Shortlisted for the Casey Award as the Best Baseball Book of 2021 (winner TBA) this is a fun review of baseball history as the author lists his choices for the 100 all-time best players and provides great stories and insights to back them up.

At 830 pages this one took a bit longer than usual to finish, but I did enjoy it just as much as his previous two baseball books: THE MACHINE and THE SOUL OF BASEBALL, the latter of which earned him the 2007 Casey Award to put on his mantle.

The author is a journalist who has worked at The Charlotte Observer, The Cincinnati Post, The Augusta Chronicle, The Kansas City Star, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, NBC Sports, and the MLB Network.

The best of the novels that I have read so far in 2022 is certainly FROM A DARK HORIZON by Luke McCallin.

This is a prequel to McCallin's WWII trilogy featuring Wehrmacht intel officer Gregor Reinhardt. The first and third books in the trilogy were finalists for the British Dagger Award as the Best Historical Mystery Novels of the Year.

This new novel recounts Reinhardt’s time as a young lieutenant in the trenches as The Great War approaches its endgame. A series of murders behind the lines forces Gregor to investigate, only to expose the dark corners of wartime trauma medicine along with the social fractures that are undermining the German front lines and which threaten the very fabric of his country.

McCallin is a former humanitarian relief work and U.N. peacekeeper who served in both the Caucasus and the Balkans. His books have had limited release here in the U.S. but are certainly worth tracking down if you can find them at your local bookstores or libraries.

The touching memoir of a boy and his dog, growing up in rural Mississippi in the 1940's. It's a real love letter to simpler times. There are a few differences to the film which starred Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane and Kevin Bacon. 

If you are a dog lover, the book (like the movie) will leave you in a mess.

I’m usually skeptical when a piece is “written” by it’s subject, especially this time period and its enthusiastic ghost writers. But  this is no autobiography, the format is done with plenty of interviews and personal letters, plus a boatload of historical footnotes. 

Dennis Rakestraw is a white rookie police officer and WWII veteran who, after fighting fascism overseas, cannot comprehend the racial divides in his city, within his own family, and in the ranks of the police force. The three officers' paths merge and they form a shaky alliance as they seek to solve crimes that cross over between the city's white and black communities. But they often uncover secrets that are better left buried and forgotten.

So far, the series has showcased: TIGER, FOX, LION, DINOSAUR and now MASTIFF.

Highly recommended.

Used to consume a lot of King's books in my mid to late teens, read the odd one in my twenties... And then ditched him in the early 2000s for the most part, until Dr Sleep. Anyway enjoyed Dr Sleep enough to go back for some more. Revival was okay, but The Institute I am finding seems to be stuck in something of a rut after a quick start. It's not bad as such, but I can't recommend it on what I've read so far.