News and Reviews

Books

The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife

Brad Balukjian

“If you are looking for a way to pass the time, I highly recommend a new baseball book that hit the market last week called The Wax Pack. The author of the book, Brad Balukjian, had a brilliant idea: Open up a pack of baseball card from the 1980s, then try to track down all the players in the pack and see what they are up to know. What happened was an adventurous road trip that took him all over the country, trying to track down superstars such as Carlton Fisk and Vince Coleman, to more nondescript players such as Jaime Cocanower and Randy Ready.”

The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust

Rafael Medoff

Featured in the Jewish Review of Books:

“In his damning new book, Rafael Medoff shows that Roosevelt and immediate members of his family held antisemitic views and often made casually antisemitic remarks and jokes… Franklin Delano Roosevelt, too, was a historical actor operating under the constraints of his time and place, but he was also the president of the United States, indeed the most powerful and popular president in history. And yet, as Rafael Medoff shows in this sobering book, he clearly could have done more to save European Jewry.”

Drunk in China: Baijiu and the World’s Oldest Drinking Culture

Derek Sandhaus

Review in the World of Chinese:

“It is a cliche, although no less accurate for being so, that sometimes the best way to learn about a place is through the slightly warped view found at the bottom of a glass. Sandhaus’ misadventures in pursuit of his ethanol epiphanies, some previously recorded on his research blog “300 Shots to Greatness,” are classic anecdotes that will be fascinating to readers abroad.”

Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers

Robert K. Fitts

Review in the North American Post:

“While Fitts’ research is exhaustive, his writing style is engaging… This is no dry history! But where Fitts really shines is on the baseball diamond. His depiction of the many games played across the US by barnstorming squads is excellent… If you’re a baseball fan missing our national game right now or just someone who wants to learn more about the Issei immigrants and the battles they fought to get the JA community where it is today, I highly recommend Issei Baseball.”

Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original

Mitchell Nathanson

Review by The Sports Bookie:

“Nathanson gives the reader a literary locker room view of the process that led to Ball Four. Bouton is a book that deserves space next to Ball Four on the bookshelf. Nathanson has done a thorough job of presenting the life of a complex man who changed the game of baseball, not by what he did on the field, but what he observed on the field, in the clubhouse and on the road.”

Skin Memory

John Sibley Williams

Featured in the Adroit Journal:

“Skin Memory is a book about survival. Intermingling internal, emotional landscapes, and those of nature, the collection depicts a journey through tragedy and pain toward a reconciliation with the past… As I read and reread Skin Memory, the more riches it revealed to me. With its haunting and multi-layered imagery, it provides a profound and lingering experience.”