GFOP Readers discussion

Have any book recommendations for Rog, Davo, or other fellow GFOPs? Here is an open space where GFOPs are welcome to discuss books, football, and all things suboptimal.

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Full-Meas...
The Last Full Measure: How Soldiers Die in Battle by Michael Stephenson
Comprehensive, and sobering. Incredible writing and better research.
Thanks for starting this Roger.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

I'll recommend one of my own books, the Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to New York City...

"Thanks to this book and a bit of imagination, you can go anywhere and be anyone you want, because this isn’t really a book! I’ll let you in on a little secret, this book is actually a rock & roll time machine! That’s right, a time machine!" - Legs McNeil, Please Kill Me

"An historical reverie-cum-guidebook, written by two rock music obsessives, the book’s value lies in cataloguing the vast set of brick and mortar institutions within and alongside which the various rock & roll sub-cultures and adjacent-cultures have appeared." - The Gotham Center for New York City History

The New York Times loved it, and so will you! Walk in the footsteps of rock & roll history whether you're reading from afar or from within the city itself. The mix of history and music seems a good fit for fellows like Rog and Davo, and it was written by two certified GFOPs. Dig it.

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. It was on nearly all the 2019 best of book lists and deservedly so. Amazing reporting, research and storytelling through the lens of one family whose lives were ripped apart by "The Troubles".

I agree with ScottPW.about Say Nothing.
Another excellent non-fiction book from 2019 was Lynne Olson's Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler .

My two favorite novels from 2019 were:
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

Thanks MiB for creating this group and Happy 2020 Reading to all.

ScottPW wrote: "Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. It was on nearly all the 2019 best of book lists and deservedly so. Amazing reporting, research and story..."

This book was really incredible. I first heard of it from a friend who had an advanced copy and could not stop talking about it, and then the great newsletter produced by Two Bossy Dames had a section dedicated to it. When I finally got around to reading it I could not put it down. This is a period of history that I had no knowledge of, and I think the author did an incredible job of taking a reader through the long history of 'The Troubles'.

It also made me think back to my Irish dancing days in NE Ohio, and singing about the IRA around St. Patrick's day. My dad has some Irish in him dating back 3 generations, but there's more Italian in me than anything else, so it's not as if I was raised in a pro-IRA household. I do wonder if they knew what we were singing about all those years ago.

Reminiscing aside, I cannot recommend this book enough. I think it's especially important now as Brexit is happening, with (as best I understand now of this writing) no solution for the Irish backstop in place. This book helped me better understand why people care about the backstop and the history of the long fight in Ireland and Northern Ireland over many, many years.

I just texted my brother "MIB created a goodreads group. My two loves are colliding!"

Top 2019 books are:
The Library Book by Susan Orleans
Under the Lights and in the Dark by Gwendolyn Oxenham
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

Thanks MIB for creating this group. I love Rog's book recommendations and his descriptions of why he likes a particular book. Happy reading!

My Christmas Reading List is as follows:

Fiction

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller
Berlin by Jason Lutes

Nonfiction

Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Max Hastings

Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher

Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil by Susan Neiman

The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple


It’s a real pleasure to be amongst true GFOPs!

Beth wrote: "MIB created a goodreads group. My two loves are colliding!"
"

My thoughts exactly: MiB on goodreads and the mighty Everton utterly obliterate Brighton 1-0. That's a pretty good weekend.

My last book of the year was Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here - which I'd gladly recommend to all.

Like hobos? Then You Can't Win by Jack Black (not that one) is the book for you.

Per Wikipedia:
The book tells of Black's experiences in the hobo underworld, freight-hopping around the western United States and Canada, with the majority of incidents taking place from the late 1880s to around 1910. He tells of becoming a thief, burglar, and member of the yegg (safe-cracking) subculture, exploring the topics of crime, criminal justice, vice, addictions, penology, and human folly from various viewpoints, from observer to consumer to supplier, and from victim to perpetrator.

Seth wrote: My last book of the year was Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here - which I'd gladly recommend to all.

I second that! I can't stop thinking about this book. Makes me want to read all of Kevin Wilson since it's such an easy and excellent read.

Raj wrote: "Like hobos? Then You Can't Win by Jack Black (not that one) is the book for you.

Great book. Fascinating look into that mindset and the era. I found out about this book through William S. Burroughs who recommended it in many interviews I read.

Beth wrote: "I just texted my brother "MIB created a goodreads group. My two loves are colliding!"

Top 2019 books are:
The Library Book by Susan Orleans
Under the Lights and in the Dark by Gwendolyn Oxenham
A ..."

Beth has mentioned some excellent reads here. Oxenham's tales about the women's game made my head spin, leaving me to question how much women must love the sport to endure such precarious and ludicrous circumstances across the globe. Towles' meandering novel contains a litany of passages where I had to pause, chuckle, and applaud his majestic, tongue in cheek writing.

I just finished Boom Town by Sam Anderson, a deep dive into Oklahoma City, and I'm mesmerized by the ethos of a place I've never visited nor have any affiliation with. Anderson shows how the inception, prophetic rise, and downfall of the OKC Thunder mirrors the whimsical, maddening, one of a kind history of the city. The suffering of OKC citizens - a concoction of bad luck, self sabotage, unintended consequences, tragedy, immense pride, and hope that change is always around the corner - comes to life and will evoke compassion and intrigue from anyone whose resilient fandom in sports or life has become a core tenet of their character.

Here are some books that I would recommend reading...

D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

To the Edges of the Earth: 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration by Deckle Edge

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Thanks for creating this group, I can't wait to start reading everyone's recommendations!

Just finished The First Time Lauren Pailing Died

Thoroughly enjoyed this first time novel by football journalist Alyson Rudd. Maybe the sequel will involve a certain German manager arriving in Stanley Park and turning to the Blue Side? What would that do to Rog's world?

Hi all,

Glad to join the group! I'm currently reading How To Catch A Mole by Marc Hamer, a really lovely book on, among other things, how we commune with nature and accept our roles within it.

Best book I read in 2019: 'American War' by Omar El Akkad.

A chilling story, an addicting read, and something to make one think about the future. The map of 2080 USA is something I will never forget...

come on Everton!

Not as serious as some of the recommendations but in light of the Australian wildfires, I recommend THE DRY by Jane Harper. It’s a mystery that travels back and forth in time and is set against the backdrop of farming in Australia while struggling to survive in wildfire season.

Troy wrote: "The map of 2080 USA is something I will never forg..."

Yes. Great book and that map is frightening.

Fiona715 wrote: "Not as serious as some of the recommendations but in light of the Australian wildfires, I recommend THE DRY by Jane Harper. It’s a mystery that travels back and forth in time and is set against the..."

I enjoyed all three of Jane Harper's novels and yes, the current conditions do make you respect the serious nature of novel's setting.

Here's a book I think most GFOP's would be interested in. The Title: The story of the First Division by Scott Murray of The Guardian. If you're like me, an American with no knowledge of English football before the Premier League, this book will helpfully and humorously fill in those blanks for you. It's comprehensive starting from the forming of the league in the late 19th century and goes all the way to the last season before the Premier League started. He covers the rises and falls of multiple teams and always plugs in a good anecdote to keep things light. This is a great book to read if you want to learn about the pre-Premier League days.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry is the perfect combination of A.S. Byatt and Wilkie Collins.

The Witcher novels are compelling for fantasy readers but also work on deeper levels. Maybe you’re watching the show on Netflix, maybe you aren’t... either way the novels stand alone.

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

An important set of novels set in WWI, The Great War, The War to End All Wars. The absurdity, the cruelty, the hypocrisy, the insanity, as well as the extreme acts of bravery and sacrifice make this a must read in our increasingly militarized times. Grounded in the real protest by the decorated soldier Siegfried Sassoon, sent to a hospital to keep him bottled up, the books are filled with real events and people: Robert Graves, Bertrand Russell, many more. Brings to mind Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen: “The old Lie, Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.”

I highly recommend The Clapback: Your Guide to Calling out Racist Stereotypes by Elijah Lawal. It's an informative (and increasingly necessary) book about identifying racial stereotypes, about understanding why even "positive" generalizations can be harmful, and about learning how to intelligently challenge them when they're repeated by others. Lawal is also an engaging and entertaining author, who successfully takes on a difficult subject and turns it into a compelling read.

For those of you who still follow the National Pastime (or whatever it is our Chicago White Sox try to play), there are two new books ready to take us to Opening Day.

I'm currently "enjoying" the dystopian baseball novel The Resisters and have on order, The Cactus League .

Also, I may dip back to a few chapters of Roger Angell's notes on baseball before the first pitch is thrown.
Mr. Angell certainly deserves to be listed right there before Roger Bannister & Roger Crozier on the list of Great Rogs of the 20th Century A to Z.

Happy reading everybody!

Hello Book-Loving GFOPs,

I'd like to recommend a book that may not be on everyone's radar: Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft. Imagine someone like Phileas Fogg plans a honeymoon to Disneyland only to find out it's the Westeros Hotel California.

Yes! This is a very strange and compelling book. I believe it is the first in a series, there are two others published and a 4th slated for next year.

How is it I didn't know about this group until just today? I don't know whether to be offended or concerned about early onset dementia...

Anyway, I will recommend a book that I think both Rog AND Dave-o would probably dig (and many of you fine folks besides), 1000 Years of Annoying the French by the legitimately hilarious author of A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke.

Clarke explodes a lot of the self-congratulatory Myth-making on either side of the Channel and has a great time doing it as he charts the course of Anglo-Franco rivalry and disdain from the age of the Norman Conquest up until our own parlous times.

Men wrote: "Have any book recommendations for Rog, Davo, or other fellow GFOPs? Here is an open space where GFOPs are welcome to discuss books, football, and all things suboptimal."

Given the nature of a presidential election coming this fall (maybe!). I would highly recommend The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America.

This is the thread I need! Love Rog's book recommendations on the pod, so it's great to see that has moved into other space.

Some recent books that I would highly recommend:

Ohio, Stephen Markley
They Will Have to Die Now, James Verini
Deep River, Karl Marlantes

COYS!

Churchill: Walking with Destiny

I just finished Walking with Destiny. What an amazing book and even more amazing individual. I learned so much not only about the man but also about events in British history pre WW2. Highly recommended. As they say on eBay, A+++++. Would read again.

Thanks for the recommendation, lads.

Joel

Hello Fellow GFOP's I just discovered the Men In Blazers Goodreads group from the newsletter that went out this morning and I'm very excited. I have a few friends who like soccer but none who like to read about it and none who know about MIB. I first discovered Rog and Davo through their World Cup Coverage but I also remember them from the first premier league download I ever saw. I think it was on fan culture or something like that. That was the first time I really noticed the blazers, I remember thinking where have these guys been? They look so proper and are so funny if they have been around 10 years ago I would not have missed out on so much great soccer! I don't listen to the pod as much as I should mostly because I forget… but I love the show and I watch it every week. I first became interested and in soccer in 2005 when I read Nick Hornby's fever pitch on the recommendation of a friend. It made me an arsenal fan for life. I first started watching the Premier league on TV in 2010, ever since then I've regarded it as my duty as a fan of the game to catch up on all the history that I missed. So I primarily read biographies of great players or histories of Great teams. I just finished 89 by Amy Lawrence which was fantastic! My preferred method of reading is audiobooks so I'm always pleased to see football titles released in that medium but I read a large amount on Kindle also. Please feel free to add me as a friend. Courage to all and enjoy your reading

The best book I've read in a long while (other than Encylcopedia Blazertannica, of course) is That Distant Land: The Collected Stories by Wendell Berry.

It’s a collection of his short stories about the fictional town of Port William, KY, put in chronological order so it reads like a Dickens novel. Berry’s elegant, plainspoken, laconic prose tells deep truths disguised as homespun tales. It gets right to the heart of the human experience set in what Greil Marcus used to call "Old, Weird America."

In these weird and trying times, I decided to give one of my all-time favorites another read:

Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

I'm halfway through and cannot recommend it enough! The subject is a bit on the nose (it's about the end of the world and such) but the dark humor is a great respite.

Cheers.

Football related:
A Season with Verona: Travels Around Italy in Search of Illusion, National Character . . . and Goals!
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy
Mensch: Beyond the Cones
Home and Away: Writing the Beautiful Game
Anything by Jonathan Wilson The Blizzard is currently doing a fundraiser to help make sure freelancers get paid in this uncertain time of cost cutting.

Non-Football Books:
The Divine Comedy
The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District
Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis
Anything by former-Grantlander Shea Serrano
Speak Italian: The Fine Art of the Gesture
For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink

Be nice to each other and wash your hands.

“The Plague” by Albert Camus is a timely read right now. Just read this today, Part 2 Paragraph 1:

“From now on, it can be said that plague was the concern of all of us. Hitherto, surprised as he may have been by the strange things happening around him, each individual citizen had gone about his business as usual, so far as this was possible. And no doubt he would have continued doing so. But once the town gates were shut, every one of us realized that all, the narrator included, were, so to speak, in the same boat, and each would have to adapt himself to the new conditions of life. Thus, for example, a feeling normally as individual as the ache of separation from those one loves suddenly became a feeling in which all shared alike and - together with fear - the greatest affliction of the long period of exile that lay ahead.”

Liam wrote: "I just finished Boom Town by Sam Anderson, a deep dive into Oklahoma City, and I'm mesmerized by the ethos of a place I've never visited nor have any affiliation with...."

I also just finished based on recommendations from this group. (Didn't Rog also recommend it? I can't find it in the Goodreads group page but seems like a book he'd enjoy.) What an incredible read! I've been to OKC once for a wedding and it definitely didn't seem like anything to write home about, but this book made me want to go visit despite all the failures described in the book. Anderson's writing is solid; I plan to explore more of his books this year.

Has Rog (or anyone in the group) read Furnishing Eternity by David Giffels? It's a book about him and his father building Giffels' coffin. It talks about death and eternity and mortality in ways that I don't know I've read anywhere else. An Akron native, his love of Akron comes through in this book, although I'd say that his previous book about the Rust Belt is an even better love story to Akron. It's a worthwhile read.

This recommendation is probably here all ready but the Hilary Mantel trilogy about Cromwell is fascinating. I’ve loved Tudor history since I was a kid but this is different. Her description of Cromwell sheltering from the plague felt relevant, but more than that her study of power and what it can do it people makes you stop and think. Highly recommend.

Fiona715 wrote: "This recommendation is probably here all ready but the Hilary Mantel trilogy about Cromwell is fascinating. I’ve loved Tudor history since I was a kid but this is different. Her description of Crom..." I'm in the middle of the final installment. These have been wonderful to read. Her Cromwell has become one of the great literary characters ever written.

This Is Happiness Niall Williams

The author can paint a picture with words. High art.

Hey, fellow GFOPs. Apologies if this is a bit self-serving (delete if necessary), but the people in this group are the only people who fall into the center of the Venn diagram of people who might care. I just released my debut novel (Superficial Intelligence) and in it, I make one Tim Howard reference and one Jurgen Klopp reference (didn’t want to show favoritism to either of the Bennett boys.) I've discovered the real joy of writing is getting to name a horse after Jurgen Klopp. That's it, I just wanted to share cuz I was excited. If you are looking for a quick laugh, take a look.

Also, just finished reading Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. Someone mentioned Cat’s Cradle above (my favorite book), Mother Night is also eerily relevant to things going on in the world. No one can make the depressing realities of society funny quite like Vonnegut.

I wanted to share a recommendation for a book that I think would be of huge interest to the GFOPs. It's Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters: Travels through England’s Football Provinces by Daniel Gray. I just finished it and I absolutely loved it! I've been looking for a book that talks about some of the lower league, lesser known teams and this was just what I was looking for.

Starting with Middlesbrough in Chapter 1 and finishing with Newquay, the author takes the reader on a trip through England, exploring the different towns and cities, touching on their unique histories and giving the audience a great idea of what it's like to be at the stadium, watching the match in each of these places. It's wonderful and I really enjoyed it.

I highly recommend it for anyone looking to learn more about teams outside of the Premier League and farther down the pyramid (and if anyone has any recommendations for other books that are similar to this, I'd love to hear them!)

Matthew wrote: "I wanted to share a recommendation for a book that I think would be of huge interest to the GFOPs. It's Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters: Travels through England’s Football Provinces .

Thanks for the recommendation.
I think you may like this book:

Left Foot in the Grave by Garry Nelson

It follows a normal strange season of the Mighty Gulls from Torquay United. Actually 1996-97 was the first season that I started following the club. Hope you like this look at the team near the bottom of the 92 ( they are now in the Conference, but that's another story).

Loving Sports When They Don’t Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan...by Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson

https://www.amazon.com/Ugly-Game-Heid...

Pretty sad how corrupt it all is