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Summary: One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read.
Review: A heartwarming, funny, all around wonderful book. I've given this book to 4 people, who have all said it is one of the finest books they can remember reading. The readers have been male and female, ranging in ages from 26 to 32. All have been effusive in their praise. The above reviews do justice to the plot and storyline. I can only say treat yourself to a great great read.Enjoy.
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Summary: This book made me laugh and cry - a warm novel.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The author captured the personalities of both Joey and Charlie and expressed their feelings eloquently. I felt like Joey was learning a lot from his "big brother" while he was the big brother to Charlie. The format of the text made you continue reading - It was hard to put down! I cried and laughed throughout the entire novel Bravo!
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Summary: Additional praise for LAST DAYS OF SUMMER:
Review: "A funny and poignant 1940s coming-of-age novel about a fatherless Brooklyn boy and his friendship with a star on the New York Giants." -USA TODAY BASEBALL WEEKLY "If the sign of a true comic novel is that it makes you laugh out loud, Steve Kluger's LAST DAYS OF SUMMER is a winner all the way. You'll find this daffy, funny, yet oddly sentimental and moving novel one of the most pleasant surprises of this publishing year." -Parade Magazine "'LAST DAYS OF SUMMER' isn't about baseball. It's about a boy struggling to grow up without a father and a young man's acceptance of that role. This is a story worth reading." -Los Angeles Times "This book is captivating. I simply could not put it down, and found myself wishing it had just one more chapter, one more letter, one more moment of youthful exuberence before the carefully constructed world of Joey Margolis came crashing down around him. Buy it, read it, give it to a friend, they'll be glad you did." -CNN Interactive
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Summary: I never laughed - and cried - so hard reading the same book
Review: Trying to write an essay for school, "If My Father Were President," 12-year-old Joey Margolis considers beginning "If my father were president he would be too busy to take me places but guess what? He doesn't anyway. Ha ha." Laughing around the ache left by his absent dad is one of the many ways Joey deals with his loneliness. Joey also seeks surrogate heroes by writing fan letters to politicians, celebrities and famous athletes ... and eventually stumbles upon NY Giants 3rd Baseman Charlie Banks. Joey tries to persuade him to hit a home run for him (and tell everyone on the radio that it's for "My best friend Joey Margolis") by inventing a different pathetic scenario with every fan letter he writes: I am a 12-year-old boy and I am blind ... I am a 12-year-old boy and I am dying of an incurable disease. A horrible one... I am a 12-year-old boy and I have just enlisted as a drummer in the marine corpse... Eventually the 24-year-old ballplayer and the rambunctious kid lock horns, leading them through a maze of encounters that finds Charlie at Joey's Bar-Mitzvah, finds Joey on the road as Batboy with Charlie's team, and finds the both of them embroiled in a relationship so delightful to read I finished the book in one day. The prose, in the form of letters, report cards, telegrams, etc. gives you an authentic slice of life in pre-WWII Brooklyn, while causing you to laugh with the turning of each page... and to cry when you least expect it. If you've ever been a child in need of hero, you won't just read this book ... you'll fall in love with it.
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Summary: Nostalgia and life at its best
Review: One of my favorite books I've read this year. truly poignant and touching about the coming of age of a young man before and during World War I. Truly inspirational and humurous. I loved it.
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Summary: A book you can read in one sitting
Review: Steve Kluger has created a masterpiece of fiction with "Last Days of Summer." I received this book as a gift a few months ago and finally sat down with it this morning while waiting for the Sunday paper to arrive. And, a few hours later, the paper is still unread, but the book is finished. I COULD NOT STOP reading it. It is warm, it is enchanting and it is poignant. I can think of only one other book I've ever read in one sitting - and never before have I felt the urge to immediately contact the author and express my gratitude. So many different elements are woven seamlessly into this book - baseball, adolescence, religion, family, war, racism, love, celebrity worship and more. The format of this book, through letters, clippings and such, makes the reader feel much more involved in the book. I felt like I knew these characters, could feel what they were feeling. There was no distance between characters and readers that you would often find in a traditional narrative. This book was powerful. Whether you like baseball or not, kids or not, the '40's or not...everyone should read this book. This is by far one of the best books I've ever read, one of most well-written books I've ever read and certainly one of the most enjoyable and unforgettable.
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Summary: Don't read this. Buy the book. You won't regret it!
Review: This is one of two books that have succeeded in making me not notice the budding tap-dancer seated behind me on a plane (and the other was by JRR Tolkien, so that says something). The "sports book" label is a misnomer; the baseball is really secondary to the friendships.
This book is about a boy and a man who change one another's life. It is laugh-out-loud funny, it is moving, and contrary to other reviews I found it completely believable--Joey Margolis is so unusual that his exploits seem completely within his abilities, but at the same time he has very human flaws. The time you've spent reading this review could have been put to better use reading the book!
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Summary: One of my favorite books!!!
Review: This is a GREAT book!It's hilarious, smart, and is written in a very unique way!This is a book about friendship and has meaning, but it pulls this off without being a annoying/dramatic teen novel. This is a ww2 story but it talks about ww2 from a totally different perspective.I recommend this book for people who like baseball stories, or people who like a good story that provides good laughs.I've read this book 3 times and i still think it's HILARIOUS!
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Summary: A Story You Won't Forget...
Review: In Brooklyn, 1940, a young twelve-year-old boy is coming of age in a world where he doesn't belong. His wealthy father has recently divorced his mother, leaving her all but broke, and she is forced to move herself and her son to an Italian dominated part of Brooklyn, leaving him the only Jew in the area. As the incidents of abuse from other boys in the neighborhood mount, young Joey writes to ball player Charlie Banks on the Giants' baseball team, asking for him to hit a home run and say, preferably on the radio, that it was for him. What ensues is one of the most touching, moving stories I have read in many years.
In the Last Days of Summer, Author Steve Kluger weaves an unlikely tale of a young boy who has a much larger impact on the world at large than he can possibly understand, and Kluger does so through a technique of letting the reader into the boy's life through his letters and newspaper clippings. What at first might seem like a clunky or silly gimmick turns into a warm, unusually involved reading experience. By the end of the book, the reader is left feeling as though all of the characters are personal friends, and are far more real than mere letters on a page.
Kluger has obviously done his homework, referencing a massive series of facts and statistics running the gambit from Hitler's invasions of European nations to baseball scores, to national politics in the early 1940's. The main character, Joey Margolis, corresponds with people ranging from Hollywood personalities to community leaders, and even FDR himself.
Speaking as a writer, I can offer no higher praise for a fellow author's work than to say his characters were so believable and well envisioned that I feel as though I could pass them on the street or pick up the phone and dial their numbers. Through his technique of allowing the reader to peer over the shoulders of the characters and read their correspondence, Kluger has given an unusual window into their hearts and minds. In the context of the story, it is far more powerful than any prose could be.
Don't pass this book by. It will stay with you, in your heart and in your mind, for many years to come, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Andrew Barriger, Author of Finding Faith
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Summary: It was great!
Review: I loved this book! It was filled with humor and a great story told mostly through letters. If you love baseball and the classic stories behind it, you'll absolutely love this book, as it is among the best of baseball stories (right up there with "Field of Dreams"). I highly recommend this book and hope that you will all love it as much as I do!
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