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I am trying to remember a darker time in my 50-plus years of Chicago sports fandom.
The Cubs fell victim to a nearly 1969-like late summer swoon. The Bulls stood pat on a team that barely made the playoffs while their rival north of the border added one of the five best players in the league.
The Bears ... I’m sorry, I can’t finish the sentence. It’s too depressing. The only possible upside for Chicago is that Arlington Heights may be about to take on that toxic waste of a franchise.
On the bright side for me, the White Sox are terrible. Don’t hate, I’m a Cubs fan.
Actually, Sox fans, go ahead and hate. I’m a Cubs fan.
Because of this dire state, I have muted all mentions of Chicago sports on social media except for two words: Connor Bedard. It seems wrong to invest all of my hopes in someone 18 years old, but you have to take what you can get.
Maybe there are folks out there who, unlike me, are not die-hard Hawks fans — a likelihood given the Hawks spent last season being purposefully putrid — but looking for a port in the storm, would like some books that might help them tap into the hockey mindset.
I’ve got you covered.
In order to familiarize yourself with the old-school legacy of hockey, I recommend two books, “Open Net: A Professional Amateur in the World of Big-Time Hockey” by George Plimpton and “The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team” by Wayne Coffey.
“Open Net,” rendered in Plimpton’s inimitable participatory journalism style, covers his time in the 1977 Boston Bruins training camp as a goalie, a follow-up adventure to his previous stretch as a quarterback with the Detroit Lions (“Paper Lion”). Yes, the Bruins are hateful, and Plimpton is rendering a long-gone era of NHL when players might smoke a couple of cigarettes between periods, but it’s an excellent window into a hockey culture of that time gone by.
“The Boys of Winter” is the best rendering of the greatest upset in the history of hockey, told by covering the months of toil that led up to that miracle. I can get choked up just thinking about it.
To understand why we should be glad the old days of hockey are past and we instead celebrate the skill of players like Connor Bedard with his stick, I recommended John Branch’s heartbreaking “Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard,” the tragic story of someone who just wanted to play hockey but was primarily valued for his fists.
If you’re a new hockey fan who missed out on the previous Blackhawks dynasty, which will be referred to often as a point of contrast and comparison to the current team, check out “If These Walls Could Talk: Chicago Blackhawks,” by one of the current NHL beat writers, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic. If you’re an old fan, you’ll enjoy reminiscing about the past and dreaming of better days ahead.
Lastly, thanks to high-definition TV hockey is now excellent watching on screen. To better appreciate the nuances of the game, I recommend Greg Wyshynski’s “Take Your Eye Off the Puck: How to Watch Hockey by Knowing Where to Look.” Over time, as you see the patterns of the game unfold, you’ll start to realize that you know when a goal is about to happen a good 10 seconds before it’s in the net. You become a hockey clairvoyant.
Let’s hit the ice!
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “Eventide” by Kent Haruf
2. “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks
3. “Echo Maker” by Richard Powers
4. “Somebody’s Fool” by Richard Russo
5. “Small Mercies” by Dennis Lehane
— Joe G., Northbrook
This is one of the relatively rare occasions where I’ve read every single book on this list, so I should be well-positioned to deliver a recommendation that’s going to hit the mark for Joe. I think he’ll be absorbed by Richard Yates’ classic domestic drama, “Revolutionary Road.”
1. “Mrs. Caliban” by Rachel Ingalls
2. “This Immortal” by Roger Zelazny
3. “Boys Weekend” by Mattie Lubchansky
4. “A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto” by China Miéville
5. “The Devil and the Dark Water” by Stuart Turton
— Nick M., Silver Spring, Maryland
A list that clearly shows an attraction to the uncanny. To me, that brings to mind Victor LaValle and his novel, “The Devil in Silver.”
1. “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
2. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
3. “Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid
4. “The Other Black Girl” by Zakiya Dalila Harris
5. “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel
— Blaise P., Brooklyn, New York
There’s nothing wrong with reading books that lots of other people are reading, but whenever I see a list like this of very popular books, I want to zag into a recommendation of a book the requester will enjoy, but also which they’ve never heard of. That book is the sui generis voice of Fran Ross in her classic, “Oreo.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.