MVP by C.E. Gray

MVP
by C.E. Gray
Pages: 160
Date: 2001
Publisher: The Athenaeum
Series: None
Fanfiction: Xena
URL: http://xenafiction.net/scrolls/ce_gray_mvp1.html

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: August 4 to 7 2016

Cody Madison is a six foot tall baseball player (with long black hair and blue eyes) on a 'fairly new MLB baseball team' named the San Diego Warriors. Cody is the only female on the team.

The first team these Warriors face is the Saint Louis Cardinals. And I only know two of those (well, I stress the I part) - a MLB team, and a former NFL team (they are now the Arizona Cardinals). Though the part wherein we are suddenly inside the pitchers head and he's thinking back to the fact that the last time he faced a woman at the plate, she bady sprained his hand. Considering that thought that was revealed in that scene, there are more than just Cody out there as female players, though only one on the Warriors team.

The book was put out there into the universe sometime around 2001. There's a moment when Mark McGwire Jr. appeared - whereupon the lead character noted that his father had retired years ago in 2007. So, this is set in some unknown year when 2007 is years ago and women play, supposedly, in the MLB. Ah. It's 2017.

I expect, considering everything, that the other main in this story will be the 'small blond woman with green eyes' who Cody spots sitting at 'her table' at her favorite bar & grill with a small 5 year old named Jeffrey. - That would be 25 year old Jennie Donavon and her son Jeffrey Donavon. Who, at their first meeting, didn't recognize Cody as Cody (though had heard stories about this 'Cody' person).

So - this one will involve family issues. What with Jeannie having a son, and Cody having a brother who calls begging for money (though he had disowned her 12 years ago right after their father had died). Oh, though it will not involve, directly, Cody's parents, because both are dead. Though Jeannie's two parents are alive, and, apparently, the mother keeps trying to set up Jeannie with dates with men.

heh. That's one of the problems of writing a book in 2001 and setting it in 2017. Jeannie's apparently not out as a lesbian with her family because 'that'd go over like a lead balloon'. 2017 and still worrying about the reactions of parents, and of your own son. mmphs. heh. (and yeah, in real life everything isn't pretty ponies and chocolate candies, people still have deep issues, I'm not attempting to over look that, just noting that apparently women breaking the barrier of the MLB is seen by the book as being more realistic than an out lesbian mother).

Jeannie, to round things out, works in a day care. While Cody is a rich athlete baseball player.

Actually, to 'round things out', I should probably mention Garret, since he helped Cody when Cody's parents up and died, and owns a bar & grill that COdy likes hanging out it - oh, and they are close and stuff. So . . he's an important side character. So I should mention him.

So, as expected, there's Romance. And the two leads, Cody and Jeannie, seemed to like each other immediately.

--
Updated (8/7/16):
You can tell that this started life as Xena fanfiction by the numerous times that the two lead characters are referred to by physical characteristics. 'The blonde one' (or more likely 'the young blonde'), and the 'tall one' (or 'dark haired one'), plus numerous mentions of eye color. Vaguely annoying but that's life.

This is one of those books that had two people (well three since one had a kid) come together relatively smoothly and get along quite well. Then . . . ANGST! DRAMA! SPLIT! WHY AM I IN ALL CAPS?

Well, the 'point of conflict' is different than I've seen before. Which is saying something since this book is from 2001. The conflict, which I cannot elaborate on too much because of spoiler concerns, involves a forced separation by outside forces. It is true that I've read several (many? I forget now) that had some kind of 'forced separation' but those books were set long after that point when a 'second chance' can/could occur. Not here. Here the forced separation occurred mid stream, as it were. As in, we are not meeting people 15 years after the split, we meet people before they were ever together, then with them together, then with them split. Story is not told through a bunch of flashbacks.

--
This is/was a rather good book. It kind of sneaked up on me - everything was going a certain way and suddenly everything felt deeper, more important. Well, I do not really know what I'm talking about or rambling about. It be 3 am. Me talk funny now. Was good book.

August 7 2016

From Third to Home by Chris Paynter

From Third to Home
by Chris Paynter
Pages: 277
Date: April 3 2016
Publisher: Companion Publications
Series: Playing for First (3rd in series)

Review
Rating: 5.5 out of 5.0
Read: June 8 2016

My third book by this author. And my favorite of the three I’ve read by Paynter. Though all three are part of the same series that builds on itself, so people coming along behind me are directed to read from the beginning – from the first book.

Unless I'm mistaken, and I could very well be, I see a pattern in this series. First book had 1 point of view, Lisa Collins. Second one had two points of views - Lisa Collins and Amy Perry. Third one has three points of views. Lisa Collins, Amy Perry, and Kat Benson.

Book one focused on Lisa Collins and her personal and professional life and her connection to Amy Perry. Professionally, Collins, in that first book, followed Perry as she moved from a player on a professional female baseball team, to the MLB winter league, to minor league ball, and then a brief appearance in the majors. Personally, Collins, very quickly in that first book, developed a friendship and romantic relationship with Perry. By the second book (actually, during the first), the friendship part remained, but only the friendship part. By the third, the friendship part, which was somewhat shaky in the second, was on firm ground, and any lingering romantic feelings are gone.

Book two focused more on Amy Perry and her time in the majors. Well, the book opened with her still in the minors, but very quickly she made it up to the majors in the second or third month of the season. Collins, though, remained one of the points of view in the book, and some of the focus remained on her professional and relationship life.

Book three, this book here, keeps the focus on Perry and Collins, but adds in an unexpected third party. Perry’s former coach contacts Collins and suggests she stops by and watches one of her players. That player being one ‘Kat Benson’. Like in the first book when Perry was watched by others, Benson is introduced to readers by having people watch her. Unlike the first book, Benson’s own thoughts suddenly, seemingly of their own accord, break through and let others in on her thoughts.

Benson could very well have ended up being an afterthought. Someone whose story is just tacked on, but she has a deeper story, and deeper impact on the book than I had expected.

Benson pulls in another character who wasn’t previously in the series, one Stephanie McGrady – Stacey’s sister. Kat and Stephanie circle each other in this book, and I quite like both of them and their budding relationship.

Family plays a large role in this book. Collins and her long lost father. Perry & McGrady attempting to deepen their own family by having a baby together, and Benson and her strained relationship with her alcoholic mother.

Baseball remains the underlying theme, and structure to which the various subplots anchor upon. And the baseball action, at times, was even somewhat thrilling to observe.

As I mentioned in my review for the previous book in this series, written moments ago, I liked the third book best of all. The books, if I were to give them a number rating, probably hovered around 4.7 for the first book, 4.8 for second, and something at or above 5 for the third.

June 9 2016

Two for the Show by Chris Paynter

Two for the Show
by Chris Paynter
Pages: 214
Date: September 15 2014 (Orig. April 2011)
Publisher: Companion Publications
Series: Playing for First (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 7 to 8 2016

My second book by this author.

Unless I'm mistaken, and I could very well be, I see a pattern in this series. First book had 1 point of view, Lisa Collins. Second one, this book here, had two point of views - Lisa Collins and Amy Perry. Third one has three point of views. Lisa Collins, Amy Perry, and Kat Benson.

This is a rather enjoyable series, but this being the second and not the third in the series, I should focus on it and not on the whole series.

Book one focused on Lisa Collins and her personal and professional life and her connection to Amy Perry. Professionally, Collins, in that first book, followed Perry as she moved from a player on a professional female baseball team, to the MLB winter league, to minor league ball, and then a brief appearance in the majors. Personally, Collins, very quickly in that first book, developed a friendship and romantic relationship with Perry. By the second book (actually, during the first), the friendship part remained, but only the friendship art.

Book two focused more on Amy Perry and her time in the majors. Well, the book opened with her still in the minors, but very quickly she made it up to the majors in the second or third month of the season. Collins, though, remained one of the points of view in the book, and some of the focus remained on her professional and relationship life.

In the second book, having Perry’s point of view helped in one specific point (though initially I was vaguely disappointed that we suddenly had her view). The end of the first book had a ‘rushed’ meet and become a couple deal involving Perry and another woman. That other woman had been in the book previously, but barely at a level of being a background character. She, and now that she actually matters I’ll use her name – Stacey came into her own, became a deeper character once someone with a point of view actually cared about her on a friend and romantic level. But then, that’s somewhat of a pattern itself – Frankie seemed barely there until Collins affections switched to her. Then she rounded out into a fuller character.

These writing reviews long after I read a book are difficult. Heh. I’m not really saying much here, eh?

There were two main couples in this book. Frankie Dunkin (51, bar owner) & Lisa Collins (36, sports reporter); Amy Perry (28, baseball player) & Stacey McCrady (?, bartender/bar worker). Both couples, against the background of a baseball season, goes through the ups and downs of medical and family issues.

I enjoyed all three books in the series. In terms of ratings, I’d reverse them. As in, I liked the third best of all, then second (this book here), then the first. Which, does not really mean anything since all three are at or around 5 star books.

June 9 2016

Playing for First by Chris Paynter

Playing for First
by Chris Paynter
Pages: 210
Date: September 15 2014 (Orig. June 1 2009)
Publisher: Companion Publications
Series: Playing for First (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 7 2016

This is the first book I've read by this author.

The book follows several characters, but from the point of view of one (unless I got confused, I know the next book follows the point of view of two people, Amy Perry and Lisa Collins; I believe the first one, and this is what I get for waiting until after I read two books before writing anything, is only from Lisa Collins point of view).

Lisa Collins is a writer for both a local Indianapolis newspaper, and for Minorleague.com. When she comes across an interesting story involving a major league baseball team taking a close look at a baseball player, Collins goes to investigate. When that team invites that player to winter league with a good possibility of then having that player join a minor league team in their system, Collins comes up with a proposal for her MinorLeague.com bosses involving Collins following along and reporting on the games as they occur.

I was attempting to be somewhat subtle there, though I'm sure anyone reading this review already knows two things - whom that baseball player probably is, and the part wherein that baseball player happens to be a woman. So, yeah, it appears that a Major League team, the Cincinnati Reds to be exact, is interested in testing the concept of allowing a woman play for them.

Following Amy Perry, that female baseball player, through the eyes of Lisa Collins, sportswriter, as Perry moves along on the possible path to breaking into the major leagues is quite fun and interesting. But the book is more than just a sports book. There's also a bit of romance in there. And, for those who care about such things, graphic displays of a sexual nature.

Several thoughts I had while wandering along in my reading:
The dating of a writer with her subject, had a vaguely 'icky' feeling; the dating occurred a lot quicker in the story line than I expected (I do not recall now if it was 'Hey Collins, this is Perry; Collins to Perry - 'let's date'; Perry to Collins - 'sure'; but it was close enough to that to make things weird; since Collins had already committed to a really long lengthy project that would force her to be away from her home for a longish period of time to report on Perry's progress. What if their relationship imploded? What if it didn't? What if it got awkward to interview your lover? Not an issue? Well . . . apparently not an issue for Collins).

I was set to be annoyed about the 'lesbian character who needs to remain in the closet, while at the same time attempts to have a relationship'; and yet I was more annoyed with the other party in that relationship. Since Perry's 'public outing' of her lesbian nature could quite easily destroy her chances of fulfilling her life-long dream of breaking into the major leagues. Or, at the very least, be an extra little layer that a team might not want to tackle at the same time as tackling everything else.

I’d insert something here about how Jackie Robinson was neither the best Negro League baseball player playing at the time Robinson was scouted, nor the only Negro League baseball player scouted. This book here kind of had a vague vibe that made it seem as if Amy Perry was the only possibility available for a major league team; while at the same time including the part where Perry played for a professional baseball team. A female team. Which, obviously enough, meant that there were other female baseball players out there. Of course, Perry was the one that people, and scouts, thought should have already had a chance to play for a major league team, or in a major league system, but for the fact she was female. While not having that thought about other female players. Still, it was never a certainty that any woman would get the nod, nor that, if one did, that Perry would be that player. Point being, that adding an extra layer of ‘issue’ might have knocked Perry out of the running. The book makes note that there’s just been one professional athlete who came out as being gay or lesbian while still playing, and that it isn’t exactly a profession open to the concept (there have been others since the book’s publication – many of whom possibly cut short their career by being open).

Hmm. Interesting. The team Perry gets sent to was the Chattanooga Lookouts. On April 2, 1931, 17 year old Jackie Mitchell, while playing for the Lookouts, struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. The baseball commissioner promptly voided her contract.

Hmmx2. On June 24 2015 the first female player was added to major League Baseball’s international registration list. That being Melissa Mayeux, a 16 year old French short-stop. http://nymag.com/betamale/2016/05/women-could-be-in-the-majors-sooner-than-you-think.html

Right, got distracted. And to think all I was going to note was that I was more annoyed with Collins reactions to Perry needing to remain in the closet than with Perry needing to remain in the closet.

But that’s something of a misdirection/red-herring. Those who notice my shelves might notice certain issues that seem odd. Like, say, the ‘fell-for-friend’ one. Perry and Collins were not friends before they started dating. Course the ‘love-triangle’ one kind of gives the game away in and of itself. Yes, this is a book that involves more than one coupling. Involving one person tangled up in the same coupling. Weirdly, or not, some of the same shelvings work for both couplings, including the age-difference one. And, for that matter, the butch-butch one.

Collins goes from a relationship involving someone 8 years younger than them, to a relationship with someone 15 years older than them. When she moves from 27 year old Amy Perry to 50 year old Frankie Dunkin, a long time friend of Collins.

In terms of relationships/romance: things bordered on the edge of things that annoy me, that I dislike (like, say cheating); but things kept just on the side of the border wherein things remained enjoyable without becoming unbearable.

In terms of sports: that was handled quite well. Following the trajectory of Perry playing for a female baseball team against a minor league male team, to going to winter ball, to going to a minor league team; etc. Enjoyable experience.

Overall: Obviously enough I liked the book so much that I immediately acquired and read the next book in the series. A good solid effort by the author. Quite good for a baseball book.

June 8 2016

The Setup Man by T.T. Monday

The Setup Man
by T.T. Monday
Pages: 272
Date: December 2 2014
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Series: Johnny Adcock (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: May 22 to 23 2016

This is my first book by this author that I have read, and the first book in a series.

This book probably would have never crossed my path if I hadn't done something I hadn't done in probably years (though I used to love to do this activity) - visit an actual bookstore. The second book in the series was sitting there in the 'new stuff' part of the Mystery section and it looked neat and stuff. Looked it over, went to see if they had the prior book - looked that over and . . . here I am, two days later, book read.

I've read a number of books involving sports and mystery. And athletes who solve crimes on the side. The only ones that I ever really seem to like are the ones where there's something extra, like when there is also historical fiction, like in Troy Soos Mickey Rawlings series. Especially as, in the Rawlings series and other historical fiction, the ball players make peanuts, so side jobs are not hobbies, but necessary.

Here? The story is set in modern contemporary times, and the main character makes a million five. He has a kid and an ex, but the ex made a ton of money off her second husband so she’s neither dying for support, nor begging for it. So for him to work as a private detective, on the side, is entirely because he’s bored and wants something to fill the time. No, literally, he says that at some point.

This man here, the main character, is all-around a joke. A guy who set out to try to get a job as a bull-pen pitcher so that he could work 10 minutes a day for millions of dollars. And as a detective he is something . . . well, I already said joke, but yes, that. During the course of reading this book, I happened to catch a film, ‘The Nice Guys’, about a ‘punisher’ (a guy who gets paid to go around giving out messages, and/or beating people up) and a ‘private detective’ working a case in the 1970s. Johnny Adcock, the main character in the book, reminds me a lot of the guy in the film, the detective one, but not in a good way. At one point in the film, the guy’s daughter notes that he is the worst detective ever. He’s lazy, drinks too much, and can’t detect which end of a paper bag has the opening in it. Then he shows a few flashes of brilliance. Well, Adcock is somewhat similar. Bouncing around like a moron, with a couple of bursts of brilliance.

And it is not lost on me that this almost over the hill bullpen pitcher had been talking about what he planned to do in retirement, early-ish in the book. Take over some hotels, make them private, put in some ‘special staff’ (aka, hookers), and allow access to only professional athletes. Then the story that unfolds, the mystery, is basically something similar (just without hotels). And Adcock seems not at all self-aware of that fact. But hey, I get it, people can joke around about what they might or might not do, joking about opening up a string of brothels for athletes is a little odd, but not necessarily something to be used as a gauge of character. No, it’s what happens at the end of the book (and in small snippets during the book), that lets people in on the truth – Adcock is a hypocrite, a criminal, and an all-around bad guy. Even if he can pretend to himself that he was doing it for a good reason. Adcock blackmails some people to help set up a college fund

There is a very strong chance, about 75 to 95 percent chance, that this will be it for me. That I will not tackle the sequel, ‘Double Switch’, even if it was the book that initially got me interested in the series.

While, in the end, I’m able to give the book a good solid 3 star rating, I do not recommend this book to anyone.

May 23 2016