CLEMENTE The True Legacy of an Undying Hero
our memory muscles to grow flabby? How much is important to retain without a crib card? How much byzantine, brain-busting junk do we need at our fingertips or leave dangling at the tips of our tongues? Thompson is a firm believer in the school of digital information. Why not offload all the minutiae and free up the brain for bigger questions? Then let the computer serve as the external memory, find connections, and accelerate communication and publishing. The author also argues that, despite all the excesses, writing on the Internet encourages discipline and economy of expression—if not harking back to the golden age of letter writing, at least making people put thought to screen. In addition, think of all the stuff that computers do in a wink—data crunching, calling you to task in the word cloud for repetitiveness, and more. Computers also bring analysis, logic and acuity to the table, while humans bring intuition, insight, psychology and strategy, as well as sentience. Near the beginning of the book, Thompson discusses the mind vs. computer dilemma in the context of chess: “The computer would bring the lightning fast—if uncreative—ability to analyze zillions of moves, while the human would bring intuition and insight, the ability to read opponents and psych them out.” A well-framed celebration of how the digital world will make us bigger, rather than diminish us.
The Clemente Family Celebra/Penguin (272 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-451-41903-3
A family’s recollection of a baseball, and humanitarian, legend. When Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) died in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve in 1972, he was delivering emergency supplies to Nicaragua, which had just suffered catastrophic earthquakes. Clemente was a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and represented to Latin baseball players what Jackie Robinson did to African-American players. But he was also deeply committed to humanitarian causes, to which he planned to devote his post-playing life. Effectively an oral history and scrapbook, the book is unabashedly hagiographic. CBSSports. com writer Mike Freeman compiles the memories of the Clemente family, including Roberto’s sons, wife and brothers, as well as other oral testimonies and journalistic accounts of Clemente’s life and career. The book traces Clemente’s life from his roots in Puerto Rico, a territory to which he remained devoted, through his career with the Pirates, for which he earned the National League MVP in 1966. He was also a 15-time All-Star and won 12 Gold Glove awards and four batting titles. The dozens of pictures and the family reminiscences capture Clemente the player and the man. One can only wonder what Clemente could have accomplished on the field, but especially off of it, had he only survived to continue the work to which he had increasingly come to devote his life. As he remarked in 1971 after receiving the Tris Speaker Award, “If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don’t do that, you are wasting your time on this Earth.” This loving family biography of a husband, father, baseball player, pioneer and crusader for justice serves as a fitting tribute to a truly great man. For a fuller portrait, pair with David Maraniss’ Clemente (2006). (photos throughout)
IN THE BALANCE Law and Politics on the Roberts Court
Tushnet, Mark Norton (352 pp.) $28.95 | Sep. 30, 2013 978-0-393-07344-7
A distinguished constitutional law scholar examines the complex, occasionally surprising interplay of law and politics that explains decisions from our closely divided, highest court. Constitutional jurisprudence involves reasoning from rules and precedent, the sort of legal analysis any lawyer or judge well understands, but it’s also shaded by a uniquely political dimension. By “politics,” Harvard Law School professor Tushnet (Why the Constitution Matters, 2011, etc.) means nothing so bald as the latest partisan dispatch from Democratic or Republican headquarters, but rather the “political structures and political visions” that produce nominees for the court, account for the principles and philosophies of the justices, shape arguments brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication, and frequently tip the balance in decisions. If the intellectual leadership of the Roberts Court passes from the chief justice to, say, Justice Elena Kagan—as it may if Obama is afforded future nominations—the shift will be attributable to this operation of politics on the court’s judgments. Tushnet teases out his argument with chapters devoted to the Roberts Court’s decisions on Obamacare, especially, and on other major cases dealing with affirmative action, gun rights, business interests, campaign finance and the First Amendment. The author is particularly good on the
SMARTER THAN YOU THINK How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better
Thompson, Clive Penguin Press (352 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 16, 2013 978-1-59420-445-6
A sprightly tip of the hat to the rewards and pleasures—and betterments—of our digital experiences. Who, asks Wired and New York Times Magazine contributor Thompson, hasn’t felt a twinge of concern? How many times have we let Google feed us the answer to all manner of random inquiries? Indeed, does Google allow 74
|
15 july 2013
|
nonfiction
|
kirkus.com
|