Super Book Sunday
Posted by: Kaite Stover
Why should football have all the fun? For those folks who are dragged to Super Bowl parties today and don’t know what color or shape ball is getting tossed around, here’s a few discussable titles about the gridiron sport. Might make for great half-time conversation.
No one knows football widowhood better than Nanci Kincaid. She turned real life into fiction and called it Balls. She and the other wives, mothers, sisters, girlfriends, and daughters cast a feminine eye on this tough sport.
Make ‘em laugh with Dan Jenkins’ masterpiece Semi-Tough. 
Billy Clyde Puckett, half back for the New York Giants, is on his way to the Super Bowl to play their most-hated rivals, the New York Jets. And he’s keeping a journal about all the high-jinks, lowdown dirty tricks, and lockerroom conversation of his teammates and team managers.
When everyone starts dissecting the plays and La-Z-Boy coaching, mention Paper Lion by George Plimpton. This self-professed “last-string quarterback” went into preseason training camp with the Detroit Lions and found himself playing an intra-squad game before a paying crowd not long after. George muses it’s a good thing he kept his day job. It’s a great thing for all of us readers that he did, too. This book is a classic.
As soon as the game turns into a rout (and it likely will), head to the kitchen with some of the bored viewers, warm up the leftover nachos, and tell them about Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ classic set of romances featuring the Chicago Stars football team. Start with It Had to Be You, the feisty romance featuring Phoebe and Dale, the heiress and the football coach.
If all anyone wants to talk about is the commercials, don’t leave out The Super Bowl of Advertising by Bernice Kanner. A breezy history of the second most-watched sport on big game day, commercial creation, scheduling, financing, and impact on culture.
Next year, Book Group Bowl in Reading, Pennsylvania!
February 6th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
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August 24th, 2011 at 6:00 am
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