The Manhattan Hunt Club--#42 finished

This is an older mass market paperback that I have had on a shelf for several years.  I do not even remember where it came from, I don't think it was PBS unless it was a free throw in book at some point, maybe a library sale book--just don't know.  Book was published in 2001 so 25 years old now too.  The elites of New York have found a way to get the worst criminals secretly released into the tunnels and subway lines below New York and then the elites hunt them down.  In a macabre part of the story, the bodies are then brought back to the club where a taxidermist stuffs them--this was mentioned a few times but I just don't understand why anything this sick made it into the story.  Also these bodies are then just evidence against these elite if ever found too.  Oh well, one of those sent into the tunnels was of course innocent and dating/engaged to a daughter of one of the elite.  This guy gets a message out and his dad and the daughter join the tunnels in search of him.  They are able to kill of the hunters and survive.  Not a great read but interesting I guess in the idea.

There are already 17 copies of this book in PBS so I will not add to that.  It will go onto my donate away pile.  Seems like a good one for one of the free small library boxes around.

As Good As Gold--#41 finished

The rest of the title is: 1 Woman, 9 Sports, 10 Countries and a 2 Year Quest to Make the Summer Olympics.  The author Kathryn Bertine was a pro tri-athlete who was also a writer but took several part-time jobs as well to fund her triathlon career.  ESPN approached her about making an attempt to get to the Olympics in whatever sport she could accomplish it.  They would pay her for articles and cover a lot of the expenses for this.  She was not Olympic qualifier stuff for the triathlon so she tried out for the team handball sport, pentathlon, track cycling, rowing, open water swimming, race walking and then road cycling.  She didn't earn any spots on US teams so she reached out to other nations for road cycling and eventually was given dual citizenship with St Kitts and Nevis to try to earn a cycling spot there but was unable to accumulate enough points to qualify for the Olympics--she traveled to several countries and rode races there trying to earn the points but as a single racer vs teams of racers it was low odds to start and her attempts while valiant didn't get her there.  It is a good story about determination and desire and also exposes the reader to some little known sports and how Olympic teams for formed.  

This is a book that I got from ThriftBooks, so not a PBS book.  It is also a book autographed by author.  I read up on Wikipedia about author and she has a few other books but has also been an important person for establishing professional cycling leagues.  This book will be a keeper for me.  There are 2 WL for book on PBS but have enough credits & plenty of other books I can mail if ever need more.  

It's Hard for Me to Live with Me--#40 finished

This is a memoir by Rex Chapman a Kentucky basketball player that went onto a long career in the NBA and then in several front office jobs around the league.  While this was going on, he was struggling with several things.  Being injured several times during his career, he develop an addiction to opioids--Vicodin and Oxycontin and later another drug that helped wean him off of those.  Throw in a gambling addition as well that he talks about.  I also think there seems to be a lot of just not growing up involved--he was thrown money in college--probably high school too--then got large contracts in the NBA to the point that he never really thought about money.  Relationships too, as it sounds like he wasn't very faithful to any of his partners--he doesn't go into a lot of detail about this but did seem to at least hint at this during his playing days.  He blew all of his money, divorced, arrested and basically homeless.  It sounds like he is in a better place working, repairing relationships with his kids, handling his addictions so I am glad to hear this.  From reading this memoir though, worried that he is still sort of on a razor's edge--I hope he can stay clean though.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS so I will probably be posting it soon to get it mailed off, no reason to keep it any longer.

There You Are--#39 finished

This is a book that is very much about St Louis.  The author grew up in St Louis or at least St Louis county, probably in the U-City area.  The Delmar Loop with Vintage Vinyl as the main area of contact for the characters.  A lot of talk of music and albums--something I don't know that much about but doesn't go too crazy about it, I was able to read through it and get the meaning.  Good characters if sometimes a little to easy to figure out.  The main characters have moved away but are drawn back to St Louis while the Michael Brown protests are going on and with the threat of the music store closing.  A lot to do about race in St Louis, police, schools along with the music.  I enjoyed it and living here I have seen a lot of this too.

There is 1 WL for this book on PBS but since a St Louis book will probably keep at this point.  I did get this one through Thrift Books too instead of PBS.

Burntcoat--#38 finished

This is a short kind of quick read.  It is about an artist in England and her life.  Her mother was a writer that suffers a brain aneurysm and struggles to re-gain her life.  The daughter is a pre-teen and basically has to learn to take care of herself and her mother, the dad can't take his wife's changed life & he left.  Now daughter is older and meets a man and becomes romantically involved, then a deadly virus strikes the world--not sure if idea came from Covid or if this was started before and just happened this way--book published in 2021 so could be either I guess.  Her and the boyfriend struggle through this virus with boyfriend succumbing to it and her falling sick but slowly recovers.  Life has changed.  I tough read at times and emotional in many ways.  A different sort of book, sometimes hard to follow but worth it as story and characters are worth the read.

There were no copies in PBS so I posted it right away and it has already been requested.  I will get it mailed off in the next few days. 

The Vanishing Half--#37 finished

This is a book that I had for a few years and almost gave away before reading.  Actually did give to my mom to read and got back from her and then almost gave away again.  I wasn't sure I would stay interested in it to read.  I finally saw it on the shelf and gave it a shot and it was an enjoyable read.  Was confusing at parts to figure out where the story was at but overall interesting story & characters.  Twins in a small town Louisiana that is a mostly black town but a town the seems to celebrate lighter skin blacks.  The twins are forced to drop out of high school and work but eventually run away to New Orleans.  They split up, one marries a dark skinned African American man and has a daughter.  The husband beats the wife--one of the twins--and she leaves him and moves back to the small town.  Meets the guy hired to find her and he becomes her lifelong companion.  Other twin passes for white and becomes a secretary that marries her boss and lives an upper class life eventually moving to Los Angeles.  They have a daughter too.  The daughters meet with the darker skinned daughter figuring things out and trying to convince the other.  Story kind of goes from there.  Interesting read like I said.

I have posted this one PBS, there were already 5 copies of this one posted so not sure if it will move but a popular enough book that might get requested at some point.

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.