Controversy – William Manchester, 1976 ★★½

History Is His Story

Paul McCartney had a lyric in one of his early albums, Ram. “You took your lucky break and broke it in two…” 

I kept hearing it as I read through the title essay in this collection by the noted historian William Manchester.

The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie, 1926 ★★★★½

Murder Most Sharp

Diabolical is the word to describe this wonderful mystery novel, as twisted as a vine and as charming as a cuckoo clock. Those who might question the notion of a tea-cozy mystery blowing a reader’s mind (much like me, back when) will most likely enjoy this happy rebuke.

Critics have called this the best of the Christie novels; many place it in the top ten of crime fiction overall. In terms of mechanical skill, there’s nothing to argue with there. Nor will I do too much explaining, it being a matter of spoilers. More even than most mysteries, you have that issue here.

The Amazing Mets – Jerry Mitchell, 1964 ★★★

How to Succeed in Baseball without Ever Winning

For very few lucky people, greatness is something that comes easy. Is it possible to say the same rule applies with ineptitude?

In the realm of professional sports, few have ever done so much with so little result, and been so celebrated in the process, as were the early New York Mets.

Capote – Gerald Clarke, 1988 ★★★½

Tracing the Fall of a Little Giant

There’s a mystery behind every great author; behind Truman Capote the mystery may simply be this: Which of his books wound up killing him?

If you accept the movie adaptation of this biography, the one which Philip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for the title role in 2006, the villain is clearly In Cold Blood, a “nonfiction novel” whose emotionally harrowing subject matter sent the sensitive Capote over the edge.