101 Top Historical Sites of Cuba Book

This book badly needed to be written. May it please be put on library shelves, replacing dull histories of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Mark Kurlansky, meanwhile, ain't Walt Whitman, and no disrespect to Whitman, but that's a good thing. Baseball lovers will be disproportionately attracted to the book, but it notably is not about baseball, and it's not geared toward baseball fans. It's more about the surrounding society and the history of how this small island has changed and been impacted by global forces.

I've personally been fascinated with the Dominican Republic since I was baseball-obsessed and three apples tall, a time when the only Latinos I'd ever seen were on big league rosters. Eastern Stars offers a portrait of the Dominican Republic, and San Pedro de Macoris in particular, and its evolution in becoming the cradle of baseball stars.

I'm not sure Kurlansky is the ideal writer for this subject, but he is an excellent historian and his perspective is very sober and balanced, good with big-picture perspective. And given that he is someone who is clearly more at home thinking about political economy matters than sports, he's probably written a book that's a lot more interesting than whatever Mike Lupica or Rob Neyer might have put together. (I also am not sure if Kurlansky has ever written a book that doesn't include a few recipes. The man must love to eat, and that can't be a bad thing.) I read somewhere that the book doesn't effectively humanize the people of San Pedro, and that's a fair criticism. But from his emotional distance we are nonetheless given what I take is probably a pretty accurate perspective on the country and on baseball's role in the community.