All tagged Basketball

Review: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Guest Post by Allie of In Bed with Books

Review: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Guest Post by Allie of In Bed with Books

Guest
Books, Verse Week

Kwame Alexander's newest novel, THE CROSSOVER, is a verse tour de force. It's told through poems by the main character, Josh Bell a.k.a. Filthy McNasty. He and his twin brother Jordan (JB) are talented basketball players, but jealousy threatens to split them apart when JB gets a girlfriend.

I love how many levels of story are woven into this novel. 

THE CROSSOVER is the kind of book I never would've picked up when I was younger because I didn't like sports. There is the sports story promised by the cover, all leading up to a big championship game, but it is far from the only plotline. Nor is it the most important plotline. That's reserved for all the family stuff.

 

Gift Guide: Books + Things for Sports Fans

Gift Guide: Books + Things for Sports Fans

Sarah Moon
Gift Guides, Listorama

There are a lot of bookish gift guides floating around at the moment, and I though we’d jump on the bandwagon, but with our own twist.

The first is for those sports fans on your list. (And yes, these are all things we own or have gifted.)

Books 

 

Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure by Craig Robinson

This is one of the more interesting sports books I own and one I’d recommend to both sports and design fans. Robinson has created an outstanding book that describes baseball visually, both hard statistics and weird things such as how tall Alex Rodriguez’ salary would be if it were paid in pennies. Awesome, right?

Amazon / Goodreads

The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Alamanac by Free Darko

I almost didn’t include this book on this list because when I went to the author’s event in Portland a few years ago and he was really insufferable (and exercised extremely poor judgment regarding his language choices at an event with many children in attendance). However, it’s an awesome book and like the previous one, it’s graphical so even if you’re not a fan of sports, it may appeal to you non-sports fans as well. 

Amazon / Goodreads

Counting Coup by Larry Colton

I’ve written about this one before but it’s a stellar book about the impact of basketball on the lives of people in an impoverished community. This is one of those, “it’s not really about sports” sorts of books. It’s about community. 

Amazon / Goodreads

Pacific Rims by Rafe Bartholomew

I love stories about unexpected places. Rafe Bartholomew’s chronicle of basketball in the Philippines (where people, FYI, are not particularly tall) is a book any sports fan will love. The humor in the narrative is really fantastic as well. (My Twitter friend Patrick Truby wrote an excellent review of this book on my good friend Mookie’s blog, A Stern Warning.)