Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
This is one of those rare times that I’m actually excited about every book posted. I eagerly look forward to reading each of these.
Our White Boy
by Jerry Craft with Kathleen Sullivan
Foreword by Larry Lester
Promo copy:
At the outset of summer break in 1959, Texas Tech senior Jerry Craft had no more enticing options than to stay home and help on the family ranch–so the telephoned offer to play for a semipro baseball club he’d never heard of came as a welcome surprise.
But Craft was in for an even bigger surprise when he reported for tryout and discovered he’d been recruited for the West Texas Colored League.
Wichita Falls/Graham Stars manager Carl Sedberry persuaded Craft to put aside his misgivings and pitch for the Stars. Despite the derision of black teammates, fans, and opponents, and his own trepidation, ”that white boy” took the mound to close a rousing victory in his first game. At home and on the road in segregated Texas, Craft saw discrimination firsthand and from every side. Yet out of his two seasons with the Stars comes an unlikely story of respect, character, humor, and ultimately friendship as the teammates pulled together to succeed in a game they loved.
WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit
by Alan J. Porter
Illustrated by Doug Potter
Promo copy:
Looking for a way to increase team collaboration? Do you need a better way manage your company’s knowledge? Do you need a way to manage projects with customers or suppliers outside your company firewall? Would you like your customers to provide feedback on the information you publish? Then a wiki might be just what you are looking for. WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit introduces the concept of wikis, and shows why they are becoming the must-have communications and collaboration technology for businesses of any size. Porter provides up-to-date information on selecting a wiki, getting started, overcoming resistance to wikis, maintaining your wiki, and using your wiki for internal collaboration, project planning, communication with your customers, and more. The book includes five case studies that highlight the ways companies are using wikis to solve business and communication problems, increase efficiency, and improve customer satisfaction.
Yes, this is the same Alan J. Porter who wrote The Cars comic, Star Trek: A Comic Book History, and James Bond: The History Of The Illustrated 007.
Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games
by A. Bartlett Giamatti
Promo copy:
A philosophical musing on sports and play, this wholly inspiring and utterly charming reissue of Bart Giamatti’s long-out-of-print final book, Take Time for Paradise, puts baseball in the context of American life and leisure. Giamatti begins with the conviction that our use of free time tells us something about who we are. He explores the concepts of leisure, American-style. And in baseball, the quintessential American game, he finds its ultimate expression. "Sports and leisure are our reiteration of the hunger for paradise— for freedom untrammeled." Filled with pithy truths about such resonant subjects as ritual, self-betterment, faith, home, and community, Take Time for Paradise gives us much more than just baseball. These final, eloquent thoughts of "the philosopher king of baseball" (Seattle Weekly) are a joyful, reverent celebration of the sport Giamatti loved and the country that created it.