#i have to reread it before the eclipse monday i have to... it's the book that really Kicked It All Off for me

[thestarmaker]

rereading The Most Formative Book Of Your Childhood is something that can be so personal. Wendy Mass I owe you everything ⭐

[bsaka7]

top 5 books you’ve read recently 🎤

I've been on a shit reading kick because I've been like inordinately stressed about moving (on Monday) and finishing my job and all that so hopefully I'll get back into the rhythm pretty soon here. Unsurprisingly, I've been reading a lot of footie books. Thank you for the ask!

Beartown by Fredrik Backman. NOT a footie book. It IS a fictional novel about hockey. The sequel sucks (which is why I reread this). But the original....this is a book that gets sports and sports town and family and love and the tragedies and struggles of a community and winning and losing and loving sports and what comes before that. Backman is my pop fiction GUY. It's a good one.

Invincible by Amy Lawrence. Look, everyone told me this book was good, but this book was GOOD. I really like Amy Lawrence - she's my favorite regular contributor to Handbrake Off, and though I occasionally gripe with her columns, I think she has such a beautiful and generous way of speaking about the game (and player). She loves Arsenal, she loves football. This book is no exception to that, and she had phenomenal access to the Invincibles themselves and...well. I wasn't there, and I'll never be there, and I'll be forever devastated by how it ended (to United, nonetheless), but I will relish getting as close as I can get. I also far prefer reading to watching - though with footie, the watching is unavoidable for any real understanding - and she does a good job bridging the gap that exists there.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I love a bit of scifi and I think he did a great job creating an "alien" that is interesting and compelling and different and cool. The ending wasn't TOTALLY my favorite but well. The power of science and friendship and teaching and shame and all that. Not too shabby!

Thierry Henry: Lonely at the Top by Phillipe Auclaire. I actually didn't think this book was that great when I read it, although Auclaire does a good job bringing the reader through Henry's career and some of the issues that have eclipsed it at various points. Like I said in the previous post, he has an ambivalence towards Henry that I found very interesting and reflective. I think this is both an interesting look at Henry, the player and the discourses that surrounded him throughout his career about his play and his attitude, as well as some larger themes about football.

Reflections from the North Country by Sigurd Olson. I technically read this for work. Olson is such an important conservationist especially in the upper Midwest and I'd definitely be open to reading more of his work, although I was surprised and disappointed by how..."primitavist" this was at times. I think understanding the discourses at work in "foundational" works like those of Olson are really important in understanding how rhetoric - in this case around conservation and preservation and especially wilderness in the "North Country" - develops and continues to be embedded how we talk about those issues now. At the same time, I do also enjoy environmentalist writings, with their MANY flaws, and this was no exception.