Sparring with Smokin' Joe

December 1, 2020

Famous for breaking the Watergate story with Bob Woodward, Bernstein backtracks to his early-1960s experiences as a teenage reporter at the Washington Star in Chasing History. Structured around Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool," Punch Me Up to the Gods recounts award-winning poet/screenwriter Broom's upbringing in Ohio as a Black boy crushing on other boys, falling into wild sex and drug use, and finally finding his way. Laden with Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, SAG, and Grammy honors, Foxx pivots here to talk about raising two very different daughters in Act Like You Got Some Sense (400,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for October 2020). In The Windsor Diaries, published posthumously, Howard records staying with her grandfather at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park during World War II and befriending princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Emmy Award winner Leslie Jordan, a viral sensation, pulls out the Southern charm to tell funny stories about life and celebrity in How Y'all Doing? (100,000-copy first printing). Having started the YouTube channel Dad, How Do I? to hand out the fatherly advice and how-to tips he wishes his dad had been around to give him, Kenney here reiterates that advice while surveying his childhood and how the channel went viral (75,000-copy first printing). In Sparring with Smokin' Joe, Lewis, director of journalism at York College, CUNY, recalls the months he spent in 1981 in the gym and on the road with boxing great Joe Frazier. Brat Packer McCarthy relates a life that encompasses acting, directing, and working as an award-winning editor-at-large at National Geographic Traveler. In Sunshine Girl, Margulies shows how she created order amid the chaos of a difficult childhood to become an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award-winning actress. In Sinatra and Me, Oppedisano, a longtime confidant and key member of the singer's management team, reflects on Sinatra's life, loves, and commitment to his craft (100,000-copy first printing). Finally, in The Wreckage of My Presence, actress/podcaster Wilson offers funny but heartfelt essays ranging from the joys of eating in bed to her obsessive need to be liked (100,000-copy first printing)

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 21, 2020
In this fascinating account, journalist Lewis (The Big Beauty Book) chronicles the life of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier and his rivalry with Muhammad Ali. Lewis charts Frazier’s rise from southern farm boy to 1964 Olympic heavyweight boxing champion, and argues that the Frazier-Ali rivalry that followed was arguably “the greatest individual rivalry in all of sports.” At its apex in the early 1970s, Ali was widely viewed as a radical “audacious Muslim spokesman for disenchanted people of color” while, despite being Black, Frazier was “cast by Ali, then many others as... ‘the White Man’s Champion’ ” due to his Southern sharecropping upbringing. Lewis writes that Frazier viewed this portrayal as a betrayal since Frazier helped Ali get his boxing license and lent him money when things got tight. Lewis’s access to Frazier’s family, meanwhile, offers insight into the fighter’s personal life and his influence on his son, Marvis, who became a champion boxer and told Lewis, ”I never wanted anything for my father. All I wanted was his love. That’s all.” Lewis brings a painstaking level of detail to his breakdown of the famous rivalry. This is a knockout.

Starred review from March 1, 2021
There is no shortage of material in boxing literature about the epic rivalry of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, but most of those accounts center on Ali. This compelling blend of reportage and narrative nonfiction changes the focus to Frazier, delving into his career in the ring and his life after his third fight with Ali, the iconic "Thrilla in Manilla," as well as exploring the brief boxing career of Frazier's son Marvis. Drawing on interviews conducted by journalist Lewis with Joe, Marvis, and others in the Frazier entourage in 1980, the book offers insightful portraits of both father and son, capturing not only Joe's love for Marvis, but also the former heavyweight champion's arguable mismanagement of his son's career by attempting to force the younger Frazier into adopting the same kind of brawling, ever-advancing approach that defined Joe's style. Along the way, Lewis reprises the high and low points in Joe's own career, offering a convincing argument that Frazier should have been awarded the decision in his second Ali bout and sensitively describing the effects on Frazier from Ali's cruel taunting of his rival, especially the absurd claim that Joe was an "Uncle Tom." This Maileresque combination of personal reflection, boxing analysis, and sports biography is a must read for fight fans, especially those whose understandable idolatry of Ali have kept them from seeing Frazier as a notably complex, generous, and loving man.

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February 1, 2021

Potential readers of this book may initially have a problem. The subtitle implies an emphasis on the fights between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, but they are only cursorily addressed, mainly near the end of the book. Lewis (journalism, York College, CUNY) had a secret weapon, though: extensive access to the Frazier family dating back to 1980. The author covers aspects of Joe Frazier's (1944-2011) story, from his South Carolina roots, through his glory days and after, as he juggled a singing career with managing and training son Marvis, who turns out to be somewhat the star of the show, if not the ring, in Joe's own scrap iron image. Toward the end of the book, the narrative follows Marvis as he returns to the ring and faces Mike Tyson. Lewis is not shy about his admiration for Smokin' Joe, referring to him as the "The Greatest"--a nickname usually reserved for Ali. Although Ali isn't present in every chapter, his shadow looms large, as he was always a serious threat to Joe. VERDICT Fans of Ali might not be pleased, but Lewis portrays Frazier as a fighter for the ages in this admiring book.--Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.