41. The Little Red (Sox) Book

The Little Red (Sox) Book: A Revisionist Red Sox History - Bill "Spaceman" Lee

Bill Lee was one of those larger than life baseball players who were my heros in the mid 70's. He is one of the stars that helped me become a Red Sox fan. Fred Lynn, Rick Burleson, Yaz, Dewey, Jim Rice, Louis Tiant, Eck, Fisk, Denny Doyle, Butch Hobson, Rico Petrocelli, Bernie Carbo, Bob Stanley,  etc etc. I loved those guys...they thrilled me...and they broke my heart (along with a million other fans over many many decades.)

So, Bill Lee rewrote history in this book. It is full of what-ifs. What if Babe Ruth never left Boston? What if Jackie Robinson was signed by Boston? What if Ted Williams didn't go off to war? What if Bucky Dent was a pianist rather than a baseball player? What if Buckner wasn't on the field in '86? What if the Green Monster was in right field? What if Conigliaro didn't get beaned in '67? What if the Rocket stayed in Boston? What if, what if, what if?

Lee has written history the way Boston fans would prefer things happened. New York ending up a cesspool with a team that struggles to even maintain itself in MLB. Boston winning again, and again...and it is awesome!

What fun. Especially now that the Red Sox have actually won a few World Series and it makes the whole thing easier to laugh about. ;-)

The stories of the perpetually hapless Yankees are funny. The rewrites of the story lines for the '75 Reds, '78 Yankees and '86 Mets are especially touching to me.

The funniest "revision" was how Ted Williams killed Hitler with a line drive and thereby prevented World War II (at least in Europe).

The Spaceman cracks me up.

40. The Practice of the Presence of God

The Practice of the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence

This is a collection of letters written by a Carmelite monk and the recollections of some of his speakings in the 1600's. It is a bit repetitive, but I guess the idea was important to him.

How do you get and stay in the presence of God? Practice, of course. How do you practice? Think about God. Read about God. Talk about God. Pray to God. Constantly strive to include God in everything. His presence in your life will become habit. :-)

This is no "All of Grace". OK, but no revelation from this one.

39. All Of Grace

All Of Grace - Charles H. Spurgeon

One of the best books I have ever read. I loved this one. I will read it again...right now.

38. The Mystery Of The Yellow Room

The Mystery of the Yellow Room: Extraordinary Adventures of Joseph Rouletabille, Reporter - Gaston Leroux   An old mystery novel first published in 1908. Think Agatha Christie who-dun-it detective novel and you will be dead on.   This one is about a crime committed that is impossible to solve, but it does get solved eventually. There is the massive explanation in a court of law to save the day and prevent the conviction of an innocent man...all in the nick of time. Whew!   It was a good story and a decent who-dun-it. I could not figure it out at all.   Once again though, a detraction for me was all the French words and name pronunciations. French really bothers me for some reason. It is probably due to bad memories from Miss Roberts class in Junior High School and not actually caused by anything with a rational explanation. :-)

37. The Diary of a Nobody

The Diary of a Nobody - George and Weedon Grossmith

Originally published in 1892. Funny. Nothing really happens other than the normal day to day grind of an average guy. Still, it is funny.

36. Black

Black - Christopher Whitcomb

Run of the mill thriller. I expected more. I read the book because of the helicopter on the front. I maintained those beautiful machines. They were never used int he book. Stupid book. LOL

I expected more of a military techno thriller from the cover and the description. It was not. It was more of a crime novel with some politics and a bit of terrorism. Whoop-de-doo.

It did not suck, but it was a waste of time compared to other books I have read.

35. The Cossacks

The Cossacks - Leo Tolstoy

Bah. It bored me. Too much soap opera drama garbage to keep me interested. Good writing, but not interesting. Maybe I was looking for something else.

34. Dracula

Dracula - Bram Stoker

Outstanding!

Although, after loving the buildup...and the chase...and the total suspense of the final showdown... what a bummer that it ended so fast and so easily.

I loved this story, except that poor Lucy got screwed. Other than that it was great. I can't believe I spent 49.5 years having not read this book. Silly me.

33. The Glow

The Glow - Brooks Stanwood

A suspense novel written in the mid seventies. Supposedly along the lines of Rosemary's Baby. I hate to say it, but this is definitely not Rosemary's Baby, nor is it even close.

There is this group of mid-fifties folks who are health nuts and spend a lot of time jogging and working out. They welcome a young couple into a very exclusive upper east side apartment (Manhattan, of course). The couple joins them in the ultra-healthy lifestyle. Weird stuff happens. People disappear.

Come to find out...and I will spoil this one because I doubt anyone will go find it or read it if they did...the old folks stumbled upon a secret tribe of cannibals in the Amazon and discovered a secret to staying youthful forever. The problem is that it requires the blood of super healthy young people mixed with the roots of very special trees.

So, to stay alive the oldies (which are actually around 90 years old) must occasionally drink the blood-root juice mixture in order to stay young. They devised this entire lifestyle and plan to maintain the illusion and the trap into which they lure young couples over and over again.

It was alright. No big thrill and definitely not worth searching for.

32. The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

This was a great book. I loved it. I thought it got a little soap-operaish at times, but other than that it was fantastic. BIG, and fantastic. All the French words made me mad.