From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

The Art of Fielding

Chad Harbach

Start date: May 15, 2015

Finish date: June 15, 2015

Discussion: Group Reads Discussions

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last updated Jan 18, 2013 07:12PM

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What Members Thought

Jan 17, 2012 Sera rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, 1001-books, literary-fiction, 1st

I really enjoyed this book. Many people who read this before me said that this book wasn't about baseball; it's about more than that - which is true, but fundamentally, it is a book about baseball. I'm not complaining about that either, because I love reading sports books - well, the good ones at least, and fortuanately, this one fell into that category. Even so, there are many other things going on in this novel.

There are multiple storylines around five characters that have overlapping relation ...more

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Jul 04, 2013 Katy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: beautiful-writing

I don't think the description on Goodreads does it justice...the plot is interesting, but to me the plot was secondary to the feelings it evoked. I'm not at all sure why, because I definitely am not overly into baseball, though anything about college sports does get me a bit nostalgic, and I couldn't quite relate to any of the characters. But despite that, I felt compelled to read a bit more every day -- I was carrying this book as I was at a workshop, and I could almost hear it humming away in ...more

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Sep 24, 2014 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, setting-us

I burned out on playing and watching baseball years ago, and I tend to have zero interest in "campus" novels, so you'd think a book that revolves around a college baseball prodigy would be the last thing I read, right? However, I kept hearing how good this was and in a moment of weakness, managed to overcome my prejudices and try it out -- and am very glad I did.

The book opens with an quietly gripping scene where we meet teenage baseball players Henry Skrimshander and Mike Schwartz, who we will ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Erica rated it it was amazing

This was a lovely, compulsively readable book--perfect for summer, even for non-fans of baseball.
The setting, a small college in Northern Wisconsin (Lake Michigan, not Superior, though) trying to take steps to become ever-more environmentally conscious, was uncannily like where I work right now, Northland. The characters were more than memorable--they were a bunch of people I'd love to call friends. Meditations on many things, baseball, relationships, etc, were fairly transcendent. Loved the fo ...more

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Jan 30, 2017 Agatha Donkar Lund added it

Shelves: unfinished

I just didn't care enough to finish it in the course of five years. ...more

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Mar 20, 2013 Erin (NY) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, read-in-2013

I was not expecting to like this book at all, I mean, I am not interested in Baseball at all. How can I possibly be interested in a novel about it, right? Wrong! This novel is not ABOUT baseball, baseball is more of a backdrop.

This novel so accurately represents the current events of today in its handling of the gay relationships. I also quite enjoyed the love triangles and the parallels in different relationships.

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