The Books Behind the Summer's Best Movies
Check out the books that inspired the blockbusters and thoughtful indies of 2018. Read...and see!
By Mark Athitakis
2 of 9
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg
By Nicholas Dawidoff
453 pages;
Vintage
Paul Rudd is best known for
playing the goofball bro in comedies like
I Love You, Man and
The
40-Year-Old Virgin,
but he takes a serious turn in
The Catcher Was a Spy (out June 22), a
biopic about Moe Berg, a major-league catcher who had a secret life as a spy
during World War II. In the film, he's recruited by the Office of Strategic Services
to keep tabs on the German physicist Werner Heisenberg and stand ready to
assassinate him. Nicholas Dawidoff's best-selling biography will burst the
bubble of anybody hoping to meet a ballplayer–turned–James
Bond. In truth, Berg's spy work was limited and modest. But, all the same, it's
a lively read about a peculiar and fascinating figure who was both a powerhouse
athlete and a serious intellectual who spoke at least a half-dozen languages.
He once impressed the likes of Albert Einstein, who told him, "You will
learn relativity faster than I will learn baseball."
— Mark Athitakis
Published 05/29/2018