Agent Palmer

As I mentioned in my post about the Blind Date with a Bookstore, I selected to receive two books in my curated box and this is a review of those two books.

While I enjoyed both books, I did not think I could come up with enough to say about both individually to write separate reviews and honestly, since they arrived together and I read them back to back, it made sense to write about them together.

Hit Man is based on an article. That article is based on a true story written by a journalist, as is the documentary Radical Wolfe. So too are the movies Almost Famous, Live Free or Die Hard, Argo, and Top Gun.

It was those first two that I mentioned that were both released in 2023 and most importantly credited the articles they were based on. And the whole thing got me thinking…

John Feinstein’s The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and Honor in Division I College Basketball is a love letter to amateur athletics and the notion of the unironic “student” athlete. 

In the book, he chronicles the 1999-2000 Patriot League Basketball season. The Patriot League is something I guess I took for granted, as it is in my backyard. But for those who don’t know, it’s academically right up there with the Ivy League.