Moneyball--#36 finished

I am a big baseball fan and finally gotten around to reading this book.  I have seen in referenced and knew the basic gist of the book.  I have also seen the movie--much later after it came out & then on basic cable.  I enjoyed the movie and almost didn't buy this book for the 50 cents when I saw it at a library sale.  I am glad that I bought it.  I have read a couple other books by Michael Lewis and enjoy his writing as well as his research he brings to his topics.  This is a good read from when major league front offices were slowly moving from old school scouts to the new wave of ivy league data crunchers.  We are still in this kind of new wave with it seems like new data coming out every year--I am guessing teams probably have more in depth data but keeping that from the public.  I enjoyed how he went into more details about certain players explaining why they were overlooked by other teams and what Beane and A's saw in them.  A really good read.

There are already 3 copies in PBS system.  I am probably just going to keep the book since it is an important book--not just sport book from our times.

The Parade--#35 finished

Two people hired to put a road in a war torn country that has found peace.  The two men are only known by an assigned number for each.  One drives the all in one road paver and other travels along or ahead to make sure nothing will slow down the paver.  Four the paver driver, is workmanlike to point of robotic while Nine seems to be there to experience this land and people more so than doing the job.  I read some of the reviews on goodreads since this book has me thinking but also not thinking that deeply either.  Four shows some humanity by end of book helping a very sick Nine and also in what he listens to in his headphones.  Nine maybe regrets some of his adventures that ultimately made him sick but still seems to be a free spirit.  While the characters are important, I kept thinking about the road.  The country is never named but Somali is what I thought of at first when reading it.  The road is a way for the poor and undeveloped south to reach the more urban north.  It is seen as a way for this country to unite after a long civil war and seems to be hopeful through the book until the very end.  A different sort of book, a good quick read.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS, not sure if I will post or hold onto yet.  I have enough credits so I am in no hurry to post.