Sportswriting at its best

Are sportswriters your favorite authors?  Then check out the Top 10 Sports Books 2012 according to Booklist's editor Bill Ott.  Although baseball and basketball dominate the list, it also includes golf, soccer, surfing, and hunting.

• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. 2011.
  "Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment--to oneself and to others."

• Chasing Dean: Surfing America’s Hurricane States by Tom Anderson. 2011.
  "Exhilarating and funny, this memoir of a quest for the perfect wave includes a fascinating outsiders' view of America, as well as an account of a rich friendship "

• Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever by Jack McCallum. 2012.
  "Acclaimed sports journalist McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team that captivated the world, kindled hoop dreams, and remade the NBA into a global sensation."

• Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year by Glenn Stout. 2011.
  "For all that has been written in tribute to the great Fenway Park, no one has ever really told the behind-the-scenes true story of its tumultuous yet glorious first year."

• Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time by Georgia Pellegrini. 2012.
  "An inspiring, illuminating, and often funny jour­ney into unexplored territories of haute cuisine , Girl Hunter captures the joy of rolling up your sleeves and getting to the heart of where the food you eat comes from."

• The Longest Shot: Jack Fleck, Ben Hogan, and Pro Golf’s Greatest Upset at the 1955 U.S. Open by Neil Sagebiel.
  "On par with the classic golf narratives of Mark Frost and John Feinstein, The Longest Shot will surprise and delight fans as they trace the improbable journey of an unheralded former caddie who played his way into the record books by out-dueling the sport's greatest champion of his time."

• Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter by Frank Deford. 2012.
  "An unconventional tale as wide-ranging as Deford's remarkable career, in which he has chronicled the heroes and the characters of just about every sport in nearly every medium, from the 1960s until today."

• This Love Is Not for Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez by Robert Andrew Powell. 2012.
  "In this honest, unflinching, and powerful book, Robert Andrew Powell chronicles a season of soccer in this treacherous city just across the Rio Grande, and the moments of pain, longing, and redemption along the way. As he travels across Mexico with the team, Powell reflects on this struggling nation and its watchful neighbor to the north. This story is not just about sports, or even community, but the strength of humanity in a place where chaos reigns."

• The Victor’s Crown: A History of Ancient Sport from Homer to Byzantium by David Potter. 2011.
  "Ranging over a dozen centuries - from Archaic Greece through to the late Roman and early Byzantine empires - David Potter's lively narrative shows how sport, to the ancients, was not just a dim reflectionof religion and politics but a potent social force in its own right."

• When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton. 2011.
  "The fascinating account--part autobiography, part sports history--of a young New York sportswriter sent out to cover his favorite team, the New York Knicks, during the social unrest of the 1960s and 70s."