Best books…chosen by Keith O’Brien

Keith O’Brien is the best-selling author of Fly Girls, a group portrait of pioneering female pilots, and Paradise Falls, which revisits the Love Canal environmental tragedy. His new book, Charlie Hustle, recounts the unraveling of baseball legend Pete Rose.

October 1964 by David Halberstam (1994). At this time of year, the start of a new baseball season, we have to lead off with David Halberstam. He was one of our master storytellers and he is in peak form here, spinning a narrative about the 1964 World Series. The book is ostensibly about the New York Yankees taking on the St. Louis Cardinals. But thanks to Halberstam’s approach, it’s about way more than that.

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (1999). Laura Hillenbrand was a reporter covering the horseracing industry when she decided to write a magazine article—and then, perhaps, a book— about a small, bowlegged racehorse who inspired America during the Great Depression. The result of her efforts: an incredible underdog story and one of the best narrative nonfiction sports books ever written.

Ali: A Life by Jonathan Eig (2017). Jonathan Eig has carved out a name as one of our most talented and successful biographers, and this book shows why. In these pages, Eig paints a beautiful portrait of Muhammad Ali—so beautiful that it’s easy to forget the mountain of research and reporting that Eig put into every page.

Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger (1990). Many people have probably seen the television show Friday Night Lights or the movie by the same name. But I recommend consuming this narrative about football in West Texas in its original form: Buzz Bissinger’s unforgettable book. I read it in college and it made me want to be a writer.

A Season on the Brink by John Feinstein (1986). In 1985, Bobby Knight, then the men’s head basketball coach at Indiana University, gave sportswriter John Feinstein unfettered access for the entire season. What unfolded was a disappointing year by Indiana standards—and an absolute gem of a book. After it was published, Knight wouldn’t speak to Feinstein for eight years.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

by Jonathan Mahler (2005). We started this list with baseball and we’ll end it there as well, with this narrative about New York City in 1977. Mahler’s book has it all: murders, blackouts, politics, and money. But in the end, it’s also a great baseball story—the best kind of story of all.