TWO BOOK REVIEWS AND A BOTCHED PLAN
there is never going to be “the right time” so, you know, just gotta show up
Hey team. It’s been a minute, I know, Substack has even sent a concerned email to check in. Few things:
I got very sick
My plans for my last week in Glasgow, including my moving schedule, had to shift because of this
I was sick already before, dragging a wintery depression around like a piece of gum stuck under your shoe
Tottenham fired Antonio Conte
It’s not been the time to fight demons and attempt to overcome imposter syndrome, and that’s okay. Then I remembered what my mentor Gabby, a sports journalist herself, reminded me of in our last call when I was explaining my situation/making excuses perhaps:
‘there is never going to be “the right time”, you just have to do it and get on with it’
She used some of her own examples to illustrate this, and the whole conversation struck a chord. It’s okay to acknowledge your situation and be compassionate with yourself, AND at some point you’re also just going to have to pursue the things you really want to do, if you want to do them.
A lot of letting go in this season. Conte is good riddance. Maybe the jobs I didn’t get, and the plans that fell through, are too?
What else have I been up to, I’ve been reading a lot!! Which is what I wanted to get into today. Bringing back reading for joy has really made such a huge difference in my life. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I’ve always been an avid reader but the demands of certain phases of life, like university, shifted that away a bit. But I’ve been finding my way back, and the first thing I did in the village was to get a new library card set up (and take out some books, naturally). I’ve also got a big personal library of football books at my parents, that is going to be accounted for accordingly. But back to some of the more recent reads that I’ve finished:
Game On, the unstoppable rise of women’s sports by Sue Anstiss
It has been on my TBR (To Be Read) list for quite some time now so when I stumbled over it in the sports section of the library (which, bar this book, was unfortunately very light on the women as per usual …) I grabbed it immediately, and buckled just a bit under the weight of its big frame.
There are numerous chapters attempting to cover lots of various topics on women’s sports participation, with a focus on the UK (because that’s where the author originates from). For a football nerd like myself, that was obviously what I was mostly after, and I reckon if football is not your thing you might find it a bit light on other sports, but it does still paint a good picture of the general sporting landscape in the UK. However, I would’ve liked to see more commentary + analysis of the exclusion of girls in PE in school (like what are the mechanics behind that, and who do we get to fix that? The government??)
It attempts to cover a lot, so naturally there’s not enough time or space to go too deep into any one topic. It creates a bit of a scattered feeling at times, but really what it points to is the need for more books, more essays, more commentary on these topics from several sources overall, whether that is on broadcasting and journalism, mothers in sports, periods and its effect on the athletes etc. It also means that on some topics it becomes very superficial, like the chapter on transgender athletes and the chapter on “sports for development”, where the author is not an expert (and points that out herself). For more of a deep dive on the transgender issue, I would recommend checking out Fair Play by Katie Barnes, which is coming out in September and I will definitely be getting my hands on.
I ended up feeling that I already knew a lot of the information (perhaps mainly down to the fact that this is my job and my biggest interest in life lol). There was still definitely lots of things for me to take from it, as you can see with all the highlighted pages. Overall I really liked the book, and I feel like it fills a space in the women’s sports/football bookcase.
How (Not) To Be Strong by Alex Scott
This is a memoir from a former top professional football player, and current sports broadcaster, and it’s a brilliant read. Alex has a very relaxed way of writing, which makes it feel like you’re sitting beside her as she’s telling you her life story.
I’m not a huge fan of memoirs or autobiographies, because I find them a bit cringe to be honest (which is weird because I love blogs lol, but I think it’s something about the common autobiography format of attempting to cram all one’s accomplishments into a coherent narrative, which is never how things happen and therefore sometimes lack a bit of an anchoring in reality) but I genuinely liked this one, only cringed a little and cried A LOT. Especially the chapter on love, which Ella had pointed out to me beforehand, that was painful, beautiful and so real.
Highlights include: Alex fangirling over Abby Wambach (to the extent that Abby’s last name was the password for Alex’s first hotmail account, come onnnn 😭), the letter to her mum, the calling out of people/clubs that treated her unfairly, and her general vulnerability throughout the book which is tangible and takes the text to a whole other level. I also love the concept behind the title and the structure of the book.
Abby is part of a podcast squad together with her wife Glennon Doyle and her sister-in-law, Amanda Doyle, and I would love to hear Alex as a guest on their We Can Do Hard Things podcast !!! I need to hear Alex tell the story of her fangirling days, can everyone please help me persuade them to make this happen by hyping them up about it in their comment section. Other footballers who have been on it: Alex Morgan, Christen Press, and Megan Rapinoe and her wife Sue Bird → loved all of these episodes so much, especially the dynamic between the footballers and the non-footballers (Glennon).
Next read: currently reading Lotta Schelin’s autobiography, in Swedish though. My next English read will have to be a re-read of Abby’s Wolfpack, followed by Rapinoe’s One Life.