OOYL BOOK CLUB UPDATES!
the final six (actually seven) books of the year!
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Hi, friends! When I started the Out of Your League Book Club at the beginning of this year, it was kind of on a whim. I had no idea whether people would actually be interested in reading these LGBTQ+ sports(y) books and joining me to chat with the authors. I wasn’t sure if the authors of these dope books would want to take time out of their busy schedules to do an event with my little newsletter.
But six months in, the book club has been a raging success. We consistently have great turnouts for the Zoom events, the conversations we get to have with the authors are always wonderful, and a really nice community has sprung up around them. We’ve read books about masochism, the Boy Scouts, and WWE. We even did our first fiction book last month, which was so much fun that we’re doing two more.
At the beginning, I was booking these events month-by-month, flying by the seat of my pants a bit. But now that we are halfway through the year and it’s clear that the book club is an established part of what I do here at Out of Your League, I decided to get my shit together and schedule the rest of the year.
Not only that, I’m going to give you the lineup of books so you can purchase them, read them, and plan which events you want to join (all of them? Why not all of them??). I’ll send out a more formal newsletter with a registration link for our July book event later this week, but here is what you can expect from the rest of the year.
July
The Cult of Crossfit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon by Katie Rose Hejtmanek (Sunday, July 27th at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT)
I learned about Katie’s work because she used to do CrossFit with my partner, Will, when they both lived in Nashville. I was thrilled to read this very necessary work—and Katie was just awarded a coveted Fulbright Scholarship, too! Which is very impressive! From the book’s description:
“CrossFit in the United States has become increasingly popular, around which a fascinating culture has developed which shapes everyday life for the people devoted to it. CrossFit claims to be many things: a business, a brand, a tremendously difficult fitness regimen, a community, a way to gain salvation, and a method to survive the apocalypse. In The Cult of CrossFit, Katie Rose Hejtmanek examines how this exercise program is shaped by American Christian values and practices, connecting American religious ideologies to secular institutions in contemporary American culture.”
BONUS EVENT!
Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar by Howard Megdal, joined by Molly Bolin (Wednesday, August 13th at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT)
There are two Caitlin Clark books that published this summer, but Howard’s is the only one I want to talk to you all about. This event came about at the request of the Out of Your League Discord members, and I’m so thrilled that Howard agreed to join us to chat about his book about the history of Iowa girls’ basketball and the way it shaped the current women’s game. We’ll also be joined by Molly Bolin Kazmer, who features prominently in the book as “the Caitlin Clark of the 1970s.” The book is less about simply “the Caitlin Clark effect” and more about the people who laid the groundwork for a star like Clark to materialize from where she did, at the time she did.
From the book’s description:
Spanning 100 years and several generations, Becoming Caitlin Clark traces the arc between the revered women who played the wildly popular game of 6-on-6 basketball in the 1920s and Clark in the 2020s, examining her fame and style of play in the context of her predecessors, while telling the story of the basketball-loving community that rallied behind her in college and beyond.
Howard Megdal's storytelling incorporates in-depth conversations with Clark; her coach Lisa Bluder; her Iowa teammates, including WNBA star Kate Martin; the top assistant coach at Iowa, Jan Jensen; the Caitlin Clark of the 1970s, Molly Bolin; vital figures in the growth of Iowa basketball like C. Vivian Stringer and Jolette Law; and even Jensen's grandmother Dorcas Andersen, who scored 89 points in the Iowa state tournament in 1921 and kept journals as she did so, brought to light here for the first time.
August
The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports by Michael Waters
This is another book selection that was requested by Discord members and I’m thrilled about it because I love talking with Michael about his work. Also, just to brag on Michael for a minute, The Other Olympians was a finalist for the 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the 2025 Mark Lynton History Prize, and was named one of the Best Books of 2024 by The New Yorker, NPR and BookPage, nbd. If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll likely be familiar with this book about the Olympic track athletes who transitioned back in the 1930s, and the origins of sex testing in sport, which can be traced back to Nazi Germany (shocker!).
From the book’s description:
“In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.
In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.”
September
One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller
One of the Boys is our second fiction venture, just in time for football season. Most of the trans sports books I’ve read have transmasc protagonists and women’s sports teams, so I love this book about a trans girl trying to figure out if she still wants to play football with the boys after her transition.
From the book’s description:
“Grace Woodhouse has left a lot behind. She used to have a great friend group, an amazing girlfriend, and a right foot set to earn her a Division I football scholarship--before she came out as trans. As senior year begins, Grace is struggling to find her place in early transition, new social circles, and a life without football. But when her skills as the best kicker in the state prove to be vital, her old teammates beg her to come out of retirement, dragging her back into a sport--into a way of life--she thought had turned its back on her forever. When a chance meeting cracks the door to college football back open, she has to decide how much of herself she's willing to give up for the game she loves.”
October
Say Her Name: Centering Black Feminism and Black Women in Sport by Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown
I met Letisha last month when I moderated a panel with her and several other women’s sports authors. I was immediately impressed with her incisive critique of systems of oppression and naming of the ways that Black women—and Black queer women—are often de-centered in discussions of sport despite the fact that they have played a prominent role in shaping athletic culture and competition.
From the book’s description:
“Say Her Name delves deeply into issues of gender, the politics of punishment, athlete activism, the politics of Black hair, fingernails and fashion, and the representation and commodification of Blackgirlwomen in sport and society. An entry point into the growing research in sport studies and beyond from a Black feminist lens, Say Her Name offers a clear window into the power and potential of nuanced examinations of sport. As a reflection of the larger social world, sport provides a framework for understanding larger social issues, including racism, sexism, and misogynoir. Blackgirlwomen have varied experiences in sport, and Say Her Name provides a window into those experiences.”
November
Game Misconduct: Hockey's Toxic Culture and How to Fix It by Jashvina Shah and Evan F. Moore
I’m excited to open the PWHL sesason with a discussion of Jashvina and Evan’s book. The overwhelming whiteness of hockey, alongside its culturally conservative streak, has meant that it is one of the mainstream sports that has lagged behind in certain ways when it comes to inclusion—and the women’s game is no exception to that.
From the book’s description:
“In Game Misconduct, reporters Evan Moore and Jashvina Shah reveal hockey's toxic undercurrent which has permeated the sport throughout the junior, college, and professional levels. They address the topic with a level of passion that comes from being rabid hockey fans themselves, and from experiencing its exclusivity first-hand.
With a sensitive yet incisive approach, this necessary book lays bare the issues of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, bullying, sexism, and violence on and off the ice… Both a reckoning and a roadmap, Game Misconduct is an essential read for modern hockey fans, showing the truth of the sport's past and present while offering the tools to fight for a better future.”
December
Joy to the Girls (A 'She Gets the Girl’ Novella) by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
Our final read of the year is a light one! I chose a novella because it’s shorter, and I know scheduling can be tough around the holidays. Joy to the Girls is a novella companion to the YA romance novel She Gets the Girl, both co-written by Rachael and Alyson, who are a real life couple. Neither book is sports specifically, but one features a roller skating date and the novella features an ice skating date, so we are going with it.
From the book’s description:
For Alex and Molly, the last three years have felt like Christmas every day. So what better way to celebrate winter break of their senior year than a romantic getaway in a town right out of a Christmas card?
Aside from sampling all the holiday cheer Barnwich has to offer, Alex and Molly have an important mission this weekend: to help their friend Cora get her crush to fall for her. But in between ice skating, snowball fights, and matchmaking schemes, it becomes obvious that Alex and Molly have another mission this weekend: to not reveal the huge secrets they’re keeping from the other. Secrets about their post-college plans that threaten to tear them apart. Will these two be able to help Cora get the girl and keep theirs—or will this be the last Christmas of Alex and Molly’s love story?
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OOYL is my first book club! I don't know how I got to nearly 50 as a writer and teacher w/o a book club, but happy it's happening!