Our Christmas Selection
Our selection of favourite titles published during 2009
Well, if everyone else does one, we might as well follow suit. Here's our round-up to the best titles of the year. If you're looking for inspiration for that hard-to-buy-for sports fan, hopefully the titles we feature here will provide some help.
To start, we have to say we're in agreement with the William Hill judges. That's to say that Duncan Hamilton has yet again come up with an absolute cracker of a book and his biography of Harold Larwood is exceptional . It's a worthy winner of the 2009 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and if it's not already on your Christmas list get it included as it really is the real deal.
Whilst we're on the subject of Duncan Hamilton, if you haven't managed to read Provided You Don't Kiss Me, his 2007 William Hill Winner, grab that at the same time. It's also wonderful.
I'm not sure I agree with the remainder of all of the William Hill shortlist but Feet of the Chameleon certainly didn't disappoint. If you're already getting in the mood for next year's World Cup, you could do worse than start with this effort about football in Africa. Revealing, interesting and incredibly detailed, it's well worth a read.
The long list contained some excellent choices - Jacobs Beach, The Years of the Locust, Cantona and The Last Champion - were all very rewarding. We enjoyed Get Her Off the Pitch much more than we thought we would and We Could Be Heroes has loads of laugh-out-loud moments and was an unexpected delight.
Despite the hype surrounding its publication, Agassi's Open is worth a look. The contradiction between a top level sportsman hating the very thing that makes him what he is, is intriguing and explored in detail. It's written with some style, although not, predictably enough, by him. Simon Shaw's autobiography also pleasantly surprised.
Cricket publishing was, of course, dominated by the Ashes and Strauss and Freddie both have updated books covering that series. The two stand out books covering the series are from the impressive pair of Mike Atherton and Gideon Haigh.
Christian Ryan's biography of Kim Hughes was excellent and Simon Hughes' And God Created Cricket kept me laughing. Although only recently released, Of Didcot and The Demon, a beautiful collection of the writings of Alan Gibson from The Times, hits the spot perfectly and will be sure to please the most discerning of cricket fans.
A lot of publishers seem to have been keeping their powder dry for next year's World Cup so football publishing was a little quieter than usual this year. We've already mentioned Feet of the Chameleon but other titles that caught our eye this year included Englischer Fussball, Every Boy's Dream and The Football Nation.
Across the pond, Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball dominated the autumn (fall?) schedules. If you like Simmons' style and his delight in all things Boston, then this is for you. Mark Frost's Game Six (more Boston orientated titles!) was excellent, Sports Illustrated's The Art of a Beautiful Game was unexpectedly enjoyable and Best American Sports Writing continues to delight year after year. Whilst I delight in that title it does sadden me that we can't seem to manage to do something as good as that over here.
Other titles that we've particularly enjoyed throughout the year include (in no particular order); For Richer For Poorer, Fallen Angel, Blood Over Water, The Breaks of the Game, A Few Seconds of Panic, and A People's History of Sport in the United States.
Finally, Michael Henderson's 50 People Who Fouled Up Football contains some outrageously over the top nonsense but you've got to credit the style in which he carries it off.
So there you go, all very personal but hopefully you won't find too many dud choices in those selections.
And Finally....
Whilst Christmas is a time for giving, it can also be a time for receiving.....crap presents. If you're unlucky enough to open the wrapping paper and discover Graham Poll's offering then simply smile and say with all the honesty you can muster "Oh. You really shouldn't have......"
If after all of that you're still confused or need a personal recommendation, feel free to get in touch and we'll see if we can find that perfect present.
Happy giving and happy reading!
About This Entry
‘Our Christmas Selection’ was posted by Liam Doyle on Mon, 30th November 2009 at 22:33:53 GMT and filed under book reviews.
