would most like to meet.
Hank Green’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is the sequel to <a href=”https://www.jonathansimeone.com/2021/05/09/reviewing-an-absolutely-remarkable-thing/”An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.”> As with An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, I enjoyed reading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor.
Jim Bouton’s Ball Four is one of the most famous books about baseball. Given my love of baseball and reading, it’s hard for me to believe I didn’t read it until now. Now that I have read Ball Four, I can see why it has been so popular for so long.
Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing took time to grow on me, but now I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Dan Barry’s The Bottom of the 33rd tells the story of a 33-inning game played between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings in 1981. As a fan of baseball, I have been interested in this game since first hearing about it as a child. I would love to hear the recording of the radio broadcast of this game. It must have been a truly amazing event.
Robert Peterson’s Only the Ball was White is a must read for anyone interested in baseball and the negro leagues.
Benjamin Carter Hett’s The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and the road to war paints interesting pictures of what was happening in all four nations in the years leading ups to World War II.
Cured is another in Robin Cook’s Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series. As always with this series, I enjoyed the book.
A Game as Old as Empire builds on Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Edited by Stephen Hiatt, A Game as Old as Empire is a collection of essays by people who are confessing their participation in the abuse of people around the world committed by governments and corporations working together.
Over a decade old, some of the data presented in A Game as Old as Empire is no longer accurate. Some of the programs described have been changed or deleted. But the book is a critical contribution to our understanding of the ways governments, especially the United States, abuse and exploit people at the behest of multinational corporations.
Foreign Body is another in Robin Cook’s Jack Stapleton & Laurie Montgomery series. In this book, though, Jack and Laurie are pretty small players. While I enjoyed the book, I often found myself wondering why they were included. By the end, I felt like the whole story could have been told without them.
