I apologize for the late announcement on the details of this month’s book club. I am still getting my feet back under me after unexpectedly dealing with end of life care for a dear friend. Thank you so much for your understanding.
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As I mentioned last month, our June Book Club selection is BREAKOUT YEAR by KD Casey!
I met KD a very long time ago when I was a woman baseball writer and she was part of an all-women hosted Washington Nationals podcast. It has been a pleasure to watch her pump out gay, Jewish baseball romances under a pen name inspired by Katie Casey, the “baseball mad” girl mentioned in—and often now erased from—the well-known song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
From the book’s description:
Eitan Rivkin is used to being first. First generation born to Russian immigrant parents, first overall pick in the draft, now the first ballplayer to come out... before his first big contract. It's lonely being the first, and it's especially lonely in the inescapable eye of New York sports media. So when he wants to practice dating openly for the first time, he hires a boyfriend-only for the cameras of course. But he never expected that boyfriend to be Akiva Goldfarb, a once-promising player who disappeared after he and Eitan played together way back when.
Akiva is used to being first too. The first-and only-Orthodox Jewish player drafted to play professional ball. The first to quit when things got rough. The first named in the acknowledgements of the books he freelance edits, because, hey, the rent's due on the first of the month. Being hired as someone's (fake) boyfriend is just another gig, right? Even if Akiva left baseball-and baseball players-behind for a reason.
What starts out as a brief arrangement gradually transforms into something more. But being the first openly gay active player in professional baseball comes with a heavy personal cost, one Eitan is less and less certain he's willing to pay. And when an on-field incident threatens to disrupt Eitan's free agency plans, they'll have to figure out if the truth is better than fiction.
Our Zoom event will be on Sunday, June 28th at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT. KD will be joining us for that conversation, which is only open to VIP All-Access or Biggest Fan tier paid subscribers. The conversation will be recorded and sent out to everyone who registered for the event, so you can watch it even if you can’t join us live.
Access to the Zoom event requires registration. You can register for ‘BREAKOUT YEAR’ BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION at the link below:
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