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There's a fantasy baseball crossover book I read as a kid by the author Michael Chabon called Summerland. From what I can remember this kid travelled to some fantasy realm to play baseball or something? As a baseball obsessed youth I really enjoyed it

Excellent Joseph!!! You da goat

The background and history of baseball remains the strangest in all of sports.

The Bullpen Gospels is one of the best baseball books I’ve read. I would be crying from laughter. It’s a lot like ball four but a little more modern.

I love the idea! please do more of these

I would recommend "The Best Team Money Can Buy" by Molly Knight. It follows The Dodgers during the wild McCourt into Guggenheim Group time period and has really good inside the locker room type views.

Great video, and I do occasionally gravitate to Sports Nonfiction, so I’ll take these suggestions to heart. I’m gonna recommend some fiction that deals in baseball: The great Fantasy novel centered on baseball is Brittle Innings, by Michael Bishop. It’s my favourite book by him (so far), and it’s loaded with baseball and…surprises. There’s also The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, by W. P. Kinsella. Someone recommended a different Kinsella novel to me years ago, but, at the bookstore, I got lured to Iowa Baseball Confederacy instead, precisely because of its Fantasy elements. Other baseball fictions by Kinsella (that I have not read) are Shoeless Joe, and The Thrill of the Grass (but I don’t know if they are Fantasy stories). Baseball-related Crime & Mystery fiction that I have read: My favourite is Wild Pitch, by A. B. Guthrie Jr.. Not featuring the Major Leagues, but if that doesn’t matter, it’s still heavy into baseball. And murder! There’s also For Murder I Charge More, by Frank McAuliffe. This book is actually four novellas, the best one maybe being the baseball-centric one. The tone is humorous and playful. The only other Crime & Mystery book I can think of is Problems Solved, by Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg. Short stories. Lots of baseball content, obviously based on a love of the game, worked into many of the stories (especially in the, uh, late innings). Speaking of gay baseball players, the only General Fiction novel I read is called The Dreyfus Affair, by Peter Lefcourt. I know, years ago, Betty Thomas was all set to do a film version, but it didn’t happen. I very much enjoyed the book, though. That’s all I got! If it was Cricket, no Baseball, gosh could I recommend some early Wodehouse! Meanwhile, baseball fiction, even genre fiction, does go a bit beyond The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

So I have a co-worker who is a baseball fanatic. He's always talking about baseball and baseball books and recommended both Moneyball and Ball Four. Good video Joseph!

My husband recommends The Natural by Bernard Malamud. Considering he doesn’t read much, especially fiction, I’d take his recommendation seriously. Haha!

OOPS! Missed the mark Bubba... Frost Giant's Daughter was the first written. Phoenix on the Sword was 1st published story. (FGD was not published in REH's lifetime because an attempted rape was plot's core.) Kudo's for the effort and your take upon the subject offered of "Murder Hobo".

What a great idea! Can you edit the video title? In think there might be people out there searching for "Baseball Books". A while back I read several mysteries by Troy Soos "Murder at Fenway Park", "Murder at Wrigley field"..... They're not too bad as I recall and easy reads. I think Moneyball was the first digital book that I ever bought for Kindle. I don't remember it so much now because I watch the movie every year. Thanks for the video!

You’re talking about baseball, but you’re not wearing Red Sox gear. This is confusing.

Awww such a cute daughter story about how she’s looking out for Henry books for you. Wow I can’t believe how many books Glen Cook wrote-I love your project to finish out his oeuvre 💪

I feel the same way about DNFs. Ive DNFd more books than ever before this year, and it feels bad at first but if its not doing anything for me its just a waste of time. theres so much out there that Im interested in, theres no reason to keep going with something thats not working

There are 7 Thin Man movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy that are slay! You’ll thank me later. I have watched them all multiple times. Great video! Thanks.

One of my favorite series, very entertaining and interesting read

Awesome video brother. I bought Funny Story for my wife and month back and she just finished it. I might give it a go. The Power of the Dog was an absolute banger. Cheers.

Joseph your energy is so fun and infectious, great video

Happy Place, yaaaaaaaaaas!

Alright you’ve sold me on Happy Place! So glad you enjoyed Red Rising man, can’t wait to see what you think of the later books!

I remember Hammett from high school. Been meaning to reread them. Will you read the Maltese falcon?

Dude loved your video

Yasssssssssss binging the Red Rising trilogy let’s goooooooooo. I did the same thing and just ate em up whole. Haven’t continued on yet waiting for that last book to be ready. Sorry to hear Arbonne isn’t hitting it out of the park like it did for me but glad you’re still appreciating aspects of it. Amen on the DNFs!

Glen Cook books! Glen Cookbooks! 😂 A Song for Arbonne is one of my faves!!! Wow, now I have questions for you about Happy Place. Maybe I missed clues since I listened to the audiobook, but I kind of felt like some of the conflicts were shoehorned in toward the end. You said there were clues early on, so maybe I just missed details. Excited for Lonesome Dove!

Your DNF rant was on the money. Good video as usual.

Glad Red Rising worked for you, its not a favourite of mine and I'll leave it at that 😅 A Song for Arbonne is one of the few standalones I still have left to read from GGK. I think its safe to say he's my current favourite Fantasy author, and he does need to be read more. There was going to be adaptation of Lions of Al-Rassan but supposedly the script was terrible. Love Lonesome Dove, enjoy! In June I read: *Historical-Fantasy* Children of Earth & Sky / Guy Gavriel Kay - Carried over from May. Loved it. A Brightness Long Ago / Guy Gavriel Kay - My new favourite Kay I've read so far, and a new favourite book of all-time! Book of the Month!!! All the Seas of the World / Guy Gavriel Kay - Pretty good. Glad I read this loose trilogy in publication order. I understand the lukewarm reviews and I seem to have liked it more than most, though my favourite parts were the tie-ins to ABLA, CoE&S, Lions of Al-Rassan and Sarantine Mosaic. *Sci-Fi* Vorkosigan Saga 1: Shards of Honor - Definitely be continuing this series. *Southern Gothic* Child of God / Cormac McCarthy - It was fine, but really creepy at times. For now I NFNed Jonathan Maberry's Patient Zero and Christopher Ruocchio's Howling Dark. They're good, just not what I'm looking for right now. As for what I'm currently reading: *Historical-Fantasy* The Last Light of the Sun / Guy Gavriel Kay - Kay's re-imagining of the Viking invasions of King Alfred's England, its really good so far. *Sci-Fi* Cloud Atlas / David Mitchell - Still early days yet but I haven't a clue wtf is going on. *Thriller* Winter of Frankie Machine / Don Winslow - Really good so far.

An eclectic mix and a fun month all in all. Glad you're enjoying GGK, because you're right, that guy needs to be more widely read.

Also, speaking of Hugo winners. Want to read Gateway in August?

Great review Joseph! I just reread this book and o loved it even more! I love ashoks character! I really found the world intriguing! I’m excited to read the rest of the series!

I have had a similar experience to you I realized one day that I'd read quite a lot of Hugo and nebula award winners For best novel and I decided that I would just complete the whole list at least as many as I can get on audio Now I have about 20 to go in each list

Delany is scum.

My impression is that Hugo winners are often considered to be quite good for a reason. But when looking at the other candidates, it’s a reminder that in hindsight no award is comprehensive.

I haven't paid attention to the Hugos in 10+ years and going, lol. Nice to hear bullshit's a part of it's heritage and not just a recent development, not that I needed my decision reinforced. The only genre award I keep up with is the World Fantasy Award, I've been reading the novel nominees every year for the last couple and they're always some of the most fascinating books I pick up in that year. The backlist also has some incredible stuff. The 2024 nominees should be announced soon, actually . . . .

I think if you win a Hugo, no matter what, you should be proud, it's an honor. But, if you don't win, or a book you like that didn't win, you shouldn't be worried about it. That was a lot of commas.

I’ve learned during my reading journey that I most definitely do not like classic sci-fi. Edit:Dune trilogy doesn’t count lol.

Howard was a friend of Lovecraft.

The Black Company is one my favorites of all time! What are your thoughts on Instrumentalities of The Night? It was set up to be his best work but his publisher called it quits after the fourth book, sadly.

You might have pushed me over the edge into reading Red Rising.

Great video man. I really need to check out The Power of the Dog. I'm sold, let me know when you're going to read The Dragon Never Sleeps! Peak Glen Cook sounds interesting to check out to say the least.

More like Mid Year Celebration Tag 🥳

It brings me so much joy that you liked The Power of the Dog so much! My campaign for this books continues 😂 I was also surprised by how much I loved Emily Henry the first time I picked up one of her books haha I love that Happy Place was a Father’s Day present (sort of), that’s so cute Also yesss for Pierce Brown 🔥 you’ve read some bangers!

Can't wait to pick up Power of the Dog. Yolanda and Carlos have been a huge part in me picking Crime fiction back up again after a decade.

Ok, you’re sucking me in on Power of the Dog Joseph!

Wonderful answers to the Mid Year Freakout tag! Congrats on your video blowing up! I’ve only read a tiny bit of Conan and need to revisit Howard someday. I read Happy Place this last month, and while I had some nitpicks, I agree that Emily Henry is a very talented writer. Hooray for reviews!

Nice that you young kids are finally discovering Conan!

A hardcover of the Han Solo Trilogy would be amazing! Don't feel too bad about it though, I managed to get my hands on all 3 from HPB on clearance for $1-2 a piece in paperback. I picked them up on a whim and was happy that I did!

You should do a video about your favorite baseball books. Not sure how much interest there would be, but I'd like to see it, and really that's all that matters to me!

I’ve read Julian May’s Exiles series a couple of times and it’s a very enjoyable read indeed. I hope you enjoy it.

Sounds like you had a great vacation indeed, lol. A Song for Arbonne is a great starting place with GGK - when you finally get to him, you're going to want to read ALL his stuff, definitely. Thomas Covenant wasn't so bad, the MC is a scumbag and does some depraved stuff, but it's not without purpose - it makes an impact on the story in significant ways. Definitely worth the try. I like it because you have the traditional Big Bad Evil of Tolkien-flavored fantasy contrasted next to TC and you have to decide which one's worse, which can be tough.

The background on Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman is a crazy. Miller sort of finished it, sent it to Terry Bisson to finish, then killed himself. Miller unfortunately had a very troubled life and struggled with depression. I haven't read it but I'm curious, maybe someday.