My Father's Daughter--#20 finished

 Frank Sinatra's youngest daughter, Tina Sinatra writes about Frank's life.  Most of it revolves around her & her older sister Nancy & older brother Frank Jr and their relationship with their dad.  Frank being married 3 times but all the kids with the first wife, plays a big part in the book too.  Especially his last wife that sort of took over Frank's life the last 20 years or so of his life as well as pushing his kids more to the side.  I enjoyed his music--we had a double CD of greatest hits that we played when kids were young & they enjoyed it too.  Not much of a music person myself so haven't listened to it in years.  I also enjoy the image of the Rat Pack and remember some of the comedy roasts with them.  Book gives good insight into Frank but of course not all of it good.

I have already posted it & it has already been requested, might even get it mailed off yet today.

The Color Master--#19 finished

 A short story book with some interesting and some just plain weird stories.  I did enjoy this more than the first short story book by this author but still just a little too far out there for my tastes at times.  Not much more really to say, probably won't be searching out anything more from this writer.

There were 2 WL for the book and I posted it & will be mailing it off, probably tomorrow.

Raceball--#18 finished

 The rest of the title is: How the Major Leagues Colonized the Black and Latin Game.  The book looks back at the Negro Leagues and players and the relationship with Latin American countries--Cuba especially at first and then later Dominican Republic.  How Jackie Robinson opened up the major leagues to black players and black Hispanic players as well but it was also the beginning to the end of the Negro Leagues.  In the Negro Leagues many owners, managers & general managers were black but when it ended, none of this switched to the Major Leagues--it wasn't really until the 1980s it was seen as an issue and still today is an issue.  The end of the Negro Leagues also was the beginning to the end of baseball being the main sport for black youth--football & especially basketball have taken over.  In Latin America it talked about baseball academies being setup and how they have become feeders for the big leagues.  Basically taking away the games between the hometowns that happened in the past, showing that maybe the love of the game is missing since not as much going out & watching games as kids developing their game for a job and future.  Book really made me step back and look at baseball a little differently and wonder what the future will be like for the sport.

There was 1 WL for the book and I posted it & will be mailing off, probably tomorrow.

Red Sparrow--#17 finished

 A kind of action spy book, that became a movie. I saw the movie first & thought was just okay but saw the book at a Goodwill or something and picked it up cheap.  Since over 500 pages, didn't get read last year because of my emphasis on quantity--getting to over 100 books read--so figured this was the time to read it.  Different in many ways from the movie and better in most ways.  It is a trilogy so I have wishlisted for the next two books.  A Russian ballet student suffers an injury and her uncle puts her into the spy business and she excels but doesn't really like the Russian government and becomes a spy for the US after meeting a few men she really likes.  This puts her into some tough situations and makes for a good read.

There are like a dozen copies in PBS so no reason to add to it, will just donate away at some point.

The Professor and the Madman--#16 finished

A good read about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and how a dictionary is actually made and how one of the main contributors at the time was locked up in an asylum after killing someone.  Interesting in how the mostly volunteers searched early books for when words first used & how they were used in complying the dictionary.  The madman was an educated doctor and served as a doctor in the US Civil War and how he started slipping after that.  Eventually with his military pension he was to travel Europe and when got to England had a night where he lost it & shot & killed someone basically at random.  Was found insane and locked away in basically a home & because has some money was sort of comfortable but still locked away.  He was a reader and had many of his own books and saw where they were looking for volunteers on the making of the dictionary & he started this work, submitting many thousands of entries.  An interesting read.

There are a couple copies already in PBS and my copy has some underlining & writing in it so I will just donate it away somewhere instead.

Jewish Jocks--#15 finished

 An edited collection of quick 2-5 page write-ups about some famous athletes or fringy sports guys that are Jewish.  Lots of people I hadn't heard of before, boxers from 100 years ago & into the '30s & '40s.  Some like Howard Cosell, that wasn't an athlete but because he was a sports announcers made the book.  Nothing too great but was kind of fun to read about several people and a quick writeup on their history.

There were no copies in system so posted it right away & about 2 days later was requested.  Should be mailing off later today.

The Opposite of Love--#14 finished

 A nearly 30 lawyer at a large law firm in NY city is struggling with her life.  Her boyfriend, family and work.  Fearing her boyfriend might ask her to marry him and she is scared of this, she decides to break up with him.  She gets assigned a shitty case with a worse lead lawyer and after some sexual harassment she quits the law firm.  She finds out her grandfather is slipping into Alzheimers too.  She basically bottoms out and with help of a psychologist type starts on her way back.  Funny at times and still tough because of what she is going through.  By end comes out stronger as a person.  A good read.

This was just finished this morning so a March finish.  There is 1 copy in system already, I will post this but might be a while before it moves on.

Mothers, Tell Your Daughters--#13 finished

 A short story book that focuses on women and basically tough lives of women.  Some stories kind of hard to read but generally the strength of the women come through in these stores.  Not saying happy ending stories or anything like that but more of a strength of endurance.  A really good read.

There are I think 8 WL for the book so will post at some point but like the last book might also get loaned out for others to read.

Wild Horse Country--#12 finished

 This is a wonderful read.  A lot of information about wild horses and their history and what is being done now with them.  The idea of wild horses out in the open land, running free is an image I think most Americans is sort of heartwarming.  Unlike the buffalo that were shot to near extinction and now only sort of roam in fields in small numbers, wild horses is a picture we would all like to envision.  This books embraces that but then also introduces the reader with the reality that wild unmanaged horses overbreed and will overrun grazing & wells/water areas.  On federal lands they do roundups to try to keep the numbers down, but since they cannot kill the horses they are pinned up on large ranches at huge expenses. There are like 50k horses like this.  They try to sell or basically give away what they can but schemes come up where buyers are getting the horses and selling to processing plants--food heading to Europe.  Book really points out that current ways & laws not working and no real leadership to change it.  Both sides--ranchers want fewer horses and several groups want no harm to horses and also to stop roundups.  At end of book, author finds a couple areas where mountain lions returning, they are keeping the horse population in check, so long as horses forced go to into mountains for food & water.  Interesting but problem that many people also dislike the mountain lions.  A very good read and really makes you think.

There are WL for it, I think around 4 or 5 but at this point keeping it.  Might be one to loan out at some point to friends to read.

The Silent Man--#11 finished

 This is a February finished book and so will be the next couple too, but just getting around to logging it in.  This is the next in the John Wells series of books.  A good series, interesting characters.  The plot of a nuclear weapon being stolen from Russia and then brought to the US, taken apart & reworked into a bomb--without the codes cannot set off the weapon.  Lots of good details about how this could happen, not sure I buy it all but did make for a quick action read.

I restarted the series a few months ago with book and I think this was 3rd in series.  Not sure where I started it but probably have a couple to go yet.  I don't think I will re-read any but not posting these either at this point.