Books

A Memoir of My Father

Augusten Burroughs

(St. Martin's, $24.95)

Imagine all the terrible things that could possibly happen in childhood and you'll find them here.

Physical and mental child abuse. Spousal abuse. Animal abuse. Hints of sexual abuse. Malnutrition, guns, drugs, alcohol, decay, rape, illness and, yes, possibly even murder. Murder? Really?

At its heart, this is the story of a sensitive boy desperate for attention from his distant, angry father. Mr. Burroughs reaches for his father's hand and is swatted away; tries to hug his father and is slapped; searches for common ground and is told to go away.

His father lords over the house, and his mother, dealing with the same, if not worse abuse from her husband, withdraws into herself and often leaves Augusten to fend for himself. On numerous occasions, he and his mother move out. During one such move, his father neglects and kills Augusten's beloved guinea pig. The spell is broken, and Augusten no longer wants his father's affection; he wants him dead.

Throughout the first 100 pages you may think, "OK, so your father didn't hug you enough." But it gets worse, much worse, as we knew it would. Mr. Burroughs dishes out exactly what his readers probably wanted: unhappy episode after unhappy episode after unhappy episode.

Sara Rose,

The Associated Press

The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas and Puma and the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sport

Barbara Smit

(Ecco, $26.95)

Two of the greatest brands in sports, Adidas and Puma, grew out of one small town in Bavarian Germany, where they were started by competing brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler.

Sneaker Wars tells how the Dassler boys started making shoes in their mother's laundry room after World War I. It traces the growth of the business from that shed, its fraternal split into Adidas and Puma, exacerbated by World War II, jealousy and suspicion. And how that competitive fire drove the Dasslers to help create the modern sports industry, for better or worse.

The first 50 years of the 90-year story, capturing the start, splinter and competitive rise, are the book's gem. The early decades show the evolution of the company and amateur sports before both were altered (corrupted?) by bankers and greed.

Mark Clothier,

Bloomberg News

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