More vacation reads
Unlike Will, I haven’t been on vacation for a while, but I have a few suggestions of things I’ve recently read, old and new, short and lengthy if you’re headed to the beach in the near future.
“As They Seem ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires” by Bruce Weber– Weber, a New York Times reporter, spends time on the road (and on the field) with baseball umpires, and writes a mix of compelling travelogue and historical information about how the umpire, as fans know them, came to be. You can also learn the dirty words that guarantee a player or manager will be tossed out of a game and get quizzed on arcane and sometimes inexplicable rules that umpires are expected to know by heart. Any baseball fan will surely enjoy a look at the faceless — unless they blow a call — number that keep America’s Pastime moving.
“City of Thieves” by David Benioff — Written by the author of “The 25th Hour,” this is a short but powerful read, set in St. Petersburg during World War II. Benioff does a wonderful job setting the details of a grisly time, with the Nazis at the gate, starvation lurking in the city and fear cloaking all other emotions. The only downside is that the tale is told through a grandfather’s narrative to his grandson, and because of that, I deduced a major piece of the denouement long before the end. Still, Benioff captivated me from page one, and kept me right through the finish.
“The Historian” by Elizabeth Kostova — With all the bad things being done to vampires these days — “Twilight” being a good example – a vivid reimagination of the Dracula mythology is exactly what’s needed to keep the genre fresh. Weaving together peasant lore, actual history, Bram Stoker’s tale and much more, Kostova turns her Dracula into a cunning, eerie adversary who is as interested in human history (and historians) as he is in fresh blood. Though this book came out almost five years ago, it still feels like the freshest take on vampires.
I’m not sure what a “vacation read” is, as I try to read all year round. But Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an excellent novel set during the Nigerian Civil War.