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The Best American Sports Writing 2011 (Best American Sports Writing)
by
Jane Leavy ,
Glenn Stout
The Best American Series®
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish....more
First, Best, and Best-Selling
The Best American series is the premier annual showcase for the country’s finest short fiction and nonfiction. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the best twenty or so pieces to publish....more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
October 4th 2011
by Mariner Books
(first published 2011)
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When it comes to sports there are always winners and losers. The winners here are the writers themselves as well and editors who chose what to include. The book was full of excellent writing and it was obvious that careful and intelligent decisions were made on just who should be in this collection. But the looser here has to be the people in charge of proof reading the e books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. My edition contained a disgraceful amount of typos. Who does Houghton have working on the...more
I get this anthology every year and enjoy reading some of the best work that has skipped past me over the past year. That said, there was a section in the middle of the book where I simply flipped past 3 or 4 stories in a row. Some of the outdoorsy stuff is fantastic and some of it seems to be a stretch.
As a sports writer myself, I found Bill Plaschke's "A gift that opens him up" to be inspiring and wonderful...all condensed into a quick 5-minute read.
Others among my favorites...
Michael Farber...more
As a sports writer myself, I found Bill Plaschke's "A gift that opens him up" to be inspiring and wonderful...all condensed into a quick 5-minute read.
Others among my favorites...
Michael Farber...more
This is probably the fourth or fifth year in a row that I've read the sports writing collection and this, by far, was the least compelling collection so far. I couldn't really tell you why, but for me at least, the stories didn't catch my attention, didn't leave me scratching my head or feeling moved at the end, unlike the other collections.
Weakest of the 20+ editions of TBASW but still worth reading as there are several great pieces. The last 2 editions haven't been as strong. I'm wondering if the Web has drained much of the great long-form sports writing or if the editors haven't figured out how to find the great stuff in a world where a good chunk of the great writing is getting published online.
For sport stories, the writing and quality was uneven. There were a couple of very interesting stories, like the coxswain and boxer who died that gave his organs to others. Other than that, readable stories were pretty good.
Not all of the stories are great, but there are enough really, really good articles in here that it's worth reading. Especially liked the articles about the boxer who was an organ donor, the Cal crew coxswain and the creator of Madden football.
I had heard Leavy talk about this book in an NPR interview, which made me want to read some of the stories mentioned. This book was well edited -- what you would expect as a "sports story" starts the book, but by the end it doesn't really matter that it's about sports. I laughed at the story about "Goon Camp," where young hockey kids learn how to fight in an underground lesson. It's impossible not to tear up at the determination of Jill Costello, the Cal coxswain on the crew team who battled lun...more
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I read this series every year and this edition was one of the best. Ranging from the psyche which brings on daredevil feats, life's tragedies, a world cup of homeless soccer, and a well respected surfer with Aspergers syndrome nearly every story captivated me and/or made me think.
not as good as 2010, last 2 stories were the best
More baseball and hockey, less skateboarding.
Aug 05, 2012
Emily Smoak
added it
can't wait to read this book
This was a very diverse collection, taking you into realms beyond mainstream sports and athletes. From the perspective of the base-jumper to the world of the transgender, there are a lot of new angles to discover as a reader.
Like the other collections, this edition had its share of good and blah moments, but overall was novel enough to keep me intrigued. Leavy took a risky approach of avoiding big-time sports and athletes, but it paid off.
Like the other collections, this edition had its share of good and blah moments, but overall was novel enough to keep me intrigued. Leavy took a risky approach of avoiding big-time sports and athletes, but it paid off.
Liked! Fancy Family Book Group.
I had been reading older Best American Sports Writing books, and perhaps I got spoiled. This collection relied very heavily on blog posts and online publications. While I can acknowledge that there is some online sportswriting talent, I felt that this was certainly one of the weakest of the Best American books I've read thus far.
Despite it taking me four full months to finish this, found it super enjoyable! Especially loved the pieces on free diving, surfing, skating, lacrosse, rowing, and hockey. Oh and the Madden franchise, oddly enough.
A mixed bag. As it should be. Worthwhile.
Contains a piece about Cal coxswain Jill Costello and her fight for life. May we all stove to live as fully as she.
A few too many human-interest pieces that seemed almost nauseatingly precious and life affirming.
May 23, 2013
Joy
marked it as to-read
Apr 22, 2013
Ejgg
marked it as to-read
Apr 20, 2013
Sarah
marked it as to-read
Mar 28, 2013
Sean Polay
marked it as to-read
Feb 24, 2013
Rob Peirce
marked it as to-read
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Jane Leavy is the author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Leftys Legacy and the comic novel Squeeze Play, which Entertainment Weekly called the best novel ever written about baseball. She was a staff writer at The Washington Post from 1979 to1988, first in the sports section, then writing for the style section. She covered baseball, tennis, and the Olympics for the paper. She wrote...more
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