Jocking Stuffer

Here are some mini-reviewettes of some sports books available, just the thing for the jock homo on your mass consumerism list.


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World’s Greatest Sports Brawls by John McGran This short and funny book includes wacky pictures (see above) and quotes from macho pro jocks justifying their on-the-field hissy fits, plus odd mishaps and fan inanity, including a 1915 game in which fans responded to an ump tossing St. Louis Cardinal Art Butler in an odd way: they threw about a hundred cucumbers onto the field.

Boxing for Everyone by Cappie Kotz Illustrated with amusing cartoons, photos and functional directions, Kotz a longtime trainer, shares the basics of do-it-yourself defense. This phenom has been instituted into classes at Gorilla Sports, but if you’d like to try it at home, you can even get tips on hanging your own punching bag.

My Lead Dog Was a Lesbian Mushing across Alaska in the Iditarod, the world’s most grueling race,” by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue Not really a gay book, in fact it’s a bit...hmm, macho, but if you like to hear of dogs and men, dogs and men in snow, and no, they no longer wear tennis rackets as shoes - men on a long, arduous race up north, this is good winter cabin reading.

Strong Women, Deep Closets Lesbians and Homophobia in Sport,” by Pat Griffin An in-depth survey and study of the levels of lesbophobia in college and other sports arenas around the country, Gay Games participants and lesbian fan clubs of women’s basketaball. Packed with interviews of out and closeted women in a multitude of sports, it’s a passionate and thorough account of the battle for identity and tolerance in women’s sports.

In the ‘Jeez, I hope they never make a TV movie about it’ Department, No Holds Barred: The Strange Life of John E. DuPont, by Carol A. Turkington. This account of deluded murderer-millionaire DuPont and Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz’s lives, and events that led to Schultz’s murder, doesn’t dodge the angle of DuPont being gay and a sexual predator to athletes. Creepy reading.

GirlJock: The Book A ‘zine comes of age. The collected best stuff edited by trendsetter Roxxie includes essays like Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s “How to Pick Up a Cyclist...If you Like Lycra” and “An Inside Look at New Zealonad Women’s Rugby.”

Jocks: True stories of America’s gay male athletes by Dan Woog Unlike the stock porno cover, these are real and compelling stories about athletes around America sharing their stories in and out in the locker room, written by the nationally published soccer coach and fellow gay sports writer.

The Perfectible Body the Western Ideal of Male Physical Development,” by Kenneth R. Dutton Perfect for the deconstructivist on your list, this lengthy treatise on the shaping of muscles, body looks and even body fascism includes lots of pictures of bodybuilders, gajillions of references and footnotes, and shots of those hot Italian statues which are pretty neat, even if they were commissioned by Mussolini.

Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw Three variant possible lives based on one woman swimmer are subtly juxtaposed by the coulda-shoulda-woulda moment at an Olympic race, and it’s potential fallout. What if she won, almost won, stayed straight, came out as a lesbian, or remained undecided?

The Front Runner trilogy by Patricia Nell-Warren The mother of all sports novels, and the two following books on martyr Billy Sive’s surviving son and his coach-lover Harlan. Nell-Warren will be at A Different Light Jan. 24 to celebrate her best-seller’s 25th anniversary.

Sportsdykes by Susan Fox Rogers A Whole Other Ballgame:Women’s Literature and Women’s Sport, edited by Joli Sandoz Essays by Victoria Brownworth, Nancy Boutilier, Kris Kovick, Pat Griffin, comics by GirlJock’s Joan Hilty and many others make this a great collection of diverse viewpoints on lesbians in sports.

For lesbian tennis fiction that isn’t just about Martina, read Courted by Celia Cohen, or Forty Love by Diana Simmonds.

For the Kids Two favorite Young Adult sports novels about gay boys include Anne Snyder’s basketball-themed Counter Play and Diana Wieler’s teen hockey tale, Bad Boy. Both feature the ‘Uh-oh, my best friend’s gay’ plot in a sweet G-rated way.

If you notice a dearth of male sports fiction, you’re not alone. It’s something I’ve been telling publishers and editors for years.

And before you do your Shopmassing online with Amazon.com, and say how much you looove them, you might want to learn about one of their other products:

---- “My Homosexual Cousin Just Adopted A Baby” by Bob Enyart

“Michael Galluccio, the homosexual featured on ABC's Good Morning America, Larry King, and in USA Today, whom the ACLU helped to adopt a child, is my first cousin. He won this battle but I will not give up. Michael's homosexuality has brought much heartache to our family. Now, we will grieve anew because we know this ruling will further the destructive influence that homosexuals have on children.” http://www.enyart.com/books/amazon.html

Note from Amazon.com in early November, 1998

Amazon.com is pleased to have Bob Enyart Live in the family of Amazon.com associates. We've agreed to ship products and provide customer service for orders we receive through special links on Enyart.com. Amazon.com associates list selected books and music in an editorial context that helps you make the right choice. We encourage you to visit Enyart.com often to see what new items they've selected for you.

Thank you for shopping with an Amazon.com associate.

Sincerely, Jeff Bezos, President Amazon.com -----

Now, after a flurry of emails, Bozo, er Bezos, apologized and attempted to disassociate himself from this guy, whose books he still sells.

Of course, Amazon.com also features terrific reviews of queer books by Michael Bronski, among other great writers, so it’s a quandary, a freedom of speech issue. But to sell anti-gay books bugs me. It should bug you, too.

I suggest you buy locally, from an independent bookseller like A Different Light, Modern Times, or Boadecia’s. You won’t find any hate books on their shelves, virtual or wooden.