Olympic intrigue is part of our book recommendations

Our annual reader book recommendation edition is one of my favorite editions each year. As an avid reader, I look forward to what others are reading and why they find them inspirational, educational, or just plain fun.

 

I encourage you to pick up one of the recommendations. I know I will.

 

I also have a couple of timely recommendations of my own.

 

This summer, in honor of the Olympics, I read two nonfiction books that not only highlight specific Olympians, but also show how international sports intersect with the current geopolitical environment.

 

“Coming Home” by Brittney Griner & Michelle Burford

Three-time Olympic gold medal basketball player Brittney Griner shares her harrowing experience of being detained and held in the Russian gulag in her autobiography “Coming Home.” 

 

In February 2022, just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, WNBA star Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport for having trace amounts of hash oil in two vape pens in her backpack. Griner has a medical marijuana prescription to cope with back and knee pain and forgot to remove the pens prior to travel.

 

To supplement her income, Griner played for a Russian basketball team during the WNBA offseason, helping the Russian team win several European basketball championships in recent years.

 

This book puts a spotlight on the Russian judicial and penal system and the lengths Putin will go to leverage his power at home and abroad. It also is a deeply personal story about Griner’s deep love for her wife, her nuclear family, and her country; and about the people who helped her through the journey, both Russian and American.

 

“One Day in September” by Simon Reeve

In the 1972 Olympics in Munich, nine Palestine terrorists easily breached the Olympic village and held 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage. The standoff was broadcast live on TV around the world.

 

While Reeve’s presentation of the hostage saga reads like a thriller, he also writes about the origins of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its ongoing repercussions. Reeve provides well-researched details about the terrorists’ planning, the West German attempts to save the athletes, and the Israeli yearslong efforts to exact revenge.

 

Although the events happened in 1972 and the book written in 2011, this story remains timely.