eBook Staff Picks

One of the best insider baseball books I've ever read. Based on interviews with hundreds of players from the last 50 years of baseball, along with great historical anecdotes, The Baseball Codes reveals the unseen game: what offenses cause a pitcher to intentionally hit a batter; what recourse that batter has; what's ok and what's not ok when it comes to stealing signs; how to properly celebrate an accomplishment without earning the ire of the opposing team; what actually constitutes "running up the score"; what is proper decorum for a rookie in the clubhouse. Best of all, the authors are both local, so many of the tales involve the Giants.

-Kevin R.

My favorite book in 2010. {Editor's note: Jeff's original shelf-talker for this book also includes a frightening drawing of a tiger claw.}

-Jeff

“Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color,” writes Maggie Nelson in the opening note of Bluets. What follows is an account of a love, truly, including love’s every aspect: lust, infatuation, frustration, occasional boredom, and constant fascination as Nelson tumbles into this vivid hue and pulls us into its depths along with her. Part memoir, perhaps a poem, part literary history of blue and the psychology of color, Bluets is a mesmerizing book that will color your world and reading anew.

-Molly

This warm and witty memoir/fiction hits my comic sweet spot. I laughed out loud -- OUT LOUD! -- at least every three pages. Screenwriter, playwrite, and former film critic Rudnick charmingly recalls detailed anecdotes from his childhood in Piscataway, off-Broadway productions, and showbiz personalities. One warning -- some of these pieces appeared in New Yorker magazine first.

-T-Bone