Olympic Events as Books

The Olympics are almost over, but the spirit of excellence must live on through books, duh!

The summer Olympics are my happiest of happy places. I am sad they will be over very soon, though I know my reading life will be relieved they are gone since I can barely read anything knowing that I might be missing the most iconic pole vault in history.

If you’ve been hyped over the Olympics for the last two weeks like me, I have put together some book pairings for my favorite sports. Now listen, it would be really easy to google “gymnastics” and then tell you three books by or about gymnasts. I will not be doing that. Instead I’m going to give you book recs based of the vibes of the sport. Yes, some of the recs might be literal books about the sport, but others will be the books that feel like the sport.

Is this too woo-woo? Maybe. Am I going to try it anyway? Obviously, yes.

Artistry, strength, and the commitment to launch yourself into the air and flip around and then land on a four-inch beam, or whatever. This is a sport that involves craft, power, and beauty. This is a sport for the elite.

I’m starting with a literal pick, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters by Joan Ryan. This one takes the reader into the training and behind-the-scenes lives of the women and girls who are our gymnasts and figure skaters. It shows you what it takes to be the best in a sport that values aesthetics as much as athletics.

Toni Morrison is to books what Simone Biles is to gymnastics - the undisputed GOAT. It was hard to pick just one Morrison novel here, because like Biles, she can do it all. However, I had to go with Beloved because it is for sure the literary equivalent of the Yurchenko Double Pike. It soars, it flips, it makes you hold your breath, and baby, when it sticks that landing, it is unbeatable.

Jesmyn Ward has proven herself to be a writer who can do it all, and do it all well. She is an all-around champ. Her memoir, Men We Reaped, taps into the vulnerability of launching oneself onto the page and trusting that when you reach out and grab for it, those bars will be there. This memoir is the perfect pairing for gymnastics because as you’re reading you can’t believe she is pulling this memoir off. The difficulty and execution scores are through the roof. By the end, you’ll realize you’ve been holding your breath the whole time, which is exactly how it feels to watch the greats on any aparatus.

Bravado, ego, and speed. This sprint is for the most chesty among us. You get to see a person get as close to the sun as possible. Maybe they fly, maybe they burn up from the sting of failure. Either way, the race delivered on its promise to be thrilling and a battle to the very end.

I am not sure I can tell you why, but Heavy by Kiese Laymon is the most 100-meter-dash-ass book I have ever read. It reads quickly and has all the chestiness you want from the fastest man in the world race. It also has a vulnerability in knowing that you might win Olympic gold, but you also could have just as easily lost had you tried that same exact race on any other day.

If the 100-meter dash was an author it would be Percival Everett. He is writing whatever he wants and daring you to read it. He loves to push buttons like the greatest sprinters, and he loves to walk away from his work with the reader wanting more. The Trees is my pick here because it is a confident and chaotic story that mimics the frantic energy of the race.

In The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea, you get as close to a sprint as you can in investigative journalism. This book is terrifying and engaging. You can not look away. It might not be the shortest of books, but the speed in which you tear through it is what gives it that 100-meter feel.

If you love fencing, you love a fight. You love precision, footwork, and ultimately that gratifying moment when the saber finally pricks an opponent. This is the sport for people who love to probe into other people’s heads.

Fencing might also be the perfect metaphor for a fucked-up marriage, and in her latest novel, Liars, Sarah Manguso gives us just that. A sterile and relentless probing of a marriage that is tearing at all the seams.

Another book about a fucked-up marriage and two humans trying to foil one another (see what I did there?) is the modern classic Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. This one is thrilling and twisty and a match between worthy adversaries. It has that edge-of-your-seat energy that is inherent in fencing.

If you’ve been watching fencing you know it isn’t only about the fight, it is also about the agility. The footwork to throw your opponent off and land your kill shot. That is the brilliance of Patrick Radden Keefe and his essay collection Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. The book examines a bunch of notorious people, and Keefe deftly finds the weakness and vulnerability in each of their stories. He keeps his subjects and readers off-balance the whole way through.

Young, fresh, hip, and full of badassery. Breakdancing is the newest Olympic sport and it has something to say. It is confrontational and brash. It isn’t concerned with the way things have always been.

The Coin by Yasmin Zaher is a debut novel with an extremely unreliable narrator who is a teacher and also a scammer. It is one of those books that fully disrupts the reader and makes you question society and sanity.

Maria, the main character in Danzy Senna’s New People, is another unreliable human. She is more than unreliable; she is fully batshit, and yet, you can’t help but love her (or at least want her to make better decisions). She is wild and uncontrollable and you’re really not sure what will happen next, which is exactly how I feel when I watch these breakers spin on their heads and then land in a relaxed recline on the floor. Girl, what are you doing?

One of the freshest and most bold voices in literature right now is Nana Kwame Adjei—Brenyah. He is willing to mix all sorts of elements to tell his stories in unique and provocative ways. His latest, Chain-Gang All-Stars, has all the elements of breaking — style, surprise, head-to-head competition, and an unpredictability that you crave.

If you love the marathon, you want a book that will take you the distance. A book that isn’t only long, but has the substance and intrigue to keep you locked in from the first page to the last.

While the Olympians make it look easy, running a marathon is brutal. It will break you down. Sure it starts out harmless enough, but by the end of 26.2 miles you’re feeling it physically and emotionally; the pain and ecstasy of the race is written all over your body. That is exactly what Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life will do to you. It is epic and crushing story of four college friends as they grow up and move through life.

If you like the marathon, you also might like running. So I’ve got you covered with Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. This is the very book that made me dip my toe into distance running. It is inspiring and demystifying and makes you appreciate the human body’s ability to just run. Plus, it has a central story that is captivating until the very end.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson is a true marathon. The book is massive and covers time and space, the great migration of Black folks in the USA from 1915-1970. It is not an easy read, but it is challenging and enjoyable in all the right ways. It is the kind of book, like the marathon, that once you finish it, you look back on all you’ve read and feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Swimming is a solitary sport. It is for those who, even when on a team, would rather not be bothered. The people who are at their best when they are buried underwater with their thoughts. They can lose sight of everything else and just keep swimming¹.

Yes, the title feels obvious, and yes there is some swimming in this book, but The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is about a lot more. It is about the safety and community of the pool, but also the fragility of the body and mind.

My little aquatic introverts, I have just the book for you- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. If you want to understand why you prefer to be left alone with your books, this is the book for you.

Having the time to sink deep into thought and unpack your own thoughts and beliefs without distraction is exactly how I felt reading Lamya H’s memoir in essays, Hijab Butch Blues. It is the kind of book that deep thinkers and reflectors can’t miss.

One human, ten events. A little of everything, but not too much of any one thing. Keep it moving.

In his essay collection A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib shows us that he can do it all, from music criticism to cultural insights to emotional prose on grief to the joy of Black excellence. This book is a master class on multiple fields perfectly blended together.

If you’ve still never read The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw, you are missing out on a tour de force performance. Philyaw manages to pack in humor, sensuality, jealousy, rage, and all the other quintessential human experiences into a slim 179 pages.

Tommy Orange’s novel There There is not short stories, but it is alternating perspectives and characters all leading to a culminating event that feels like that final sprint to the finish line in any decathlon.

High-flying, lofty, thrilling, and ultimately joyous — the trampoline is the event that blends nostalgia and beauty with the feeling that something else might be possible.

This list was inspired by my thought that if trampolining was a book it would be Martyr! Then I took that idea and spiraled it out to a bunch of other books and sports, but this is the original. A high-flying feat of whimsy and generally good feelings even in the face of some of humanities darkest thoughts.

Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe is able to capture the feeling of watching someone fly so high and do so many damn flips and still miraculously come right back where they started to thread the needle again. Cyclical and far reaching, Ordinary Notes gets at the spirit of this sport.

For me, trampoline is all about the nostalgia. No, I could never do what those athletes do, but yes, watching someone jump on a trampoline takes me back to my childhood and the pure joy that comes with that bouncy black launcher of humans. And so here I am, ending this list with my most favorite book from the time in my life when I appreciated the trampoline most, Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. If you haven’t revisited this book, it holds up.

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There you have it- my 21 books to keep your Olympic dreams alive. I went for the gold. I hope it was enough to bring the hardware home and make my country proud. If you’re looking for a list of sport-specific books, I wrote one of those, too. I want to know which books you might pair with an Olympic sport (either the ones above or a totally new one). Tell me in the comments.

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1. Yes this was 100% a nod to my book clubbers and our girl Lily Blossom Bloom. Happy release date CoHo (sarcasm).