I read sports books now. Sports books are cool.

I know I said last week I would talk about the "Throne of Glass" series, but I'm not done with it yet! I'm stuck on "Tower of Dawn" so we're going to talk about sports books today.

Five years ago, I never would have picked up a book that had anything to do with sports. But a combination of my work and my sports-obsessed boyfriend seems to have dragged me, kicking and screaming, in that direction. Now I read sports books willingly. They're... cool, I guess? I'm learning a lot, at least!

I recall reading romance novels that had to do with sports, occasionally. I can't even remember the titles, but they were utterly ridiculous as romance novels often are.

One was about a woman who was responsible for taking care of a hockey player who was possibly injured, or maybe just needed some help answering fan mail, and being cooped up in his house made them fall in love in that Stockholm syndrome sort of way. The other was a reporter and an Alabama football coach falling for each other over the Crimson Tide.

Anyway, I read sports-flavored romance novels years ago, and my tastes have altered slightly. I still enjoy a good romance novel, but I haven't been into any lately. What I HAVE been into are actual fact-based books about sports, and I'll link to a couple that I thought were pretty decent!

1. "Trophy Son" by Douglas Brunt: It is a fictional story, but it tells the story of a young man, Anton, who has a contentious relationship with his father around tennis. For the Manhattan book review, I wrote: "While his tennis career takes a meteoric rise, Anton’s personal growth and development is stunted, leaving him vulnerable to exploitation. For those parents with young children who practice sports, this book would be a cautionary tale."

2. "Men in Blazers Present Encyclopedia Blazertannica: A Suboptimal Guide to Soccer, America’s Sport of the Future Since 1972" by Roger Bennett and Michael Davies: Dan and I listen to the Men In Blazers Podcast on our drives to work sometimes, and I always enjoy the jokey commentary around soccer. I might have even picked up a thing or two. And when the FBI indicted several international soccer officials for corruption in 2015, I totally read all of the court filings. We've been up to Orlando a handful of times to see the women's soccer team, the Pride, play. I think of all the live sports I've even seen, soccer is one of the most exciting. This book is kind of weird if you don't listen to the Men In Blazers, but I understood it well enough to write a review of it for Manhattan Book Review.

3. "Born Fanatic: My Life in the Grip of the NFL" by Michael McCormack: This book was just OK. It was about the real-life struggles of a man whose father was a mildly famous NFL coach, Mike McCormack. The author seemed not to want to blame his father for being abusive, but rather, blame the NFL for creating a fan culture that made his father abusive. The one interesting thing he said was that the NFL doesn’t sell football to fans, the NFL sells fans to marketers. He talks a little bit about how the NFL can change to make living with the people in its employ less miserable. Overall, I think the author had more he needed to work out about his father.

4. “Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Remade American Politics” by Jesse Berrett: For as much as I've tried to understand the mechanics of how sports work, I'm still a little fuzzy when it comes to sports history. This book was truly over my head, but if you're a football fan and a true history nerd, you'd likely enjoy this book. It basically talked about how journalists worked to turn football from a sport for the unwashed masses to a gentleman's game, and then how politicians used football as a way to make them seem like an everyman to the unwashed masses. At least that's how I understand it. My main issue with this book was that it doesn't include modern-day examples of how sports intersect with politics, which I think would get dated fairly quickly, but would be useful. This is strictly a historical account.

Those are the sports books I've picked up in the past year or so. I think Dan has some older books such as "Moneyball" laying around, but I haven't picked those up yet, mostly because I've been nibbling at other things. Have you seen what I'm reading on Goodreads? It's a lot.

What are your favorite sports books?