After a bad run a couple months back, I seem to be on a winning streak again (at least with books; oh, and the Muppet Movie). I guess it helps when you read a book that has been on so many end-of-year top 10 lists. At any rate, I really enjoyed the world that Chad Harbach created in the Art of Fielding. It reminded me of Skippy Dies in that you became a part of the characters' world and it's one that I would never otherwise experience. For a few days I was immersed in and inhabiting the world of baseball players at a college in the US.
To put it in broad terms, this book tracks the life of several baseball players (and other members of the college community) throughout the course of a single season. It touches on a range of interesting issues: the pressure that athletes are put under by themselves and others, the toll that athletics can take on a body, the perils of alternative lifestyles in a conservative environment, depression, and a myriad of others. Because many of these issues are quite universal, it doesn't matter if you're a baseball fan, the book still resonates. I don't think it would make my list of top-10 books of the year, but I did really enjoy it.
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