Fanfare of the Vanities

In an essay about James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces — the Oprah-fide best-selling fiction-as-memoir scam and story of addiction and such — real-life junkie turned media critic (yes, another one!) Seth Mnookin writes, “Were I in my normal frame of mind, I would … scream Fraud, and chase this Chump Motherfucker down and give him a beating.” This is Mnookin’s way, and it’s a good way, a way that has put him on the staffs of Vanity Fair and Newsweek and led to his new sports nonfiction book, Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, an inside look at the phenomenal Boston Red Sox. Mnookin was given almost unfettered access — including a workstation in the Sox front office — to chronicle the world champs, and, it says here, “what it means to buy, sell, run, and be part of a major league sports team in America.”

Thu., Aug. 10, 8 p.m.