Sunday April 17, 2005

Books and Baseball

Back on March 20 I mentioned that I was reading three books. I've finished two of them and read one not on the list so I thought I would summarize my impressions.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was my book club book back in February and I talked about it then but I hadn't finished it. Now that I have I can say I enjoyed the book. It is a family saga about a Greek-American family who have a hermaphrodite child. But I would also agree with Stephen O'Grady's comment on my posting. He said he thought the story was a bit overwrought. I also thought it was somewhat contrived. For example, there was a part in the book where the family was exposed to the start of the Black Muslim movement. The coincidence was hard to believe. In spite of that I would recommend the book.

The second book was also a book club book. I read it for my April book club. The Book of Salt by Monique Truong was not my kind of book. It is about a Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in 1930s Paris. Truong has amazing skill with language. Her descriptions of food and scene are masterful. She developed the theme of cultural isolation so effectively that it impacted my feelings. In spite of all that I disliked The Book of Salt. At first I thought the Toklas / Stein connection was a gimmick to get people to buy the book then I thought maybe she was trying to emulate Stein and that was why there was no story. In any case I don't enjoy a book without a story and this book didn't have one.

I really loved the third book I read. Moneyball by Michael Lewis was the most enjoyable book I have read in a long time. A good non fiction book is hard to beat. Moneyball is about statistics in baseball and how the Oakland A's use them to win more than almost any other team in baseball while having one of the smallest salary budgets in baseball. They employ the baseball equivalent of the efficient market theory of investing. I highly recommend the book.

We went to see the A's play the Anaheim Angels this afternoon. It was great fun to see the people I had read about. There is a whole chapter about Scott Hatteberg who plays first base and also quite a bit about Nick Swisher. We were one row behind the Angel's dugout so there was often a guest relations person standing right by us to make sure no one climbed on to the field. I heard him asking the guy in front of me if he had read Moneyball when I said I had he pointed out which players he thought were current undervalued players. We see the A's play a couple of times a year. Today was fun. It was beautiful day and they won a close game 6-7.