Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and Other Essays

When it comes to collections of essays or short stories, I've always struggled to get through them quickly—or even at a normal pace. No matter how great one story or essay might have been, jumping straight into a new one with completely different settings and characters left me feeling less engaged. That said, these essays might have just changed how I think about reading them more often.

The book has nine essays, a third of which focus on heavyweight champions: Joe Louis, Floyd Patterson, and Muhammad Ali. Each essay takes a different angle. With Louis, it reads like a fast-paced sports article—sharp and direct. With Patterson, it digs deeper, almost into the soul of a fighter. And with Ali, it shifts focus, becoming less about the man himself and more about the world surrounding him.

Just when I thought nothing could top the heated exchange between Frank Sinatra and Harlan Ellison, I hit the essay Ali in Havana 1996. It was a fascinating contrast to the former—an unusual encounter between Castro and Ali that included a magic trick.