Three Nights in August

I predictably loved Three Nights in August. It's written by a respected author (Buzz Bissinger, of Friday Night Lights) about my favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals.

I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is not a big baseball fan, and it's probably most interesting for baseball fans who have some connection to Tony LaRussa (Cards fans, As fans, White Sox fans, and fans of other teams in the NL Central).

I learned a lot about what a manager actually does during a game, what decisions have to be made and when, and also a ton about the relationships between manager and players and manager and coaches. I blew through the book in only a couple days because it was just so s pecifically interesting to me. It's pretty well written, in general, although it has a little bit of overblownness to it at times (pretty typical for a sports book) and Bissinger referred to West Virginia University as the University of West Virginia, which is one of those things that drives me nuts. Google it. Other than that, though, it's a hard book to complain about.