Manderino's second novel is a comic gem. At forty, Hank has decided he's through with baseball - a routine pop-up fell on his head and he got the message. Trouble is, baseball is the one thing that's given any meaning to his life. This is the painfully funny story of a man who decides to get a life, but isn't sure how. It's about fathers and sons, heroes and whiners, the wheel of fortune (and Vanna White), baseball and the decline of Western civilization - and why Hall of Famer Nellie Fox always spat in his glove. One reader commented, 'This is a wonderful book: funny and touching. The characters are real and the situations they get into are riveting. The dialogue is great; the voices ring so true. An extremely enjoyable read, even for only casual fans of baseball'....

When Hitchcock's "The Birds", began showing in the summer of 1963 at the Dolton Theater, the starlings of Riverside, Illinois launched their attacks. They were 'black, freckled, oily-looking things' with 'tiny black buttons for eyes.' They carried off Skippy Whalen's baseball cap, pooped on Father Rowley's finger, and attacked a feisty little dog named Tuffy who fought them off. 'I blamed Alfred Hitchcock' says the author, a Catholic grammar school student at the time.In this comic, witty memoir, John Manderino shows us how the pivotal points of his life have been enmeshed with movie moments. "Crying at Movies" presents thirty-eight succinct chapters, each bearing the title of a film."Brief Encounter", the last chapter, finds our movie-seeking Everyman hiding in his girlfriend's bathroom so she won't see him crying over the final scene. "Crying at Movies" is at once a love-letter to an art form and a humorous appreciation of the distinctions between movie scenes and life's realities....