Monthly Archives: July 2009

Tombstone by Odie Faulk: a review

One chapter is devoted to the gunfight, its context, and its aftermath. Faulk basically wishes a plague on all the participants; all are, in his view, pretty bad characters and it’s best that they mostly abandoned the town after the shootout. Some of his facts differ from the currently accepted narrative–likely because four subsequent decades of research have clarified some specifics–but on the whole his portrayal of the event rings true.

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Peoria Chiefs 1990 Official Souvenir Yearbook: a short review

Terrific minor league yearbook/program; just an enormous amount of information in here. As good as these things get.

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Stagecoach by Philip Fradkin: a review

A celebration of the first 150 years of the Wells Fargo Company. Very readable and obviously well-researched, and just critical enough to avoid being a company hagiography.

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Link-less (1964)

When asked why Hutchinson didn’t drive him down after they gassed up, Curtis said, “He had a date for Sunday night.”

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Cougars and Snappers and Loons (Oh My!) by Dave Hoekstra: a review

Hoekstra, who writes for the Chicago Sun Times, has been writing essays, called “The Glove Compartment,” for publication in the Kane County Cougars’ gameday program for most of the team’s history. About sixty of the essays here originated as Glove Compartment pieces; the others were newly composed for the book. The result is episodic, of course, but it’s a reasonably thorough history and (as it says) field guide to the league. Moe Hill, Deacon Jones, and the 1951 Paris team are all profiled. Paul Molitor, Joey Meyer, and scores of Cubs are mentioned. The emphasis, though, is on the current teams and recent players.

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