writesdave's reviews
356 reviews

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the Usfl by Jeff Pearlman

challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

Fun, insane chronicle of the best attempt at football outside the NFL. Proves beyond a doubt that just because someone has money doesn’t make them good or smart. Also, I wonder if Pearlman’s anti-Trump fervor colored his writing, but then Trump torpedoed the league without a doubt. Anyway, well worth a read for anyone who wants to own a whole sports league.

The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms by The Paris Review, Richard Powers

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

Four stars is the sum of the parts, some brilliant works, others less so. Highly entertaining compilation nonetheless.

Fifty Great Short Stories by Milton Crane

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Picked this up a loooonnnnggg time ago and whiled away many a train ride with these stories. Much recommended.

Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago by Mike Royko

challenging dark informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

Absolute takedown of Chicago’s political icon and his Machine. Too bad it didn’t make a damned bit of difference, and Chicago’s picture remains in the dictionary next to the word “corrupt.” Nonetheless, today’s journalists would do well to jettison their access journalism for Royko’s philosophy of coverage without fear or favor.

Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Funny, heartfelt story about a subsistence farmer creating an excrement-storm by irrigating his bean field from a rich man's creek. Beautiful descriptions of a stark and stunning landscape, plus raging against the machine—what's not to love?

No Bull: The Real Story of the Durham Bulls and the Rebirth of a Team and a City by Ron Morris

emotional informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.5

My annual baseball read took me to Durham, N.C., where Ron Morris, longtime sports journalist, chronicled the rise of the Durham Bulls from their revival in the 1980 season through the movie to the present day (at least to the book's publication in 2017). It's a solid look at what it takes to run a minor-league baseball team, as well as a hefty dose of nostalgia from an old sportswriter, linking the early 1990s boom in minor-league baseball to the success of the Bulls after their founding. 

He captured the characters on the team well, devoting a final chapter to where each player landed after his time in Durham. You'll see a few familiar names, too, though again the personalities stand out. A good beat writer like Ron certainly knows a team well enough to bring out those characters.

Ron just needed a more strident editor to close a couple of narrative loops and check some facts. The style is a little dry, too, but I understand the desire to inform and chronicle. No, I couldn't have done any better.

Thanks to my buddy Alex, who knows Ron well, for loaning me the book.

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecelia Watson

challenging funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

I rarely read other reviews of any book, but I don't know how many describe a couple hundred pages about a punctuation mark as "fun." And this was fun. Really.

Watson takes an exhaustive (but not exhausting) view of a reviled punctuation mark and offers prime examples of proper use, misuse and overuse, while leaving the reader to decide the semicolon's efficacy. A great book for writers in particular, it is one of those books you didn't know you needed. 

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Thoroughly depressing and beautifully written chronicle of a 1950s marriage, like if "The Dick Van Dyke Show" got rebooted on HBO, and Van Dyke's alcoholism was central to the plot. You have everything the boomers tried to cover up—domestic violence, alcoholism, philandering, lousy jobs they hate, abandoned dreams and stay-at-home moms who self-medicate. The kids get no attention, probably for a reason. Again, it's the train wreck of domestic life that never made it to prime time.