The Curse of Rocky Colavito

Author: Terry Pluto
Genre: Sports / Non-fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 287
Rating: Recommend, if you're a Cleveland Indians fan.

Synopsis: Any team can have an off-decade. But three in a row? Only in Cleveland.

The Indians tempted fate when they traded away Rocky Colavito in 1960. Young, strong, popular, and coming off back-to-back 40 home run/100 RBI seasons, he was the type of player you just don't trade.

Then, for the next thirty-three years, the Indians slumped miserably, finishing above .500 just six times, never higher than third in their division.

Only pride and masochism brought fans back to drafty old Cleveland Stadium during those awful seasons, when even the most optimistic knew their hopes would be dashed by June.

Veteran sportswriter Terry Pluto takes a witty look at the endless parade of strange events that afflicted the Tribe. Other teams lose players to injuries; the Indians lost them to alcoholism (Sam McDowell), a nervous breakdown (Tony Horton), and the pro golf tour (Ken Harrelson). They even had to trade young Dennis Eckersley (a future Hall-of-Famer) because his wife fell in love with his best friend and teammate.

Pluto profiles the men who made the Indians what they were, for better or worse, including Gabe Paul, the underfunded and overmatched general manager; Herb Score, the much-loved master of malaprops in the broadcast booth; Andre Thornton, who weathered personal tragedies and stood as one of the few hitting stalwarts on some terrible teams; Super Joe Charboneau, who blazed across the American League as a rookie but flamed out the following season; and Hank Peters, John Hart, and Mike Hargrove, who eventually pointed the team in the right direction.

Long-suffering Indians fans survived the curse and finally got an exciting, star-studded, winning team in the second half of the 1990s. But The Curse of Rocky Colavito still stands as a classic look back at those years of futility and frustration that made the rare taste of success so much sweeter.

Review: To a Cleveland Indians fan this book is a must-read. For me, dating a huge Cleveland Indians fan, reading this book was a labor of love. I got through it. Enough said.

Isaac's Storm

Author: Erik Larson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000
Pages: 336 
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: At the dawn of the twentieth century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.

That August, a strange, prolonged heat wave gripped the nation and killed scores of people in New York and Chicago. Odd things seemed to happen everywhere: A plague of crickets engulfed Waco. The Bering Glacier began to shrink. Rain fell on Galveston with greater intensity than anyone could remember. Far away, in Africa, immense thunderstorms blossomed over the city of Dakar, and great currents of wind converged. A wave of atmospheric turbulence slipped from the coast of western Africa. Most such waves faded quickly. This one did not.

In Cuba, America's overconfidence was made all too obvious by the Weather Bureau's obsession with controlling hurricane forecasts, even though Cuba's indigenous weathermen had pioneered hurricane science. As the bureau's forecasters assured the nation that all was calm in the Caribbean, Cuba's own weathermen fretted about ominous signs in the sky. A curious stillness gripped Antigua. Only a few unlucky sea captains discovered that the storm had achieved an intensity no man alive had ever experienced.

In Galveston, reassured by Cline's belief that no hurricane could seriously damage the city, there was celebration. Children played in the rising water. Hundreds of people gathered at the beach to marvel at the fantastically tall waves and gorgeous pink sky, until the surf began ripping the city's beloved beachfront apart. Within the next few hours Galveston would endure a hurricane that to this day remains the nation's deadliest natural disaster. In Galveston alone at least 6,000 people, possibly as many as 10,000, would lose their lives, a number far greater than the combined death toll of the Johnstown Flood and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

And Isaac Cline would experience his own unbearable loss.

Meticulously researched and vividly written, Isaac's Storm is based on Cline's own letters, telegrams, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the hows and whys of great storms. Ultimately, however, it is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets nature's last great uncontrollable force. As such, Isaac's Storm carries a warning for our time.

Review: A captivating account of the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston. Larson brings the times and the days alive. Excellent.

"The Divorce Party"

Author: Laura Dave
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2009
Pages: 272
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Two women at opposite ends of a marriage are trying to answer the same question: When should you fight to save a relationship and when should you begin to let go?

On their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, Gwyn Huntington and her husband, Thomas, invite friends and family over for a most unusual celebration. Their home, Huntington Gall, has been in the family for generations after surviving the Great Hurricane of 1938, which tore Montauk apart. Instead of celebrating their life there, Gwyn and Thomas are toasting their divorce.

The weekend also marks the first time that their son, Nate, brings his fiancee, Maggie, home to Montauk. But Maggie finds herself wondering if it will be the last, because she discovers a secret Nate has kept for years.

A multigenerational novel about love, family, and what it means to build a life with someon, The Divorce Party brings us two immensely appealing women: Gwyn, at the end of her marriage, and her future daughter-in-law, Maggie, at the beginning. Though they make very different choices, both women ultimately discover how to create the lives they most want to lead.

Review: This book was much better than I expected. It's told from Gwyn's and Maggie's points of view in alternating chapters. The characters feel very real and it is easy for the reader to become a part of their lives.

Laura Dave takes her reader on an interesting exploration of relationships. This is a page-turner, but not a fast read. It has some qualities of Chick Lit, but with much more depth.

I guarantee this will make you think and reflect on your own relationships.

"Living Dead Girl"

Author: Elizabeth Scott
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Simon Pulse, 2008
Pages: 169
Rating: Recommend


Synopsis: Once upon a time, I was a little girl who disappeared. Once upon a time, my name was not Alice. Once upon a time, I didn't know how lucky I was.

When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends - her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over. Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her. This is Alice's story. It is one you have never heard, and one you will never, ever forget.  

Review: While this book is considered "young adult" fiction, I found the copy I read in the adult section of my library, with good reason. The content and subject matter are extremely disturbing and I wanted to stop reading, but I could not put the book down.

I did enjoy the author's writing style and the story is well-told. 

With Wings as Eagles

Author: Elaine Schulte
Genre: Christian Lit
Series: California Pioneers Series (Book 4)
Publisher: LifeJourney Books, 1991
Pages: 275
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: With Wings as Eagles is the fourth book in the exciting story of the Talbots, a Christian Family determined to penetrate the west with the reality of God's love.

Review: I'll admit it, I'm tired of this series. This book was not unlike the others in the series of course and introduces yet another couple. Again, one could read this without having read the others in the series. The first book in the series, The Journey West, is still my favorite.

Eternal Passage

Author: Elaine Schulte
Genre: Christian Lit
Series: California Pioneers Series (Book 3)
Publisher: LifeJourney Books, 1991
Pages: 185
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Louisa Abigail Setter is fleeing her abusive husband, a Virginia slave market manager. If she acn only make ti to the California Territory, her relatives will take her in. But life becomes more complicated as she realizes her deepening feelings for the man who made her journey possible. And Louisa is more certain than ever that her only hope is in God.

Eternal Passage is the third book in the exciting story of the Talbots, a Christian Family determined to penetrate the west with the reality of God's love.

Review: In typical Schulte fashion, Eternal Passage is heartwarming and sweet.

Golden Dreams

Author: Elaine Schulte
Genre: Christian Lit
Series: California Pioneers Series (Book 2)
Publisher: LifeJourney Books, 1991
Pages: 252
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Her fiance's death has pushed her into the arms of his twin brother, but Rose Wilmington knows this is not God's plan for her. In desperation, she boards a clipper ship to sail from Boston to California. But she soon becomes confused as to the intentions of a tall and handsome fellow passenger, and troubled by thoughts of what strange new experiences await her in the California - quickly becoming known for gold and greed.

Golden Dreams is the second book in the exciting story of the Talbots, a Christian Family determined to penetrate the west with the reality of God's love.

Review: Ever predictable, these stories can be heartwarming. I read the first in this series Journey West and like it. I had hoped the second book would pick up where the first book left off, but this is a whole new storyline.

While I like reading a series in order, it is not necessary in this instance.