{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385541139?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0385541139","authors":["Roger Angell"],"book_id":"9780385541138","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/this-old-man-9780385541138","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780385541138.jpg?v=7ef2d81a2cbce31f","description":"Roger Angell, the acclaimed New Yorker writer and editor, returns with a selection of writings that celebrate a view from the tenth decade of an engaged, vibrant life. Long known for his range and supple prose (he is the only writer elected to membership in both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Letters), Angell won the 2015 American Society of Magazine Editors’ Best Essay award for “This Old Man,” which forms a centerpiece for this book. This deeply personal account is a survey of the limitations and discoveries of great age, with abundant life, poignant loss, jokes, retrieved moments, and fresh love, set down in an informal and moving fashion. A flood of readers from different generations have discovered and shared this classic piece. Angell’s fluid prose and native curiosity make him an amiable and compelling companion on the page. The book gathers essays, letters, light verse, book reviews, Talk of the Town stories, farewells, haikus, Profiles, Christmas greetings, late thoughts on the costs of war. Whether it’s a Fourth of July in rural Maine, a beloved British author at work, Derek Jeter’s departure, the final game of the 2014 World Series, an all-dog opera, editorial exchanges with John Updike, or a letter to a son, what links the pieces is the author’s perceptions and humor, his utter absence of self-pity, and his appreciation of friends and colleagues—writers, ballplayers, editors, artists—encountered over the course of a full and generous life.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780385541138","publication_date":"20151117","publisher":"Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group","slug":"this-old-man","subtitle":"All in Pieces","title":"This Old Man"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SPO003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7696,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball History","score":0.7564,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7411,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SPO003020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7696,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball History","score":0.7564,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7411,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"BIO026000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Personal Memoirs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LCO010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Essay Collections","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SPO003020","confidence_band":"high","label":"Baseball Essays","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Baseball Essays","score":0.7696,"slug":"baseball-essays"},{"label":"Baseball History","score":0.7564,"slug":"baseball-history"},{"label":"Baseball Coaching","score":0.7411,"slug":"baseball-coaching"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in personal reflections on aging, loss, and love","Readers who enjoy varied essays, letters, verse, and reviews"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Glenn Stout"],"book_id":"9780618303991","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780618303991.jpg?v=f756d4ea700d967e","score":0.6885,"title":"Top of the Heap","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780618303991"},{"authors":["Bill Madden"],"book_id":"9781637277157","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781637277157.jpg?v=0172f9040ba448eb","score":0.675,"title":"Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781637277157"},{"authors":["Ken Samelson"],"book_id":"9781510713819","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781510713819.jpg?v=f3a3b6b7aace520c","score":0.6741,"title":"Incredible Baseball Stories","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781510713819"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:memoir"],"label":"Memoir","score":0.0385,"slug":"memoir"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Short Stories","score":0.0216,"slug":"short-story"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Aging and discovery, Loss and love, Friendship and humor.","Pacing: reflective, voice-and-character forward.","Themes: Memoir, Short Stories."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"reflective","reader_fit":["Readers interested in personal reflections on aging, loss, and love","Readers who enjoy varied essays, letters, verse, and reviews"],"themes":["Aging and discovery","Loss and love","Friendship and humor"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":636,"goodreads_reviews_count":142,"quality_score":0.9067}}