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Get Breaking News on your cellModest pleasures: Kansas and basketball books
11:34 AM Mon, Apr 07, 2008 | Permalink
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April 2008
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Breaking News: Pulitzer Prizes 'The perfect library,' Brit-style Modest pleasures: Kansas and basketball books SMU Press savors PEN/Faulkner honor Excerpt: "The Sum of Our Days," by Isabel Allende Excerpt: "Lush Life" by Richard Price Book reviews coming Sunday in GuideLive Categories
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Your humble books editor gets a lot of his humility from being schooled in Kansas. A modest place, Kansas is. Maybe it's all those years of "Wizard of Oz" jokes. The state has nothing to be ashamed of in a literary sense, of course. Lawrence alone was home to both Langston Hughes and William S. Buroughs. It's also home to an inconsistent but just-brilliant-enough basketball team, which will play in a national championship game tonight. Memphis fans will have to post their own literary heroes here. But I'll offer up these otherwise neutral links about basketball books, which I hope everyone can agree on. No matter who wins tonight. Though I modestly hope for ... oh, forget it. Rock chalk. I've read several good things about "Paddy on the Hardwood," by Rus Bradbird. Here's a 2006 interview with the author, and Dave Tarrant's quick look from last year. Also last year, Chris Vognar had good things to say about "Sports Illustrated's Basketball Book" and "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich", by Mark Kriegel. At the books editor's house, the kids have always enjoyed "Swish," by the late Bill Martin Jr. (who had ties to Kansas and Texas, it turns out.) "Cardinals,Blue Jays.../ what a game!/ The winner goes to the hall of fame./ Less than a minute left to play, Blue Jays have the Cards at bay." Great stuff, even on the third kid and 300th reading. And here's a nice list of grown-up basketball novels. As always, would love to hear your own suggestions, from Tigers and Jayhawks and everyone else. Don't be modest. |
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