For 20 years, I tried to write politically relevant, “important” novels. I teach. One day I told my students that to succeed as a writer, they needed to write about things they knew and loved. Honesty was the key. That night, I resumed work on a novel set in Prague involving Cold War intrigue, capitalism, communism, and some other "isms" I’ve forgotten. I wrote a paragraph and then stopped. My advice was good. Write about things you know and love. So why not follow it myself? What section of the newspaper did I read first? The sports page. Did I live and die with my favorite sports teams? Yes. I put my hopeless Prague novel aside and started On the Devil’s Court. For better or worse, a sportswriter is who I am.
Jersey City hoops this time, but Wojnarowski’s book details the dedication of Bob Hurley (father of Duke star and NBA player Bobby Hurley) who is the head coach at a small Catholic school in Jersey City. Under his leadership, this tiny school wins championship after championship. For Hurley, the championships are a sidebar. His focus is on the players as human beings. He knows them--where they came from, where they are, where they could be headed--good and bad. Tough love at its best. A remarkable book about a remarkable man. The flip side of The Last Shot.
In a city mired in endless decay, where the youth suffer through all the horrors of urban blight, hope comes in a most unassuming form: a tiny brick schoolhouse run by two Felician nuns where a singular basketball genius takes teenagers from the mean streets of Jersey City and turns them into champions on the hardcourt. Coach Bob Hurley had been working miracles at St. Anthony High School for over thirty years, winning state and national championships and offering his players rescue from their surroundings through college scholarships, when he met his most dysfunctional team yet. In The Miracle of…
I’ve always been a fan of stories where the underdog makes good due to their own strength and determination. Although my book picks are all connected to sports I don’t happen to participate in, I feel the power of choosing the life you want by working hard encompasses all fields whether it be learning to sing or dance or becoming an expert in science, chess, juggling, or whatever one’s passion might be. For me, I guess it would be writing and not giving up even when it sometimes feels like playing the lottery each time one of my manuscripts is sent into cyberspace.
Zayd is a couple of years younger (4th grade) than the main characters of my other book picks, but again, he is a boy seeking fame and glory through sports. In particular, I enjoy his voice and learning about the Pakastani (Muslim) culture of his interesting family. The frustrating pull between basketball and playing the violin sets up several intriguing situations. This is a fun story that turns out to be the first book in a series of four.
From the critically acclaimed author of Amina's Voice comes the first book in an exciting new middle grade series about a fourth-grader with big dreams of basketball stardom.
Fourth grader Zayd Saleem has some serious hoop dreams. He's not just going to be a professional basketball player. He's going to be a star. A legend. The first Pakistani-American kid to make it to the NBA. He knows this deep in his soul. It's his destiny. There are only a few small things in his way.
For starters, Zayd's only on the D-team. (D stands for developmental, but to Zayd it's…
I’m a lifelong basketball nut. I played through high school and college and have been a fan for as long as I can remember. After earning a PhD in History from Purdue University (Boiler Up!), I began to do research and write books about basketball. The books on this list are my favorite of the hundreds I’ve read on the topic and will give you a great start on learning about hoop's history!
After reading about the Knicks’ struggles from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, you should absolutely read about when they were the best team in the NBA. Many of the names will be familiar to hoops heads—Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, and Phil Jackson—but the way these teams connected to New York City is the real reason to love this book.
In the tradition of The Boys of Summer and The Bronx Is Burning, New York Times sports columnist Harvey Araton delivers a fascinating look at the 1970s New York Knicks—part autobiography, part sports history, part epic, set against the tumultuous era when Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and Bill Bradley reigned supreme in the world of basketball. Perfect for readers of Jeff Pearlman’s The Bad Guys Won!, Peter Richmond’s Badasses, and Pat Williams’s Coach Wooden, Araton’s revealing story of the Knicks’ heyday is far more than a review of one of basketball’s greatest teams’ inspiring story—it is, at heart, a stirring…
As a former Division 1 basketball player at Marquette University and current ecommerce executive, I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration. Please enjoy my list and send me any comments on what you find inspiring!
David had a spinal aneurysm at the age of 15, and his dreams of sports, college, and his future seemed to be halted. Yet, through faith and determination, his life took on a whole new journey full of awesome experiences, people, and lessons. Similar to Goggin’s book, this story opens up your mind as to what’s possible, what matters, and why we live.
2018 Winner of the Midwest Book Awards in the category Inspiration
David's journey from the playgrounds of Milwaukee to Cameron indoor stadium and beyond, is captivating and provides a framework to find a new perspective and to build a life filled with passion and purpose. Getting Undressed is inspiring and proof that you can win in life, regardless of the circumstances.
-Mike Krzyzewski, Head Coach, Men s Basketball, Duke University
At the age of 15, high school sophomore and basketball player David Cooks experienced a spinal aneurism, leaving him a T-6 paraplegic. Refusing to let the wheelchair determine the man,…
I am a professor of American Jewish history who has written extensively on how sports have impacted the lives of American Jews. I have been especially interested in how the acceptance or rejection of Jews in the sports arena has underscored that group’s place within this country’s society. I have been likewise intrigued by how the call of athleticism has challenged their ethnic and religious identity. The saga of Marty Glickman, a story of adversity and triumph, speaks boldly to critical issues that this minority group has faced.
Levine’s important book – scholarly and yet accessible to general readers – looks very seriously at the efforts of Jews through sports to define their identities as Americans and as Jews.
I appreciated his keen eye for charming and insightful memoirs and anecdotes of the life experiences of both well-known Jewish athletes who made it to the professional ranks and also of the masses of Jews who embraced athleticism in urban playgrounds and who turned up at stadiums and arenas to cheer on their heroes.
There has been a general perception that Jewish tradition has not been positive about sports activity. In this first general study of Jewish participation in American sports, Peter Levine shows how the reality has been otherwise, focusing in particular on baseball, boxing, and basketball.
I immersed myself in sports when I was young. Watched every game. Knew every statistic and piece of trivia. Lived and died with my favorite teams’ fortunes. But as I aged and became a writer, the outcomes of the games mattered less and less to me. The sports themselves mattered less and less. What mattered were the stories that I could uncover and tell—stories that, by the nature of sports and competition, branched into all the themes and fields of the human condition.
I rushed out to buy Kriegel’s bio of Pistol Pete when it hit stores in 2007.
I’d always found Maravich fascinating as a basketball player—the guy is still the all-time leading scorer in Division I men’s basketball history, and he played just three years of college ball—but didn’t know much about his life.
I wondered: How was there enough material for Kriegel to write a full-length book about him? Turns out, more than enough for Mark to write a brilliant book that, like so many great sports stories, is really about fathers and sons.
The New York Times bestselling Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream—and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete—a basketball icon for baby boomers—all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
Almost four decades have passed since Maravich entered the national consciousness as basketball's boy wizard. No one had ever played the game like the kid…
A giving heart must also be a receiving heart was a phrase that always stuck with me. We all need a little help from our friends, after all. And it should be a two-way street. Seeing healthy, giving, and loving friendships always makes a good read that much better. Friendships will always play an important part in the books that I write. Below is my list of the best Christian romance books with strong friendships.
The book is just a perfect blend of faith, drama, and romance. I love a good villain, and the character Lauren made a great one! The author skillfully raises the tension level through the family’s dysfunctional situation, to which I felt a connection. My parents divorced when I was 11, and some of Tucker's backstory resonated with me. Not only does the main character find support and friendship with the main female lead, but he has mentors and close friends to help him shoulder the responsibility that he takes on.
I've written three novels geared toward New Adult Christian readers before I discovered this author. I gravitate toward characters in that age range, and really enjoyed her series.
Two Hearts. Three Weeks. One Unexpected Romance. She’s sworn off guys for the summer and he’s done dating Bridgeport girls. Will three weeks together be enough time to change their minds?
When 18-year-old Emery Hudson decides to work the summer at her favorite Christian camp, she determines to forget her recent breakup, uphold a no dating policy, and center her life on God. But her new crew lead is a hottie with a contagious faith, and she can’t help but start to crush on him. When Tucker starts crushing back, she has to choose between her dream full-ride basketball scholarship,…
As the author of a novel where basketball plays a huge role in the main character's life, I've come to delight in and respect when an author can expertly take what is surely a passion in their own lives and turn it into a colorful and important background for the characters they've created.
This criminally overlooked gem of a novel follows Owen Webb, a troubled young man with trouble at home. And the boy he befriends (or more accurately befriends him). Even more trouble. Basketball is Owen's obsession and outlet, and while it simmers in the background of this novel, it's one of the most accurate and lovingly depicted hoops books you'll ever read.
When Owen Webb, the son of working-class parents, receives a scholarship to the prestigious Rockcastle Preparatory Academy, the mysterious and enigmatic Carson Bly, an upperclassman from a wealthy and powerful family, befriends him. Their friendship, deepened through a love of basketball, becomes an obsession for Owen, who is desperate to avoid the growing trouble at home between his parents. When Owen's father is arrested for a shocking and unexpected crime, his family is torn apart, and Owen's anger and fear are carefully manipulated by Carson's mercurial and increasingly dangerous personality. Owen, who has fallen in love with Carson's beautiful but…
Even before I became a romance writer, I already devoured young adult love stories like others eat sandwiches for dinner. It’s that innocent, sweet built-up to the very first kiss of the hero and heroine that would keep me reading or writing all through the night. I believe it’s a rare talent to craft the perfect tension and balance between hot and sweet. And as I’m writing my own love stories by now, I’m still on the hunt for those rare gems within the sea of novels out there.
I practically inhaled this book when I first opened it!! The writing style of Kelly Oram is outstanding and what she does with her heroes is unique.
The book is about Avery Shaw who got dumped by her best friend since birth, Adrian Kennedy. To overcome her grief, she starts her own seven-stages of grief experiment, journaling every step of the way. But honestly, she would have never made it past step four without the wonderful help of Grayson Kennedy, Adrian’s older brother.
By spending time with Avery, he turns from a teenage heartbreaker to a determined lover. And while Avery stubbornly forges on with her experiment, Grayson gets on his own mission to win her heart.
When Avery Shaw's heart is shattered by her life-long best friend, she chooses to deal with it the only way she knows how-scientifically. The state science fair is coming up and Avery decides to use her broken heart as the topic of her experiment. She's going to find the cure. By forcing herself to experience the seven stages of grief through a series of social tests, she believes she will be able to get over Aiden Kennedy and make herself ready to love again. But she can't do this experiment alone, and her partner (ex partner!) is the one who…
I write historical YA in verse—pretty much the niche of the niche. Before I was published, I spent many years writing and querying various YA projects in prose, but it wasn’t until I decided to try a project in verse that I really found my groove. Nowadays, everything I write falls under that same (small) umbrella, so I really looked to novels like the ones here to learn from the best. These days, I still love reading YA historicals and anything in verse, but YA historicals in verse remain forever my favorite.
Here in Harlem pays homage to the people of Harlem in the first half of the 20th century. I loved how the rhythmic, musical verse brings the setting to life. It’s modeled on Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, but in a completely unique way that will really speak to YA readers.
The voices depicted in this poetry collection—especially Clara Brown’s recurring testimonies—make the book feel like a fully alive story rather than simple moments captured in time.
Acclaimed writer Walter Dean Myers celebrates the people of Harlem with these powerful and soulful first-person poems in the voices of the residents who make up the legendary neighborhood: basketball players, teachers, mail carriers, jazz artists, maids, veterans, nannies, students, and more. Exhilarating and electric, these poems capture the energy and resilience of a neighborhood and a people.
