en-US Sat, 30 Nov 2019 08:49:01 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 38917309 368 Kembrew McLeod 1419732528 Sarah 2 first-reads, abandoned 4.00 2018
author: Kembrew McLeod
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2019/10/11
date added: 2019/11/30
shelves: first-reads, abandoned
review:
I won a copy of this through a Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ giveaway. Based on the title, I was quite excited to read a gritty, outrageous account of the underground artists who influenced so much of our culture today. Instead, it was a dense and long book that somehow made this exciting era seem, well, not exciting. I applaud the author for tracking down so many long-lost people and artists who were part of the various New York art scenes. And the author was quite thorough in piecing together the connections between the different scenes that were happening simultaneously. However, I ultimately gave up reading because, while the information was right, the spirit was not. The account was too straightforward, without the artistry needed to truly capture the "glitter" that was promised in the title. I was bored.
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Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.

As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions.

Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.]]> 272 Tom Rachman 0385343663 Sarah 4 first-reads 3.55 2010
author: Tom Rachman
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/02/12
date added: 2011/02/12
shelves: first-reads
review:
This novel read more like a collection of short stories, with each chapter focusing on a different person related to the newspaper. I liked this format because it gave you nice snippets of stories that tied up well from chapter to chapter. It also made things interesting when the characters showed up again in a more periphery way in later chapters -- you already had a deep insight into their character that made you see them differently when they appeared again. And that seems to be part of the author's point -- you can see people only in a shallow way and make assumptions about them by watching how they interact with others (as we tend to do in real life with people we encounter frequently but don't truly know), or you can see things from their point of view, if only temporarily, and truly understand how their personal motivations and circumstances affect their actions. It's a very interesting book that makes you reexamine the way you perceive the people around you. Beyond this, as a former newspaper reporter, I thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into a newsroom, and I recognized many of the characters as being similar to people I had worked with over the years -- it was quite accurate in that respect.
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Hoop dreams aren’t just for players. The fever that grips college basketball prospects hoping to strike big-time NBA gold afflicts coaches, parents, and sneaker executives as well. Every one of them has a stake in keeping America’s wildly dysfunctional, incredibly lucrative youth basketball machine up and running—no matter the consequences.

In Play Their Hearts Out , George Dohrmann offers an up-close and unforgettable look inside the maw of that machine. He shares what he learned from his years spent embedded with a group of talented young recruits from Southern California as they traveled the country playing in elite Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) events. It’s a cutthroat world where boys as young as eight or nine are subjected to a dizzying torrent of scrutiny and exploitation. Coaches vie to have them on their teams. Sneaker companies ply them with free shoes and gear. “All-star camps� are glorified cattle auctions, providing make-or-break opportunities to secure the promise of an elusive college scholarship.
Ěý
At the book’s heart are the personal stories of two compelling Joe Keller, an ambitious AAU coach with a master plan to find and promote “the next LeBron”—thereby paving his own path to power and riches; and Demetrius Walker, a fatherless latchkey kid who falls under Keller’s sway and struggles to live up to the unrealistic expectations his supposed benefactor has set for him. As their fortunes take shape and the pressure mounts—Demetrius finds himself profiled in Sports Illustrated at age fourteen, while Keller cultivates his business empire—Dohrmann weaves in the stories of numerous other parents, coaches, and players. Some of them see their prospects evaporate as a result of poor decisions and worse luck. Others learn how to thrive in a corrupt system by playing the right angles.

Written with incomparable detail and insight, Play Their Hearts Out is a thoroughly unique narrative that reveals the inner workings of an American game, exposing the gritty reality that lies beneath so many dreams of fame and glory.]]> 432 George Dohrmann 0345508602 Sarah 5 first-reads 4.22 2009
author: George Dohrmann
name: Sarah
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/08/25
date added: 2010/08/25
shelves: first-reads
review:
I won this book through a First Reads giveaway, and I'm glad I did, because I might not have picked it up otherwise. I can tell that this is a book I'll be thinking and talking about for a long time. I love watching NBA basketball, but I knew very little about the grassroots system that recruits and grooms young players to reach the pros. Dohrmann spent years hanging out with a coach and his players to write this in-depth account of the grassroots system, which was quite an undertaking, and he provides an extremely eye-opening account of the process. I was angered by the way the sports companies, coaches and others involved in the system took advantage of these kids, exploiting their talent and dreams of college and the NBA just to make money. I really hope this book gets a lot of attention when it is released -- and that it spurs the NBA to do something to change this flawed system. Sadly, I know that's unlikely to happen, but I can only hope.
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An Irreverent Curiosity interweaves this history with the curious landscape of Calcata, a beautiful and untouched medieval village set atop four-hundred-fifty-foot cliffs, which now, due to the inscrutable machinations of Italian bureaucracy, is a veritable counterculture coven. Blending history, travel, and perhaps the oddest story in Christian lore, An Irreverent Curiosity is a weird and wonderful tale of conspiracy and misadventure.


Winner of the 2010 Lowell Thomas Tavel Journalism Award for best book.


Listed:
"One of the Best Travel Books of 2009"
--The Los Angeles Times
--WorldHum.com


"One of the Best Books of the Decade"
--The Dubuque Telegraph Herald


"[Farley's] ribald detective story ... is like a cross between 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Life of Brian' ... [a] charming yarn."
--The New York Times


"Told with gusto, good humor, and a healthy respect for eccentricity, Farley's quixotic account is an eloquent testament to the power of travel--and travail--to entertain and illuminate."
--National Geographic Traveler


"Genre bending at its best."
--Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)

]]> 304 David Farley 1592404545 Sarah 2 first-reads 3.67 2009
author: David Farley
name: Sarah
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2010/07/15
date added: 2010/07/16
shelves: first-reads
review:
I won a free copy of this book through First Reads (thanks Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ!). The topic sounded fascinating and quirky, and it is, but unfortunately I was not impressed with the writing or storytelling in this book. It probably would have worked as a long magazine article, but as a book, it was a bit slow, there wasn't much "there" there, and I wasn't particularly impressed with the way the author portrayed his characters. He talked multiple times about how the people and the town of Calcata were the oddest in Italy, but he didn't really show me the people's quirks as much as I would have liked -- I only got surface details rather than getting a real feel for the town. I also agree with someone else's review that the ending was unsatisfying.
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