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Ive been reading a little ever since i read A song of ice and fire. Absolutely was the best thing ive ever read.

Sparked my interests for scifi-ish books.

A King Killer Chronicles turned out to be one of My favorites.

Havent found one i just cant put down since those two though. I have a lot on the list i need to get to reading.
 
yeah they, unfortunately IMO, get lumped together.

I like them both and do not at all find them similar.

I guess to people who dont read fiction then they are both fantasy of some sort
 
The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers

excellent read on the subject. A bit dated now as the book is from late 1990s. As usual Bill James dissects the subject matter and then presents it in a form you recognize but you will never see the whole the same way again.

This book was written about the time I stopped watching baseball following the 1994 strike shortened season. Some of the things that have happened with baseball, particularly the relief pitchers, have happened just as James suggested.

The condensed version - without roster expansion, and there will be no roster expansion in MLB, the usage of relief pitchers will continue but their overall innings will not increase. So expect more games where there are 5+ pitchers with the starter going 5 or 6 and 4 guys pitching 3 or 4 innings.

Because without roster expansion the batters roster spots have been replaced by marginal relief pitchers as much as is possible already.

Also the book gave an excellent historical overview of the role of MLB managers over the decades.

If the subject matter is of any interest to you at all then this book is readily available used for not to much.
 
Countermeasures

Michael Gear's third and AFAIK final book of the Forbidden Borders Trilogy. You might say a trilogy by definition is 3 but there have been authors who cashed additional checks on the back of a trilogy.


But I digress....


Gear finishes the space opera and brings the +2000 page epic to a glorious page turning conclusion over the final chapters. Then the epilogue completes the larger story behind the space opera.

I have read better ( Foundation immediately comes to mind ) space opera, but not recently.

If you are even a casual SciFi fan I would recommend this trilogy. Readily available used for not much.
 
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I read The Girl on the Train (which is now a movie). It's good, but it infuriated me like the ending of Gone Girl did.
 
Gunny said:
I read The Girl on the Train (which is now a movie). It's good, but it infuriated me like the ending of Gone Girl did.
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All the women I work with read that book and watched the movie opening night......




I take that back, a few gay men went also.
 
The Continental League by Russell Buhite

Buhite was one of the few players to actually play for the CL. The 1960 Western Carolinas League operated within Organized Baseball aka The Horsehide Cartel. Buhite revived his stalled baseball career when given the opportunity to quickly play in the Third Major League of baseball. The Continental League.

Branch Rickey was the President of the CL. Some of the same people behind the successful AFL were money behind the CL. The original 5 CL cities organized by Rickey in the summer of 1959 were NY ( only Yankees remained ), Houston, Minneapolis, Denver & Toronto. Winter of 1959 saw owners in Atlanta, Dallas & Buffalo round out this Third Major League of Baseball.

The CL attempted to form their league WITHIN organized baseball, but ultimately were just led along until the horsehide cartel could snipe their best owners ( Shea of NY & the Houston group ). The only actual baseball ever played by the CL was the revived WCL ( Western Carolinas League ) where ALL teams & Players were controlled by the CL & Rickey. The thought was every winter there would be a draft involving every player not under multi-year contract.

What could have been a third 8 team Major League, with liberal free agency & revenue sharing ( no mention of a CAP of any sort ) devolved into the horsehide cartel taking Minneapolis by moving the Senator ownership group there in 1960. DC got an expansion team in 61 that eventually moved to Dallas ( Rangers ). New York & Houston were the MLB expansion teams and both were CL cities with NY Mets actually having CL ownership in Shea. Eventually all but one of the CL cities became MLB cities with the exception being Buffalo.


This is an esoteric subject and the book was not cheap, but it interested me. Anyone who thinks politics & sports used to be nice and pure should read this. The Horsehide Cartel was as two faced and manipulative as any group of people ever have been.
 
Gunny said:
I started reading the Jack Reacher series. They are pretty good
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Every one of his books is good. If you like Lee Child you might like Harlan Coben. The best author I have ever read is Nelson DeMille. He has a several one of a kind type books, then a trilogy of sorts with a smart ass former NYC detective hunting terrorists. Lots of funny one liners (when his plane arrived, he asked the pilot - did we land or were we shot down?), and good drama. Start with "The Panther". You will get hooked.
 
GrayGhost1951 said:
Every one of his books is good. If you like Lee Child you might like Harlan Coben. The best author I have ever read is Nelson DeMille. He has a several one of a kind type books, then a trilogy of sorts with a smart ass former NYC detective hunting terrorists. Lots of funny one liners (when his plane arrived, he asked the pilot - did we land or were we shot down?), and good drama. Start with "The Panther". You will get hooked.
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I'll give them a look
 
Millennial v Boomer book by Lauren Southern.

Basically how Boomers have screwed everything for Millennials. Very thought provoking:

barbarians-thumbnail-01.jpg



An interview with Southern:
 
The NASCAR Way by Robert Hagstrom of The Warren Buffett Way fame

the book is 20 years old so is kinda weird in many ways. Dale Earnhardt is talked about in the present tense as an example. BUT the book is not about racing it is about the business of racing and was written just before NASCAR went from pig to hog ( 'I'm just telling you: Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered' - Mark Cuban ).

Book describes how the France family owned and ran entity that is NASCAR operates businesswise. Tracks are independent and can do what they want but NASCAR contracts run year to year so tracks do what NASCAR wants because of the $. NASCAR provides the track everything required to put on a NASCAR race in return for a piece of the action - all the action but just a piece.

Basically NASCAR connects sponsors with tracks & teams and tracks and teams operate at the pleasure of NASCAR. NASCAR does make sure everything is fair as possible and ensures that the tracks & teams all have an opportunity at success - but not a guarantee of success. Book prominently mentioned the NASCAR website ( again like that is a big deal but it was in 1998 ). Also gave big mention to Washington Irving Motorsports and how amazingly awesome that was going to be
it was not amazingly awesome...
http://stockcarracing.wikia.com/wiki/Washington-Irving_Motorsports

anyways the book was about the interconnections between the sponsors/tracks/teams and NASCAR
 
The Hedge Knight by Martin, Avery, Miller & Crowell

A Game of Thrones graphic novel prequel


firmly set 100 years before GoT this graphic novel sees the Targaryans at the height of their power and the setting is a jousting tournament. Our hero is new to all this Hedge Knight stuff and we learn along with him the rules of chivalry in the world of GoT.


I quite enjoyed it
 
I finished the Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson which was really good and just started The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton, a historial fiction set in 19th century England.
 
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