Play Their Hearts Out - George Dohrmann

I love most everything about basketball. I love playing; I love watching; I just love the game. But what this book made me realize is that what I really love are the memories I have of amazingly supportive coaches, fabulous teammates, and everything I learned about being a team player, working hard, and who I wanted to be as a person. Dohrmann's book focuses on the grassroot AAU leagues that feature the allegedly most talented young players in the country. In particular, Dohrmann follows one coach (and opportunist), Joe Keller, as he scouts out talented 10 and 11 years old before focusing on one boy to coach onto greatness. But, instead of truly looking out for the boy's well-being and coaching him to became a better player and teammate, Keller seems to know absolutely nothing about basketball strategy or kids. Instead, he's all about marketing hype, getting Nike and Adidas sponsorships, and using young boys to pay his mortgage. What this book also demonstrates is that raw talent will only take a player so far - without discipline, hard-work, and dedication to the game, even the fastest strongest players will flame out in the face of true competition and adversity. The saddest part of this book was seeing how Keller could lure so many kids (mostly from poor backgrounds) to his team, and how quickly he could destroy their self-confidence and their potential. Dohrmann's book highlights the disservice so many coaches are doing to these children that they view solely as their own mealtickets. It's not a symbiotic relationship in which a coach provides potential NBA exposure to a player in exchange for some financial rewards. Instead, it's the financial rewards in exchange for false praise and ultimately no growth in skills. I liked Dohrmann's in-depth analysis (he's not a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist for nothing) and his focus on the various kids in the story. It reminded me a lot of Warren St. John's Outcasts United in this respect. But ultimately, it was disappointing to think that an experience that should be filled with so many positives - particularly for these ultra-talented kids - could result in so much corruption and betrayal. An amazing book for opening your eyes to the shady underworld of AAU basketball, but not one filled with much hope or inspiration.

Book Lust To Go - Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl, a librarian in Seattle, has two prior books in this "series" - Book Lust and More Book Lust. All three are filled with her recommendations of books to read in various categories. Book Lust To Go focuses on travel - with Pearl breaking up the book into sections based on countries, cities, or type of travel (long train rides, for example). Pearl acknowledges in her introduction that she is not much of an actual traveler, but that she enjoys seeing new places through the pages of books in the comfort of her own home. And so she put togehter these lists filled with non-fiction, travel narratives, and fiction - all of which give the reader a real sense of the flavor of a given destination. Given that I predict limited ability to travel in the upcoming year - I was thinking of doing some armchair traveling of my own in 2011 - picking a country or region a month and focusing my reading on that area. Pearl has provided a lot of inspiration and suggestion for this project of mine. My only hesitation is that I want to be sure I'm reading books that are really true to a given place, and by Pearl's own admission, she hasn't herself been to many of these place. Though, it does sound like she sought out recommendations from people who had been...so I take some of her suggestions with a grain of salt. But, as with her prior two books, her lists have given me a wonderful jumping off point, and I look forward to traveling around the world with her help for the next 12 months!

Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer - John Grisham

When I was about 8 years old, one of my favorite characters was Encyclopedia Brown. He was a kid detective who charged a nominal fee to help out those in his neighborhood with various conundrums - small and large. Theodore Boone is a bit more sophisticated, but reminded me of a modern day version of Encyclopedia. Theodore is the 13-year old son of a family law attorney and a real estate attorney. He is a legal junkie, fascinated by the courtroom, and forever dispensing advice to his peers. While I fear he will shortly be prosecuted for practicing law without a license, I found his enthusiasm for the law and his interest in justice both absurd and endearing. I anticipate that Grisham will turn this into a series for young readers - which I think will be great. This one focused on the murder trial of a man accused of killing his own wife. Due to the skillful lawyering of the town's aggressive defense attorney, the defendant appears to be looking at an acquittal. Theodore then discovers a secret witness who could call into question everything the defense has put forward. Theodore has to deal with the ethical dilemma of revealing the confidential source of his information or potentially allowing a guilty man to walk free. Throughout the book, I thought Grisham did a great job of explaning the legal system in a way that would make sense and appeal to young readers - many of whom might be unfamiliar with many of the concepts. In addition to the murder trial, he threw in smaller cases - such as Theo's appearance in animal court to rescue the impounded dog of a girl he has a crush on at school and he difficulties endured by a close friend who had to testify at her own custody proceedings. In one short book, Grisham managed to showcase a wide array of legal issues and scenarios. I wasn't always on board with the direction the story took (I prefer presumed guilty man found to be actually innocent), but for my tastes, Theodore Boone is a wonderful, if not sometimes pretentious, protagonist, and I look forward to his future cases and adventures.

Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett (Sonchai Jipplecheep Series #3)

I downloaded this book to my kindle while I was on vacation in Bali...and read all the way up to the last chapter. Then when I returned home, I also returned to my paper books. The other day, I decided I needed to finish this up, so I could move on to Book 4 in the series...and alas, I discovered the biggest drawback for me and the kindle: I simply could not remember where I'd put the charger and the thing was out of battery life! Eventually, after tearing apart my bedroom and office, I finally remembered that I'd left it in the suitcase I'd taken with me to Asia. Happy to return to Detective Sonchai and the streets of Bangkok - and lesson learned to keep better track of my electronics. In this third installment, Sonchai finds himself even more enmeshed than usual in the superstitions of his Buddhist breatheren. A popular prostitute (and one of Sonchai's own personal obsessions) is found murdered in her apartment - and a snuff film is sent to Sonchai, making him face the fact that not only has he lost someone important to him, but the murder was somehow personal. He finds himself haunted by the spirit of the young woman, as well as haunted by his inability to find her killer. As with all the books in this series, Bangkok Haunts is filled with police corruption, sex, and humor. Sonchai is a complicated man, but despite his many vices, his pure heart always leads to a most satisfying outcome.

The Cookbook Collector - Allegra Goodman

This book has so many of the elements that I love in a good story - it's about family - in particular two very different sisters, Emily and Jess. It's set locally - in the Silicon Valley and in Berkeley. It features books prominently - Jess works in a used bookstore owned by a wealthy eccentric named George. And, it's just about their lives together and interacting with the people around them. Despite this, there were times when I felt like the book was trying to do too much. Emily works for a start-up during the dot.com to dot-bust era - and her long-distance boyfriend does the same. There are chapters devoted to the development of their technologies and the questionable sharing of proprietary information within the confines of their relationship. With a Jewish mother who passed away when the girls were quite young, Jess flirts with the idea of returning to temple and has various odds-and-ends encounters with rabbis near and far. Then there is how the girls deal with the absence of their mother, how the interact with their father and his new family, their various relationships with men, life in a post-9/11 world, etc. I often read books and love the characters so much that I wish the author could just write about their day-to-day lives. Well, in some way I got what I asked for in this book (though I can't say I loved any of these characters- though I would have liked to know more about George) - Goodman follows the day-to-day lives of these women - no matter where it takes us, even if completely random, off topic, and seemingly irrelevant. And my reaction was not positive. So, I suppose, be careful what you wish for. This is a good way to pass an afternoon or evening, but nothing I would go out of my way to recommend.

In a Strange Room - Damon Galgut

Because of the unique writing style. I think this is one of those books people will either love or hate. I definitely fall into the "hated it" category. Plot-wise, it's pretty interesting - a young man travels around Africa, Europe, and India meeting various other travelers he shares experiences with in varying types of relationships. The book is divided into three parts - the first two with the narrator switching from first-person to third-person and written in a disjointed hodge-podge of thoughts and ideas. This is definitely one of those books that I wanted to read slowly - to appreciate the writing, but found myself skimming through because I just wanted it to be over or to get to something good. The third section is a bit more concrete, and involves the narrator's trip through India with the suicidal girlfriend of his best friend. While tragic, it was a bit easier to follow and for me to care about. I keep coming back to these Man Booker winners and finalists because I know the writing will always be different and inspiring, but for those of us who generally like good stories that are easy to follow, they don't always make for the easiest reading experience (and once in awhile, that's probably a good thing).

Bicycle Diaries - David Byrne

I admit I am kind of annoyed when a given individual has more than one talent. I don't really have any, so it just seems incredibly unfair. Nevermind that maybe they've worked hard to cultivate their talent or particular interest...so, I don't usually like to read books by people who are already famous musicians or artists, yet have something even more interesting that they want to write about. But, I couldn't resist David Byrne's book about life on his bike in various cities around the world. While the underlying premise of the book is Byrne's bike - this isn't really a book about biking. Byrne simply uses his bike to get around - from his art showings to his interesting friends to his inspiration for architectual designs. In other words - as a vehicle for exploration of his millions of talents. For someone who is an avid biker and wants to read a book about biking, this might not quite be the right one. But, for anyone who likes a good travel narrative, Byrne definitely has a unique perspective on life - and lots of crazy and wonderful ideas and stories to share.