ANNOUNCING THE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE BOOK CLUB!
by popular demand!
Sending love to everyone affected by the L.A. wildfires. Please stay safe! Mutual Aid LA is putting together resources and ways you can help. You can donate to support the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation here.
I appreciated this read from on how class politics will shape our ongoing climate crisis (a reminder, as well, that many of the firefighters being called to combat wildfires are incarcerated people); this read on the need to return to Indigenous fire practices in Southern California; and also recommend following , whose forthcoming memoir, Hotshot (August 2025), is about their time as a wildland firefighter.
Earlier this week, I posted a short list of sports and sports-adjacent books I was looking forward to reading this year. That post spawned a lot of engagement, as well as interest: what about a book club? Enough people expressed a desire to read books with this community of people that it felt like a no-brainer. Less than a week later, I’m happy to announce that not only am I starting a book club for paid subscribers, but I already have several books lined up and author events scheduled for the next few months!
It’s going to be SO COOL, YOU GUYS. The criteria for the books is fairly loose—they are going to be sports or sports-adjacent books, by LGBTQ+ authors or about LGBTQ+ issues. And because this is my newsletter, we are going to be starting with my book, Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.
I admittedly feel kind of weird about having everyone read my book as part of my book club, but I think this title makes sense for a few reasons. First of all, it’s likely many of you already own a copy of the book and I am announcing this event with less lead time than the rest of them will have. Secondly, it’s a book about football and the Super Bowl is coming up so it felt thematically appropriate.
Our Zoom event to discuss the book will be Wednesday, January 29 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT. Readers will be joined by me and my co-author, Lyndsey D’Arcangelo, as well as Linda Stamps, a founding member of the NWFL’s Columbus Pacesetters. Even if you don’t have time to get or read the book beforehand1, you can still join us for the discussion! It will be a great one, I’m sure of it.
Linda is amazing, but we weren’t able to connect with her until our book was already in the fact-checking phase. As a result, there were large swaths of her and her team’s story that we couldn’t include in the book (we had hoped to have an updated paperback version of our book, but we didn’t get one). However, you can read more about Linda and the Pacesetters in this Sports Illustrated cover story that Lyndsey and I wrote about them (you can buy a Columbus Pacesetters shirt from Homage, too!).
As I mentioned already, the book club is only open to paid subscribers of the newsletter. I’m very excited about what I have planned, which will include authors joining us for our discussions of the books, and could even include exclusive film screenings as companions to some of the books we read (I’m in talks with some filmmakers about scheduling!). If you’d like to join us, you can upgrade your subscription here:
The Sunday before our Zoom event, I’ll send out an email with a link to the event, and the comments section of that post will be open to discussion of the book for people who want to chat about it beforehand. I’ll also be compiling a companion syllabus of additional reading for folks who are interested and want to continue exploring topics covered by our book selections.
For Hail Mary, I’ll also be sending out some bonus content, like NWFL game programs from the 1970s (!!), because we had so much cool archival material for the book that is just sitting in our drawers or on our hard drives.
My hope is to highlight books that can expand our conversations not just about sports, but about how they impact the culture around us and vice versa. I hope you’ll join me and the OOYL community for some reading and discussions this year!
A note about access: I always prefer if folks can buy a book from their indie of choice (or Bookshop.org, though when I checked Bookshop earlier this week our book was in stock but it’s now saying it’s backordered). The eBook is always a great option for short-turn arounds, too. For those who prefer audiobooks (ours is narrated by the wonderful Kimberly Austin), Libro.fm is a great alternative to something like Audible. And if you are struggling to get your hands on a copy in time, send me an email. I have some extra copies I can send out to folks.
Can’t wait!!
Excited for this 👏🏻