Here are 100 books that The Race to Be Myself fans have personally recommended if you like
The Race to Be Myself.
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I was first drawn to the Olympics when, at age nine, I watched US speedskater Eric Heiden win five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Heiden hailed from my hometown of Madison, and to celebrate his victories my mom knit me a replica of Heiden’s signature rainbow cap. A few years later, at the age of nineteen, I was representing the US U-23 men’s National Team in soccer, playing international matches against countries like Brazil and the Soviet Union. I have lived in numerous Olympic cities and written six books about the politics of the Games. I hope you find these books as engaging as I have!
With both fascism and attacks on transgender people on the rise in the United States and globally, it’s easy to become paralyzed with dread.
This book is a crucial antidote to freezing from fascism-induced fear. In this book, Michael Waters deftly traces the experiences of courageous trans and intersex athletes from the 1930s who embraced their true selves despite public pushback. And Waters delivers these stories with silky prose; this a nonfiction book that slides down the brain hatch like a novel.
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Esquire, Town & Country, and Electric Literature
"Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality." ―Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today’s culture wars.
In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field…
This biography for middle-grade readers and up explains who Jane Addams was and why she caused such a stir worldwide. The story follows Addams' first childhood realization of how poverty limits lives, livelihoods, and health to her becoming one of the most beloved―and disliked―women of her day. She worked to…
I was first drawn to the Olympics when, at age nine, I watched US speedskater Eric Heiden win five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Heiden hailed from my hometown of Madison, and to celebrate his victories my mom knit me a replica of Heiden’s signature rainbow cap. A few years later, at the age of nineteen, I was representing the US U-23 men’s National Team in soccer, playing international matches against countries like Brazil and the Soviet Union. I have lived in numerous Olympic cities and written six books about the politics of the Games. I hope you find these books as engaging as I have!
In this book, David Goldblatt chronicles the political history of the Olympics, beginning in the 1890s when a plucky French aristocrat, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, chiseled the ancient Greek Olympics from antiquity and rendered them in modern form.
Goldblatt is a sports lover through and through who celebrates Olympic athletes in all their resplendent glory while also skewering the five-ring honchos who all too often pursue their own narrow interests over the collective good. This book brims with fun forays into the quirky crevices of Olympic history with a close eye on how culture matters.
A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
The Games is best-selling sportswriter David Goldblatt's sweeping, definitive history of the modern Olympics. Goldblatt brilliantly traces their history from the reinvention of the Games in Athens in 1896 to Rio in 2016, revealing how the Olympics developed into a global colossus and highlighting how they have been buffeted by (and affected by) domestic and international conflicts. Along the way, Goldblatt reveals the origins of beloved Olympic traditions (winners' medals, the torch relay, the eternal flame) and popular events (gymnastics, alpine skiing,…
I was first drawn to the Olympics when, at age nine, I watched US speedskater Eric Heiden win five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Heiden hailed from my hometown of Madison, and to celebrate his victories my mom knit me a replica of Heiden’s signature rainbow cap. A few years later, at the age of nineteen, I was representing the US U-23 men’s National Team in soccer, playing international matches against countries like Brazil and the Soviet Union. I have lived in numerous Olympic cities and written six books about the politics of the Games. I hope you find these books as engaging as I have!
When it comes to delivering principled criticism against the Olympics, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj is the OG. Today, activism against the Games crops up in just about every prospective Olympic host city. These dissidents often lean on the insights that Lenskyj has been making for decades.
In this book—one of several books she has written on the Games—Lenskyj zeroes in on the oversimplified pro-Games propaganda that emerges with metronomic regularity from the International Olympic Committee and decimates it with credible counterfactuals.
Her work on anti-Olympics activism has long set the standard.
A critical look at the Olympics in the postbribery, post-9/11 era, particularly at consequences for host cities and so-called "Olympic education" for schoolchildren.
Scholar and activist Helen Jefferson Lenskyj continues her critique of the Olympic industry, looking specifically at developments in the post-9/11 and postbribery scandal era. Examining events and activism in host cities, as well as in several locations that bid unsuccessfully on the Olympics, Lenskyj shows how basic rights and freedoms, particularly of the press and of assembly, are compromised. Lenskyj investigates the pro-Olympic bias in media treatment of bids and preparations, the "fallen hero" phenomenon that includes…
Reeni is wild about birds so naturally, when she and her friend Yasmin have to pick a topic for a school assignment, birds in the city are an obvious choice. But when the upcoming bird count is threatened, Reeni has to detour from birding to activism. This is a global…
I was first drawn to the Olympics when, at age nine, I watched US speedskater Eric Heiden win five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Heiden hailed from my hometown of Madison, and to celebrate his victories my mom knit me a replica of Heiden’s signature rainbow cap. A few years later, at the age of nineteen, I was representing the US U-23 men’s National Team in soccer, playing international matches against countries like Brazil and the Soviet Union. I have lived in numerous Olympic cities and written six books about the politics of the Games. I hope you find these books as engaging as I have!
In this edited collection, Russell Field assembles a capable slate of writers who offer ground-eye explanations of how various Winter Olympics affected everyday working people, generating local dissent. Perhaps because the Winter Olympics are smaller than their splashy Summer cousin—today, the Winter Games feature around 2,900 athletes while the Summer Olympics have upwards of 10,500—they have spawned less scholarly and media attention.
This book addresses that deficit with riveting chapters, including one on the Denver 1976 Olympics that never happened after locals torpedoed the event through a public referendum, another on the Sochi 2014 Games in Putin’s Russia, and yet another featuring the politics of the Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea.
This is a must-read if you want to get the full story behind the Winter Olympics. (Full disclosure: I contributed a chapter on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games).
Every four years, the Winter Olympics become a focal point for activism and resistance. But in the modern era, mere bids to host the Games have sparked fierce opposition from groups motivated by local or global concerns. Russell Field edits a collection that charts the evolution of protest around the Winter Games and illuminates the issues at the heart of anti-Olympic activism.
The essays collectively explore the shifting dynamics and power relations between the civic coalitions that pursue the Winter Olympics and the social movements that oppose their efforts. The contributors look at specific Games impacted by dissent and probe…
I’ve been running for a quarter of a century now, ever since I got the irresistible urge in high school to quit the soccer team and make my way over to cross-country practice junior year. In that time, running has been a source of mental clarity and physical expression for me, a source of joy and even of meaning. Naturally, it has become one of the focuses of my writing life, too. I’ve written three books about running and now write the On the Run column forSport Literate. It is gratifying to write about a sport that has such a rich literature.
“Running,” Catriona Menzies-Pike tells us, “has a way of dragging you into the present moment of exertion.” Yes, it sure does. As a group, runners exhibit an uncommon tendency toward rumination for which running often serves as a form of treatment, its mental benefits following directly from its physical nature. In writing so beautifully about such rewards, Menzies-Pike captures the feeling of running for any runner, fast or slow, in a disarmingly real and unromantic voice that rings with truth.
No one ever expected Catriona Menzies- Pike to run a marathon. She hated running, and was a hopeless athlete. When she was twenty her parents died suddenly - and for a decade she was stuck. She started running on a whim, and finally her grief started to move too. Until very recently, it was frowned upon for women to run long distances. Running was deemed unladylike - and probably dangerous. How did women's running go from being suspect to wildly popular? How does a high school klutz become a marathon runner? This fascinating book combines memoir and cultural history to…
An internationally recognized endurance athlete and New York Times bestselling author, Dean Karnazes has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits. Among his many accomplishments, he has run 350 continuous miles, foregoing sleep for three nights. He's run across Death Valley in 120-degree temperatures, and run a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. On ten different occasions, he's run a 200-mile relay race solo, racing alongside teams of twelve. His long list of competitive achievements include winning the world's toughest footrace, the Badwater Ultramarathon, running 135 miles nonstop across Death Valley during the middle of summer. His most recent endeavor was running 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 consecutive days, finishing with the NYC Marathon, which he ran in three hours flat.
From world-class marathoner and three-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan and culinary nutritionist Elyse Kopecky comes a whole foods, flavour-forward cookbook that proves food can be indulgent and nourishing at the same time. Finally here's a cookbook for runners that shows fat is essential for flavour and performance and that counting calories, obsessing over protein, and restrictive dieting does more harm than good. Packed with more than 100 recipes for every part of yourday, nutritional wisdom, and inspiring stories, Run Fast, Eat Slow has all the bases covered. Fitness-minded readers will find delicious meals, satisfying snacks, thirst- quenching drinks, and wholesome treats.…
A gay retelling of the classic fairy tale--a scrumptious love story featuring ungrateful stepsiblings, a bake-off, and a fairy godfather.
Cinderelliot is stuck at home taking care of his ungrateful stepsister and stepbrother. When Prince Samuel announces a kingdom-wide competition to join the royal staff as his baker, the stepsiblings…
I became fascinated with the lives of women around the period of World War Two when I discovered the female aviators of the Air Transport Auxiliary based in England. It wasn’t until I researched the history of reproductive rights after attending the Women’s March in 2017 in Toronto, Canada that I realized the period of the 1930s was a particularly progressive time for women, a time of early feminism. As a novelist I am drawn to the social history and the impact of wars. My first novel explored PTSD, and in this one I’m exploring the lives of women who fought against the gender norms at the time.
This novel of Aganetha, a 104-year-old woman who looks back on her years as a runner in the 1928 Olympics is as much a story about aging and the examination of one’s life, as it is about the glory days of her feat. I loved the idea of this woman at such an advanced age reflecting on her past, on what she has seen and experienced, and all the details of the events are beautifully rendered. This is an intimate yet propulsive novel that takes us through issues of gender equality, abortion, and all the obstacles that Aganetha would have faced as a female athlete.
'original and moving... with the quirky charm of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' Daily Mail 'a joy to read' Independent on Sunday Girl Runner, Carrie Snyder's debut novel, is the story of Aganetha Smart, a former Olympic athlete who was famous in the 1920s, but now, at age 104, lives in a nursing home, alone and forgotten by history. For Aganetha, a competitive and ambitious woman, her life remains present and unfinished in her mind. When her quiet life is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of two young strangers, Aganetha begins to reflect on her childhood in rural Ontario…
Born and raised in the Boston area, I’ve always loved history and running. Fortunately, I’ve been able to combine those passions for decades as a newspaper sports editor, magazine writer, and author, who has covered the sport for decades; runner, who has run hundreds of races, from the mile to the marathon, including 43 marathons (Boston 23 times); and public speaker and media guest about the sport. I enjoy delving deep into the history of races, athletes, records, etc. – everything within the sport – which has afforded me the great pleasure to meet, interview, and become friends with many Olympians, champions, record-setters, and Hall of Famers.
The Last Pick is proof positive that anything is possible. He is the race director of the Boston Marathon and Falmouth Road Race. He has his own business which organizers athletic events throughout the world. He has run extraordinary distances for charity, including across America! He is revered, respected, and renowned. But as he unabashedly explains in his life story, he fought hard against many obstacles and slights to develop a level of perseverance and determination that constantly drives his success and benevolence. As evidenced in the book, he has also become one of the finest personable ambassadors of the sport, whether contributing to causes or promoting the many benefits of running. And on a personal note, he wrote a foreword for one of my books.
Always the last pick for team sports because of his small stature, David McGillivray drove himself to excel at individual sports. When he was 16, he set himself up for the one "failure" that would motivate the rest of his life. He attempted to run in his first Boston Marathon - without training for the event. Not crossing the finish line could have been a crushing blow. Instead, he went on to complete 115 marathons and eventually to become the Boston Marathon's race director. At age 23, McGillivray completed his celebrated 3,452-mile run across the United States to raise money…
I’m an “Army brat” who attended five different middle and high schools, graduated from West Point (where I majored in international history), and later attended law school. The law is my profession, but writing is my avocation, and I’ve been fortunate to have several military histories published. I reside in Birmingham, Alabama, with my wife, our youngest son, and two untrained, incorrigible dogs. As far as my latest book is concerned, they like to say at West Point that “the history that we teach was made by people we taught.” In my case, I guess it was “the history I wrote about was made by people wearing the same uniform that I wore.”
You probably know Eric Liddell’s story from the film Chariots of Fire—or, at least the first part of his story, leading up to his triumph in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. In many ways, however, Liddell’s following twenty years—mostly spent as a missionary in China—were even more impressive. Hamilton’s book takes Liddell’s story through those two decades and into his final, and fatal, five years of quiet, stoic heroism and leadership in a Japanese internment camp.
"Hamilton is a guarantee of quality." -Financial Times
"Duncan Hamilton's compelling biography puts flesh on the legend and paints a vivid picture of not only a great athlete, but also a very special human being." -Daily Mail
The untold and inspiring story of Eric Liddell, hero of Chariots of Fire, from his Olympic medal to his missionary work in China to his last, brave years in a Japanese work camp during WWII
Many people will remember Eric Liddell as the Olympic gold medalist from the Academy Award winning film Chariots of Fire. Famously, Liddell would not run on Sunday because…
Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning work in verse for young readers.
On the Horizon tells the story of people whose lives were…
I have been a runner for 50 years and a coach for 30 years. From 2001-2016 I was the coach of Team USA Minnesota Distance Training Center. During that time I coached 24 U.S. National Champions, including an Olympian & 2 USATF Running Circuit Champions, at 1500 meters, 3000 meters, and 10,000 meters on the track; the mile, 10k, 15k, 10 miles, half-marathon, 20k, 25k, and marathon on the road; 4k, 6k, 8k and 10k in cross country. Athletes I coached qualified for 30 U.S. national teams competing in IAAF World Championships in cross country, indoor track, outdoor track, and road, and achieved 73 top-three finishes in U.S. Championships.
Three runners on different continents simultaneously pursue the goal of running history’s first sub-four-minute mile. With little scientific research on distance running to guide them, they discover how to run fast and sustain it for four laps of a track through trial and error. While some of their training techniques have been discarded, others have since been validated by scientific research and are widely used today.
The Perfect Mile is the stirring account of their quest for sporting martyrdom, charting their journey through triumph and failure, along the way capturing the moment when Bannister broke the record in a monumental run at the Iffley Road cinder track in May 1954. It was a feat that became one of the most celebrated in the history of British sport. Far from bringing an end to the rivalry, this watershed moment turned out to be merely the prelude to a final climactic battle three months later -- the ultimate head-to-head between Bannister and Landy in what was dubbed 'the…
