Welcome to Litsy!

This is a tenderly funny look at a bunch of middle aged men who gather each year to reenact the football game where Joe Theismann‘s thigh was snapped. Bachelder did a great job of giving each man a distinct personality in a very short space. I rarely read a book that gives a group of men such emotional depth. #roll100

I REALLY wanted to like this novel, in which a bunch of middle-aged men gather every year to recreate the play on Monday Night Football when Lawrence Taylor shattered the leg of Joe Theismann. But despite the deliciously strange plot, nothing much actually happens in this book.

🤣🤣🤣

I know baseball is usually meant by the term ballgame and spring training is also unique to it, but I am indifferent to all sports and football also has a ball, does it not? So my choice for today‘s prompt is the tagged book. I thought it was funny and insightful and it made me care, at least a little bit, about football 🏈.

#LitsySpringBreak ballgame

Every year, 22 men meet at a hotel to re-enact a 1985 career-ending injury of Joe Theismann. The weekend is full of possibility and inevitability. By Saturday, a chosen “Theismann” will be cut down. The 22 try to find the exact moment between thriving and dying, but the weekend is about celebration—cramming into Room 432, understanding that our roads have fateful tragic ends and life‘s exciting unpredictability lies in how we connect with others.

😂😂😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 #Litsy Humor

Am I the only one who laments the significant absence of original films? There are some that pop up from time to time, but for the most part it‘s sequels, remakes, and off-shoots. 🙈

1️⃣popcorn 2️⃣ The Bell Jar 3️⃣ I would go to the “club basement” circa 1960‘s and read in my dad‘s lazy boy. Brings back fond memories. #throwbackThursday.

I actually really liked this one. I think average men‘s insecurities and inner lives get lost in literature, and this book was so refreshing in that way. I will admit to getting several of the characters confused. Twenty-two is a lot to keep track of. 4.5⭐️ definitely recommend

@L_auren I think you wanted to know my thoughts??

Should I read this on #tbt? Not right now. I‘m going to try to catch up on Litsy while #Henry sleeps. 👍🏻💜😊

Just a lazy girl with her lazy dog ❤️

This was a ToB pick, and I really enjoyed it! I don't tend to stray toward sports books, but this was really more about the relationships and quirks/idiosyncrasies of 20 men who gather to relive a sports-based tradition every year. It is a quick read. At first, it seems a little difficult to keep everyone straight, but after a while, the more "main" characters shine through and you realize the details of the others aren't as important. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rarely have the inner thoughts of neurotic men been so well captured as in this book. In the books that I read, men do not see to have complex inner monologues, but in this book they do. Really enjoying it so far.

A group of strangers meet yearly to reenact the Thighsmeinn career-ending play. I won't show you how terribly his thigh snaps, but this is the aftermath.

The best books I've finished this year. Throwback Special is my #favorite. #splashintosummerreads

This book was beautiful in the most unassuming way. It was like Bachelder just had these words and said, "Here is my book, take it as you will." The weekend of the players of the Throwback Special are lonely, losing and gaining things in short spans of time. The book is written with such a strong sense of certainty that it really performs to a level that most books only dream of. I will be thinking of this one for a long time! 4.5/5

The only night that I know my father cried as a Washington fan.

One take on why the poor don't need the internet. Funny but not factual :)

Not only is this football novel a fascinating glimpse into the middle aged male psyche, it includes the greatest description of a continental breakfast I have ever read. #GIVEAWAYSPORTS

An utterly hilarious and morbidly beautiful satire of the male psyche. This is fantasy football as absurd myth where men must assume prescribed roles in a brutal cosmic farce. The writing is smartly crafted with probing insights. The descriptions induce lowbrow laughs but also sadness and bleak uncertainty. It is a glimpse into the minds of men and the tragic torch each generation passes to the next. Continental breakfast will never be the same.

And so it begins! 😁😁😁
Themorningnews.org/ToB/2017/the-throwback-special-v-sudden-death-v-the-sport-of-kings.php
#tob17

This book was very insightful into a group of seemingly random men united for one purpose. The men's stories were often sad but all were just trying to figure out life helping each other. Very realistic!

#TBT

Even if you're not a fan of football, an engrossing,funny read. Keen insights into the often ridiculous nature of masculinity&group behavior. The tale of 22 men*, amorphously lumped together (collection of them ultimately more of a character than the individuals) that have come together 16 straight years to reenact a single play.
*cast is rounded out by over sharing pizza guy, group that stole conference room,&hotel clerk who'd rather be bartender

Tournament of Books, 10 out of 16 now finished. Jeesh, I don't know what to say about this book. Often humorous, often insightful, but ultimately I found it sad and uninspiring. I'm afraid I won't remember much about it in a month or so. #TOB17

There is a scene in this book that you watch unfold through the security camera screens at a hotel and it really feels like this panoramic, bird's eye view of the action is how the whole novel is structured. It's a neat concept and is well executed, but because of this distance it's hard to even tell the characters apart, let alone get close enough to care about any of them. #ToB2017

#ToB2017

I have no idea what I was expecting, but this was a charming book about a group of friends who get together every year to reenact the 1985 play that ended Joe Theisman's career. A fascinating look into male minds and the writing is full of clever and observant moments.

Since it looks very much like my typical Friday night I thought I would join you guys in the #Litsypartyofone and look...I brought the Girl Scout cookies!!!!!!🤗

I loved this book so much. Hilarious and touching commentary on life, within a really unique setting. #tob2017

Omg...Jeff lives my husband's life! This book is a riot. Nutty, wonderful characters. #tob2017

Back porch, living room couch, bed. Not pictured: doctors' office waiting rooms, staff lounge at work, our truck, city bus, restaurants, etc. etc. #riotgrams #whereiread

"The family's pet cat slept twenty hours a day, and made it look easy." Haha I sympathize. My cats taunt me with their mad sleeping skills when I can't sleep. #tob2017

Forget Civil War reenactments, this group of friends reenacts the fateful play on Monday night that ended the career of Joe Theisman. With 22 characters and a novella length, it's difficult to capture much narrative progress or character development. But the novel is organized chaos, much like that nauseating play that ended in a broken leg.

The home stretch

⭐⭐⭐
This book started out as fun, like being a fly on the wall of a crazy weekend where 22 men gather to reenact a disastrous football play. Each man taking turns at playing Theismann the player that ends up under a pile of linebackers with a career ending compound fracture.
You might get more from this novel if you understood that moment in football history. I still can't get to grips with why an entire novel is based around it.

Surprised at how much I liked this one. I was a little unimpressed by all the jumping around among the 22 (mostly) white (all) male characters until I finished the book & realized Bachelder had been using relatively quick narrative strokes to create an emotional whole. Surprisingly tender story about male friendships & neuroses, ritual, change & renewal, and the comfort of being part of something bigger than yourself. #ToB17 #ToB2017

"Any weather, when sustained, begins to feel like an interrogation technique."
It's supposed to rain all weekend…
this book is actually very interesting. And humorous.

Three library books came off hold today. Two are for the #tob17 Rooster and one is a possible readalong with @Lakesidemusing (but it has almost 700 pages!!)
I will read Throwback first - it's the shortest, and will put me half way to reading all 18.

My oldest pauses to read. (1998)
#tbt

About halfway through this one for BookRiot's "2017 Read Harder" challenge. Task 1 for January is to "read a book about sports." I'm actually enjoying it a lot, which surprises me a bit because I'm not a football gal. But from a craft perspective, I appreciate Bachelder's deft handling of multiple POVs. In brief, it's about a group of middle-aged men who meet annually to recreate an infamously disastrous football play.

My daughter and Granny share a story, 2005

#tbt

I love a good simile. And Bachelder delivers:

"Her nudity was a fantastical premise, as speculative in its particulars as dark matter or quarks."

"'Excuse me, guys', Steven said, jumping like an electron to an outer shell."

"Adam stood looking out the window of Room 212 like a homesteader during an April blizzard."

"Peter's hair was wavy and wiry. It was brittle and lifeless, like something partially buried in an ancient seabed."
#similes

"The bland optimism, high ceiling, and corporate sterility of the conference room would probably have mitigated the effects of Tommy's facial hair, but here in the hot and crowded hotel room, his mustache acted as a pernicious depressant."

Thick and blocky typography—like shoulder pads. #AmericanFootball

A book (any format), my glasses & lots of coffee are all the #readingequipment I need. #readjanuary

Up next

My grandfather shares a story with my daughter, 2004

#tbt