Most Popular Books by Kevin Baker

Jack the B. Nov.03.

A soul-baring, brutally candid, and richly eventful memoir of the two years—1977 and 1978—when Reggie Jackson went from outcast to Yankee legend In the spring of 1977 Reggie Jackson should have been on top of the world. The best player of the Oakland A’s dynasty, which won three straight World Series, he was the first big-money free agent, wooed and flattered by George Steinbrenner into coming to the New York Yankees, which hadn’t won a World Series since 1962. But Reggie was about to learn, as he writes in this vivid and surprising memoir, that until his initial experience on the Yankees “I didn’t know what alone meant.” His manager, the mercurial, alcoholic, and pugilistic Billy Martin, never wanted him on the team and let Reggie—and the rest of the team—know it. Most of his new teammates, resentful of his contract, were aloof at best and hostile at worst. Brash and outspoken, but unused to the ferocity of New York’s tabloid culture, Reggie hadn’t realized how rumor and offhand remarks can turn into screaming negative headlines—especially for a black athlete with a multimillion-dollar contract. Sickened by Martin’s anti-Semitism, his rages, and his quite public disparagement of his new star, ostracized by his teammates, and despairing of how he was stereotyped in the press, Reggie had long talks with his father about quitting. Things hit bottom when Martin plotted to humiliate him during a nationally televised game against the Red Sox. It seemed as if a glorious career had been derailed. But then: Reggie vowed to persevere; his pride, work ethic, and talent would overcome Martin’s nearly sociopathic hatred. Gradually, he would win over the fans, then his teammates, as the Yankees surged to the pennant. And one magical autumn evening, he became “Mr. October” in a World Series performance for the ages. He thought his travails were over—until the next season when the insanity began again. Becoming Mr. October is a revelatory self-portrait of a baseball icon at the height of his public fame and private anguish. Filled with revealing anecdotes about the notorious “Bronx Zoo” Yankees of the late 1970s and bluntly honest portrayals of his teammates and competitors, this is eye-opening baseball history as can be told only by the man who lived it.

The Rev. Jonah Dove is the son of a legendary Harlem minister, and a man troubled in both mind and spirit. He feels himself unworthy and incapable of taking up the burden of running his church from the larger–than–life figure who is his father. He is haunted both by his own, shameful history of "passing" as a white man in college, and by the prospects for his people in the harsh, new, racist age he fears the world is entering. Malcolm Little –– better known as Malcom X –– is a teenage hustler from Lansing, Michigan by way of Boston, a young man on the make, trying always to be something bigger, tougher, savvier, and more confident than he really is. On his way to New York, Malcolm happens to come to the rescue of Jonah and his wife, Amanda, when they are attacked by some drunken soldiers on the train. From then on, their paths cross repeatedly as they each go about trying to find what they really want out of the roiling, wartime city, until the moment when Harlem finally erupts around them, as a people driven beyond endurance strikes out blindly at all the forces keeping it entrapped in misery and hopelessness. Stranded on the streets of a rioting city, Jonah and Malcolm meet each other once more, as they come to grips with what they are and what the future will hold for them.

America is a nation of inventors, tinkerers, researchers, and adventurers. What is it that makes America such a fertile place to explore, discover, and launch the next big thing? Baker brings his eye for historical detail to the grand, and grandly entertaining, tale of American innovation. You''ll meet people who followed their passions and changed our world; the women who created things to make their own lives easier. And you''ll learn how immigration leads to innovation.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • Sports Illustrated #1 Book of 2024 • A hugely entertaining history of baseball and New York City, bursting with larger-than-life figures and fascinating stories from the game’s beginnings to the end of World War II. "You’re going to beg for extra innings. Without missing a scandal or a sensation, with an eye on how assimilation transforms the picture, Kevin Baker has written a buoyant, double coming-of-age story. "—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Baseball is “the New York game” because New York is where the diamond was first laid out, where the bunt and the curveball were invented, and where the home run was hit. It’s where the game’s first stars were born, and where everyone came to play or watch the game. With nuance and depth, historian Kevin Baker brings this all vividly back to life: the still-controversial, indelible moments—Did the Babe call his shot? Was Merkle out? Did they fix the 1919 World Series? Here are all the legendary players, managers, and owners, in all their vivid, complicated humanity, on and off the field. In Baker’s hands the city and the game emerge from the murk of nineteenth-century American life—driven by visionaries and fixers, heroes and gangsters. He details how New York and its favorite sport came to mirror one another, expanding, bumbling through catastrophe and corruption, and rising out of these trials stronger than ever. From the first innings played in vacant lots and tavern yards in the 1820s; to the canny innovations that created the very first sports league; to the superb Hispanic and Black players who invented their own version of the game when white baseball sought to exclude them. And all amidst New York’s own, incredible evolution from a raw, riotous town to a new world city. The New York Game is a riveting, rollicking, brilliant ode to America’s beloved pastime and to its indomitable city of origin.

The Fall of a Great American City is the story of what is happening today in New York City and in many other cities across America. It is about how the crisis of affluence is now driving out everything we love most about cities: small shops, decent restaurants, public space, street life, affordable apartments, responsive government, beauty, idiosyncrasy, each other. This is the story of how we came to lose so much—how the places we love most were turned over to land bankers, billionaires, the worst people in the world, and criminal landlords—and how we can - and must - begin to take them back. Co-published with Harper''s Magazine, where an earlier version of this essay was originally published in 2018. As New York City approaches the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is in imminent danger of becoming something it has never been before: unremarkable. By unremarkable I don’t just mean periodic, slump-in-the-art-world, all-the-bands-suck, cinema-is-dead boring. I mean flatlining. No longer a significant cultural entity but a blank white screen of mere existence. I mean The-World’s-Largest-Gated-Community-with-a-few-cupcake-shops. For the first-time in our history, creative-youngpeople- will-no-longer want-to-come-here boring. Even, New-York-is-over boring. Or worse, New York is like everywhere else. Unremarkable. This is not some new phenomenon, but a cancer that’s been metastasizing on the city for decades now. Even worse, it’s not something that anyone wants, except the landlords, and not even all of them. What’s happening to New York now—what’s already happened to most of Manhattan, its core, and what is happening in every American city of means, Boston, Washington, San Francisco, Seattle, you name it—is something that almost nobody wants, but everybody gets. As such, the current urban crisis exemplifies our wider crisis: an America where we believe that we no longer have any ability to control the systems we live under.

A dramatic novel of two Irish brothers--one a fallen political star accused of corruption and the other a young DA desperately trying to clear his name--set against the sweeping backdrop of midcentury New York''s halls of power and the gangland of the docks.

Many warblers are notoriously difficult to identify in the field (and even in the hand!) and, until now, there has been no definitive guide to the species of these regions. This guide covers 145 species, covering all aspects of identification. The text includes sections on moult, voice, habitat and behaviour, distribution and measurements. All species (and many races) are illustrated within the 48 colour plates, and there is also a colour distribution map for each species, with a wealth of line drawings complementing the text. Many groups and species of warbler, such as prinias and tailorbirds, have never been described or illustrated in this detail before. Moreover, the book covers recently described series new to science and brings up to date the latest thinking on taxonomic treatment.

Winter theme: Creation: A Divine Cycle Luke | Psalms | Galatians This winter, lessons in Adult Bible Studies follow the theme, "Creation: A Divine Cycle." With the advent of the Savior by the power of the Holy Spirit, God set in motion the fulfillment of the divine plan of salvation. Through Luke''s Gospel, several psalms, and the epistle to the Galatians, we explore God''s ongoing actions in blessing and reconciling the whole creation. The student book writer is Kevin Baker; Brian Russell is the writer for the teacher book. The Savior Has Been Born The four lessons in this unit are developed from the Gospel of Luke. Lesson One explores how Mary, a virgin, received and joyfully accepted the announcement that she had been highly favored by God to give birth to God''s Son. Lesson Two looks at the affirmation of Elizabeth, Mary''s cousin, to her news. Lesson Three focuses on John''s mission as the forerunner of the Savior. The Christmas Day lesson deals with the birth of Jesus and the circumstances and events pursuant to it. Praise From and for God''s Creation The five lessons in this unit employ five different psalms. Several psalms emphasize praise for God that emanates from creation itself. Others invite us to praise God for creation. The Birthing of a New Community This unit has four lessons from Galatians that show us how God''s creative process can be seen through the birthing of a new faith community with Jesus Christ as its foundation. The lessons address the importance of spiritual freedom, cooperation, and righteous living in building and maintaining the community. Register for the Forums and you can post and read comments about the lessons from other readers.

The acclaimed nationwide best seller and companion volume to Ken Burns’s grand-slam PBS documentary—updated and expanded to coincide with the broadcast of a new, two-part Tenth Inning that looks back on the age of steroids, home-run records, the rise of Latino players, and so much more. With a narrative by Geoffrey C. Ward, a preface to the new edition by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, a new chapter by Kevin Baker, and an introduction by Roger Angell Essays by Thomas Boswell, Robert W. Creamer, Gerald Early, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bill James, David Lamb, Daniel Okrent, John Thorn, George F. Will And featuring an interview with Buck O’Neil

This book describes the history and development of the Orthodox Church in China from its origins in 1242 A.D., its Eastern Church forebears, and its development in the other nations of North Asia - Korea and Japan. The activities and achievements of the Orthodox Church, especially since the 17th century, have been understated in many historical studies of Christianity in China. This book details the nature and evidence of these early activities.

The Worst World Disasters of All Time is an overview of the most terrible disaster events in recorded history. Caution: Because of the nature of this book, some readers may find some of the content and pictures disturbing.

A look at the most dangerous animals from around the world, from Indian red scorpions, giant centipedes and venomous spiders to bull sharks and Asian giant hornets. Animals that can all kill a human being in an unlucky encounter . . .

A literary tour de force, a magnificent chronicle of a remarkable era and a place of dreams In a stunning work of imagination and memory, author Kevin Baker brings to mesmerizing life a vibrant, colorful, thrilling, and dangerous New York City in the earliest years of the twentieth century. A novel breathtaking in its scope and ambition, it is the epic saga of newcomers drawn to the promise of America-gangsters and laborers, hucksters and politicians, radicals, reformers, murderers, and sideshow oddities-whose stories of love, revenge, and tragedy interweave and shine in the artificial electric dazzle of a wondrous place called Dreamland.

John Barr is the kind of baseball player who isn''t supposed to exist anymore. An all-around superstar, he makes his New York Mets team all but invincible. Yet Barr is a mystery, with no past, no friends, no women, and no interests outside of hitting a baseball. Not even Rapid Ricky Falls, a.k.a. "the Old Swizzlehead," his streetwise teammate, can get a handle on him. Neither can Ellie Jay, the sportswriter who wants to think she admires Barr''s skill on the field but also might be in love with a man who isn''t really there. Barr leads the Mets to one championship after another. Then chaos arrives in the form of new manager Charli Stanzi -- a well-known psychopath -- and the team falls apart. When Barr starts to unravel after receiving a note found in his dead mother''s papers, Falls and Ellie Jay rush in to help...but only if he will let them. Hanging in the balance are his sanity, the World Series, and true love.