Serendipitous Reader v2.0

 I bought this book because I *loved* A Gentleman in Moscow. Ugh... don't waste your time. Not a lot of there there. And it's like it was written by a different person. 

I saw an article about Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf's son being signed to play college baseball, and the article mentioned Agassi's book, so I read it. I was a big fan of Agassi's his whole career and really enjoyed his memoir. I've never thought professional sports was an easy life, and this certainly reinforced that perspective, but it was fun to read about what was going on outside the spotlight of the major tournaments. The book felt honest and open. I really enjoyed it. 

 A series of fictional letters from a wealthy pork-packer in the 1920s to his son. The first letter is when he's just been dropped off at Harvard to start his freshman year; he later joins his father's business; the last letter is when he tells his father he's getting married and his father "turns him over to his wife to keep him in order". It's written by the editor of the Saturday Evening Post and contains wonderful tidbits of advice about life and business, many of which are surprisingly current.  Here's one from the first paragraph of the book:  "What we're really sending you to Harvard for is to get a little of the education that's so good and plenty there. When it's passed around you don't want to be bashful, but reach right out and take a big helping every time, for I want you to get your share. You'll find that education's about the only thing lying around loose in this world, and that it's about the only thing a fe...

This book was interesting, at times horrifying, and not as funny as I expected it to be. Trevor Noah grew up as a "mixed" kid (black mother, white father) in South Africa. It definitely wasn't easy. He keeps it pretty light, but the brutality of living under apartheid and the period afterwards is always there. Through everything, his mother is clearly a force of nature. It was a good vacation book.