2026 reading list 01

Chris Lamb, Blackout. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2004. This slim biography of Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play Major League baseball in the twentieth century, focuses on the first spring training of his career. Signed to be the icebreaker, Robinson dealt with discrimination at every turn yet, with support from a few key people, was able to maintain his composure, find his batting stroke, and prove that he -- and anyone else with the skill and temperament, regardless of skin color -- could play the national game. Ally Carter, Blonde Identity. NY: Avon, 2023. When Zoe wakes up on a snowy Paris street, she has no memory -- but does have a hot guy with a gun standing over her, calling her Alex. Who is she? Who is Alex? And the hot guy? Is it a mystery, or a romance? Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary. NY: Little, Brown, 2022. Sam Adams comes down to us as a bottle of beer, labelled “Brewer. Patriot.” The line has it backwards: Adams failed as a maltier, running his father’s business into the ground, before finding his place in Boston’s back rooms, where he more than anyone espoused the idea of liberty and organized to that end. His work, in fact, was largely done before the Continental Congress in Philadelphia declared independence and, while he was later elected governor of Massachusetts, his influence quickly faded, in large part because he made no effort to secure a legacy. Yet this grand experiment of democracy never happened if not for Samuel Adams, our founding grandfather. Loren Estleman, Whiskey River. NY: Open Road, 2012. The story of Prohibition-era gangster Jack Dance, as told under oath by newsman Connie Minor, is the first of Estelman’s Detroit Crime series. Bill Freehan, Behind the Mask. NY: World Publishing, 1970. This insider diary of the 1969 season and its championship hangover by the Detroit Tigers’ long-time All-Star catcher doesn’t pry too deep. A casual mention of greenies in the clubhouse is jarring, as is description of Denny McLain’s utter disregard for others. On the other hand, these two nuggets and Freehan’s bits of insight make it a good example of its genre.