Book cover of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

Book description

Originally published in 1995 to huge critical acclaim and a finalist for the NBCC Award for Nonfiction, Madeleine Blais's In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle is a modern sports writing classic. Now expanded and updated with a new epilogue, Blais's book tells the story of a season in the…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

While this book mirrors the template of Darcy Frey’s book and my own, following a high school basketball team through an entire season, the setting—an upper-class, genteel community of white suburbanites in Amherst, Massachusetts—is a world away from that of those stories, and, most importantly, the athletes are female. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, through her elegant writing, brings a piercing understanding of the obstacles these girls face in the wake of Title IX as they prove their toughness, perseverance, and abilities in a sport traditionally dominated by men. 

If you love In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle...

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 91 books like In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle.

Browse books like In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle

Book cover of The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams
Book cover of Heaven Is a Playground
Book cover of A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,298

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, you might also like...

Book cover of Karl's War

Karl's War by Neil Spark,

Karl's War is a coming-of-age-meets-thriller set in Germany on the eve of Hitler coming to power. Karl – a reluctant poster boy for the Nazis – meets Jewish Ben and his world is up-turned.

Ben and his family flee to France. Karl joins the German army but deserts and finds…

Book cover of Girl in the Ashes

Girl in the Ashes by Douglas Weissman,

Odette Lefebvre is a serial killer stalking the shadows of Nazi-occupied Paris and must confront both the evils of those she murders and the darkness of her own past.

This young woman's childhood trauma shapes her complex journey through World War II France, where she walks a razor's edge…

5 book lists we think you will like!