Tips for Tuesday - Books: The 1998 Yankees & Everything We Should Have Taught You in High School But Never Did & Movies: In the Spotlight

We may have been given complimentary copies and/or access for review purposes to any books, products, and/or any other visual or audio media mentioned below. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Books:  The 1998 Yankees & Everything We Should Have Taught You in High School But Never Did 

Today we are recommending The 1998 Yankees by Jack Curry. There have been and will continue to be endless arguments about which baseball team is the greatest in history or whether it's even possible to compare teams that thrived during different periods of history. However, in this book, Curry doesn't just make a case for why the 1998 Yankees can or should be considered the greatest team ever, he reconstructs their entire season and shows how that legendary team came together and how that incredible season came to be.

This book is much more than a look at statistics and box scores. It is a deep dive into everything and everyone that made up that team and shows how each of them contributed to the end result of that unbelievable season. It is full of quotes from the actual participants as well which makes it feel like you are getting a real insider's perspective on the season and not just some journalist's view. 

If you hate the Yankees, this book certainly isn't going to change that. If you aren't necessarily a Yankee fan, but you are a sports fan, especially a baseball fan, you still may enjoy certain aspects of this book including information regarding what it takes to put a team together and the player's perspectives of what that season was like.  However, if you are a Yankee fan, this book is definitely one that you will treasure. It will give you the opportunity to relive that epic once-in-a-lifetime season whenever you want by just opening the book and reading it.

Today we are recommending Everything We Should Have Taught You in High School But Never Did by Dr. Gary Shear. The title of this book is a bit misleading because there are plenty of things they don't necessarily teach you in school that it would probably be useful to learn like how to manage money and how to prepare a resume and so much more. However, this book is not really so much about teaching important things we need to learn. It is about teaching us important rules to live by and remember that will make for a better happier life. 

The book includes important advice about things like being gracious about your success, and not doing things you'll regret later just to be part of the crowd and so much more.  Every point Shear makes in the book is a good and important one. If we all followed all of his advice, it would make for a much better happier world full of much kinder more confident people. Unfortunately, it's not that easy as we all have emotions that get in the way of us being the best we can be sometimes, and not everyone even cares about being a better person. However, the book is certainly worth reading because anything you can get out of it is only going to help you be a better person and that's really all we can do. We can't make anyone else a better person, we can only strive to make ourselves better.

Today we are talking about Into the Spotlight. Into the Spotlight is a movie about a teenage girl named Laura who becomes a rock star after she finds a magic microphone. The movie is full of cliches like the misunderstood outsider and the bitchy mean girl. The plot is somewhat confusing. Laura clearly already has some musical talent to begin with so it is unclear exactly what the microphone is doing for her. 

There are things to like about the movie as well. The characters are mostly likable except for the token mean girl, of course, who is not supposed to be liked. There are some nice relationships between parent and child, between friends, and between boyfriend and girlfriend. There are also some decent songs. 

The movie was written by its teenage star, Kate Larson. Although it was somewhat of a disappointment,  it does show potential. We look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Into the Spotlight is available now on major on-demand and digital platforms.

Book images used in this post are our own.  Film images have been sent to us from publicists, artists, and/or  PR firms. If there is a problem with the rights to any image, please contact us here, and we will look into the matter