BOOK REVIEW
BOOKS OF THE YEAR, NOs. 5-1
We’ve reached the third and final part of our sports books of the year series. This week, we feature the top five…
In fifth position is Ryan Baldi’s
The Next Big Thing, a fascinating read in which the author examines the roles played by injury, luck, poor attitude, physical development, fate and a host of other factors which prevented 15 youngsters from reaching football’s highest echelons despite being on the books at some of the world’s biggest clubs.
In The Rise of the Ultra Runners, author Adharanand Finn sets himself an ultra-running target: to complete the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a 105-mile race around Mont Blanc, the route of which ascends 34,000ft and passes through three different countries.
Readers are left with the sense that there is something spiritual about ultra-running, a deeper meaning underpinning the sport’s competitive nature which accounts for its burgeoning appeal. It may not turn you into an ultra-runner, but it’ll certainly make you think.
June marked the centenary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s birth in New Zealand. While his life story is already well known to millions of people, Michael Gill’s comprehensive biography will hopefully introduce a younger audience to an individual whose conquering of Everest made him one of the world’s most famous men. They will not read a better version of Hillary’s life.
With David Thomas and Bob Young, football star Dave Thomas has written Guiding Me Home and Away, the proceeds from which are going to support Guide Dogs. It’s an inspirational biography recalling Thomas’s breakthrough at Burnley, his move to QPR then onto Everton where many believe he was at his peak. Post-football, Thomas became a PE teacher, but it wasn’t until 2008 that a letter from the DVLA advised him to stop driving with immediate effect. It’s at this point that Hannah, his faithful guide dog arrives and Thomas’s life is transformed. This is a wonderfully uplifting story – and helps a particularly good cause.
Cue trumpets… The sports book of the year is Nathan Shapow’s The Boxer’s Story: Fighting For My Life in the Nazi Camps, co-authored by Bob Harris. First published in hardback in 2013, the paperback version has enjoyed a much wider audience this year.
Described as “an extraordinary and powerful true story that reads like a thriller, it tells the tale of Shapow, a pre-war boxing champion, whose sporting ambitions were put on hold once the Nazis captured his home town of Riga in July 1941 and he was shipped to a forced labour camp.
The next time someone mentions being under extreme pressure, consider what the author was compelled to do under his watchful captors’ eyes. This is the year’s must-read sports book.
To read full reviews, visit www. sportsbookofthemonth.com