Book News
“Straw’s” memoir
Former baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry, right, whose achievements on the field often were overshadowed by his struggles with cancer and substance abuse, is writing a memoir. “Straw” will come out in 2009, publisher Ecco has announced. According to Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins, Strawberry’s book “details his life growing up in Crenshaw, Calif., his rise to baseball superstardom as a Met, Dodger and Yankee, the high life and low life, his brushes with the law, his triumphant battle over cancer, his religious awakening, and his marriage to the love of his life.”
John Strausbaugh, who helped write a book by actor John Leguizamo, will collaborate with Strawberry.
Strawberry, 46, was an eight-time all-star who hit 335 home runs in 17 seasons and played on World Series championship teams with the New York Mets and New York Yankees. But he also had a history of personal problems, including substance abuse, domestic violence and colon cancer. He recently agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $430,000 in back taxes, penalities and interest.
The Associated Press
First Line
The Eye of the Leopard by Henning Mankell
“He awakes in the African night, convinced that his body has split in two. Cracked open, as if his guts had exploded, with the blood running down his face and chest.
“In the darkness he fumbles in terror for the light switch, but when he flips it there is no light, and he thinks the electricity must be out again. His hand searches under the bed for a torch, but the batteries are dead and so he lies there in the dark.
“It’s not blood, he tells himself. It’s malaria. I’ve got the fever, the sweat is being squeezed out of my body. I’m having nightmares, fever dreams. Time and space are dissolving, I don’t know where I am, I don’t even know if I’m still alive . . .
“Insects are crawling across his face, enticed by the moisture that is oozing from his pores. He thinks he ought to get out of bed and find a towel. But he knows he wouldn’t be able to stand upright, he would have to crawl, and maybe he wouldn’t even be able to make it back to bed. If I die now at least I’ll be in my own bed, he thinks as he feels the next attack of fever coming on.”
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