Playing with the Enemy, A Baseball Prodigy, World War II and the Long Journey Home by Gary W. Moore; 2008; $15.00; 306 pages; Penguin Books, New York, NY; 978-0-14-311388-1; purchased at the Friends of the Library Book Sale; 5/12/2020-5/17/2020
Our story begins in Sessler, Indiana in the days leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fifteen year old Gene Moore is playing catcher for the Sessler Egyptians semi pro team. He can hit, throw and manage like no one else. All the older players respect him and listen when he gives advice and positions players when he is catching. One day a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers shows up and eventually signs Gene to a contract. He is too young so they find him a better semi pro team to play. In the days after Pearl Harbor he turns seventeen and the Dodgers manage to get Gene assigned to the Navy Baseball team. One day German U Boat 505 is captured, but the U.S. doesn't tell anyone and the entire crew was sent to a POW camp in Ruston, LA. There the Navy was assigned to guard the prisoners. They eventually taught the prisoners how to play baseball. In the final game of the war, Gene Moore breaks his ankle and the is really what drives the rest of the story. It is hard to tell what is true and what is fiction in this story based on the life of Gene Moore. I thought it was very moving story.
10/10
My Most Excellent Year, A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger; 2008; $16.99; 403 pages; Dial Books, New York, NY; 978-0-8037-3227; purchased at the Title Wave Used Bookstore,5/9/2020-5/11/2020
Give me a book that promises Mary Poppins and baseball together and I will give it a look. This is an fun read told through diary entries and correspondence. I laughed out loud at least once and found myself tearing up a couple of times. There is baseball throughout, some of the characters are named after Red Sox players, there are Aunts Babe and Ruth. There are divas from Streisand to Minelli. Julie Andrews even makes an appearance. There are several relationships being formed by people of all ages throughout the story and most of them affect each other. One of the most hopeful books I have read this year.
10/10
The Final Spark, Michael Vey #7 by Richard Paul Evans; 2017; $8.97; 316 pages; Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink, New York, NY; 978-1481497039; purchased from SmileAmazon.com; 5/3/2020-5/6/2020
For a book series named Michael Vey, he hardly shows up at all in this final installment. After focusing on him and his electroclan for six books we get hardly any of them. A real disappointment, I really liked the first six books, bummer.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens;2018; $26.00; 368 pages; G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, NY; 978-0-7532-1909-0; borrowed from Diana Lee Jackson; 4/28/2020-5/3/2020
I truly believe that if Pat Conroy was still with us that he would have had something good to say about this book. Delia Owens writes in a style similar to Pat Conroy and John Larison.
She tells the story of Kya a very young girl in the marshes who is ultimately abandoned by every member of her family and left to fend for herself. She becomes very knowledgeable about the marsh and it inhabitants. She becomes involved with a couple of men who are two sides of a coin, but both are well rounded characters. Each character is very well formed and the story is engrossing.
10/10
Fall of Hades, Michael Vey #6 by Richard Paul Evans; 2016; $11.99; 328 pages; Mercury Ink/Simon Pulse, New York, NY; 978-1-48146983-8; purchased from SmileAmazon.com; 4/26/2020-4/28/2020
Michael Vey and the Electroclan travel to Taiwan to rescue a highly placed Elgen officer who has decided to defect. They are also going to rescue three of Hatch's glow kids who crossed him and try to recruit them to the Electroclan. Oh and steal the Elgen's floating vault. It was a fun and exciting read with a real cliffhanger ending.
