Week 3: Expert Opinion

To say that it’s been a stressful week would be an understatement – we have had our first incidence of a staff member at the bookstore needing a Covid-19 test, a test we still don’t know the results of. I’m a few days late here, but hopefully no one will hold my tardiness against me! I’ve decided to undertake all three options for this week’s Nonfiction November prompt!

Week 3: (November 16-20) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Rennie @ What’s Nonfiction): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

Be the Expert

There were so many options here I could explore (not in an arrogant way, I just have a lot of interests), but I thought I’d explore the one that truly makes me happiest: ice hockey. There is, to me, no freer feeling than tightening the laces on my hockey skates and going out onto a slightly roughed up slab of frozen water and gliding along with the wind in my hair. Growing up on a lake, I will always be partial to outdoor playing over indoor, but hockey is my great sporting love, regardless of whether it’s indoors or outdoors.

The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey

The story of the college boys who won the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid games will never get old. A true story of American Cold War grit and determination, it’s a magnificently compelling read.

A Team of Their Own by Seth Berkman

I will never stop talking about this book. Seth Berkman, a Korean-American journalist, followed the South Korean women’s team in the lead up to, during, and after the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Like it’s predecessor above, it follows not only the players, but the greater world stage and implications of a successful (or unsuccessful) Olympic run for the team’s future.

While the first two books are my all time favorites, there are so many more that I enjoyed as well:

• The Game by Ken Dryden – Ken played college hockey at Cornell and went on to win 4 Stanley Cups with the Canadiens and is considered to be one of the best ice hockey goalies off all time. His autobiography is also an in depth look at the game itself and is a great into-read for anyone who isn’t the die hard hockey fan that I am!
• Pee Wees by Rich Cohen (due 1/12/2021) – Unlike that other book of Rich’s I just read for book club, I absolutely loved Pee Wees. It is an often hilarious look at the world of kids sports in the US and how it often is more important to the parents than it is to the kids that they succeed.
• Nine Lessons I Learned from My Father by Murray Howe – Written by Gordie Howe’s son, this is not just a book for hockey fans, but for anyone who loves a great family story. Murray explores his father’s life off the rink, not just on it.
• NOT YET READ: Dare to Make History by Jocelyne & Monique Lamoureux (due 2/23/2021) – To say that I am an obsessive women’s hockey fan is definitely an understatement, and to see the US women finally beat the Canadians in 2018 in Pyeongchang was one of the absolute highlights of my sporting fan life. While Hillary Knight will always be my favorite player on the team, I’m especially excited to read the Lamoureux twins’ autobiography as soon as I can get my hands on an advance copy.

Ask the Expert

If anyone has great Viking books to recommend, I would love to have them! I’ve read a couple history books and didn’t love most of them. I’ve read some fiction, but it is always hard to find out what is created versus authentic. Most popular Viking history books also rely on secondary and tertiary sources, which is expected, but I’d love to find one that is predominately secondary in it’s research!

Become the Expert

As much as Radium Girls freaked me out, I’ve become fascinated by all things pertaining to radiation. I’m currently reading Midnight in Chernobyl and there are some Marie Curie books I’ve picked up lately, so here is my radium-based TBR!

• The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
• Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
• The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
• Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium by Carla Killough McClafferty
• Radiant: The Dancer, the Scientist, and a Friendship Forged in Light by Liz Heinecke (due 2/16/2021)
• Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie (Marie’s daughter)