{"product_id":"hoop-a-basketball-life-in-ninety-five-essays-9780820355443","title":"Hoop: A Basketball Life in Ninety-Five Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrian Doyle himself explains it best: \"A few years ago I was moaning to my wry gentle dad that basketball, which seems to me inarguably the most graceful and generous and swift and fluid and ferociously-competitive-without-being-sociopathic of sports, has not produced rafts of good books, like baseball and golf and cricket and surfing have . . . Where are the great basketball novels to rival The Natural and the glorious Mark Harris baseball quartet and the great Bernard Darwin's golf stories? Where are the annual anthologies of terrific basketball essays? How can a game full of such wit and creativity and magic not spark more great books?\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"'Why don't you write one?' said my dad, who is great at cutting politely to the chase.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd so he has. In this collection of short essays, Brian Doyle presents a compelling account of a life lived playing, watching, loving, and coaching basketball. He recounts his passion for the gyms, the playgrounds, the sounds and scents, the camaraderie, the fierce competition, the anticipation and exhaustion, and even some of the injuries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDoyle, Brian:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - BRIAN DOYLE (1956-2017) was the editor of \u003ci\u003ePortland Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e at the University of Portland and the author of twenty books of essays, fiction, poems, and nonfiction, including \u003ci\u003eChicago\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMartin Marten\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eChildren and Other Wild Animals\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMink River\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Wet Engine\u003c\/i\u003e. His other writings have appeared in \u003ci\u003eBest American Essays\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBest Spiritual Writing\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eAmerican Scholar\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eAtlantic\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50631279083794,"sku":"9780820355443","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_11bc0418-00d9-4a0c-9bb8-532c9f202dee.jpg?v=1761039050","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hoop-a-basketball-life-in-ninety-five-essays-9780820355443","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}