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Tom's avatar
Jul 12Edited

I really like the list. A couple more suggestions

The Boys in the Boat is fantastic. About the university of Washington rowing team in 1936, which more or less was a bunch of really poor guys during the depression who needed to row so they could get free room and board on campus. And then they went to the 1936 Olympics, so the book also talked about how Hitler tried to use the Olympics for propaganda.

Also The Last Shot by Darcy Frey. It is similar to Canyon Dreams, but it traces Lincoln high school in Coney Island, New York. Similar, and that these kids have so much stacked against them. As an added bonus, Stephon Marbury is on that team. But he is not the star of that team…

Mike's avatar

This title made me think of a John Grisham novel my Dad told me about called Sooley.

Very good book that means more to me cuz Dad recommended.

Tom's avatar

I really enjoyed Sooley. Have you read Bleachers by John Grisham? A longtime small town high school football coach is on his death bed. His players from different eras come back because they want to be in town before and when he passes so they can pay their respects. And they come to grips with their love-hate relationship with a man who pushed them beyond what they thought they could endure… Really reminded me of my high school baseball coach, who other than my parents probably had the biggest hand in any success I’ve been able to have

Mike's avatar

I have not read that but it is certainly on my list now. Thanks for recommending!

CardinalJedi's avatar

Love the book recommendation list, including one from two of fantasy baseball's founding fathers!

Jordan Klein's avatar

The books sounds great, it's just a shame what Michael Powell has been up to since then as the NYT/Atlantic 'anti-woke'/'college campus crisis' correspondent...

KHAZAD's avatar

He had the guts to point out the crazy, and I am a old school liberal lifelong Democrat who agrees. The extremists on our side (and babying them because they are extreme on the left, rather than the right) are by far the biggest reason why we lose.

Tom's avatar

Yes, I feel like our system is flawed because the crazies on the left and the crazies on the right each pick their candidate, and then the 80% or so of us in the middle have to choose between two that we don’t like. We need a third-party in the middle. We could call it the Sanity party.