Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution by Jonathan Abrams

"Moses Malone’s leap from high school did not immediately change professional basketball’s landscape. In a hierarchy of natural progression, players starred in high school and made their names in college before graduating to the pros. Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby jumped to the NBA from high school a year after Malone’s decision. Malone joined the NBA in 1976, when the league absorbed much of the ABA, and carved out a Hall of Fame career. But Dawkins and Willoughby provided cautionary tales for different reasons as to why teenagers, both physically and mentally, were not prepared for the NBA’s rigors.

"That thought persisted until a lanky teenager named Kevin Garnett reopened the dormant door in 1995. The game had been transformed by the time of Garnett’s arrival. Players commanded millions in salary, a large jump from $130,000—the average salary of an NBA player in 1976. Malone’s decision ultimately birthed the route into the NBA for one of the game’s greatest group of players, from Garnett to Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard. They grew into stardom, while quickly advancing from their proms to playing against grown men whose paychecks accounted for how they fed their families."

Over the past two decades, some of these players succeeded. Others who chose this path managed to carve out lengthy but not especially noteworthy careers, while a few became synonymous with the word bust. Jonathan Abrams' Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution takes a close look at the sometimes triumphant, sometimes sketchy, and sometimes tragic stories of players and their varying experiences. Based on interviews with players, coaches, agents, scouts, front office personnel, and others close the the game, Abrams gives fans a close up look at the prep-to-pro players and the behind the scenes maneuvering that surrounded them during the decade-plus, 1995 to 2006, that changed the NBA.

As someone who is not much of a basketball fan and is picky about the sports books I read, I have to say, this book was fascinating. Abrams, who previously wrote for newspapers and the late, great Grantland--a stint that also gave us the definitive oral history of the Malice at the Palace--here profiles a group of phenomenal athletes. But he never loses sight of the fact that in spite of their abilities, these young men were still all too human.

Book Info
Boys Among Men: How the Prep-To-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution by Jonathan Abrams
Adult Nonfiction
Published 2016 by Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 9780804139250

Here by Richard McGuire

Fifteen years in the making, the graphic novel Here is unlike anything I've ever read.

After hearing tales from people who've been watching this masterpiece unfold through RAW magazine, I'm jealous that I only discovered it in its more complete form.

It's somewhat difficult to describe, and at first you might think to yourself "What is this thing?" Especially if you're like me and used to a more conventional graphic novel format.

Fixed on one viewpoint, in a corner of a room, Here depicts what has happened in that little corner throughout the ages. On one page we might see 1957, surrounding it we might see 1893, then on the next panel we might see 300,000,000 BCE.

Confused? Don't be, once you get into it, you will be hooked.

The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity

Eugene Linden has written several books and articles about animal intelligence and environmental issues. This sequel to his The Parrot's Lament discusses scientific concepts and interesting puzzles related to animal intelligence. He has interesting tales of clever octopuses, orangutan escape artists, and penguins mimicking scientists in Antarctica. Observations of empathy, deception, and cooperation led Linden to focus, in The Octopus and the Orangutan, "on what intelligence does." I have not read The Parrot's Lament yet, but I probably will.

On the occasion in question, the little orangutan (named Siti) was trying to eat a coconut, an arduous process that involved chewing off the husk and then poking a finger through one of the "eyes" to get at the milk and meat. After chewing and poking through one eye, the little orang got tired and handed the coconut to an Indonesian named Nian. Russon was observing the scene and saw several split remains of coconut scattered around, suggesting that the assistant had cut open coconuts with his machete for the young orangutan on previous occasions.

This was a no-no, since the animals would not have access to room service in the wild. With Russon present, the assistant was not going to risk breaking the rules and sheepishly handed the coconut back to the young female. The young orang made another half-hearted try and then handed it back to the assistant. He handed it back to Siti.

Killing and Dying: Stories by Adrian Tomine

Killing & Dying is a graphic novel nthology of amazingly written stories about people who live ordinary lives but end up in weird, sad or funny situations. Trust me, you'll fly through these stories and curse the story-gods that there weren't more!

There are six stories, "Hortisculputre" which is the somewhat depressing tale of a guy who becomes obsessed with a form of landscape artwork that only he truly appreciates. It's the story of a guy trying to make something of his life and nearly losing everything he has in the process.

"Amber Sweet" is about a woman who is a dead ringer for an online porn star. How their lives intertwine is touching, funny and strange. 

"Go Owls" is one of the most hard hitting in my opinion. Two people meet after an AA meeting, they seem to get a long and decide to move in together. Their story is tragic as their addictions and shortcomings bubble up to the surface over and over again. 

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

This is a  lever novel unlike many I have seen before and I won't be surprised if it gets on many "must read" lists. I say that because while it mentions many of the popular YA tropes of the past few years, the overall theme is that real life is a much scarier proposition for teens to navigate.

The Beats: A Graphic History

For me, the writers I think of as "Beats" included Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and a few others I paid less attention to. Gary Snyder, sort of, since Kerouac did base a character in The Subterraneans on him. But I don't like labels much, and neither do most of the writers. Critics, on the other hand, love to categorize artists and writers into this slot or that literary movement.

This graphic narrative (NOT novel) views the beat writers alongside those of the "San Francisco Poetry Renaissance." There was certainly some overlap, some mutual influence. It's a very readable look at a bunch of mid- to late- twentieth century American writers. Beyond the four I mentioned, there are also profiles of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Olson, Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Philip Whalen, and several more good writers. The profiles tell a little about their lives and their writings.

Politically & culturally, Patchen was a rebel. Though variously identified as a communist, anarchist, Trotskyist, beat, surrealist, or dadaist, he rejected all labels... Above all, he hated war. "Any man with a gun aimed at another man is Hitler."

Many of those labels could be applied to a lot of writers. The labels may help us appreciate their work, but I'm reminded of Duke Ellington, who didn't always like the category "jazz." He composed music. Period.

Several artists drew these comix, and several people wrote the profiles, making The Beats: A Graphic History a lot of fun!

HOUSE ARREST by K.A. Holt

Stealing the credit card was a spur of the moment impulse for twelve year old Timothy.  Now he is on probation, and to avoid a stint in juvie, he is under house arrest for one year.

Timothy didn't steal the credit card for himself.  He stole it so he could use it to pay for his brother's medications.  That card made it easy to get a month's worth of life-saving meds for Levi.  Timothy was only hoping to make things easier for his mother and better for his little brother.


Baby Levi was born with subglottic stenosis which causes a constricted airway requiring a trach tube so he can breathe.  Taking care of Levi is expensive and requires full-time assistance.  Since their mother has to work, much of Levi's care falls to Timothy.  Even with lots of overtime, it is hard for her to scrape together enough money to pay for in home care, medications, and the frequent hospital stays involved with Levi's condition.

After the credit card incident, Timothy spends time with James, his court-ordered probation officer, and Mrs. B, a court-ordered therapist.  The judge orders Timothy to write in a journal and share it weekly.  James wants him to write about how he promises not to steal anything ever again, and Mrs. B. wants him to write about his feelings.  Timothy reluctantly begins, but over time, he finds the writing provides a great way to vent. 

Author K.A. Holt tells Timothy's story through his journal entries over the course of one year.  In straight forward free verse, Holt is able to capture Timothy's frustrations, humor, and tremendous love for the little brother who has changed everyone's life.  Holt's own experience with a critically ill child gives HOUSE ARREST an authenticity that will grab readers and keep them thinking about Timothy and Levi long after the last page is turned.

Previously posted at Reading Junky's Reading Roost.

Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner

It's a cliché to say that a work of nonfiction reads like a novel, but... Well, Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune totally reads like a novel. A bloody, epic one at that, full of betrayal, bravery, backstabbing, honor, loyalty, war, and feuding families in soon-to-be feudal Japan.

The Taira clan had the emperor's favor—unfairly and undeservedly, in the eyes of Minamoto Yoshitomo. After a Minamoto plot to kidnap the emperor went awry and Yoshitomo was murdered, it would not have been unexpected for Taira Kiyomori to kill Yoshitomo's surviving sons, as well. He decided to spare a few of Minamoto's sons, however, including the youngest, an infant boy named Yoshitsune.

So here's the story of an exiled child from a dishonored family who runs away from the monastery he was sent to, learns archery and swordfighting late in life (for a boy from a samurai family, anyway), reunites with his brothers to go to war against the Taira, displays courage and skill in battle and an unexpected military genius, has a kind of charisma that engenders loyalty among the men he commands, but is also proud and ambitious and maybe arrogant, meaning powerful men had powerful reasons to fear and/or hate him and seek his downfall. Seriously, is it any wonder that Yoshitsune became a legendary figure and the basis of several classic works of Japanese literature?

Pamela S. Turner's biography of Yoshitsune is a page-turning, very approachable book that vividly describes 12th-century Japan, while delineating what is known about Yoshitsune's life and what is speculation or fiction. Turner integrates a lot of information about Japanese life and culture at the time into the text, which helps readers understand the complex relationships (or rivalries) among the families, clans, and with the imperial family. She also writes rousing battle scenes. And if you're a fan of back matter, you'll have even more reason to love this book—practically a third of the book consists of back matter, comprising an author's note, comprehensive chapter notes, a bibliography, and more.

THE DARK GAME: True Spy Stories by Paul B. Janeczko

Little-known fact: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a spy. I practiced by spying on my younger brother, naturally. It all seemed so cool and glamorous. When I got to college and heard from speaker G. Gordon Liddy about the Watergate break-in, I was glad I'd grown out of it.

Still, I like learning about actual spies, and have written a bunch of poems about some of the spies featured in THE DARK GAME: True Spy Stories by Paul B. Janeczko, who says in the introduction that he shares my childhood interest in spying. The book includes tales of revolutionary spies (the Culper spy ring and Benedict Arnold), the Civil War (including women and African Americans), both World Wars and the ensuing Cold War.

In addition to profiles of individual spies or groups, there is information about the technology used by spies. The book came out in 2010, and I've had a copy sitting here in my house since before then (an ARC picked up from the publisher at a conference). It was a finalist for a YALSA award for excellence in nonfiction in 2011. I'm only sorry I didn't read it much sooner. Now I'm off to locate a copy of Janeczko's earlier title, Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing (2004).

Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

Drugs are bad, mmkay?

Near-future London has been devoured by riots. The culprits? Out of control teens labelled "feral" by the media and the police.

Huge swaths of misbehaving students have been put on a new wonder drug called Concentr8. It's like Ritalin on steroids. Wait, that might be confusing, it's like Super-Ritalin. There, that's better.

Concentr8 has been "proven" by the medical community, often backed by pharmaceutical companies, to reduce criminality in youth suffering from ADHD.

Then, out of the blue, the program is stopped cold. The teens, suddenly deprived of their precious drug, go all Dee Snider and decide that they "Ain't Gonna Take It," hence the riots.

The novel focuses on a young gang, although they wouldn't call themselves that. It's made up of Blaze, Troy, Lee, Femi & Karen. They've been on Concentr8 for many years and decide to wander out into the city and see if they can capitalize on the rioting.

A STEP TOWARD FALLING by Cammie McGovern

Emily and Lucas only have one thing in common.  They were both at the wrong place at the right time, and they both reacted in the same way.  They chose to look the other way.

The cover of A STEP TOWARD FALLING states, "Sometimes the worst thing you can do is nothing at all."  That's what Emily did the night she saw Belinda under the bleachers.  She knew something bad was happening, but when she saw Lucas was also watching, she made the decision to let him deal with it.  Later, she learned that Lucas felt the same way, and no one stepped in to help the helpless Belinda.

Emily and Lucas have the same punishment for their thoughtless inaction.  They are required to put in volunteer time at the Life-Long Learning Center that serves adults with disabilities.  Their assignment is a class called Boundaries and Relationships in which the young adults are given instruction on dating and other social interactions.  It is quite an eye-opener for Emily and Lucas as they learn to work with disabled people just like Belinda.

Five of my favorite books from 2015 (and six 2016 books I'm looking forward to)

It's that time of year for bloggers to make some lists. So, with the caveat that there are a lot of 2015 books that I haven't gotten to yet, like Thing Explainer, here are my five favorites from this year.

It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
Lynsey Addario is now an acclaimed, award-winning photojournalist and combat photographer who has worked in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Libya (where she and several colleagues were kidnapped). But though she began taking pictures as a teenager, she never considered photography as a career until after graduating from college. At first, photography was something she did to earn money to travel around the world. Then, as she increasingly ventured into dangerous regions despite the risks and the effects on her personal life, it became her job and her calling. It’s What I Do, featuring some of Addario’s photographs, is an eye-opening memoir exploring how she became a photographer and why she continues to venture around the world to document war and injustice.

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
Here in the U.S., when we think of 20th century Russia/Soviet Union, things like the fall of the Romanovs, communism, and the Cold War come to mind, not World War II. As M. T. Anderson demonstrates, in order to understand what happened during the war, we do need some understanding of the Romanovs, communism, and the Cold War, but it’s also worth noting what we’re ignoring by overlooking the Soviet role in World War II: it “eventually suffered 95 percent of the military casualties inflicted on the major Allied powers (the U.S., the U.K., and the USSR)—and 90 percent of Germans killed in combat died fighting them.” An estimated 27 million Soviets, both military and civilian, died during the war, over 15% of the USSR’s population. The city of Leningrad (formerly Petrograd, formerly and now once again St. Petersburg) suffered under a German siege lasting 900 days; a million people died, and a million others went to desperate lengths to survive the freezing cold and starvation. It is in this context—the instability of the last days of the Romanovs, the rise of the Communists, then the treacherous consolidation of power by Joseph Stalin, and the suffering of World War II—that the famous composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who was alternately honored and denounced by the authorities, wrote his Seventh Symphony during the siege of Leningrad in honor of his beloved birthplace. (See also Colleen's review from earlier this year.)

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

Mary Iris Malone is not okay.

Her family has imploded and she's lost her home, forced to move in with her dad and his new girlfriend in Mississippi, which Mary, or Mim, as she prefers to be called, dubs "Mosquitoland".

Unsettled, heavily medicated and fragile, sixteen year old Mim learns a life-altering secret: her mom is sick in Cleveland. Mim decides to take matters into her own hands, she steals money from her dad's girlfriend and hops on a Greyhound bus.

On her thousand-plus mile journey Mim meets a slew of unforgettable characters, some helpful, some treacherous. Even more, she has to cope with her own mind, which she doesn't fully trust after being picked apart by psychologists and pharmaceuticals.

Mosquitoland is told in a diary-style format, for me, very reminiscent of Perks of Being a Wallflower, one of my favourite novels. I'm not sure if this made the novel more appealing to me, but I really enjoyed Mim's voice. It's deep without being preachy, dry, witty and best of all, fearless.

The Art of Asking or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

As I listened to Amanda Palmer read the audiobook of The Art of Asking, I knew that I would also want to read it. The audiobook includes her music, and she is a wonderful reader/artist. This is one of those rare instances where I want to experience both. Because when I read it, I have time to think about, and make note of her many insights. And she IS insightful.

I spent my late teens and my twenties juggling dozens of jobs, but I mostly worked as a living statue: a street performer standing in the middle of the sidewalk dressed as a white-faced bride... Being a statue was a job in which I embodied the pure, physical manifestation of asking: I spent five years perched motionless on a milk crate with a hat at my feet, waiting for passersby to drop in a dollar in exchange for a moment of human connection.

Artists connect the dots - we don't need to interpret the lines between them. We just draw them and then present our connections to the world as a gift, to be taken or left. This IS the artistic act, and it's done every day by many people who don't even think to call themselves artists.

Then again, some people are crazy enough to think they can make a living at it.

Spare Parts by Joshua Davis

Oscar, Lorenzo, Cristian, and Luis didn’t have much in common, other than being born in Mexico and entering the US illegally as children. Each had his own reasons for joining the robotics team at their high school, located in a poor area of Phoenix, AZ. Cristian was the only one actually interested in robotics.

But together, the four students built a robot they called Stinky. At a national underwater robotics competition, sponsored by NASA and the US Navy, their team defeated teams representing colleges and universities, winning first place in spite of their inexperience, their extremely limited budget, and all the obstacles associated with poverty and low expectations.

In 2005, Wired magazine published an article about their victory. But there’s more to this story than a single competition. In Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream, Joshua Davis expands on his original article, introducing readers to four teens, two teachers, their paths to the robotics team, and the difficulties they have already overcome, as well as those they still face today.

Flyboys by James Bradley

Fly­boys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley is a non-fiction book about pilots in World War II. Mr. Bradley wrote sev­eral World War II books, the most famous is Flags of Our Fathers.

Fly­boys is an inter­est­ing book about a group of young men who had no idea what they were get­ting them­selves into. They were brave men who watched their friends die and still flew day in and day out.

I espe­cially liked the begin­ning of the book where Mr. Bradley talks about the his­tory of Japan, explain­ing how it came to invade other coun­tries and their feu­dal­is­tic cul­ture. The lat­ter came into impor­tance in the Japan­ese Army which made it impos­si­ble for sol­diers to refuse even the most inhu­mane orders.

Mr. Bradley chose a strange way to tell this story. The author jumps around a lot between his­tory, per­sonal sto­ries and time­lines and it’s dif­fi­cult, at some points, to keep track or coherence.

While there are some other issues with this book, it is a solid trib­ute to the brave Fly­boys in WWII. I would love to read his full inter­view with George H. W. Bush, who came across as gen­uine, tal­ented and modest.

Article first published as  Book Review: Flyboys by James Bradley

Monster by CJ Skuse

A mythical beast that supposedly roams the land outside of an English boarding school, the mother of all snowstorms and the claustrophobic hysteria worthy of The Shining. This is Monster by CJ Skuse.

Natasha, or Nash as she's known by her friends, is attending the highly acclaimed Bathory Boarding School. Nash is competing to be Head Girl, no easy feat when you consider the competition that surrounds her - conniving, ego-centric girls that will high five you with one hand and stab you in the back with a compass with the other.

Then there's Maggie, Nash's only real friend at Bathory. Maggie has issues, in that she appears to be desperate to leave Bathory under any means necessary. This includes violating every rule possible, resulting in the girls having all of their internet and mobile phone privileges removed by the school's Matron.

Nash has bigger fish to fry, though. Her brother, Seb, has gone missing on a trip to South America, the only contact she has with her parents is on a shoddy pay phone in the school's reception area. Added to this, she's convinced she saw something in the woods one evening after her school netball game. Something big, something with yellow eyes. Her instincts tell her it's nothing, a trick of her imagination, but there's also a part of her brain that tells her it could be the fabled "Beast of Bathory," a gigantic cat-like creature that prowls the area, feeding on unsuspecting tourists and students.

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a collection of letters (and a few poems) written by soldiers and nurses who served during the Vietnam War. The editor, Bernard Edelman, did a wonderful job, and I would've written this review sooner, but I picked up another book, Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam. It was written by one of the contributors to this volume. Edelman follows each letter with a paragraph about the writer of the letter. He mentioned that one writer, Lynda Van Devanter, had written a book about her nursing experience during the war. It's maybe even more amazing than this one, but I have to say both books are for mature readers.

Poking a Dead Frog by Mike Sacks

Recently a childhood friend posted on Facebook that he was struggling to find the humor in Parks and Recreation, a show all his friends had told him was worth watching. After I recovered from my various levels of disbelief (You’re just now watching Parks and Recreation? You don’t find the character of Ron Swanson hilarious? Leslie Knope bothers you?), I thought about that most elemental of questions: What is Funny? The answer (other than farts, of course) may be unknowable, but Mike Sacks provides us with some of the smartest thinking about the question in his impressive Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations With Today’s Top Comedy Writers.

A List of Things That Didn't Kill Me: A Memoir by Jason Schmidt

Youth non fiction is not something I read a lot so when I picked up this book it was partly to fill that void and expand my horizons and it was partly because the name of the book was so intriguing I actually thought it was a fictional tale and I had to look at the call number a few times to convince myself that it wasn't.

This boy's life was harrowing almost from a very young age. His parents' divorce affected him financially as his father's erratic behavior and anti-establishment nature lead him to constantly uproot them and even when they settled somewhere it was usually next to other people with substance abuse problems and dubious parenting skills.

The events in this story occurred in the late seventies and early eighties and while I am not saying things in this book don't occur now, the advent of technology certainly makes it easier for behavior to be monitored and addressed.

The book is heart wrenching at times and you really feel for Mr. Schmidt. He writes about things in such a matter-of-fact, dispassionate manner that it makes it even more difficult to read. He mentions few details about school in his formative years and as a former teacher I am quite shocked that he didn't need counseling and/or  lengthy visits with the school social worker. It is a testament to his natural intelligence and drive that he was able to pick up his schooling later on despite having missed a fair amount of instruction due to his father's reticence about the education system and Mr. Schmidt's own behavioral issues.

In addition to being a coming-of-age story, this is a story about a deadly health crisis, its toll on a family and on the psyche of a young boy. I imagine that writing this book must have been very cathartic for Mr. Schmidt as his father dealt with a host of issues which he struggled to deal with adequately. Because of the strong language, drug references and other strong content I recommend this book for ages 13+.

You can see this and other reviews on my blog here.