So it's the All-Star Break. I'll be watching the Home Run Derby because I ride or die with Bregs, but I probably won't watch a minute of the All-Star Game. The Astros don't play again until Friday at 9:07pm. Because I have an inflated sense of self-worth, here are my favorite books, baseball and otherwise, for you to fill the time...that is, if you're not just rewatching playoff games. (NOTE: I'll spend the evening watching 2017 Postseason highlights on YouTube. THEN I'll get some reading done.) If you read Astros County regularly, I'm assuming that we have similar tastes - or you at least put up with mine.
Baseball Division
Joshua Prager: The Echoing Green
Chad Harbach: The Art of Fielding
Jonah Keri: The Extra 2%
Ben Lindbergh & Sam Miller: The Only Rule Is It Has To Work
Jeff Passan: The Arm
Jerry Crasnick: License to Deal
Dirk Hayhurst: The Bullpen Gospels
Matt McCarthy: Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit
Joe Posnanski: The Soul of Baseball
William Kennedy: Ironweed
Non-Baseball Division
Justin Cronin: The Passage
Stephen King: 11/22/63
Joe Pernice: It Feels So Good When I Stop
Nick Hornby: High Fidelity
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Jon Krakauer: Into Thin Air
Amy Stewart: Wicked Plants
Drew Magary: The Postmortal
Norman Ohler: Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
Steven Martin: Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction
Jeffrey Toobin: Too Close to Call
Jill Lepore: The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Sam Kean: The Disappearing Spoon
Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential
James Swanson: Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
James Swanson: Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis
Vincent Bugliosi: Four Days in November
Don Winslow: The Force
Benjamin Wallace: The Billionaire's Vinegar
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith