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Every once in a while I come across a book that I missed the first time around. I know everyone else has already read Moneyball, but until recently I hadn't -- and now that I've read it, I agree that every self-respecting baseball fan needs to read it.

Much has been made about Billy Beane (Oakland A's general manager) and his statistical approach to assembling a team. The oft-repeated caricature of Beane and his ilk as a bunch of math-obsessed nerds misses the point. The stats-geeks love baseball as much as the traditionalists -- they just have an unquenchable desire to understand the nuts and bolts of the game, instead of relying solely on their immediate perception of players and teams. Michael Lewis narrates the battle between the new-school statistical approach and the old-guard "Baseball Men" (a club restricted mostly to former players and scouts), and follows Beane's path from a failed prospect (who was described as "can't-miss" by the old guard) to a major league general manager assembling overlooked and ignored players into a playoff team.

If you're gearing up for baseball to start (March 25th!), and you haven't read Moneyball yet, definitely grab a copy. It's a great read and will definitely change the way you understand the game.

A few weeks ago, John passed me an advance copy of Bernhard Schlink's novel Homecoming and mentioned that I might enjoy it. I had a couple books already in my stack at home, but John's recommendations have proved fairly reliable, so I gave it a shot.

I was pleasantly surprised by Schlink's writing (and the translation work by Michael Henry Heim from the original German). The prose is natural and seldom sounds out of place in the English translation. Schlink is excellent at describing moments of common experience that generally go unnoticed.

My favorite part of the novel, however, is the layered construction of the story -- most importantly the protagonist exploring his family history through a novel published by his grandparents. Schlink weaves this theme of the ideas and beliefs that are encased in fiction throughout the story; you find yourself discovering the theme in moments of the story, instead of feeling as though the story is being dictated by the theme. The protagonist also returns again and again to the issue of inherited familial guilt, and wrestles with his inability to either deny or make amends for his ancestral evil.

This is a good read. Homecoming is going to stay on my bookshelf, and I am looking forward to picking up Schlink's first novel, The Reader, which was a Oprah Book Club selection.

Absurdistan, Gary Shteyngart's second novel, follows the story of Misha Vainberg, a rich, obese Russian Jew (as is Shteyngart – a Russian Jew, not rich and obese). Misha is stranded in Russia and desperately desires to to return to the U.S. The story unfolds as Misha attempts to facilitate his return to the U.S. by obtaining Belgian citizenship in Absurdistan.

The excellence of Shteyngart's writing is not plot or action, however; it is in the interaction of cultures. Misha, who desires to be American, and is willing to travel to Absurdistan to obtain Belgian citizenship, cannot escape his ethnic and national inheritance: he remains a Russian Jew, and embodies the historically downtrodden and oppressed nature of both groups. The reader is never quite sure if Shteyngart believes all these ethnic and national stereotypes, or if he uses them to demonstrate their inadequacy. Nevertheless, Absurdistan is a wonderfully written portrayal of the permanence of ethnic and national identity in an ever-increasingly global culture. - Mark Geoffriau

Speculation about a future dystopia makes for good fiction; "1984", "A Brave New World", and "Farenheit 451" are all considered classics for the frightening visions they present, as well as insight into modern day circumstances. In "Love in the Ruins," however, Percy's "future America" startles not for its discrepancies with modern day, but instead for its remarkable similarities with our own culture. Percy focuses his prophetic tale on the bizarre creature that is man, and finds terror not in physical destruction, or endless war, but instead in mankind's lack of self-knowledge. The underlying commentary on the self-destructive nature of our culture is subtle but directly on target, and Percy is wise enough to offer no easy answers to the difficult questions that this novel poses. - Mark Geoffriau