It’s been less than two years since I decided on something of a whim to try climbing and ended up joining a climbing gym. It looked like fun, the gym also offered yoga, and I thought it would improve my grip strength. I still rarely venture outside (so far), but rock climbing has become one of my favorite things. So, as I often do with new obsessions or hobbies, I’ve picked up a few books on the subject. Alex Honnold is a world famous climber, […]
A top book of the year – everything a sports romance should be
This book is in my top 5 for the year. BethEllen lent it to me as soon as she finished it, I got 3 hours of sleep one night because I couldn’t put it down and my sick kids kept waking me up – so why not keep reading?, and I bought my own copy so I can reread at leisure. Soccer is my sport of choice. I played for years and still love watching it. My husband still plays several times a week and […]
College baseball, without Linklater, with the White Whale
The cover drew me in: this book looks like it should be a delicate coming-of-age tale about a boy growing into a man, using baseball as an allegory for the wins and swings-and-misses of life. Given the cover model’s relaxed repose (and likely heavily influenced by the amount of fanfic I read, which, as John Cho says “gets gay fast”), I also assumed it would be a tale of a young man discovering his homosexuality. Baseball, young men exploring their sexuality: tick, right up my alley. […]
Pigskin and Broken Limbs
Aren’t men generally kind of stupid? And the things they like, aren’t those pretty meaningless too? All those silly, pointless traditions: the nicknames, the rituals, the insults, the posturing. Nonsense, right? That’s basically the point and the premise of The Throwback Special, a strawman construction in which Chris Bachelder creates the silliest, most pointless male ritual imaginable merely to demonstrate how easily he can knock it down. It’s boxing against a tomato can you filled yourself. In its own way, this book is as pointless […]