Mets Fan is Dana Brand's first person account of Mets history, from 1962 through the construction of Citi Field.

In many ways, one can't read Mets Fan without comparing it to Greg Prince's Faith and Fear in Flushing. And since Greg is a friend of mine, I find it hard to be objective in the comparison. In some ways, Brand explains that Mets fans bleed orange and blue, while Prince cuts a vein and shows you the multi-colored blood.

Nonetheless, Mets Fan has its strong points. It provides a personal look at Mets history from the club's very beginning, and hits the team's highlights throughout its entire existence. For younger fans, Mets Fan helps to explain the importance of certain key events. And it is a loving account of what it is like to root for a team throughout one's life.

Thus, Mets Fan is a good read for Mets fans who enjoy essays about meaningful events and players from the Polo Grounds years through the Shea Stadium era.

After Many A Summer: The Passing of the Giants and the Dodgers and a Golden Age in New York Baseball by Robert E. Murphy is a detailed, well-researched account of the events that led to the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers abandonment of New York for the West Coast. The book doesn't look to demonize anybody, and takes an even-handed and complex look at people like Walter O'Malley, Horace Stoneham, Robert Moses and others who participated in the maelstrom that tore National League baseball away from Brooklyn and Manhattan.

For fans of baseball and for fans of New York City history, After Many a Summer is a fascinating read.

The Amazin' Mets: 1962-1969 by William J. Ryczek is a detailed account of the Mets from their hapless beginnings to their miraculous 1969 World Series championship. While the book doesn't really cover very much in the way of new territory, it does an excellent job of fleshing out known history by adding detailed first person narratives by many Mets of that era.

In some ways, this book is a difficult read; it's somewhat encyclopedic in its presentation. However, it does provide a thorough account of the team's early history.

This is an excellent book for those who can't get enough of Mets history, as well as for those who may be unacquainted with the team's humble beginnings and the history of how it turned itself around in an amazin' way.

Shea Goodbye: The Untold Story of the Historic 2008 Season by Keith Hernandez and Matthew Silverman are Mets great and current Mets announcer Keith Hernandez's reminiscences about the 2008 season.

Mets fans are used to taking the bitter with the sweet, and this book is no exception. The bitter is that the 2008 season was a disappointing one, and relieving it in minute detail isn't necessarily a desirable concept. However, the sweet is the insight provided by Keith Hernandez. Keith is an icon to all generations of Mets fans, and his take on the players and the game are always worthwhile.

So Shea Goodbye is for the die-hard Keith Hernandez fans who are Metsochistic enough to be willing to re-live a season that most of us would otherwise not choose to revisit.

Ron Darling's The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching and Life on the Mound is not your typical baseball memoir. The Yale alum and former Mets star constructed this book like a baseball game - the pregame intro, nine innings of discussion as well as an extra inning, and a post-game wrap-up. The games discussed are not in typical chronological order, but the first chapter discusses the first inning of his major league debut, the second inning discusses the second inning of a different game, etc.

The unique structure of this book gives the always well-spoken Darling an interesting way of looking back over his baseball career. Some chapters work better than others - personally, I find the chapters where he discusses other pitchers' innings to be a bit boring. But overall, Darling uses this book to provide insight into the mind of a pitcher as he attends to his craft.

It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

That's not really an accurate description of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, this year's winner of the Newbery Medal, but it's the phrase that came to my mind early on in the story.

The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, a toddler whose parents have been brutally murdered and who finds protection from harm in a nearby graveyard. As Nobody, known as Bod, grows into a child and a young man, he walks between the living and the spirits, and learns how to use magical powers that most mortals do not possess. He also encounters challenges from which the graveyard cannot protect him, including school, friendship, and the man who murdered his family.

This is a story for older children due to the violent nature of the murder of Bod's family. It should appeal to those who enjoy the Harry Potter series due to its magical nature, as well as Gaiman's knack for creating entertaining characters with whom the reader can relate.

Fat Charlie Nancy was living a quiet and unremarkable life in England, working in a hum-drum job and engaged to a sweet woman with an overbearing mother. And then his estranged father died.

This is the jumping off point for award winning author Neil Gaiman's novel, Anansi Boys. Fat Charlie Nancy travels to Florida for his father's funeral and discovers not only that his father was a god, but that Charlie also has a long-lost brother who has supernatural powers.

Anansi Boys is an engaging, interesting novel that entertwines the supernatural with the mundane seamlessly. Gaiman's sense of humor makes this an entertaining story of love, greed, murder, and fables.

Note - although Gaiman has written many children's books, Anansi Boys contains adult situations.