Books: End Of Summer Reads

With Labor Day Weekend upon us, it is the perfect opportunity to read one final book before work and school ramp up, and we will look at three books perfect to dive into on those final moments of vacation and lazy days: Codename Nemo: The Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and The Elusive Enigma Machine, by Charles Lachman; The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture, by Tricia Romano; and A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, by David Gribbin.

NYCFC Crushed In Columbus Once Again

 

Alonso Martinez celebrating after his early goal. @newyorkcityfc.

Just two weeks after New York City Football Club were eliminated from the Leagues Cup by the Columbus Crew, they were defeated again, 4-2, in MLS play on Saturday night.

Stroman Starts It, Wells Finishes Off Big Friday Night For Yankees

 

Marcus Stroman striking out Jordan Walker in the seventh inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees returned home on Friday night after a brief trip to the nation's capital, and they outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, backed by a solid start from Marcus Stroman and two home runs from catcher Austin Wells.

Yankees Add Bottle-Refilling Stations At Stadium, In Partnership With Vapur

 

Yankee Stadium. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees, in a partnership with Vapur and its Vapur Hydration Program, have spent the past two months adding 23 bottle-refilling stations on all levels of Yankee Stadium.

Books: "Astrology Advantage" By The Astrotwins, Ophira & Tali Edut

 

Astrology Advantage: Use Your Horoscope For Personal and Professional Success

By Ophira & Tali Edut (The Astrotwins)

Simon Element; hardcover, 304 pages; $27.99; available today, Tuesday, August 27th

Ophira and Tali Edut are bestselling authors, speakers, the cofounders of AstroStyle, which reaches millions of readers around the world, and they are identical twins, which led them to be known as the Astrotwins. They are both Michigan graduates, and have been flagship ELLE columnists since 2009, and they have appeared in the New York Times, Good Morning America, and the Today show. They have done workshops, talks, and trainings for Nike, Conde Nast, The Wing, SHEMedia, and Michael Kors, and at universities across the country. They have taught thousands of people their methods through their online platform and at their signature retreats in Tulum, Mexico.

Many people know their sign in the zodiac, but even fewer know how to interpret it, and in this insightful new book, Astrology Advantage, Ophira and Tali show how to cut through the cosmic clutter and invest their energy efficiently through the chaos of daily life.  

"We want you to reconnect to what evolutionary astrologer Steven Forrest calls 'the poetry of the sky,'" The Astrotwins write. "In it, you'll find your own verse and song, your uniqueness. You'll find your Astrology Advantage."

Ophira and Tali introduce their revolutionary I*AM Method - a simple system that is packed with practical hacks that enable readers to reap the benefits of their birth chart without needing to master astrology's complexities. This method will guide you in efficiently investing your energy amidst the demands of work, family, and relationships that compete for your attention.

They use an algorithm that measures 13 facets of a birth chart, and lead readers on a path to discover if they belong to one of three distinct archetypes: 

Innovator: Trailblazers who drive change. They come up with big ideas that push people out of their comfort zones. Their lives are laboratories, and endless stream of experiments that drive progress. These disruptors and visionaries are hard to categorize.

Authority: Achievers who lead and excel. They are trustworthy types who like responsibility and structure, and take an Innovator's ideas and map them out into a schedule or plan. These people skew conventional in their tastes, and are a safe harbor people can count on.

Maven: Creatives who spread trends and ideas. After the Authority has made a plan, they're essentially the marketing department. These are people who embrace chance and avoid being stagnant, spreading ideas to the masses in the hopes they are adopted.

The way to find out which type you are is pretty simple, as you just input your birthdate, place of birth, and time to discover your archetype. 

Once you understand your archetype, you are empowered with a significant advantage in every aspect of your life, helping to make astrology practical and serving a day-to-day purpose. Figuring out which personality type you are is certain to give you an upper hand in life. 

This detailed book covers various areas, including how your build great relationships, from dating to family to colleagues. You can improve how you work efficiently and productively, make confident decisions, and set up a productive workplace and other areas of your life.

Some of the situations their teachings can be applied to include: Back to school/college - Ease decision making for students and their parents; Saturn in Retrograge from June-November - What this actually means and how it can affect you and your daily life; Home design - How your personality type can assist you in designing your dream space; Election time - Help the decision-making process and anxiety come November; and Relationships - Lean on practical astrology to guide you in all of your relationships, from marriage to in-laws, friendship, family and beyond.

In this excerpt, Ophira and Tali Edut write on the importance of astrology in the introduction: "What astrology taught us is that every human being contains not only multitudes but a pastiche of paradoxes and contradictions. We're messy, complex, and our own biggest blind spots. By virtue of this, we have some automatic disadvantages - and astrology can help offset those.

That's why knowing your birth chart - your cosmic code - is the gift we want every human to have. Suddenly, you're able to see yourself with objective distance. You're no longer a victim of the judgments, thoughts, and prejudices people may have about you. You can see others through more tolerant eyes, too. It's like having a superpower.

Finally, you can say 'I am THIS and I am also THAT.' You can own your paradoxes and humanity. 'I am an accomplished businessperson and I am also someone who typically procrastinates.' Or, 'I'm in a loving marriage and I love spending time by myself.'

The next question this system answers is: Why? The Astrology Advantage allows you to learn, for example, why you might procrastinate...and to do something about it besides beating yourself up or trying to be someone you aren't. It's a planetary permission slip to be more of who you already are, to work with your natural rhythms.

As you learn about your cosmic wiring in this book, you may discover that you procrastinate because you're an Authority who doesn't have a sense of security and you can't focus on the task in front of you until you do. Or you're an Innovator feeling unproductive in an open-plan office because you really need to hole up at a quiet park bench to do your best thinking. Or you're a Maven trying to pigeonhole yourself into a nine-to-five job when you're meant to be a multi-hyphenate creative!"

Yankees Roll Over Rockies As Judge Hits #50 & 51; Boone: "I wouldn't put any limit on what he can do."

Aaron Judge approaching the plate on #50. Photo by Jason Schott.

Aaron Judge’s march to more history continued on Sunday, as he blasted two home runs in the Yankees’ 10-3 win over the Colorado Rockies at Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC Crushed By Late Chicago Comeback

 

NYCFC moving up the field in the 26th minute looking for a third goal. Photo by Jason Schott.

New York City Football Club returned to MLS action on Saturday night at Citi Field, and after they scored two early goals, it appeared they were on their way to a solid win before the Chicago Fire scored two late goals to earn a 2-2 draw.

Kennedy Saga Ends As He Suspends Campaign

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 1 in Brooklyn. Photo by Jason Schott.

The saga of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Presidential campaign, which he began challenging President Biden in a Democratic primary before he launched an independent bid last October, ended on Friday in Arizona as he announced the suspension of his campaign.

Yankees Host Bhutan Baseball & Softball Association

 

Yankees Manager Aaron Boone with members of the Bhutan Baseball & Softball Association, who sat in on his pregame press conference. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees, in partnership with the Hudson Valley Renegades, their High-A affiliate, hosted the Bhutan Baseball & Softball Association (BBSA) on Wednesday for a full day of activities around the Bronx Bombers' game with the Cleveland Guardians.

Judge/Soto 8, Cleveland 1 (Nothing Against Nestor)

 

Juan Soto touching home plate on his first inning home run, with Aaron Judge ready to congratulate him. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees cruised to an 8-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night, led by, in hockey fashion, the three stars of the game: Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, and Nestor Cortes.

Books: "Out of the Darkness," Ian O'Connor's Examination Of Aaron Rodgers

 

Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers

By Ian O'Connor

Mariner Books; hardcover, 384 pages; $29.99; available today, Tuesday, August 20th

Ian O'Connor has established himself as one of the foremost biographers of historic sports figures, including four straight New York Times bestsellers, Belichick (please click here for our review from September 2018), Coach K, Arnie and Jack, and The Captain, on Yankees legend Derek Jeter. O'Connor has also long been known as one of the best sports columnists in the country for such outlets as The New York Daily News, ESPN, and most recently, the New York Post. He has finished in first place twenty times in national writing contests, including those conducted by the Pro Football Writers of America, Golf Writers Association of America, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Associated Press Sports Editors, which honored him as the No. 1 columnist in the country in his circulation category three times.

Books: "The Four" By Ellie Keel

 

The Four

By Ellie Keel

William Morrow Paperbacks; paperback, 448 pages; $18.99; available today, Tuesday, August 20th

Ellie Keel is the founding director of The Women's Prize for Playwriting, a literary prize for writers on the stage in the UK and Ireland. 

NYCFC Out Of Leagues Cup

 

NYCFC's Maxi Moralez battles for position. @NYCFC.

New York City FC suffered a crushing loss to the Columbus Crew - 4-3 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in regulation - in the Quarterfinal of the Leagues Cup on Saturday night.

Sensational Severino Shuts Out Marlins, Shows Why He's Ace Of Mets Staff

 

Luis Severino pitching to Jonah Bride in the second inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

Luis Severino threw a complete-game shutout to lead the Mets to a 4-0 win over the Marlins on Saturday evening at Citi Field.

Kennedy Racks Up Ballot Access Victories

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Brooklyn on May 1. Photo by Jason Schott.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign announced on Friday that it has racked up a major set of ballot access legal victories, state certifications, and state signature sufficiency notices.

Yankees & NYC Public Schools Host Back To School Resource Fair Thursday

 

Photo provided by New York Yankees.

The Yankees, in partnership, with NYC Public Schools, hosted the 2024 Back-to-School Resource Fair for families and students of Bronx School District 9 on Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

RFK Jr. Refutes Harris Story, Says of Democrats: “Cannot reconcile it with my values”

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a food pantry in Queens in February. Photo by Jason Schott.

There were stories on Wednesday night in the New York Times and Washington Post that Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants to talk to Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris about ending his bid for the White House and endorsing her with the promise of a Cabinet position.

Those efforts have not come to fruition, as Harris’ campaign claims it has no interest in dealing with Kennedy. 

On Thursday morning, Kennedy took to social media (@RobertKennedyJr) to address the story, and he posted this:

“VP Harris’s Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle and I cannot reconcile it with my values.

The Democratic Party of RFK and JFK was the party of civil liberties and free speech. VP Harris’s is the party of censorship, lockdowns, and medical coercion.

Kennedy Democrats were anti-war. Kamala’s is riddled with neocon warmongers.

The RFK/JFK Dems were allies of Main Street, cops, firefighters, and working people. VP Harris’s is the party of Big Tech, Big Pharma and Wall Street.

My dad and uncle’s party was the champion of voting rights and fair elections. VP Harris’s is the party of lawfare, disenfranchisement, and the coronation of its candidates by corporate donors and party elites.

I’ve used our nation’s courts to prosecute corporations who hurt Black Americans. VP Harris uses our nation’s courts to mercilessly prosecute Black Americans and exploit them for their labor.

My father and uncle prided themselves on their skills at debate and ability to articulate a coherent vision for our country. VP Harris is scared to debate and can’t survive an unscripted interview. Instead of outlining a vision, she relies on middleschool tactics - memes, forged headlines, infantile slogans (Joy!) and name calling (“Republicans are weird.”)

I’ve spent years battling government corruption and lies. VP Harris spent years gaslighting Americans about the health of our Commander in Chief.

I have no plans to endorse Kamala Harris for President. I do have a plan to defeat her.”

Yankees Give Major Update On Chisholm, DFA De Los Santos

 

Photo by Jason Schott.

On Wednesday, the Yankees made some massive roster moves, with two of them about players they just acquired at the trade deadline.

Kennedy Files Appeal In New York Ballot Access Case

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Brooklyn on May 1. Photo by Jason Schott.

Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed an appeal and informational statement in the New York ballot access case in which Democratic Judge Christina L. Ryba ruled on Monday that Kennedy is not a New York resident, and cannot appear on the ballot in November. 

Kennedy said in a statement released by his campaign: “Judge Ryba’s ruling is an assault on New York voters who signed in record numbers to place me on their ballot. The Democratic Party is unrecognizable to me. 

“The party of my father and uncle’s time was committed to expanding voter’s rights and understood that competition at the ballot box is an essential part of American democracy.

“The DNC is now a party that uses lawfare in place of the democratic election process.”

Campaign Senior Counsel Paul A. Rossi said in a statement that gets to the heart of how this case stretches the law: “The lower court judge in this case shockingly announced in open court that she intended to ignore whether the New York residency rules violated the federal Constitution. New York residency rules were passed to prevent state and local politicians from carpetbagging into legislative districts in which they do not reside. 

“These rules have no application to presidential candidates because the entire nation is their electoral district - it is impossible for a presidential candidate to engage in the type of carpetbagging the New York residency rules aim to prevent in state elections. The Supreme Court held in Anderson v. Celebrezze that local election rules cannot be applied to deny presidential candidates ballot access in a national election.” 

Trial attorney William F. Savino of Woods Oviatt Gilman said, "The Kennedy campaign filed its appeal today based on numerous arguments passed over by the trial court. The judge refused to address the unconstitutionality of New York placing higher restrictions on candidate residency than allowed by the 12th amendment, the absence of voter confusion, and Mr. Kennedy's good faith use of his Katonah address based on his reliance on counsel."

To read the ruling against Mr. Kennedy, which was provided by the Kennedy campaign, please click here. 

For our coverage of Monday's ruling, please click here.

Books: "Men in White" On The Rebirth Of Penn State Football

 

Men in White: The Gutsy, Against-All-Odds Return of Penn State Football

By Chris Raymond

St. Martin's Press; hardcover, 284 pages plus one 16-page color photo insert; $32.00; available today, Tuesday, August 13th

Chris Raymond has covered sports, politics, and pop culture for 30 years. Most of his career was spent in longtime roles at ESPN. He also has been on staff and written and edited for Details, Esquire, and GQ.

Penn State was the gold standard of college football for decades, with Coach Joe Paterno at the helm and their vintage navy blue and white uniforms. In an instant, it all came down on November 5, 2011, when the crimes of assistant Jerry Sandusky were revealed, and what followed was months of turmoil in which everything we knew about Penn State was questioned, especially if the program could continue.

In the new book, Men in White: The Gutsy, Against-All-Odds Return of Penn State Football, Raymond opens the story in 2012 with when the NCAA saddled the players with crippling sanctions, and chronicles how they revived the program, up until their win in the 2016 Big Ten Championship Game.

The moment one could feel the program turning was in 2014, Head Coach James Franklin's first year at the helm, and they earned their first bowl game appearance since the scandal broke. They appeared in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, and the game sold out in a record thirty-six hours. Facing off against Boston College in a thriller, Penn state won it in overtime, and as this reporter in attendance remembers it, a cathartic celebration followed, as the players went on top of the baseball dugouts to celebrate with their fans.

Raymond highlights the heroism of the players who dedicated themselves to preserving Paterno's "success with honor" ideal, as they suffered humbling losses, numerous coaching changes before Franklin's now decade-long tenure, and the relentless criticism from the public. They persisted through five seasons - which is relatively fast considering how low the program was in 2011 - to bring it back to prominence. 

This book is told in an oral history-style format with players including running back Saquon Barkley, who played for the Giants from 2018 through last season; quarterback Christian Hackenberg, who was drafted by the Jets in 2016; John Urschel, Carl Nassib, and Trace McSorley.

Raymond documents how these players had to fight off efforts by many coaches to bring them into rival schools as they attempted to poach the roster, embraced the stirring words of a Navy SEAL, worked to accept the ever-changing coaching strategies, rebounded from heart-breaking losses, and overcame scholarship reduction with talent that was overlooked along the way.

Two of the biggest wins that really showed Penn State was back, and which each earned a chapter, include when they beat Michigan in four overtimes in 2013 and perhaps the biggest moment, an epic fourth-quarter comeback over Ohio State in 2016. The latter win was on their way to winning the Big Ten Championship over Wisconsin, the one Raymond contends removed the stain on the program that many felt never would go away.

Raymond writes of how crucial the players' commitment was to Penn State in the summer of 2012 to the program's future: "He was driving back to campus when the phone call arrived. 

It was the strength coach, warning him to be prepared for the following morning. 

Bad news was on the way.

For Michael Mauti, this was not a surprise, even in the tranquility of summer break. The world he once knew had been crumbling around him for months. It had started with the arrest of Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State coach charged on November 5, 2011, with forty counts of child molestation, and unfolded in seismic waves that rocked the leafy campus, unseating the university president, the athletic director, and head coach Joe Paterno - devastating the football program he had erected and studiously maintained over half a century.

The horrific details of Sandusky's crime spree had shaken the American public to its core, fueling round-the-clock discussion on cable news programs, talk radio, and social media forums in every corner of the country.

When Bill O'Brien arrived from the National Football League's New England Patriots in January to replace Paterno, it was supposed to signal a fresh start. But here was Mauti, the team's star linebacker, returning to campus from a friend's home in Youngstown, Ohio - days before fall practice was to begin for the 2012 season - and the fault lines were rumbling again.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, college football's governing body, was preparing to spring into action against the school. The organization could not pin a single infraction from its voluminous rule book on a Penn State player or coach, so it had dipped into its constitution to address the university's lapse in judgement - a failure to alert law enforcement officials - when confronted with an eyewitness account of Sandusky's criminal behavior. Penn State would be penalized for failing to uphold the 'fundamental values' of civility, honesty, and responsibility.

What did that mean? No one knew for sure. The NCAA and Penn State's new president had jockeyed for weeks over a suitable explanation and punishment. A state representative would later uncover internal emails suggesting the NCAA's executives were simply hoping to bluff their way to some form of punitive action. And so, when Mauti and his teammates, who were barely in kindergarten when Sandusky last coaches at Penn State, finally gathered in the players' lounge on July 23, 2012, to hear the NCAA's ruling, they were braced for more turmoil, but they had no clue how severe things would get.

The group watched on TV as NCAA president Mark Emmert stepped to a lectern in a black suit coat, white shirt, and oddly muted tie and somberly issued his verdict. He started with a $60 million fine and added a four-year ban from postseason bowl games, a drastic reduction in scholarships, and an edict that instantly erased 111 victories from the team's all-time total (dropping Paterno from first to fifth in the NCAA's record books). And then Emmert did something no one in the program saw coming: He released the players from all obligations to the school.

On the surface, the gesture seemed noble. It allowed the players - every last one - to walk away from the scandal and the sanctions scot-free. Each could select a new team at a new school and start over, no questions asked. But in reality it created a feeding frenzy.

Within minutes, rival coaches were ringing the players' phones, vying to lure them away from the program. 'It was open season,' said star running back Silas Redd. 'Everybody was getting hit up.'

Before long, zealous recruiters were walking the streets, camped out in restaurants, knocking on apartment doors to pitch their programs. They phoned players' parents, high school coaches, roommates, and girlfriends - anyone who might give them an in.

For the players, many less than three years removed from high school, it was a shock. When the day began, they were united as a team; now each was on his own - fighting off advances from grown men with no scruples. Many of the authority figures they had known and trusted were gone, dismissed in the wake of Paterno's departure. And, because it was midsummer, there were few school officials on hand to guide them through the madness.

'What are you guys hearing?' asked strength coach Craig Fitzgerald when Mauti reported to the training facility with his roommate Michael Zordich the following morning. Both had awakened to a flood of voicemails and text messages from recruiters.

The three men started scribbling names on yellow legal pads, working the phones to figure out what remained of the team - who was entertaining thoughts of leaving. They feared they wouldn't have enough bodies to host a practice, much less a Big Ten Conference game.

Mauti and Zordich, both sons of former Penn State players, had decided to stay at the university. Determined to prevent a mass exodus, they took the extraordinary step of issuing a players-only statement on ESPN. 

They tried crafting the words on paper but elected to speak off the cuff. The message had come from the heart. 'We weren't speaking for us,' said Zordich. 'We were speaking for anybody who ever had anything to do with Penn State.'

On July 25, 2012, trailed by more than two dozen teammates, the two seniors strode from the weight room to the practice field, inched up to a TV camera, and side by side vowed to hold the team together, calling on fellow students, alumni, lettermen, and fans to rally for the cause. 'This program was not built by one man,' said Mauti. 'And this program sure as hell is not going to be torn down by one man.'

The event lasted less than three minutes, but the sentiment behind it rippled across the next five seasons, resulting in one of the most incredible comebacks in sports history. It was a grueling journey, both physically and emotionally. The players would suffer embarrassing setbacks against Ohio and Temple and longtime rivals like Ohio State and Michigan and undergo yet another unexpected coaching change midway through their ascent. But they never lost heart."

Books: New Novels From Gill Paul, Sofia Robleda, Kristopher Jansma, & Jeff Shaara

 

Scandalous Women: A Novel of Jackie Collins & Jaqueline Susann

By Gill Paul

William Morrow Paperbacks; hardcover, $18.99; eBook, $11.99; Digital audio, $27.99; available today, Tuesday, August 13th

Gill Paul is an author of thirteen historical novels, many of which re-evaluate extraordinary 20th-century women whom she thinks have been marginalized or misjudged by history. One of those is A Beautiful Rival, which was released last fall, and it revealed the unknown history of cosmetic titans Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, whose rivalry spanned decades and included broken marriages, personal tragedies, and a world that was changing drastically for women. (Please click here for our review from September 2023) Gill's other novels include Another Woman's Husband, about links you may not have been aware of between Wallis Simpson, later Duchess of Windsor, and Diana, Princess of Wales; Women and Children First, about a young steward who works on the Titanic; and The Affair, set in 1961-62 as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fall in love while making "Cleopatra."

Paul's newest novel, Scandalous Women, is a compelling story set in the world of 1960s book publishing, with a story centered on the real-life, trailblazing authors Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann, who were renowned for their scandalous and controversial novels. They overcame the odds and persevered in a man's world, as they dared to write about sex at a time when transparency about female sexuality was not widely accepted. It's also a story about the beleaguered young editorial assistant who introduced them.

Set in 1965 New York City, college graduate Nancy Write is excited about her new job at a Manhattan publishing house, but she was not prepared for the rampant sexism she will encounter. She is tasked with working on Susann's Valley of the Dolls, and she becomes friends with Jacqueline, who then connects her with fellow colleague Jackie Collins.

A year later, Valley of the Dolls arrives in bookstores, and Susann is desperate for a bestseller. No question it's a steamy page-turner, but it's not clear it will make the big money she needs. In London, at the same time, Collins's racy The World Is Full of Married Men launches her career. 

Both authors are not prepared for the price they will have to pay for being women who had the courage to write about sex, as they are lambasted by the establishment, besieged with hate mail, and even condemned by feminists. 

In public, Jacqueline and Jackie shoulder the outcry with dignity, while in private, they are crumbling, particularly since each has secrets they would rather not see on the front page. There is a question as to whether they will clash as they rise up the charts, and whether Nancy will achieve her ambition of becoming an editor. They are each struggling to succeed in a men's world, as they desperately try to protect those whom they love the most.

Our Narrow Hiding Places

By Kristopher Jansma

Ecco; hardcover, 272 pages; $30.00; available today, Tuesday, August 13th

Kristopher Jansma is the author of the novels Why We Came to the City and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, the winner of the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award and a Pushcart Prize, and he received an honorable mention for the PEN/Hemnigway Award. He is an associate professor of English and the director of the creative writing program at SUNY New Paltz. His nonfiction has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, The Sun, and Real Simple, and his fiction has been published in the Alaska Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Story, and ZYZZYVA.

Our Narrow Hiding Places in Jansma's new epic of historical fiction, set in Holland during World War II. He examines an overlooked chapter in history, the Hunger Winter, when food and heat were cut off, and thousands of Dutch citizens starved during the final year of occupation by the Nazis. 

Inspired by Jansma's family history, the novel traces the long-buried memories of Mieke Geborn, a grandmother who finally shares her story when her grandson comes to visit. This brought back not just the trauma and terror of that time, but also the resilience of those who survived, including her Dutch family.

Mieke is eighty years old, and her life has been one of quiet routine since she became a widow many years ago. She enjoys the view from her home on the New Jersey shore, visits with her friends, and tai chi at the local retirement community. 

When Will and his wife, Teru, come for a visit, things become upended, starting with the unsettled state of their marriage. Will has questions for his grandmother, including about family secrets that have been lost for decades and are just now rising to the surface. 

In order to tell Will the whole truth, Mieke returns to the past, and her childhood in coastal Holland. In the last years of World War II, she survived the brutal Hunger Winter, and her memories weave together childhood magic and the madness of history. It is a story that ranges from the windy beaches of the Hague to the dark cells of a concentration camp, through the bends of rivers filled with eels, and ultimately, to the story of Will's father, who has been absent since he was a child.

It is a provocative story that shows the capacity of people to survive anything, and of the terrible cost of war, and that out of severe trauma comes a resilience to carry on.

Daughter of Fire 

By Sofia Robleda

Amazon Crossing; paperback, 283 pages; $16.99

Sofia Robleda is a Mexican writer who spent her childhood and adolescence in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. She completed her undergraduate and doctorate degrees in psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. Currently, Sofia lives in the UK with her husband and son, and splits her time between writing, raising her son, and working as a clinical physchologist supporting people with brain injuries and neurological conditions.

Daughter of Fire is Robleda's historical fiction debut, and it is a deep story about a girl named Catalina de Cerrato, who was born in the 1530s to an Indigenous Guatemalan mother and a Spanish colonizer father. It is a journey that is touched by loyalty and prejudice, love and oppression, and embracing one's identity. 

This evolved from Robleda's personal ancestral search, in which she discovered the history of an ancient Mayan sacred text with stories that were so enlightening, they called for them to be written about.

"I grew up in Cancun, surrounded by the ancient Mayan culture, but when I found out I had Indigenous blood, I started studying out pre-Columbian history in a lot more detail," Robleda says in the press materials accompanying this book. "When I read how many documents were destroyed, I had a visceral reaction. I couldn't stop crying over this great loss to our heritage. But the Popol Vuh survived. Its story possessed me. I felt I'd gone out to look for my roots, and they'd taken a hold of me. The result was this novel, and I'm ecstatic that Daughter of Fire will be published this summer."

The Popl Vuh is a sacred text that is not well-known, and it has invaluable insight into the Maya way of life before colonization, including their myths and stories, and the history of the K'iche' people of Guatemala. The stories were mostly passed down orally, until around 1550, when anonymous K'iche' authors wrote them down in secret. After the Spanish conquest of the Mays, missionaries and colonists destroyed many documents, as well as the original sacred text, were lost. Only a translated copy that was made by a friar in the 18th century remains.

Catalina de Cerrato is being raised by her widowed father, Don Alonso, in 1551 Guatemala, around thirty years after the Spanish invasion. Don is a ruling member of the oppressive Spanish hierarchy, and he holds sway over the newly relegated lower class of Indigenous communities. 

With a fierce independence, Catalina struggles to honor her father and her late mother, who was a Maya noblewoman that Catalina made a vow that only she can keep, to preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now forbidden history of the K'iche' people. 

Catalina is spurred to do this by her mother's spirit voice and possessing the gift of committing the invaluable stories to memory, and she embarks on a secret and transcendent quest to rewrite them. Through ancient pyramids, Spanish villas, and caves of masked devils, Catalina finds an ally in the captivating Juan de Rojas, a lord whose rule was compromised by the invasion. 

As Catalina and Juan's love and trust unfolds, and her father's tyranny escalates, she must confront her conflicted blood heritage, and the secrets that go with it, once and for all if she is to complete this dangerous quest to its historic finish.

The Shadow of War: A Novel of the Cuban Missile Crisis

By Jeff Shaara

St. Martin's Press; hardcover, 368 pages; $30.00

Jeff Shaara is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of seventeen novels, including Rise to Rebellion and The Rising Tide, and two novels that complete his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Killer Angels - Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. His previous novel is The Old Lion: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt (please click here for our review from June 2023).

In the engrossing new novel, The Shadow of War, Shaara examines one of the most memorable conflicts between super-powers, the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962.

President John F. Kennedy took office the prior year, and he inherited an ill-conceived, poorly executed invasion of Cuba that was an utter failure and set in motion the events that put the United States and Soviet Union on a collision course that could have started a war that would have enveloped most of the world.

Shaara tells the story through multiple perspectives and voices, from the Russian engineer attempting the near impossible task of building the missile launch facilities in Cuba, to the U.S. Navy commanders whose ships are sent to "quarantine" Cuba, to the Kennedy brothers, John and Bobby, who can't allow Russia to land nuclear missiles in Cuba, or to show weakness in confronting Nikita Krushchev, but with a keen understanding of how close they are to the precipice of war, while Krushchev is desperate to try and maintain a balance between the conflicting demands of powerful forces in the U.S.S.R.

Shaara writes of what's at stake in his introduction, "In the United States, the election of 1960 has produced a leader of many contrasts to Krushchev. John F. Kennedy rises form aristocratic stock and is a man his powerful father has deemed destined to be president, a claim that proves true. Kennedy is careful, understands the extraordinary power of his office, immediately begins to rely on experts in every field, to help guide the way. Some of these experts dwell in the Central Intelligence Agency, and convince Kennedy that the time has come to eliminate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Kennedy, and his brother Bobby, despise Castro, see him as a standard bearer for the greatest threats to our country, leading a blatantly Communist government right on Florida's doorstep.

"The Cuban government is backed and supported by Krushchev and the Soviets, who see the Caribbean nation as a vital entryway into Latin America, where the Soviet Union's influence might expand. Though photographs show Krushchev and Castro have a smiling friendship, in fact, Krushchev is wary of Castro's tendency to talk too much. For his part, Castro embraces Soviet support as a way to expand his own power, no matter Moscow's cautions. But Castro has an almost paranoid fear that the United States will attempt to forcibly remove him from power. He thus relies on the Soviet Union to provide him with undeniable strength of his own. The Soviets, ever aware that America and her NATO allies have nuclear missiles spread across Europe, now believe they have a successful counter to such a strategy. This far, Soviet missiles of all kinds have been based only inside the borders of the Soviet Union, and with very few Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, their armament is only a minor direct threat to the United States. Cuba offers Krushchev a unique opportunity to move the needle, to balance Soviet missiles strength with American. And Castro is only too willing to accept Soviet military aid."

Books: "The Nervous System Reset" By Jessica Maguire

 

The Nervous System Reset: Heal Trauma, Resolve Chronic Pain, and Regulate Your Emotions with the Power of the Vagus Nerve

By Jessica Maguire, BHSci, MPhysio

Balance, hardcover, 352 pages; $30.00

Jessica Maguire is an expert in nervous system repair, TEDx speaker, and the voice of the popular social media account @repairing_the_nervous_system. She is the founder of Nervous System School, where she teaches a long-term, sustainable, transformative methodology of nervous system repair, which empowers students to step into the driver's seat of their own health and wellbeing. Maguire holds a Bachelor of Health Science degree and a Master of Physiotherapy, and her post-graduate study includes the fields of neuroscience, neuroplasticity, brain-heart biofeedback, brain-body medicine, and transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation.

RFK Jr. Kicked Off New York Ballot, Vows "We will appeal and we will win."

 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Brooklyn on May 1. Photo by Jason Schott.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. only saved New York City's tap water, arguably the best in the world, and cleaned up the Hudson River, but that did not help him prove his residency in the ballot access lawsuit the DNC filed against the Independent Presidential candidate.

Democratic Judge Christina L. Ryba ruled that Kennedy is not a New York resident, and cannot appear on the ballot in November. 

Yankees Doubleheader: Rodon Keeps Rolling; Texas Earns Split

 

Aaron Judge racing to the plate to score on Austin Wells’ two-run double (that’s Juan Soto to the far right after he scored) in the third inning of Game 1. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees had their second doubleheader in four days at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, as they took on the defending World Champion Texas Rangers.

Books: "Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart"

 

Robert Frost: Sixteen Poems to Learn by Heart

By Robert Frost and Jay Parini

Library of America; hardcover, 164 pages; $24.00

In honor of Robert Frost's 150th birthday comes this collection of signature poems in this beautifully produced keepsake edition. These highlight his special genius and the power of memorization to unlock the magic of his language.

Yankees Postponed Friday Night, Double Dip on Saturday

 

This has been a familiar sight at Yankee Stadium this week. Photo by Jason Schott.

The rainy week in New York continues, and with a bad forecast on tap for Friday night, the Yankees have postponed their game against the Texas Rangers.

Books: "The 1998 Yankees" By Jack Curry, Now In Paperback

 

The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever 

By Jack Curry

Twelve; 288 pages; paperback, $21.99; hardcover, $30; eBook, $12.99

Jack Curry is an an analyst on the Yankees' pregame and postgame shows on the YES Network, where he has worked since 2010. He has won five New York Emmy Awards. Prior to that, Curry covered baseball for 20 seasons, first as the Yankees' beat writer and then as a national baseball columnist. He is the co-author of three acclaimed books on the Yankees, Swing and a Hit, with Paul O'Neill, which was released last year (click here for Brooklyn Digest's coverage); Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher, with David Cone, from 2019 (click here for our coverage); and The Life You Imagine, with Derek Jeter, which came out in 2001.

In his newest book The 1998 Yankees, Curry examines why this team, that went 125-50 on their way to winning the World Series, should be acknowledged as one of the greatest ever.

Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner said at the time, "Right now, you would have to call them the best team ever."

The 1998 Yankees was originally released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of that wonderful season, which Curry revisits to discuss how the team was built and why the Yankees were such a talented, compelling, and successful club. 

"I enjoyed covering the Yankees during their magical 1998 season," Curry told Brooklyn Digest about the reception he received from fans when it was released, and the hold that team still has on them. "I enjoyed revisiting that season and writing a book about that historic team even more. Once the book was published, I appreciated how many people told me that they learned a lot of new things about those players and that season. It was a reminder of how special that team was and how beloved that team was to Yankees fans."

The story of the 1998 season, which was full of memorable moments, is told through Curry's observations and reporting from that season, as well as interviews with more than 25 players, coaches, and executives, who revealed some behind-the-scenes stories about the journey they took to reach greatness. One of the big moments was David Wells' perfect game, and the story around that remarkable achievement shows what made the team special.

The players that led this team, and other championship seasons before and after 1998, are some of the most recognizable, beloved players in Yankees history, among them Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, David Cone, Andy Pettitte, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada, and the uncomparable closer Mariano Rivera.

In addition, the 1998 Yankees had new faces added to what was already an incredible lineup that had won the World Series two years before. Chuck Knoblauch was brought in from Minnesota to be a solid presence leading off, Scott Brosius took over at third base and became the World Series MVP, veteran Chili Davis was a force, and, at the end of the season, phenom Shane Spencer, who did nothing but hit home runs in September. There also was the addition of El Duque, Orlando Hernandez, and all the excitement around what he brought to the team, to one of the best rotations in history.

My conversation with Jack Curry about The 1998 Yankees from May 2023 (edited and condensed for clarity):

Jason Schott: How did this one differ from the ones you recently wrote with David Cone and Paul O'Neill?

Jack Curry: When you're writing a book with a player, Jason, your mission is to make sure you tell their story, you tell their story accurately, but you also have to get their voice. You want people who are their friends or their family to pick up that book and say to themselves, 'wow, this sounds like Paul wrote it,' 'wow, this sounds like David wrote it,' and that's challenging. I do appreciate that Cone's father and O'Neill's wife both told me that they felt as if they had written the book, so that's a challenge that I didn't have with this book. This is Jack Curry's book; I didn't have to sit in my office at 1 o'clock in the morning some night and, after I wrote a passage, say 'eh, not sure Paul would have said it that way,' or 'I better go back to my notes and try to see how Paul might have phrased that,' and it's obviously, when you're doing a book with an athlete, it's not stenography; I don't want to boil it down to that. It's much more different than that. but it's trying to find the guy's voice, and I have to tell you, Jason, it was liberating to write this book because it's Jack Curry's voice, it's my observations from that season, it's my reporting, it's my interviews, and I did feel a level of freedom in not having to be there to mimic someone's voice.

JS: Were you still the Yankees beat writer for the New York Times that season before you became the national baseball columnist?

JC: It's interesting, I got off the beat in '97; Buster Olney took over, he was the beat writer in '98. I was a national writer in '98, but the Yankees were the biggest national story, so I ended up covering a ton of that team.

JS: So, you were jumping back and forth between the Yankees and the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run chase that summer?

JC: I was in St. Louis when McGwire hit 62, exactly right, and I did not do a ton of McGwire and Sosa in this book, only because I wasn't ignoring them. I mentioned it a few times, but my goal was to tell the story of the Yankees, but if you do go back and you did a daily capturing of that '98 season, those guys were getting a lot more publicity than the Yankees were. The Yankees were just a machine, they kept winning, which was less sexy than two guy who, at the time, were having a very cordial, very friendly chase to the top of the mountaintop, so that got a lot more attention.

JS: You write that the Yankees knew that at the time and took a sense of pride in that, calling themselves "grinders," that while they were hitting home runs, they were grinding out wins every day.

JC: If you look at that lineup - up and down that lineup - I think you could describe all of those guys as grinders. It was Knoblauch's first season, and he brought an energy at the top of the lineup, we know who Jeter is, O'Neill was a grinder, Tino Martinez was a grinder, Brosius was a grinder. People I think often misconstrued who Bernie Williams was, but this was a guy who was going to lay a heavy at-bat on you every time, and one of the things that I'm glad that I did in this book, Jason, was I found (former Red Sox catcher) Jason Varitek at a Yankees-Red Sox game one day. He was a rookie in '98, so I wanted to get someone's perspective who had to sort of battle that lineup, and as we sat in the Yankee Stadium third base dugout, you could see Varitek almost reliving a nightmare, basically saying, 'yeah, we tried to do this to O'Neill, but it didn't work that often,' 'oh, we tried to do this to Bernie, but you couldn't really get him out here,' Tino was this, and he turned to me and said, 'I feel like I'm giving you the same scouting report on every guy, but that's who they were, they were just so difficult to get out, they extended at-bats, etc.'

JS: I think it was necessary context that you begin the book with the loss in 1997 in the American League Division Series in Cleveland when they were defending their World Championship. How important was it to start there?

JC: I thought it was of vital importance because I truly believe, as I wrote, that the march through 1998 started in '97. I think it's 15 guys played for '96, '97, and '98, and I think 23 played for '97 and '98 - obviously we're not just talking 25-man rosters, so you had a lot of overlap. You had a lot of guys who lived that nightmare, and Jason, they felt they were a better team in '97 than they were in '96. I'm not saying they thought it was going to be a cakewalk, but they saw back-to-back championships right before their eyes, and when that ended, I'll still remember that clubhouse and just how morose they felt. Steinbrenner walking around patting guys on the back, saying, 'We'll do it again, we're going to win it next year,' and in the moment, you think, 'okay, George, sure, say whatever an owner is supposed to say.' Well, he was right, and that team was committed to not letting that happen again, so I thought we had to start in '97, I think the chapter was called "Before Glory, Suffering," and I think it was true. '98 doesn't happen in the manner that it did, with that dominance, unless they had some suffering in '97. Not saying they wouldn't have won in '98, but I think from Day 1, after that little hiccup in the first week, that team was on a rampage.

JS: I forgot the adversity they faced in the first month, that they opened in another house of horrors, Seattle, and then after a wild 13-10 Opening Day win at Yankee Stadium over Oakland, a beam at The Stadium came down, forcing them to rearrange a bunch of games.

JC: It was a crazy start to the season. Everyone knows there was a lot of angst spilled about Torre's future. I found out, and I don't think this was heavily reported back then, if much since then, that Cashman felt that his job was also in jeopardy. You mention the other things that were happening, but by the time that beam fell, after that, that team was already starting to go on a roll. I think it said a lot about their resilience that they were bouncing around to different parts of the country, they played a couple games at Shea, they relocated a series, I think, with Detroit - they just kept winning, and so, you started to see who that team was going to become.

JS: On May 19, 1998, the Yankees had a massive brawl with the Baltimore Orioles, which began with Armando Benitez hitting Tino Martinez intentionally in the back with a fastball, which you say really galvanized them. 

JC: I don't think the Yankees needed to be galvanized, but I think the Orioles poked the bear, so to speak. The Orioles/Armando Benitez because it was a one-man show, you saw, and I've watched that YouTube video probably 15 times while writing this book, you just saw the Yankees like a tidal wave after that happened. They were just attacking the Orioles dugout, 25 guys that had their eyes on Benitez, and they were not going to let anybody push them around, and as much as they were respected around the league, and they had players who were gentleman, I do think that that incident sent a message. I do think that incident said, 'whoa, wait a second, you're not doing that after Bernie Williams hits a home run. You're not doing that to Tino Martinez, we are not letting that happen on our turf!'

JS: I watched the clip again myself, it was a 98 miles-per-hour fastball in the numbers.

JC: There was no doubt he was throwing at him, and Benitez has tried to say the pitch got away from him, etc. Everybody on both teams knew that it did not, and Tino and Posada were really good talking about that in the book. I appreciated them going back with me and reviewing what happened in that situation because I think galvanizing is the perfect word. That's what that moment did.

JS: You mention Posada, he really became a regular part of that lineup in 1998, along with other new faces Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, who was an afterthought when they got him, and Chili Davis. How did that change the dynamic of the lineup?

JC: I talked to a lot of the leftover guys, Jeter, O'Neill, Cone, and they were impressed with how quickly those guys fit in. I even said to Jeter, well, how could the guys like the ones you just mention, really understand what you experienced in '97, he said, 'oh, if you were in our clubhouse, you got it. If you were in our clubhouse, you understood what we felt we left out there' so they were part of that very quickly. I think Knoblauch brought a toughness and a grittiness. At that moment in time, his career is on a Hall of Fame trajectory. I know when you look at what happened in New York, it probably did not turn out totally the way Chuck would have wanted, even though he got three World Series rings, but the Yankees needed a pesky leadoff hitter at the top and a guy who could be tough, and Knoblauch was that guy. Brosius, and Cashman said it best, he just was a gift that fell out of the clouds - or maybe he said that about El Duque, but it actually applies to both of them. I think when you were going to have a great team/extraordinary team, you have to have some players who did things that you didn't expect, and to me the three guys were Brosius, Spencer, and El Duque because, in spring training, if you mentioned those three names, you would have had a Cuban pitcher who they didn't know a ton about who they just signed, a career minor leaguer, and a guy who just hit .200 in Oakland. Instead, they turned out to be three essential pieces of one of the best teams of all time.

JS: What was it like when El Duque arrived because they had to fight to get him in, and the second he showed up, he was incredible.

JC: I loved covering El Duque, I loved covering his games, I loved his antics in the clubhouse, and in the beginning, he was so fresh-faced and so excited and so new, he talked right up to the moments he was starting, which was unbelievable because, as you know, starting pitchers rarely talk, and he was so animated, (first base coach) Jose Cardenal would translate for him, so you did feel as if you were covering a showman on and off the mound, and just the way he pitched. John Flaherty (Jack's YES colleague who was on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998) had a good anecdote in the book where El Duque pitched against Tampa Bay (in his first start on June 3, 1998), and Flaherty said that their scouting report said basically 'mediocre fastball, throw a couple of breaking pitches.' He said that the scouting report gave you no glimpse into who El Duque really was, with the different arm angles, pitching to the corners, the way he would compete, so he really was a delight to cover...(Flaherty) wasn't in the lineup, but he remembered the scouting report.

JS: One of the fascinating things in the book was David Cone was the leader of the pitching staff, how he had a great relationship with David Wells that you highlight, and took El Duque under his wing through the season.

JC: Cone was the guy who took pressure off people in the clubhouse because he enjoyed the interaction with the media, he didn't mind talking every day, and some position players didn't want to do that. O'Neill, who I had a good relationship with, he really didn't want to answer baseball questions every day. Cone loved it, Cone reveled in doing that. It took the pressure off guys who just wanted to maybe go get their work done.

JS: That's pretty instructive that, as a starting pitcher he would do that.

JC: Cone was very big on being a teammate in the four days where he wasn't pitching, and he said not every starting pitcher is like that, but he felt that if he could help a teammate on a day he wasn't pitching, well, why wouldn't he do that? If he knew there was something that a right-hander was trying to do to Chuck Knoblauch, he would let him know, and a lefty was doing this to Paul O'Neill, he would let him know. Some guys were receptive, some guys weren't, but yeah, they didn't have a captain back then, but put it this way, I'll take captain out of the equation, if you took a poll in 1998 and asked those Yankees players who was their favorite guy on the team, who was the most popular guy, it would be David Cone, without a doubt Cone would win that.

JS: Cone and Wells kind of epitomized the mix of players the Yankees had on this team, in that Cone was very thoughtful of a player, while Wells was fiery, and it seemed that split evenly throughout the team. How did Joe Torre manage those personalities, and how had he evolved in his third year at the helm?

JC: I thought Torre, when he came in, I'm going to go back a little bit to '96, I thought he was the perfect manager for that '96 team because there were some struggles. Joe had a soothing way about him that I think, in the course of a long baseball season, you need. This isn't football; you don't play just once a week and you can't be screaming at guys, so when Joe did scream or did yell at a guy, it resonated because he did it so rarely. I think in '98, and I interviewed Torre for this book, Torre takes less credit. He said he noticed in spring training, and then of course they had that hiccup at the beginning of the season, but he noticed in spring training how driven this team was, and he said he could sense it from an early part of the spring and he kind of just jumped on their backs. Now, there's more to it than that, obviously a manager makes who knows how many decisions every day, but Torre gave the team a lot of credit for being the ones that drove the bus in '98...I always called Joe soothing - soothing and stoic, I thought those were the traits he exhibited as a manager.

JS: How important was it to have a postscript at the end of the book updating where every player is at present, good or bad, with some that are quite surprising.

JC: Very important, Jason. I'm a journalist and I was covering the 1998 season, and I was telling people about that, but I felt that we would have been remiss if we didn't at least give people a thumbnail sketch of what has happened in the last 25 years. There are some people whose lives probably didn't twist and turn in the way that they had hoped they would, so I did want to make sure that we mention that. It's a book about the 1998 Yankees, I wasn't going to do a whole chapter on player X who has had a lot of difficulty, but I did want to let the readers know what has happened across the last 25 years.

JS: Would you say this is the best team ever because, in the past 25 years, no team has come close to what they achieved, like some teams have won around 110 games, but fizzled out of the playoffs since then. This team did everything you possibly could.

JC: I do think it's the best team ever. I should preface that by saying it's probably impossible to pick a 'best team ever,' but we debate everything, we argue about everything, we discuss everything, so when it came time for me to write a book because I do believe this was the best team ever, and you're right, no one has come close to 125 wins. I have a ton of other stats in this book that express why I thought they were the best team ever, and I thought Cone put it very nicely in terms of roster construction, as well, just how every guy knew his role, and that's what made them so great because Homer Bush knew his role, Andy Pettitte knew his role, Mike Stanton knew his role, up and down that roster they were just loaded with talented players whose desire was to win.