The Library in February: SPORTS

by Debbie Adler

Attention all sports fans! Did you know that in our library you can find books about golf, soccer, football, horse racing, baseball, basketball, tennis, rowing, swimming, chess, skiing, ice hockey, car racing, fishing, and cycling, to name a few!

Our patrons enjoy reading books about sports because they can reminisce about their own athletic experiences, connect with a familiar passion, learn about historical athletes and teams, and find engaging stories that are often inspiring.

Check out our featured authors and books by sport, including:

Horse Racing: Dick Francis – British steeplechase jockey and crime writer whose novels center on horse racing (29 of his books in our library).

Ice Hockey: Fredrik Backman’s Beartown series, about a small Swedish town and its junior ice hockey team, addressing the complexities of human nature.

Tennis: Courting Danger (Alice Marble), true story of Alice Marble, 1930’s tennis champion and U.S. Army Intelligence spy.

Rowing: A Most Beautiful Thing (Arshay Cooper), the true story of America’s first all-black high school rowing team.

Football: The Boys of Riverside (Thomas Fuller), a deaf football team and a quest for glory.

Golf: The Story of the Masters (David Barrett), the first comprehensive year-by-year history of the world’s most famous golf tournament.

Basketball: Sooley (John Grisham), Samuel “Sooley” Sooleymon is a raw, young talent with big hoop dreams.

Swimming: Mornings with Rosemary (Libby Page), features the life-changing relationship between an anxious young reporter and an eighty-six-year-old lifelong swimmer.

Cycling: Nala’s World (Dean Nicholson), one man, his rescue cat, and a bike ride around the globe.

Fishing: Illuminated by Water (Malachy Tallack), explores the ways in which angling can deepen engagement with the natural world.

Chess: Intermezzo (Sally Rooney), an exquisitely moving story about grief, love, family, and a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player.

Car Racing: Faster (Neal Bascomb), how a Jewish driver, an American heiress, and a legendary car beat Hitler’s best.

Skiing: The Winter Army (Maurice Isserman), the epic story of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, whose elite soldiers broke the last line of German defenses in Italy’s mountains in 1945, spearheading the Allied advance to the Alps and final victory.

Come to the library and play sports vicariously through reading!

Pictured is Marilyn, library volunteer, gearing up for a cycling adventure!