Reading List

Welcome to the Athletics Reading List. This is not an "official" list of required reading. It's just for you to enjoy.

These books are the personal choices of Harvard-Westlake coaches and Athletics staff members. Most of the books are available at the school libraries, local libraries, and bookstores. We hope you will find the time to read some of them.

If you have any suggestions for the list, please email them to Scott Bello at SBello@HW.com.

Touching the Void

by Joe Simpson

For every athlete who’s ever felt like practice was tough, consider Joe Simpson’s story of courage and fortitude. Simpson, the author, and his partner, Simon Yates, climb a difficult mountain in the Peruvian Andes. On the way down, Simpson falls and breaks his leg. Unable to walk, he is lowered down the mountain with a rope by Yates. Unfortunately, because of a storm, Simpson is lowered over a cliff and hangs suspended in space. He can’t pull himself up and Yates can’t lower him further. Simpson’s weight begins pulling Yates off the mountain. Yates cuts the rope and Simpson falls. His subsequent story of survival is inspiring and gripping.

Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer

by Warren St. John

St. John is lifelong Alabama football fan who spends a season following the Crimson Tide. He joins the legion of RV tailgaters who arrive Wednesday for Saturday games. The book examines fandom and the reasons we affiliate with teams, but its genius lies in hilarious portraits of fans in a state where more residents consider themselves serious football fans than religious.

The Killer Angels

by Michael Shaara

This Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the Battle of Gettysburg is seen through the eyes of Confederate and Union generals. It’s the story of the battle, of course, but it’s also an insightful examination of coaching and leadership. Lee’s ability to inspire and motivate, Chamberlain’s fortitude in the face of attack, Longstreet’s strategic thinking and vision—only instead of trying to win a game, these leaders were struggling to determine the fate of our nation.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream

by H.G. Bissinger

High school football is religion in Odessa, Texas. The community’s self-image and self-esteem are directly related to the outcome of every Friday’s game. Bissinger chronicles the ups and downs of the Permian High School Panthers as an examination of values gone askew and the desperate search for affirmation and meaning in a downtrodden community.

Fast Food Nation

by Eric Schlosser

Houghton Mifflin, 2001

Eating well begins with thinking about what you’re going to eat. Schlosser’s engaging history of the fast food industry will certainly cause readers to carefully consider their next bite. If, as Schlosser asserts, the typical American eats three hamburgers and four orders of fries a week, then it’s worth knowing how that food is produced. This is especially true for athletes, for whom food is fuel.

Among the Thugs

by Bill Buford

Sports fandom is taken to disturbingly low and violent levels by British soccer hooligans. Buford follows supporters of the Manchester United Red Devils and finds alienated and frustrated working-class youth who use sport as an excuse to act anti-socially and destructively. A cautionary tale of the potential future as poor fan behavior is reported upon almost daily in the sports section.

The Worst Journey in the World

by Apsley Cherry-Garrard

National Geographic ranks this book first on its list of the 100 greatest adventure books of all time. The story of Scott’s ill-fated expedition to reach the South Pole and of an amazing side-journey by the author and two companions to find the first specimen of an intact Emperor Penguin’s egg. Minus 70 degree temperatures, brutal winds, blizzards, killer whale attacks—all faced with a characteristically English stiff upper lip.

The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It

by Neal Bascomb

The story of three great runners and their quest to be the first to break the four minute mile barrier. Englishman Roger Bannister, Australian John Landy, and American Wes Santee battle each other and perceived limits to chase a spot in history. Each pursues the goal nobly, yet differently, as true amateurs motivated by ideals.

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession

by Mark Obmascik

The North American Big Year is an annual competition to see the greatest number of bird species in a year. This book is about the 1998 contest, when three obsessed birders competed in an epic contest to capture the coveted title of Big Year champion. Their triumphs and frustrations in seeing all 650 North American species and as many “accidentals” (non-native species that show up because of storm winds or contrary inclination) as possible makes for great sports reading.

The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

by Nicholas Dawidoff

Moe Berg was an enigma of a man. He was a major league catcher whose work as a spy during World War II helped thwart German nuclear ambitions. He spent much of his life homeless, living off the largesse of friends and family and refusing all offers of employment despite having legal training and speaking a half-dozen languages.

God of the Rodeo: The Quest for Redemption in Louisiana's Angola Prison

by Daniel Bergner

Inmates in a maximum security prison seek redemption and a measure of glory by competing in the annual rodeo. A compelling examination of life and sport behind bars in one of our nation’s most brutal prisons.

Warrior Elite: The Forging of Seal Class 228

By Dick Couch

This book takes you through the entire training of a Navy Seal. For anyone who thinks that they are tough this is a true reality check. The lessons of perseverance, mental toughness, and teamwork can help any athlete.

Lone Survivor

By Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson

This is the eyewitness account of Operation Redwing and the battle that took the lives of members of Seal Team 10 in the mountains of Afghanistan. A great follow up to Warrior Elite as members of Seal Class 228 are featured in the book.

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager

By Buzz Bissinger

This book takes you through the mind of Tony LaRussa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals before and during a pivotal series with rival Chicago Cubs. For anyone that wants to understand the complexity of being a baseball manager this book is a must read.

A Civil War

By John Feirnstein

A Civil War is bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein's account of one extraordinary year in Army and Navy football, the breathtaking 1995 campaign. Feinstein followed both teams through the year, attending their practices and classes, relaxing with them in their limited free time, standing with them on the sideline at their games. For Navy, it was a must-win year. The Cadets had beaten the Midshipmen three years straight, each time in heartbreaking fashion, and for the entire senior class the Army game would be a last chance for redemption. Army had its own troubles: a beloved coach was in danger of losing his job and the team leaders were determined to finish their careers with a winning season and a bowl game invitation. A Civil War traces the ups and downs of both teams through the season, showing how these remarkable young men dealt with the rigors of football along with the constant pressure of academy life, while re-creating the intense weeks leading up to the showdown. The account here of the 1995 Army-Navy game is an unforgettable piece of sportswriting, an up-close retelling of a heart-stopping game from both sides of the field.

For the Glory: College Football Dreams and Realities inside Paterno's Program

By Ken Denlinger

Here is the college football experience as seen through the eyes of the young men who play the game. Sportswriter Ken Denlinger takes the reader on a fiver-year odyssey into the lives of one scholarship class and reveals their experiences at Penn State and in Coach Paterno's program.

Ken was given extraordinary access to the Penn State programs--starting with the recruiting process and then onto the field and in the locker room. He became friend and confidant to the players and found every plater had the same dream: to bring glory to himself and his school and then ascend to the NFL. In this gritty account, Ken sets moving stories of triumph against the stark realities of injury, disillusionment, and failure.

Here are the dreams, fears, and pressures facing young men who are exposed weekly to thousands of screaming fans. Here is a true picture of life in Division I college football. Anyone interested in Penn State, college football, or the larger issues or sports and society will find For the Glory an unforgettable experience.

Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

By Eliot Asinof

"Say it ain't so, Joe, say it ain't so." But to the horror of their teammates and all of America, eight members of the champion Chicago White Sox gave in to greed and threw the 1919 World Series.

Eliot Asinof vividly describes the tense meetings, the hitches in the plot, the actual plays in which the series was thrown, and the grand jury indictment and the famous 1921 trial.

Here, too, is a graphic picture of the American underworld that managed the fix, the shocked newspapermen who uncovered the story and the war-exhausted nation that turned to the series for relief, only to be rocked by scandal.

The Teammates

By David Halberstam

The Teammates is the profoundly moving story of four great baseball players who have made the passage from sports icons -- when they were young and seemingly indestructible -- to men dealing with the vulnerabilities of growing older. At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different men -- Boston Red Sox teammates Bobby Doerr, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Ted Williams -- who remained close for more than sixty years.

The book starts out in early October 2001, when Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved friend Ted Williams, whom they know is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group -- "my guys," Williams used to call them -- is unable to join them. Doerr is back in Oregon tending to his wife of sixty-three years, who has suffered a second stroke. Acclaimed author David Halberstam has given us a book -- filled with historical details and first-hand accounts -- about baseball and about something more, the richness of friendship.