My great-aunt passed away in 2002.  She had built a family tree for many sides of the family going back a few generations.

Unfortunately, she also made some mistakes, too.  Unfortunately, some of these mistakes meant that it took longer to find some families--by which point some of the older generations have passed away.

What we do know is that Kassel Salzman immigrated to America in 1896 after traveling with his wife, Pauline, and children from Russia.  What we do know is that he had quite a few children: Charles, Max, Annie (Anna), Maurine (Mary), and Sadie.

We know that Kassel was convicted of larceny in the early 1900s and went to prison where he ended up dying in 1911.  We have managed to get in touch, finally, with Anna's descendants so as to update that branch of the tree.  But outside of that, we're stuck.  When it is a common name (Saltzman became Salzman or Solzman), it makes it harder with marriage records, etc.  I've found obituaries but when they don't mention siblings, it's hard to confirm whether that's the one I am looking for.

We know that the name was Saltzman in the 1900 census and Salzman when the 1905 census was recorded.

But we're stuck.  My only hope now is for a distant cousin to find this, get in touch, and help us rebuild this branch.

Tradition!: The Highly Improbable, Ultimately Triumphant Broadway-to-Hollywood Story of Fiddler on the Roof, the World's Most Beloved Musical by Barbara Issenberg
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (September 2, 2014)

It was on this date in 1964 that the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, opened its doors on Broadway.  History would never be the same!  It may not be the behind-the-scenes movie that Mary Poppins got but it's the next best thing: the behind-the-scenes of both the Broadway production directed by Jerome Robbins and the movie directed by the not-Jewish Norman Jewison.

Since it opened 50 years ago today, there is rarely a time in which the sound of the off-tune violin is not heard somewhere on stage.  Whether it be a school, community theater, army base, Broadway revival, or countries from Argentina to Japan, the musical is being performed somewhere.

Isenberg weaves the tales and anecdotes of making the musical or film with thoughts on its cultural importance and why it resonates with such a diverse audience.

If they were still living in the author started researching and writing the book and worked on the Broadway production, the film, or significant revivals, Isenberg interviewed them.  This includes the likes of Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, Joseph Stein, Austin Pendleton, Joanne Merlin, Norman Jewison, Topol, and Harvey Fierstein, amongst others.

It's an amazing result.  Isenberg takes us on a wild ride as Fiddler worked its way to Broadway and later the big screen.  It's not just a look at how Fiddler became a hit on Broadway or the big screen but also how the musical became a hit across the globe!

If you love Fiddler or the soundtrack, this is a book you will enjoy!

A poem written by Jack Buck

Since this nation was founded under God
More than 200 years ago

We've been the bastion of freedom...

The light that keeps the free world aglow.
We do not covet the possessions of others,
We are blessed with the bounty we share.

We have rushed to help other nations...
Anything...anytime...anywhere

War is just not our nature...we won't start
But we will end the fight.
If we are involved we shall be resolved to
Protect what we know is right.

We have been challenged by a cowardly foe
Who strikes and then hides from our view.

With one voice we say, "There's no choice
Today, there is only one thing to do"

Everyone is saying the same thing
And praying that we end these senseless
Moments we are living.

As our fathers did before, we shall win
This unwanted war

And our children will enjoy the future,
We'll be giving.


Written by Jack Buck
September 14, 2001

Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin
Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Touchstone (October 30, 2012)

Bruce is the first authorized Bruce Springsteen biography to have been written in the last 25 years with the full cooperation of the Boss himself.

This sweeping portrait is the latest in a series of musical biographies written by Carlin, who previously has written on Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson.

In writing Bruce, Carlin had unprecedented access to Springsteen, his family, friends, past and present bandmates, including one of the final major interviews with Clarence Clemons.  It all adds a vivid, initmate detail, and context to a groundbreaking picture of the Boss.

As a songwriter, Springsteen has voices hopes, triumphs, and heartaches of the working class.  His career has brought him 20 Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award, and over 120 million albums sold.

Carlin follows the Elvis-loving grade student as he grows into that scruffy looking bandleader all the way up to the release of Wrecking Ball in 2012.  With the release of Born to Run, Springsteen rocketed into critical and commercial orbit.  No concert goes without the singing of "Born to Run."  The album is a keystone of Springsteen's musical legacy--one that would both reflect and shape the culture.

Along with years of meticulous research, Carlin has spent a countless number of hours in interviewing Springsteen, his inner circle, friends, musicians, and even ex-girlfriends. It all builds up to presenting the most revealing account of the American icon, even as he redefines his style and sound.

Until Carlin started writing the biography, not many family members had done interviews on the rocker.  The Springsteen family was impacted by mental illness and Bruce managed to avoid the fate of his father by years of therapy and even anti-depressant medications.

The E Street Band share their memories of the first time they met Bruce and their painful memories including in 1989 when Springsteen was disbanding the band.

Bruce's gradual journey towards being a committed and influential voice in politics was validated when President Barack Obama spoke at a reception for Kennedy Center honorees.

Carlin offers a nuanced analysis of every song and album that Bruce has made.  Five months before the release of Wrecking Ball, Bruce had played a dough mix in the studio.

This definitive biography is compulsively readable, and a must for all fans of the Boss.

1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever by Bill Madden
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 6, 2014)

The 1954 baseball season was historic for Major League Baseball.  This was the same year in which the Brown vs. Board of Education court case decided that segregation be outlawed in the public school systems.

The World Series pitted the Cleveland Indians against the New York Giants.  It was the first World Series that featured African-Americans on both teams: Willie Mays and Larry Doby.

This was seven years after Jackie Robinson had made his debut.  Doby was already a dominant player in the American League and Mays was just emerging in his own right as one of the best players in the game.  He played baseball with a flair and boyish innocence that all fans embraced.

Doby and Mays were already on their way to stardom but Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks were just getting started with the Braves and Cubs, respectively.

Bill Madden shows exactly why he is in the Writer's Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  This book is the first to fully examine the 1954 season.  Madden draws on recent interviews with players themselves: Mays, Doby, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin, Carl Erskine.  Madden transports readers across time, revisiting Spring Training in Florida and Arizona as the future baseball stars were entering the league.

Madden weaves the narrative with the racially charged events of 1954.  With exception of the New York Yankees, the national pastime was ahead of the curve when it came to accepting African-Americans at a time when the nation struggled with acceptance.

Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel by Joshua Muravchik
Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: Encounter Books (July 8, 2014)

Making David into Goliath could not have been released at a better time as Israel is in the new for defending herself, once again, from Hamas.

Israel, one of the lone democracies in the Middle East and America's strongest ally, is also one of the most criticized and most despised nations in the international community because people such as Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former UN chief Kofi Annan take the time to lambaste Israel every time that they act to defend herself against terror.  During the recent campaign, Carter took the time to pen an op-ed saying that Hamas is a legitimate political government.  Yeah, right...and pigs can fly, too.

At a time when Iran is seen as a major threat with the capability to make nuclear weapons, Europeans are telling pollsters that they feel that Israel is a bigger threat.  At the same time, about a quarter of all votes in the United Nations are directed toward Israel while an increasing number of college campuses are adopting policies of BDS.

As hard as it is to believe with the current climate right now, it was only forty years ago that Israel was attracting admiration and widespread sympathy from people around the word.  Progressives and intellectuals were praising Israel.  They aren't doing that all that much these days and Muravchik goes into detail as to why.

Muravchik explores just how and why this transformation, as wrong as it is, has taken place.  He goes into detail on who is behind it, too, in detail.  A fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Muravchik is one of the nation's leading scholars when it comes to socialism and the Middle East.

He shows how the pressure of terrorism, oil, and demographics have led to Israel being treated as a pariah.  In the 1970s, the Arab League threatened to raise oil prices to those countries that voted in favor of Israel at the United Nations!  These were the same leadeers that bowed to Palestinian pressure to release those suspected by terrorism so as not to have another bombing or hijacking on their soil.

One of the chief culprits in the transformation was the rise of a intellectual paradigm that saw the replacement of workers against capitalists to the "people-of-color" struggling against the "white man."  This was the new moral drama for progressive thinking.  No matter what Israel did to defend her borders, she was attacked as being on the wrong side.

The UN, as things stand now, is one of the biggest anti-Israel groups out there.  This is mainly due to the Non-Aligned Movement reshaping the the UN to be one that is anti-American, anti-Western, and most of all, anti-Israel.  They created three special bodies that, no matter the name, were exclusive to denigrating Israel and serving as a pro-Palestinian body.  Not a single such body has ever existed for any other people, cause, or country!

Human Rights Watch cannot be described as humanitarian when they are anti-Israel to an infinite degree.

Edward Said, the godfather of modern scholarship on the "Third World" was one of the most widely assigned authors on campuses in America and Europe.  His anti-Israel bias has poisoned a countless number of generations in Western academics just through sheer intellectual charlatanism.

Bruno Kreisky, the self-hating Jewish socialist Chancellor of Austria, was the leading figure in the hate-Israel movement.  This was a guy who filled his cabinet with former Nazis even though a number of his family had died in the Shoah.  He was ashamed to be Jewish and used that to persuade socialists in Europe to embrace Yasser Arafat and disavow Israel.  This was at a time when the PLO believed in terrorism and strongly opposed to Israel's right to exist.

Before the Six Day War of 1967, not a single person in the world cared for the human rights of those living in Gaza or the West Bank.  After Israel gained land in a war that was started by her Arab neighbors nonetheless, all of a sudden people cared for their human rights.  It was this war that redefined the Israeli-Arab conflict as one between Israel and the Palestinians.  Before this point in time, there had never been a Palestinian nation.  The PLO's Palestinian National Covenant did not call for a Palestinian state.  Instead, it called for Jews to be ejected so that the Palestinian Arabs could be able to take their place in the "Arab nation."

Evangelical support, for now, remains strong when it comes to Israel.  However, a number of U.S. churchs, mainly the Presbyterian Church, have been targeted by anti-Israel activists to cut ties with and boycott Israel.  Notably, the anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace, has endorsed BDS.

The home-grown "adversary culture" in Israel does her no favors.  This includes Haaretz, revisionist historians, and "post-Zionist intellectuals."  In their behavior, they provide an never-ending supply of grist for the Israel haters.

The Middle East is more tumultuous now then ever before with Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq being a threat in one way or another.  Groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda are violent and a threat to mankind.  Israel is and will continue to be on the front lines against the terror from radical Islam.

All in all, this is a book that shows how Western opinion, shaped by progressives, abandoned Israel and chose to embrace its enemies despite the fact that they were enemies of the West.

The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur by Mark Perry
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Basic Books (April 1, 2014)

Douglas MacArthur was an interesting character.  To put it differently would be an understatement.  Those admiring MacArthur were outranked nevertheless by those that, to put it simply, were not fans.  MacArthur could be described as headstrong, vain, he had a rebellious streak, and a massive ego.

Mark Perry examines the general and sees that his actions have been misunderstood and overshadowed by his faults--thus the general's significant contributions to become marginalized, unfortunately.

In this new biography, Perry sets the record straight.  What we have is a new reconsideration of the American hero.  It was MacArthur's combined-arms operation in the Pacific (a first of its kind during war) that enabled America's triumph during World War 2.  During World War 2, MacArthur had to overcome both personal and professional challenges to lead his troops.

But this isn't just MacArthur's story.  No.  It's also the story of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the men that acted behind the scenes.  It was MacArthur's subordinates who had to tame the general, make him useful, and help him achieve victory on the battlefield.

The title of this book comes from a phrase that FDR once uttered about the general even though he also described him as an intelligent and brilliant soldier.  FDR was not alone in having polarizing feelings.  MacArthur, depending on who one talks to, is a gifted general or the most reviled military figure in history.

As time passes on from MacArthur's death, his hazardous faults have eclipsed his incredible genius.  With this new biography, perhaps the time has come to reconsider MacArthur's character, both controversial and equally brilliance.

Perry traces the general's path from the Great Depression to the end of World War 2.  The author shows how the general's military genius was matched by a massive ego and sense of decorum.  This was a guy that commanded a great deal of respect from the Republican Party and the American public.  There's no mistaking how powerful a figure that he was and FDR was right to fear him.

After the Great War, MacArthur was sidelined with a ceremonial position in the Philippines but faced with the threat from Japan in the lead-up to WW2, FDR promoted MacArthur to Commander of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East.

His capricious personality led to more casualties than any other general during WW2.  His success in the Pacific, Perry notes, can be attributed to combat commander Robert Eichelberger and aide Dwight Eisenhower.  Without them helping to sideline his faults and draw on his strengths, he would not have been able to fight one of the most visionary campaigns of all time.  It was the first combined-arms operation in the history of warfare.  It was this bold innovation that paved the way for Japan to be defeated.

What Perry has done is revisit MacArthur's legacy, as unfairly skewed as it was, and rehabilitates his image by displaying how the general not only led the United States to victory in the Pacific but reshaped modern warfare while doing so.

Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History by Rabbi Joseph Teluskin
Hardcover: 640 pages
Publisher: HarperWave (June 10, 2014)

Rabbi Teluskin has written a brilliant biography of one of the greatest influential Jewish leaders of probably the last few centuries.  It's been 20 years since the death of the Rebbe and this biography is highly insightful and really tells how Chabad went from being a small war-torn group into the most dynamic and geographically diverse religious movement in Jewish history.  The Rebbe's legacy is felt on college campus and at Chabad Houses throughout the globe.

Telushkin was afforded extraordinary access to the Rebbe's intimate circle and guarded documents.  This biography, five years in the making, examines the Rebbe's personal side while exploring his achievements, philosophy, and pioneering initiatives.  Telushkin also analyzes the Rebbe's stories and speeches.

While I don't consider myself to be a Chasidic Jew (I am Modern Orthdox), I found it fascinating to learn about the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.  No matter what denomination of Judaism they were, many people sought out his guidance be it via a private meeting or by letter.

From his perch in Brooklyn, the Rebbe taught transcendant words that were able to resonate with many people, no matter what faith they were.  Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, then-Newark mayor Cory Booker went to the Rebbe's Ohel to pray.  The Rebbe's Ohel is the first major Jewish holy site in the United States without a doubt.  Thousands of Jews visit his Ohel on his yahrtzeit of 3 Tammuz.

The Rebbe had some radical ideas--refusing to judge others based on their level of observance and a belief in the brotherhood of all mankind.  It's because of ideas such as these that Chabad was able to grow into a worldwide movement.  His emissaries across the globe continue to spread his teachings of love, unity, and righteousness.  Despite his being the leading figure of Chabad, he was a very humble person at heart.  He was accessible to just about anyone that wanted to meet him!

The most intriguing things that Telushkin addresses about the Rebbe, his ideology, and his actions include:
--The hope of a small sect of his followers who believed that he was the Moshiach.  Had his wife not preceded him in death, she would have put a stop to this really quick.  The Rebbe even rejected such claims!
--The innovation and advocacy of taking Judaism out into the world, be it through the wearing of Tefillin, offering Shabbas candles to women of all ages, public Chanukah lightings, etc.
--Israeli and American elected officials, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Moshe Sharrett, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Bejamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon, to name a few.
--His willingness to oppose non-denominational prayer in public schools.

I highly recommend this book.

“The bigger issue is not whether the Obama administration imposes a cease-fire on Israel or not,” said Noam Neusner, who worked for the administration of President George W. Bush as a liaison to the Jewish community.

“The bigger issue is with the Democratic Party electorate, namely academic elites, African-Americans and younger voters. As those blocs of voters become more skeptical of Israel’s right to defend itself — and that seems to be happening — that is going to make American Jews who are Democratic Party voters less comfortable in their own party.”

Politics, Faith, and the Making of American Judaism by Peter Adams
Paperback: 230 pages
Publisher: University of Michigan Press (March 25, 2014)

Adams explores how politics and faith played a role in the evolution of Judaism in America. While there is a small amount over overlap with When Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna, this is very much Adams' book.

There's a lot in here on how Reform Judaism came to be, much thanks to Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise.  The book briefly touches on how the Conservative Judaism movement came out of those that thought the Reform movement went too far but didn't feel completely comfortable with the Orthodox movement either.  A middle ground, if you will.

I am one of those that finds it very uncomfortable with walking into a Reform shul and this goes back to the Bar Mitzvah circuit from when I grew up in a Conservative shul before slowly becoming Orthodox in college.  It feels too much like a church with the organs and lack of tallit and kippot.  This book explains just how that came to be.

I knew that Conservative Judaism had started in America but I didn't realize just how liberal Reform Judaism was at the time.  After reading the book, I wonder how Rabbi Wise would feel about the current conflict seeing as how much of an anti-Zionist he was and how he was so opposed to Herzl at the time.

After the infamous order by Grant during the Civil War, many Jews felt that it was best to assimilate with their fellow Americans.  For some, this meant working on Shabbas since it was illegal in many places to open shop on Sunday.

In the post-Civil War of America, American Jews paid attention to what was happening elsewhere with fellow Jews around the world.  President Grant took notice of what was happening in Romania and Russia and did his best to help the situation.

Back in the day, the Board of Delegates served as the predecessor to the the modern-Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.  Wise was not a fan of this board and he made his feelings very much known to those involved.

American Jewry played a role in helping as many of the Russian Jews as possible given the pogroms that they were suffering from in Russia.

All of this, of course, happened in a world without social media.  I can't help but think just how mobilized the Jewish community would have been in the 1800s--especially judging from my Facebook feed in the last few weeks.

I highly recommend this book, especially to those Jewish history buffs out there!

He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Forces, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our G-d from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, on the sea and wherever they may be.

Shrink Thyself: A Novel by Bill Scheft
Hardcover: 289 pages
Publisher: Rare Bird Books, A Vireo Book (June 24, 2014)

It is very rare when an author combines fiction with non-fiction.  This is what Scheft accomplishes in Shrink Thyself as he tells the story of Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro.  But really, this coming-of-middle-age story is about Charlie Traub, who will likely need therapy as he recovers from therapy.

Early on Charlie Traub decides that he's done having sessions with his psychologist, Travis Waldman, and decides that he wants to live the unexamined life.  This goal is noble and all but Waldman decides he wants to stalk Bonnie Dressler, a constitutional lawyer that Traub nearly had an affair with during the Clinton years.

And Traub's mother?  She died while having sex with Sy Siegel, who was friendly with her while living at the assisted living facility.  Siegel and Charlie become good friends in the time thereafter and even work on writing a book about the circumstances surrounding Tony C's injury.  This, in part, turns out to be a look at what many Vietnam veterans are going through in the years after coming back.

It was amazing how Scheft is able to incorporate such a huge amount of non-fiction into a fiction book.  It's not historic fiction at all, not in the least.  He talks with someone that knew Tony C and this project then becomes talking to vets about their PTSD.

Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers by Mike Sacks
Paperback: 453 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books (June 24, 2014)

Platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube,  and the Golden Age of Television have given rise to comedy writers like never before.  One doesn't need to be working in New York or LA to make people laugh, they could just type something on the keys of their laptop or even their phones.

Still, it's a long way to the top and there are those that will find a way to make it one day.  Maybe there will be one day in a future generation in that something they wrote will be remembered as what helped inspire somebody else to get into the comedy business.  It could be a movie, radio show, television show, book, improv show, or even a stand-up comedy act on stage.  For me, it was reading Bob Hope's memoir, Don't Shoot: It's Only Me, in the summer of 2003 following his passing and just a few short weeks later, I saw the Second City National Touring Company on campus at Bradley University featuring the likes of Frank Caeti and Matthew Craig, to name a few.

This isn't Sacks' first go-around with interviewing comedy writers.  And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft was released in the summer of 2009.  This book is just as great with that one and Sacks talks to even more comedy writers.

Sacks speaks with writers that have been around anywhere from 60 years ago to only recently in the last five-ten years.  He looks at their influence and creative process, the hard times and breakthroughs.  Most importantly, Sacks seeks to know how they were managed to succeed in one of the toughest fields in the industry.

Where it's the writer's room for The Onion or The Colbert Report, no page goes unturned.  Want to know why a sketch didn't make it to air on Saturday Night Live even though it killed during the read-through?  That question gets answered.

Terry Jones lets readers in on a secret.  Monty Python almost never came to the United States because the BBC was going to tape over the masters.  They found out and saved the tapes.  The rest, of course, is history.

Sacks interviews comedy icons like Mel Brooks, Terry Jones, Adam McKay, Mike Schur, and Paul Feig, to name a few.  Comedy writing in all mediums are covered: television, movies, radio, cartoons, books, and Twitter.  There are essays scattered throughout from the likes of Amy Poehler, Patton Oswalt, Diablo Cody, Kay Cannon, Marc Maron, etc. as well as questions geared towards something ultra-specific in comedy like the writers' bible or hiring an agent, etc.  Bill Hader offers a list of 200 movies that every comedy writer needs to see in their life.

To say that this book is a bible for aspiring comedy writers and comedy buffs is an understatement.  It's an essential read for anybody that wants to break into the business.  Just like his first book, this one is very much a must-own like Sacks' prior book if you want my opinion.

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to G-d Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in G-d We shall not."

-John Adams to his wife, Abigail, in a letter sent on July 3, 1776 about the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 2, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

G-d Bless the U.S.A
by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
G-d Bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas
from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston
and New York to L.A.,
There's pride in every American heart
and it's time we stand and say:

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
G-d Bless the U.S.A.

Neil Diamond sings "America" in the 1980 film, The Jazz Singer:

The Wait Is Over: The New York Rangers and the 1994 Stanley Cup by John Kreiser (Foreword by Neil Smith)
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Sports Publishing; 20th Anniversary edition (May 6, 2014)

Kreiser revisits the 1994 Stanley Cup victory as the New York Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks in a seven-game series. Kreiser recounts the entire season as he interviews numerous folks involved. For Rangers fans wanting to relive the glory, this book is one to check out.

This Day in Philadelphia Sports by Brian Startare and Kevin Reavy (Foreword by Charlie Manuel)
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Sports Publishing (June 3, 2014)

What Startare and Reavy have done is take Philadelphia sports fans on a tour one day at a time. Want to know what happened on a certain day? They have it covered.

Nolan Ryan: The Making of a Pitcher by Rob Goldman (Foreword by Reid Ryan)
Hardcover: 366 pages
Publisher: Triumph Books (April 1, 2014)

Rob Goldman brings an interesting perspective to his biography of  Nolan Ryan in that he was the bat boy for the California Angels during the 1970s.

When one thinks of The Ryan Express, they think of the 100 mph fastball, over 5,700 strikeouts during a career that spanned 27 years and a historic seven no-hitters.

Ryan wrote a memoir or two but what Goldman presents is, for the first time, a comprehensive biography of one of the greatest power pitchers of all time.  Because it is the first book written about Ryan since the 1990s, it may just be the definitive biography as it goes all the way through the 2013 season when Ryan exited his post as CEO of the Texas Rangers.  Perhaps in an afterword for the paperback edition, there will be mention of his signing on with the Houston Astros as an executive advisor in early 2014.

There's some mention of Ryan's life before he was first scouted by the New York Mets but most of all that, I imagine, would have been touched upon in one of his previously published books in the 1990s.  This book, for the most part, follows Ryan's career as a player and executive.

Stories are told by some of baseball's all time greats including Dave Winfield and Pete Rose as they share their take on Ryan.  Others include journeymen, teammates, coaches, trainers, and clubhouse workers.  There are many never-before-heard stories about Ryan and personal recollections of games, including those no-hitters.

Goldman explores what made Ryan the pitcher that he became.  This coincided with his trade to the Angels in the early 1970s.  Maybe if Ryan wasn't out for so many days or weeks at a time due to his army commitments in the late 1960s, he would have done better with the Mets.  But by being out for days and weeks at a time, it just was not possible to build a pitching rhythm.

Ryan's personality on the field could not be more unlike who he was off the field.  Here's a guy that offered advice to Randy Johnson after a game against the Seattle Mariners in 1992.  Without that intervention, Johnson does not become a future Hall of Famer.

Previous books may have said what Ryan accomplished in his playing career but this one goes further in explaining how Nolan accomplished it.

There were people that were key to extending Nolan's career as a pitcher and they included Tom Morgan, Jimmie Reese, Gene Coleman, and Tom House.  Ryan was one of the early pitchers to pioneer strength and conditioning to his routine.