The Art of Fielding (2011) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“Terrific!”

• Rated 3 stars

“At first I thought this well written book would be a favorite. There is a lot about baseball but a very good story line that took an unfortunate diversion...at least to me. I was very disappointed in the strange ending.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Best Fiction 2011, FSPL”

• Rated 5 stars

“Loved it. Wonderful first novel, can't wait for more. Great writing, well developed and interesting characters and profound insight into the human condition and human nature AND BASEBALL.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Coming of age novel - a lot of pre pub publicity - it's OK, but seems a bit drawn out, and I love baseball. I have enjoyed the baseball segments of the book.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I absolutely love this book. It was a joy to read and I love the story of loss and redemption. The characters were easy to fall in love with and I kept hoping it would work out for them in the end. I love baseball so I enjoyed the bits in the book about it. I'm guessing Aparicio is based on Ozzie Smith but it doesn't really matter. This is a wonderful story and I loved it's literary allusions to Melville.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Warning: contains a spoiler. This is supposedly one of the best books of 2011, but I'm not totally convinced. It was very engaging, especially in the beginning, but the writing is uneven--beautiful in places, prosaic in others. The book seemed a bit too long to me, I was uncomfortable with the ethics of a 60-year-old college professor sleeping with a male student (does that somehow make it better than with a female student? I don't think so), and the baseball parts required great perseverance on my part to understand. But, there was an elegance, an orchestration to it, and I loved both Schwartz and Pella and Henry and Owen. They seemed real and broken and strong. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Magnificent. Among the best novels about baseball I've ever read.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This tale sited at a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin is a total delight. Aside from a fabulous delving into the mysterious pleasures of playing baseball, the narrative shows a great balance of humor and insights into the meaning and challenges of love in all forms. The development and interplay of the five main characters is very well done. These include: Henry, a shortstop whiz recruited from rural South Dakota; Owen, his intellectual teammate and roommate, who is gay; Mike, a wise older student who mentors and drives Henry to excel; Guert, the college president who is enamored with Owen; and Pella, his petulant daughter who returns home after a failed marriage. I came to care for them all and to learn from their struggles and exultations.”

• Rated 5 stars

“John Irving meets Field of Dreams”