Weekend Review - Mon 30th July
Indian cricket, the golf guru and scandals in sport.
If India's superb batting got you in the frame of mind to celebrate their approach to the game, then Andrew Baker in The Telegraph offers assistance with his review of three recent releases - John Wright's Indian Summers, Lala Amarnath and One Day Cricket: The Indian Challenge.
Wright's book in particular looks worth a look and what's even better is that both Wright's and Amarnath's book have been released small independent publishers (Souvenir Press and SportsBooks respectively). They're both titles that probably wouldn't have found favour with the larger publishing houses so congratulations to them for taking the punt with them.
The latest OSM includes Riding Through The Storm, Wasted?, The Running Man and The Bank Nine in their recommended summer reading list. They also mention Nancy Dell'Olio's autobiography but I'm refusing to even list that on this site as 1) it has absolutely zip to do with sport and 2) it's one of those releases that just makes you despair at the stupidity of some publishing decisions . There's also reviews of Cricketers' Who's Who (albeit that the timing is a little strange) and Welcome to the Terrodome.
The author of Welcome to the Terrodome, Dave Zirin, has a piece in the LA Times talking about the NBA refeering scandal. It's certainly going to have David Stern working overtime to get to grips with this issue, although as The Wizard of Odds and Fixed among others show, it's not the first scandal to hit the sport.
Padraig Harrington talks about the influence of Bob Rotella in The Sunday Times. Rotella's books have long been sought after by aspiring golfers and Harrington's triumph should result in a further boost to sales.
Alex Zanardi is the subject of a short interview in OSM. I was fortunate enough to meet Zanardi when the book was originally released in 2004 at a signing event held at Sportspages. In addition to being the quickest walker I've even seen for a guy with prosthetic legs, he was a genuinely nice guy. There was a good turnout for him, and he happily signed autographs and associated memorabila. The book is still available, although sadly the signed copies have long since disappeared.
On slightly less positive notes, authors Tom Bower and Davd Conn offer a depressing analysis of the current state of English football in OSM. For more of that take a look at their authored works, Broken Dreams and The Beautiful Game.
Finally, the Tour has ended in a mix of farce and tragedy. Paul Kimmage offers his usual insightful analysis in the Sunday Times. I'm sure most of you will have already read his classic Rough Ride, but for anyone who hasn't, take a look. You might be saddened but you won't be disappointed.
About This Entry
‘Weekend Review - Mon 30th July’ was posted by Liam Doyle on Mon, 30th July 2007 at 10:43:44 BST and filed under book reviews.
