I’m a sucker for a good baseball book, so when I saw that John Feinstein had a new book out, I couldn’t resist. Feinstein spent a season covering Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. I’m only a couple chapters in, but so far it’s as good an inside look at baseball as I’ve read in a long time. It reminds me a lot of George Will’s “Men at Work”.

Go Tigers! (Sorry Jake.)

I really have enjoyed looking through this book, Campaigning for President. This book is full of Jordan M. Wright’s personal collection of presidential election memorabilia, from posters, paper dresses, dolls, and buttons dating back to George Washington. This book really lets us know that money has always been important in campaigns and how candidates really came up with some creative ways to represent themselves to the American public.

These two books almost made me want to go back to school to finish my art degree (which is saying something). If you opt to take my recommendation, you must read them in order; The Cheese Monkeys followed closely by The Learners. Chip Kidd, the author, is a dust jacket designer turned author…thank heavens. Not only are they damn fine books, they are a couple of beauts.

I don’t know a single person from around my generation who did not read Roald Dahl as a child…or even as an adult. Because seriously, do you really ever grow out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the BFG? Well Roald’s writing gene has thankfully passed through the generations to his very beautiful granddaughter named Sophie. Sophie Dahl is famous for many reasons, first being that she is the granddaughter of a great author, her own writing, and for being discovered as a model while walking down the side walk in London. Sophie has written a previous book called The Man with Dancing Eyes. Her new book is entitled Playing with the Grown-Ups. In interviews she has said that the book is semi-autobiographical. The book is the coming of age tale about a girl named Kitty. The beginning of the book opens at Kitty’s grandparent’s house in the country. Kitty and her mother live with the grandparent’s until Kitty’s mother has one of her spiritual episodes and she decides they must move to New York City. The mother in the story is extremely flighty and prone to migraines which put her in the bed for days. Kitty grows up with very little supervision and therefore tends to be quite wild at times. She dabbles in drug-use and getting involved with older men. Ms. Dahl writes in a way that is very easy to identify with. At times during the story I felt like I was reading about my own adolescence. I absolutely adored Kitty and I wanted to give her guidance through all of her trails as a young woman. Although the artist mother, Marina, is not a great parent or role-model I felt for her. Marina allowed herself to be manipulated by many men and she would fall into a deep bouts of depression every time she was cast to the side by them. I loved this book because it was an easy read but still very literary and interesting. I hope there are many more books in Sophie Dahl’s future because she has certainly made a fan out of me.

It’s hard not to pay attention to politics during an election year. Yesterday morning John and I were talking about Thomas Sowell’s column and how we both appreciated his ability to cut through the nonsense and hammer away at the central issue. His books don’t have the most brightly-colored covers, or the most attention-grabbing titles, but I think his approach to the material is entertaining to read, insightful, and educational (which sounds dry but isn’t).

Some of my favorites of his works are Basic Economics, Applied Economics, and A Conflict of Visions. I haven’t read The Vision of the Anointed yet, but I think that’s next — in it Sowell examines public policy and the disconnect between intentions and results.