Episode 605: Sports Fiction

Reading With Libraries logo sports fiction

Hi everyone! Welcome back to your book group podcast, Reading With Libraries! We are here to talk about books, to enjoy some beverages, and to have this time together. Thanks for joining us!

It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar area for you!

This week we are enjoying a new genre to the show: Sports Fiction!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to support all of our 300 member libraries. They all like books, we like to share books with our patrons, and we know you like books too. So let’s jump in here and discuss some books in today’s genre!

And our Returning Podcast Correspondent is Ariel! She works at the Great River Regional Library System. Welcome back to the book group!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. You are an important part of this book group, so if you don’t have a beverage go ahead and get one now. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!

We got these beverages from a great article on Marie Claire, listing all the official beverages of different sports. We link to it in our show notes.

The Masters: Azalea Cocktail

While a classic gin and tonic is the official cocktail of the Masters in many eyes/mouths, the Azalea Cocktail wins out as the “official” official cocktail, and is named after the azalea bushes that bloom just in time for the tournament in Georgia.

Ingredients:

2 oz. lime juice (2 to 3 limes)

2 oz. pineapple juice

4 oz. gin* (can substitute vodka, if you prefer)

¼ ounce grenadine 

Directions:

Freshly squeeze lime juice. Fill shaker half way with ice. Add lime juice, pineapple juice, gin, and grenadine. Strain into rocks glasses. Serve with lime garnish. 

Indy 500: Pit Lane Lemonade

The bright yellow drink is a favorite for the banquets to celebrate the win of the race. 

Ingredients:

1 oz. Limoncello

1 oz. Vodka

3 oz. Lemonade

Lemon twist or wedge for garnish

Directions:

Mix Limoncello, vodka, and lemonade in a shaker with ice. Pour the mixture into a highball glass and garnish with a twist or wedge of lemon.

Kentucky Derby: Mint Julep

It’s simple: You go to the Kentucky Derby for three things: betting, big hats, and mint juleps. Here’s how to make the perfect one.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

Sprigs of fresh mint

Crushed ice

Old Forester Straight Bourbon Whisky (or similar)

Silver Julep Cups or Frosted Glasses

Directions:

Make a simple syrup by boiling sugar and water together for five minutes. Cool and place in a covered container with six or eight sprigs of fresh mint, then refrigerate overnight. Make one julep at a time by filling a julep cup with crushed ice, adding one tablespoon mint syrup and two ounces of Old ForesterKentucky Whisky. Stir rapidly with a spoon to frost the outside of the cup. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Genre Discussion:

Here at Reading with Libraries we are always interested in reading and sharing a diverse selection of books. But when we looked back out the genres we’ve covered, there was a pattern that can also unfortunately be seen in a lot of public libraries: a tilt toward more traditionally thought of as “female” genres. And of course, that’s not what we want at all! So today we are going to happily share some of our favorite books in the genre of sports fiction. And of course, they will have a selection of both books appealing to traditional male and to female interests.

The Des Plaines Public Library has this to say about sports fiction: “According to book-genres.com, The Sport fiction genre are “stories where a sport has an impact on the plot or main character.”  It could simply be said that sports fiction is a fictional story that involves sports…Looking for novels that are purely fiction, that is, stories that follow original characters and describe events that never happened, is difficult. In lists that are for the greatest sports books of all time the number of titles drops to only a handful. While this may seem discouraging, there are several novels that have been published recently that are purely fictional sport stories.”

Here are a few additional resources for you, to help you find the best books for yourself or for your patrons:

Book Discussion

Now we are a little more familiar with this week’s genre, and we have enjoyed some of our special beverages, let’s get to the book discussion!

We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it!

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! A special thanks to our Guest Host Ariel! And thank you for listening; you know it’s always a better book group when you are here with us.

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode!

 And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and we will join you back here on Thursday!