Best summer books of 2023: Sport
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The Ball in the Air: A Golfing Adventure by Michael Bamberger (Avid Reader Press)
Three stories of apparently unremarkable yet moving lives, plus bits of memoir, interwoven through golf. The accounts range from overcoming addiction to handling extreme wealth to growing up a poor girl in a hut on a Nepali golf course. An elegy to the sport by a writer of clean sentences.
LeBron by Jeff Benedict (Avid Reader Press)
A deeply researched account by a seasoned sportswriter of LeBron James’s rise from impoverished fatherless child in Akron, Ohio, to best basketball player of his time. James has managed to keep his high-school friends and girlfriend, succeed in business, help the less fortunate, and apparently remain a good egg.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
Trailblazers: The Unmatched Story of Women’s Tennis by Billie Jean King with Cynthia Starr (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
An updated version of the history that King — herself one of tennis’s heroines — and Starr first published in 1988. More than 250 photographs, and King’s memories, bring to life long-gone stars who often played for peanuts or nothing. The battle for equality of women’s tennis, in which King was a leader, runs through the story.
Summer Books 2023
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Tuesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Wednesday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Thursday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Friday: Critics’ picks
Saturday: History by Tony Barber
Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café
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