Last month my longtime partner Denise, our friend Maggie from Knoxville and I met in Chattanooga to catch up. We spent the afternoon strolling the Tennessee (River) Walk which is in the Arts District of Chattanooga. We stopped at the River Gallery and naturally one of the narrative sculptures by Daniel Lai caught my attention. To the unsophisticated museum goer such as myself, I immediately saw it as blog worthy "book art."
The piece shown is entitled Lost in a Book. More information about Lai (a self-taught artist of Chinese descent from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia" with a PhD from the University of Tennessee) and his work are available at the gallery's web page.
In keeping up with the times, here are some bullet points to what I have been doing since the last posting:
1. I completed the three-session workshop series, Writing Family History at the DeKalb History Center. I was fortunate to have several guest speakers willing to share their expertise. One was my cousin Jackie Fehrenbach from West Lafayette, Indiana, an experienced genealogist who addressed the group along with Tamika Strong from the Auburn Avenue Research Library. Both provided guidance on what sources are available to family researchers who are just starting out. In the final session Keith Chandler from my old Turner Broadcasting days shared his experience in putting his family history together in a book entitled The Five of Us. These are stories from a group of siblings growing up in Ferriday, Louisiana. What we lacked in numbers at the workshop sessions we made up in dedication and connection in the workshop's goal of capturing family histories.
2. Early Spring is a busy time for me doing my Destination: Books popups at the Wylde Center in Oakhurst and The Carter Center’s Freedom Farmer’s Market. I work the tables selling many books on gardening and sustainability and any subject that is a degree of separation from those topics.
One thing I enjoy most about selling books is purchasing books for inventory. Always a book shopper.
3. My book group,The Gravity’s Rainbow Support Group (GRSG) is closing on its fifth year of anniversary. Actually, it is not a group, but rather just an old college chum Francis (Indiana University) and I discussing books online. It began during the pandemic with Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) and we’ve since moved on to a mix of literature, history and anything else we both fancy. Shown here is our mascot the V-2 Rocket, one of the main characters in the book.
The advantage of a two-person book group is that it is easy to agree on what to read next.
4. Gardening and Reading and Reading about Gardening. These activities calm my uneasy mind. One book that has struck a chord is A Gardener at the End of the World (2024) by Maine writer Margot Anne Kelley. Written during the Pandemic, it is a mix of gardening diary and Yankee common sense.
A fellow Atlanta-based blogger Cal Gough posted a review of my A Father's Letters: Connecting Past to Present here on his personal blog. A retired librarian from the Atlanta Public Library system, Cal began his Book Lovers Blog in 2008, which he mothballed in 2024.
But you can't keep a good blogger down and Cal now posts regularly on his personal blog. He is a discriminating, prolific reader and he likes to share his insights.
He mentions in his review how I gave him a copy at the recent Decatur Friends of the Library Book Sale (available for purchasehere). But it was more like I cornered him. He was trapped waiting in line to pay with his shopping bag of books. What choice did he have?
What most impressed me about Cal's review is how he captured the nuances of what I was trying to accomplish.
When compared to the off seasons of professional basketball and football, baseball has the longest period of dormancy with its listless weeks of player transactions and replays of the previous season. Between the World Series and Opening Day, there is little to fuel one’s baseball interest. Another megastar signing with the Dodgers? MLB network’s ad nauseum repeats of baseball movies? It is not enough to relieve me of my blahs.
My personal remedy is to crack open the best lengthy baseball book I can find. In previous years it has been Roger Angell’s book on David Cone, Jimmy Breslin’s book on the 1962 New York Mets, and one year it was David Maraniss’s biography of Jim Thorpe. I know at first the latter seems out of place, but Thorpe in addition to winning the decathlon in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and being one of the early stars of professional football, also played parts of six seasons with the baseball New York Giants and Cincinnati Reds.
Initially, this year’s offerings looked bleak. I just couldn’t go back to Norman Macht’s three-volume history of Connie Mack the owner of the Philadelphia Athletics, which I started years ago. Macht provides excruciating details on Mack’s life and his teams. Mack holds the major league record with the most wins and losses as a manager (3731-3948) and the lengthiest baseball biography (~2000 pages).
But then I recalled reading a promising review of Howard Bryant’s biography of Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original and picked up a copy. I started the book in early December before Henderson died on December 20th at the age of 65. But rather than talk about Rickey’s twenty-five-year career with eight teams, and as a career leader in runs scored (2295), stolen bases (1406) and not surprisingly, caught steaIing (335) I prefer to focus on what makes this biography something that pulled me through the dead zone of the baseball winter.
Historical context
From the very opening chapters, what sets this baseball biography apart from most is Bryant’s diligence in mirroring Henderson’s career with the racial history of America is the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Born in Chicago on Christmas Day, 1958, Rickey’s mother Bobbie Ray soon returned to her mother’s home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and eventually in 1968 moved to Oakland with Rickey and his siblings seeking a better life.
At the beginning of World War II, workers were such in demand in the shipyards around the Bay Area, that factories opened their doors and hired black workers. Many lived in Oakland, where the black population grew from around 8500 in 1940 to 40,000 by 1945. Eventually, the ship building facilities closed, but the blacks remained, and Oakland became an epicenter of the black community. By the time Rickey reached middle school, Oakland’s black population exceeded 120,000. Far from perfect, Oakland was highly segregated, but it was much better than the violence and the lack of opportunity in the Jim Crow South.
Oakland was home to The Pointer Sisters and the founders of The Black Panther Party Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, but the area also produced some of the greatest athletes in sports history—basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell and baseball greats Joe Morgan and Frank Robinson. Aficionados of the sport will recognize the second-generation players who had very good careers as major leaguers: Dave Stewart, Lloyd Moseby, Gary Pettis, Bip Roberts, and of course Rickey Henderson. All these players grew up playing sports in Oakland.
Baseball Stories
But there is no shortage of baseball stories in Rickey. Not only is Rickey a colorful character, but Bryant takes great care in separating the man and myth and often refers to Henderson by his first name – just as Henderson often referred to himself in the third person. (In one game Henderson tells first baseman J.T. Snow to tell his pitcher to quit throwing over to first: “Rickey tired. Rickey ain’t running today.”)
Playing football, baseball and basketball in high school, Rickey could barely read until he was tutored by a Double-A teammate, the pitcher Mike Norris (who had a 10-year career in Oakland). In contrast Rickey had excellent math skills (obsessed by numbers) and was known in every clubhouse as a shrewd card player. He wasn't a high stakes gambler, nor did he take drugs, and he lived modestly. However, like many players Pay Equals Respect and being the highest paid player on the team or at your position was paramount.
Since Henderson played for so many teams in his quarter of a century career, you get glimpses into the friendships and rivalries. In Oakland as a rookie, Henderson credits Billy Martin for his early success as a base stealer although Bryant spares no detail on Martin's volatile and racist persona. Jose Canseco was overpaid and immature in Henderson's view. While with the Yankees (1985-89), Henderson had the respect of Don Mattingly but like all Yankee players suffered from indignities from Yankee owner George Steinbrenner (especially Dave Winfield).
Because Rickey was self-conscious of being inarticulate, he purposely kept the predominantly white New York sportswriters at a distance. In turn they often characterized him as hotdog for his bat flipping, pulling the jersey during his home run and catching fly balls with his infamous snatch-catch. Henderson was often characterized as lazy because Henderson would take himself out of the lineup especially a day game after a night game. But in his defense, Henderson knew the toll that base stealing took on his body and he wanted to preserve it (and he did, since he played 25 years). His love of the game was undeniable, playing two years of semi-pro baseball AFTER his last major league game.
The Legacy
What separates Bryant’s biography from most baseball books is that he addresses the Henderson legacy. He reminds us that Henderson was a product of this times, which include the early years of player free agency. The fans resented the burgeoning player salaries culminating in the 50 days strike in 1981. But a player like Henderson growing up in Oakland learned not to back down and play the game the way that he wanted to. (Or course the league now promotes more entertainment -- more bat flips and action on the basepaths.)
Statistics often speak for themselves and can seem irrefutable, but Bryant goes beyond the numbers to show Henderson's greatness and but is undeterred on revealing Rickey's faults. Bryant allows the reader to judge for him or herself the merits of his personality and his baseball talents. It’s a book that give Henderson’s legacy a cornerstone. One certainly cannot opine about Rickey Henderson without reading this book. And in the bleak days of January and February season, it is my highlight reel of a baseball book.
A short but excellent interview with Howard Bryant when the book first came out.
During this month of January, while in hibernation, I have been devoting my energy (fueled by holiday cookies) preparing for a workshop I am moderating at the DeKalb History Center located in the courthouse, downtown Decatur. It started with my latest book A Father's Letters: Connecting Past to Presentwhich came out early last year. In July 2024 I did a workshop about the book and with the encouragement of the History Center it has been expanded.
One take away from the previous workshop is that participants feel a kinship with the like-minded individuals, which makes for a good exchange of ideas and thoughts.
Moreover, this is the time of year that reminds people about families, and you may have a made a resolution that 2025 will be the year you are moving forward on capturing those important memories. This workshop can help.
For more details, including a syllabus visit the DeKalb History Center Workshop events page which includes times and the links to register.
Looking through my list of approximately 30 books read in 2024, it follows the tenets established in previous years: a.) Unlike Best of Lists found in newspapers etc. I keep it very short, and I limit it to works I’ve personally read (no committee necessary; no compromising) and b.) and some theme usually emerges. Last year it was misery. This year my reading orbited around my five-week trip to Europe. Or I at least shoehorned those patterns into this list.
Another metric of a book’s impact is the number of index cards I utilize for my reading notes. For most books I read this year (listed on home page sidebar) it only takes a single card. Anything above that threshold merits consideration.
Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle Books 2 and 3 (6 index cards of notes)
Books 2 and 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s magnum opus My Struggle, I read the Book #3 (aka Boyhood) in preparation for my trip to Norway and Sweden. Despite one critic’s quip of “he’s interesting even when he’s boring” I opted for Book #2 ( aka First Love) to take with me while traveling. I always want to bring something hefty (over 500 pages) when I am on a long trip because one never knows about possible delays. People can get edgy and short-tempered in these situations, but if I have something decent to read, I can remain uncharacteristically calm.
Detailed reviews of both books are in earlier posts “Swedish Book Notes” and “Norwegian Book Notes”). After reading these two books I felt I had found my inner Scandinavian.
Paul Beatty Slumberland
As one who has read two of his other books The Sellout and White Boy Shuffle, no writer consistently elicits fiendish laughs from me more than Paul Beatty. Slumberland (2008) is set in 1989 Berlin soon after the collapse of the wall separating East and West. Here's an accurate plot summary from bookbrowse.com:
“Ferguson Sowell, aka DJ Darky, wants to create the sonic Mona Lisa: a song that will bring together every partygoer with an irresistible toe-tapping beat. He debuts his near-perfect beat to his LA-based music collective, the Beard Scratchers, and they all agree that the song is only missing one thing: a guest appearance by a man they call "the Schwa"—Charles Stone, a legendary jazz player who disappeared to Europe decades ago. DJ Darky has one clue to finding Stone: a pornographic videotape with an undeniably Schwa-like soundtrack. He traces the tape to a West Berlin bar called Slumberland, where DJ Darky eventually takes a job as a 'jukebox sommelier,' collecting the most party-friendly tunes in the Western world.”
This is similar to the description I read in at a bookstore in Oslo (hence the European connection) and I could not resist purchasing the book, especially since my older daughter Cynthia lives in Berlin, and I have some familiarity with the city.
This is a book that celebrates people who have passion for bizarre music or musical history at least. Examples:
——Stone’s breakout EP was Darker Side of Moon which came out around the same time as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. Beatty writes "Due to clerical errors and acid-rock fans tweaked on microdots, the record did a steady if not brisk mail-order business."
——The ins and outs of producing soundtracks for porn films.
——Bands with really good names rarely make it.
——Skinhead collectors of Fascist music on 78s (old vinyl records) with titles such as “I Don’t Believe Hitler Can Fly; I Know He Can Fly, ” or "If Mother Won't Give You a Nickel, Ask Neville Chamberlain For a Dime."
——That Lawrence Welk once covered the The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night”.
——Schwa leads a movement "to rebuild the Berlin Wall with music instead of concrete, barbed wire and machine guns 'n' shit."
Like his previous books, Beatty has pitch perfect satirical timing.
Robin Wall Kimmerer: Gathering Moss a Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
5 by 7 card
I often read books that I am considering carrying in my popup bookstore Destination: Books. The center of my inventory often centers on books on gardening, sustainability and related topics. The Gathering Moss book deep dives on everything moss, its history, its sex life, conditions where it propagate and some of its amazing properties such as its absorbency. Kimmerer informs us that moss was used as a diaper by Native American tribes in the West. The things you learn when you read.
Gathering Moss (2012) was written years before her bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass. I brought a copy Sweetgrass with me to Europe since Cynthia’s boyfriend Boris is very involved with Berlin’s Community Garden scene. Moreover, as a sound artist, I thought he would appreciate Slumberland as well, so I sent him a copy.
One of The Book Shopper’s charter members Dave from Seattle recently sent me two book reviews to post at my leisure on crime novelist George V. Higgins (1939-1999). He wrote both The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1970) and Cogan’s Trade (1974). I vaguely remember the former since I read it while I was high school, and I believe it received a fair amount of attention because the author was an Assistant United States Attorney in Boston at the time he wrote his debut novel Coyle.
Dave is eminently qualified. Not only does he obtain books with thrift in mind (as you will see in his review), but he is also familiar with the genre. His wife the poet/writer Laurie Blauner once gave him the boxed set of the Library of America’s Crime Novels of the 1960s for his birthday.
Coincidently, crime noir is enjoying a revival locally as A Cappella Books, a major Atlanta bookseller has added pulp fiction to its long list of Reading Clubs to start in January. The second book on the list—you guessed it!—The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
Here’s Dave’s thoughts:
George V. Higgins: The Friends of Eddie Coyle, 1970. Another book from one of our local Free Little Libraries. While not the sort of crime fiction in my usual rotation, I recalled praise for this one in the context of the filmed version done some years later. And I was not disappointed. The novel (the first for Higgins, who had been an Assistant US Attorney in Boston) is told almost exclusively in dialog, with minimal omniscient narration. The book works because it’s short and the dialog incredibly vivid. To be clear however, this is not pulp fiction—with apologies to Gertrude Stein, there’s most definitely a “there there” behind the dialog.
Like much good literature, I wouldn’t call The Friends of Eddie Coyle a fast easy read. To his credit, Higgins makes you work a bit. New characters are introduced mostly with fresh dialog—this may require you to go back a few times to get your bearings, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Reportedly, Higgins based his characters (and their way of speaking) on listening to hours of court-ordered wiretaps. In summary, one of the most vivid “you are there” novels I have ever read. Highly recommended with bonus points for frequent mention of Boston locations for extra authenticity.
George V. Higgins: Cogan’s Trade, 1974. Coincidentally, I came across the one in a different Little Free Library. The second novel from Higgins is decidedly less compelling. Though also told almost exclusively in dialog, the dialog here is more long soliloquies and less short interaction between characters. I kept losing track of who was who and who did what and where and when they did it. Recommended only for serious Higgins fans.
Thanks, Dave. Coming soon: Best Books Read of 2024.
An exhibit entitled Rock, Paper, Scissors at the The Book as Art V.12, ended last month at the Decatur Public Library. Visiting the various installations reminded me of a quote from a book I just finished reading The Book Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives(2024) by Adam Smyth.
Smyth writes that in some cases book art may better represent the mind's non-linear associative wonderings. He quotes an experimental novelist and cantankerous man of letters B.S. Johnson whose book The Unfortunates was placed unbound in a box: "A better solution to the problem of conveying the mind's randomness than the imposed order of a bound book."
Here's a few books from the exhibit that made me wonder how books with their different designs can convey meaning beyond the pages:
Low Tide by Melissa Wagner-Lawler and Robot Dreams by Mari Eckstein Gower
A couple years ago at Book as Art, Vol. 10there was even a better example of a book in a box from Dan Wood of Providence, Rhode Island.
Also in Rock, Paper, Scissors there was a table of books entitled Biography Unwritten. Book artist Toby Lee Greenberg created the biographies of inmates who were unjustly incarcerated for years before being found innocent. He writes a sentence or two about what their lives "might have been or what they missed." Instead of pages Greenberg has created a thin concrete cell block to represent the pages of their books. In the biography of Wilbert Lee, Greenberg writes "Missed twelve years of life, like pages being ripped from a book."
P.S. A slide portfolio of the entire exhibit can be found on this Decatur Alliance page. Also the Book Shopper website has a breakout of Books as Art as Bookswhich has 42—count `em 42!—archival postings.
One of the more visited sites on the blog (and yes, I do keep track) is the October 2020 posting. "Tyranny, Voting and Making Love for the Last Time". It is a brief review of Timothy Snyder's short pamphlet of a book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons for the Twentieth Century, (2017) and it includes an excerpt from the book. I sell them regularly at my Destination: Books pop-up booth.
(Snyder has a new book out On Freedom (2024) that one reviewer described as "a longer antithetical companion to the earlier book.)
I've read another one of Snyder's books Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010/revised 2020). This formidable book was riveting, but depressingly awful because of its graphic descriptions of the 14 million people who perished at the hands of Hitler and Stalin in 1930s and 40s—especially in Ukraine. I did a write up entitled "My Random Bloodlands Notes" which I posted in the deep recesses of this blog—part of my personal archive.
Just a reminder to vote if you haven't already and remember the words of Astra Taylor's who said it best in her book of the same name—Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss It When It's Gone. For a lengthy interview with Taylor see An Imperfect Union, in Sun Magazine's November 2019 issue.
In addition to the early postings about book-related travels in France, Norway and Sweden, motion pictures also had an unexpected impact on my trip last summer. More specifically the Bourne movies starring Matt Damon.
Inspired, I wrote a travel essay "Experiencing Travel with Jason Bourne", which appears on at the Tropics of Metawebsite. This is the 9th piece I have written for them over the years.
