sports & athletics

 

Upcoming April programs

Crafterday: Drop-in Social Meetup on Saturday April 11^th 10am-2pm
REGISTER HERE à https://oneallibrary.org/event/15416861

Poetics of Film: An Evening with John Wall Barger on Monday April 20th 6:30-7:30pm
REGISTER HEREà https://oneallibrary.org/event/15794519

The Books & Beyond Discussion Group (BAB) met yesterday to chat about sports & athletics and had a lively discussion that ranged from Heated Rivalry to comparisons of The Natural to The Odyssey.  If you aren’t visiting with BAB, you’re missing out!  Put our next meeting, chatting about historical fiction, on your calendar: Tuesday, April 28^th @ 6:30pm
REGISTER HEREà https://oneallibrary.org/event/14436793

Here are all the great titles we discussed last night:

The Favorites by Layne Fargo

An epic frenemies drama set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice and a man struggling to overcome a hardscrabble youth. (I forgot to mention this at the meeting, but while reading this book, I could not stop thinking about the early aughts masterpiece that is The Cutting Edge!)

Unstoppable: My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova

From Maria Sharapova, one of our fiercest female athletes, the captivating—and candid—story of her rise from nowhere to tennis stardom, and the unending fight to stay on top.

Bluebird Day by Megan Tady

In this hilarious, heartwarming tale, mother-daughter skiing champs face the bumps in their own relationship when an avalanche in a Swiss village forces them together.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger

Named Sports Illustrated's best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them.

Bleachers by John Grisham

A former high school football star bids farewell to his glory days in this poignant and nostalgic novel that’s “as taut and twisting as a well-thrown spiral” (People).

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Pro hockey star Shane Hollander isn't just crazy talented, he's got a spotless reputation. Hockey is his life. Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane's not. The self-proclaimed king of the ice, he's as cocky as he is talented. No one can beat him - except Shane. They've made a career on their legendary rivalry, but when the skates come off, the heat between them is undeniable. This is book #2 in the Game Changers series that inspired the hit show.

The Natural by Bernard Malamud

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first―and some would say still the best―novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material―the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era―and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work.

The Natural (1984, 2h25m, Rated PG)

On the way to a tryout with the Chicago Cubs, young baseball phenom Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is shot by the unstable Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey). After 16 years, Hobbs returns to pro baseball as a rookie for the last-place New York Knights. Despite early arguments with his manager, Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley), Hobbs becomes one of the best players in the league, and the Knights start winning. But this upsets the Judge (Robert Prosky), their owner, who wants Hobbs to lose games, not win.

The First Saturday in May (2007, 1h36m, Rated PG-13)

This touching documentary about the horses and trainers behind the Kentucky Derby leads up to the two most exciting minutes in sports.

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Questfor Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

Cheer (Netflix, 2020, 2 Seasons, Rated TV-MA)

In the small town of Corsicana, Texas, hard-driving head cheer coach Monica Aldama demands perfection from her team of competitive college athletes.

Pinned by Love by Elaine Daniels (not in the JCLC system, but available from Amazon)

To the whole world, Athena Rainstorm is the most hated villain in Elite Monster Wrestling. Away from the boos and jeers that slice deep, she’s just Iris, a sensitive harpy who’s only ever wanted one thing: to spread her wings and win an elusive championship title. Her fiercest rival is Lena, the perfect minotaur who has it all, winning fights, fans, and adulation with the greatest of ease. Their hatred for each other in and out of the ring is legend. But when the wrestlers are forced to spend time together prepping for the biggest event of the year, their masks begin to crack.

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for theWorld Record Tarpon by Monte Burke

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, something unique happened in the quiet little town on the west coast of Florida known as Homosassa. The best fly anglers in the world all gathered together to chase the same holy grail - the world record for the most glamorous and coveted fly-rod species, the tarpon. Alongside the story of the world-record pursuit, Burke also chronicles the heartbreaking destruction of the fishery brought on by greed, environmental degradation, and the shenanigans of a notorious Miami gangster - and how all of it has shaped contemporary tarpon fishing.

I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams by Jordan Chiles

The sensational two-time Olympian Jordan Chiles’s heartfelt, inspiring memoir chronicling her unlikely path to the podium—including the unprecedented challenges, the joy of winning, the crushing pain of defeat, and the love and support of her devoted family and teammates that helps her stay strong.

The Jump by Natalie Keller Reinert
(This title was just published last week and hasn't yet made its way into the library system, but it is on order!)

Against the riveting high-stakes backdrop of the equestrian eventing world, Reinert explores the passions that drive us, the love affairs that fuel us, and the partnerships—both animal and human—that help us thrive and find ourselves.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Figure skating podcast, The Runthrough

Olympians Adam Rippon and Ashley Wagner join forces with Sarah Hughes (no relation to 2002 Olympic Champion Sarah Hughes) to tackle the most important questions figure skaters have been asking themselves for years. Questions like: “Why does this short program feel so long?” or “Is there such a thing as your costume being too tight?” and the most important question of all: “Will changing my hair color fix all my problems?” Join the team as they cover all the news, competitions, and drama of the figure skating season. Will they kiss? Will they cry? There’s only one way to find out.  Follow them on Instagram @therunthroughpodcast

The Gilded Age tv show
An interview with show director Deborah Kampmeier talking about directing the Newport Tennis Match episode, from 11:10-16:20 in the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crneziKfHQI

Also, here is a brief BFI video of Wimbledon in 1920: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTTO9hU_6E

Other baseball titles of note:

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof

The headlines proclaimed the 1919 fix of the World Series and attempted cover-up as "the most gigantic sporting swindle in the history of America!" Eliot Asinof has reconstructed the entire scene-by-scene story of the fantastic scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation's leading gamblers to throw the Series in Cincinnati. 

Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella

Adapted to screen in the beloved film Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella is the story of Ray Kinsella, inspired by the mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer, “if you build it, he will come,” to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is both a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding your way home.

Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W.P. Kinsella (not available in Jefferson County, request from Interlibrary Loan)

Gideon Clarke is a man on a quest. He is out to prove to the world, as his father tried before him, that the world-champion Chicago Cubs traveled to Onamata, Iowa, in the summer of 1908 for an exhibition game against all-stars from the Iowa Baseball Confederacy, an amateur league. The game, which was to be short, pleasant, and the Cubs thought, one-sided, turned into a titanic battle of over 2,000 innings, played mostly in the pouring rain. This game is not on the record books. No one remembers it or the Confederacy. But Gideon Clarke knows it happened, and he is determined to set the record straight.

Box Socials by W.P. Kinsella (not available in Jefferson County, request from Interlibrary Loan)

This is the story of how Truckbox Al McClintock, a small-town greaser whose claim to fame was hitting a baseball clean across the Pembina River, almost got a tryout with the genuine St. Louis Cardinals—but instead ended up batting against Bob Feller of Cleveland Indian fame in Renfrew Park, Edmonton, Alberta. Along the way to Al's moment of truth at the plate, we learn about the bizarre, touchingly hilarious lives and loves of just about anyone who ever passed through New Oslo, Fark, or Venusberg. Full of the crackle of down-home folk tales, by turns randy, riveting, and heartbreaking, Box Socials is a triumph.

Chasing the Bear: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time by Lars Anderson

Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships -- six apiece -- than anyone else in the history of the game. Chasing the Bear examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.

The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and thePolitics of Patriotism by Howard Bryant

The Heritage is the story of the rise, fall, and fervent return of the athlete-activist. Through deep research and interviews with some of sports’ best-known stars—including Kaepernick, David Ortiz, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber—as well as members of law enforcement and the military, Bryant details the collision of post-9/11 sports in America and the politically engaged post-Ferguson black athlete.

Item descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes. Podcast description pulled from Apple Podcasts.