What I'm Reading: Suburban Pioneer Reviews Books

Fang's brother and I are good friends. We call each other several times a week and smirk and giggle about all sorts of things. On rare occasions our taste in books/TV intersect, but tonight is not one of those times. "Blueberry" begged me to review something called The Secret, a tome that I have been proudly ignorant of till this very moment. I Googled the book and found this wonderful little Slate review by an Emily Yoffe entitled : I've Got The Secret
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I FOLLOWED THE BEST-SELLING BOOK'S ADVICE FOR TWO MONTHS. Since that's the closest I'm going to get to the secret, here it is in case you care:
http://www.slate.com/id/2165746/

I've never joined a book group, I've never really understood the concept of a book group and I don't think there's a book group in the Merrimack Valley that would want me as a member. Truth be told, I've never been invited, now that I think of it. I have been promised there's a great deal of drinking that goes on at these gatherings but why would I make a poor book be the excuse for my tippling. Could you imagine me after a few, insisting we talk about MY books! And honestly, I don't think these readers have cracked many of the spines on the Oprah reading list, which looks pretty depressing to me. So, here's what's on my nightstand right now:

Irish Thunder: The Hard Life & Times of Micky Ward
By Bob Halloran


This book compliments my new found obsession with local boxing (this time Lowell, not Lawrence) and gives me something to talk about with people who know a lot more about boxing than I do. My electrician filled my ear with stories about drinking at the Cosmo which is next to the primo boxing dive, the Highland Tap, so now when I read the book I feel I'm there drinking a watery draft. Local boy Ward comes from bad blood, rises, falls and rises again, this time attracting Hollywood. Full of crusty stock characters and enough factual inaccuracies to get the boxing people I know pissed off. Main criticism: No Pictures!


Two Ton, One Fight, One Night Tony Galento v. Joe Louis
By Joseph Monninger

If I were to be suddenly gifted with the ability to write, this would be the book I would want to produce. The story itself is kind of Barnum-esque, Tony Galento, a comically strange heavyweight in the 1930s gets a scheduled fight with the young world champion Joe Louis. Galento had a few day jobs in addition to his boxing career. He'd been an ice delivery man, back before mass refrigeration when people still had ice boxes and was once late for a fight because he claimed he'd delivered "two tons" of ice, hence the nickname Two Ton. In later years, he opened a tavern in his hometown of Orange, NJ and also became known as the Tarzan of the Taverns. His most famous phrase was "I'll moida da bum" and he trash-talked leading up to the Louis fight, pissing off the otherwise calm Louis to no end. He never stood a chance against Louis, but proving himself to be more than another bum-of-the-month, Two Ton upended Louis with a left hook and for a brief time, two seconds to be exact, stood over the prone body of one of the greatest world champions. Of course Louis got up, bet him to a pulp and won the fight.

I have always loved studying art history because you don't just learn about the art, you study the history, literature, music, fashion - everything that made the art possible and particular to that era. That's what Joe Monninger has done with the year 1939 in America, boxing and Tony Galento v. Joe Louis. I can't hop a time machine back to 1939 but reading this book is the next best thing. I finished the book knowing a lot more about boxing, race relations, fashion, and what went on in the average person's daily life. And again, Monninger writes beautifully and makes reading a pleasure.

Great use of small black and white photographs at the beginning of each chapter, telling the story visually as well. I just love this book!

Bangkok Haunts
by John Burdett

This is the third book in a mystery series about a Thai police detective whose mother runs a brothel in Bangkok. The first was Bangkok 8, followed by Bangkok Tattoo which follow the life of Sonchai Jitpleeheep, the only honest cop in Thailand and a devout Buddhist to boot. Snuff films, gruesome skinnings, latest FBI technology and sex. I don't really notice the sex-parts but Fang does. I like a sophisticated mystery, they're hard to find and I'm afraid my review hasn't done this book justice. I often feel that I've left the country while reading these books, Burdett really captures the feel of another place, that place being Bangkok and passes no moral judgment on anyone or anything. If you don't believe me, get them out of the library, nothing lost.