Reading lists - Olympics

It's almost time for the 2012 London Olympics (July 27 to August 12)! Here's a list of books to read to get us all in the Olympic spirit. Don't forget that we have biographies of many athletes available too, as well as more extensive books about individual sports.

Fiction

Biting the Apple by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Eve Glass was once an Olympic sprinter and now a motivational speaker. The problem is, her own endurance is waning and her confidence in her expertise on grace is paling. Even worse, her kleptomaniac tendencies are intensifying, and a friend from her childhood has begun stalking her. Glass, a product of other people's dreams her entire life, is now a woman in search of authenticity. (F Ble)

Bliss, Remembered by Frank Deford

Now an elderly woman, Sydney Stringfellow recounts for her son her experiences as a swimmer at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where she had an unforgettable and forbidden love affair with the son of a Nazi diplomat. (F Def)

Flight from Berlin by David John

As Berlin welcomes the world to the Summer Olympic Games in 1936, British journalist Richard Denham and American reporter Eleanor Emerson are drawn into a deadly game involving the Gestapo and the British Secret Intelligence Service. (F Joh)

The Games by Ted Kosmatka

Silas Williams is the brilliant geneticist in charge of preparing the U.S. entry into the Olympic Gladiator competition, an internationally sanctioned bloodsport with only one rule: no human DNA is permitted in the design of the entrants. As his fast-growing gladiator demonstrates preternatural strength, speed, and—most disquietingly—intelligence, Silas and Vidonia find their scientific curiosity giving way to a most unexpected emotion: sheer terror. (F Kos)

Garden of Beasts by Jeffery Deaver

Reputed for his vow to take only morally righteous assignments in 1936 New York City, a German-American hit man is forced by the government to pose as an Olympic contender and kill a member of Hitler's regime. (F Dea)

Gold by Chris Cleave

Kate and Zoe have been friends since they met training for track cycling at the age of 19. Now, at 32, they are facing their last and biggest race—the 2012 Olympics. Kate is the more naturally gifted, but her daughter is fighting leukemia, and she has to balance that with her intense training. Zoe has a compulsive need to win at any cost, and her obsession may threaten her relationship with Kate. (F Cle)

The Long Journey Home by Don Coldsmith

A Native American track star training for the Olympics in the early part of the 1900s meets 1912 gold medal winner Jim Thorpe and Bill Pickett, the black cowboy who invented steer wrestling. (F Col)

No Mark upon Her by Deborah Crombie

When an Olympic rowing hopeful and a detective with the Met is found dead in the Thames, Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, along with his wife and his team, is submerged in a complex case involving political and ethical issues that put both his career and reputation on the line. (F Cro)

Once a Runner by John L. Parker

Distance runner Quenton Cassidy is suspended from the track team for his involvement in an athlete protest and risks his future prospects to train on a monastic retreat with an Olympic medalist. (F Par)

Private Games by James Patterson

Private, the world's most renowned investigation firm, has been commissioned to provide security for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The opening ceremony is still hours away when Private investigator Nigel Steele is called to the scene of a ruthless murder. Newspaper reporter Karen Pope receives a letter from a person who calls himself Cronus claiming responsibility. Karen hires Private to examine the letter, and she and Nigel uncover a criminal genius who won't stop until he's ended the games for good. (F Pat)

See How They Run by James Patterson

A long-germinating plot for revenge, first conceived in the extermination camps of Nazi Germany, erupts in full force during the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when a group of terrorists delivers a shocking ultimatum. (F Pat)

Swift Edge by Laura DiSilverio

Hired by a world-class figure skater to find her missing pairs partner in time for the upcoming Olympics, Charlie Swift and Gigi Goldman tackle complications in the form of a smitten teen, an attack on the pair's coach, and the murder of the missing athlete's colleague. (F DiS)

Swimming by Nicola Keegan

Haunted by an agoraphobic mother, a lost father, and a drug-addled sister, Philomena, reluctantly known as Pip, transforms her suffering and rage into beauty, grace, and purity in the swimming lane as she rises to the Olympic level. (F Kee)

Trial Run by Dick Francis

Someone or something called Alyosha is linked to the mysterious death of a member of the German Riding Team and threatens the safety of England's prime equestrian who is competing in the Moscow Olympics. Randall Drew is sent by the British Royal Family to Russia to investigate. (F Fra)

Non-fiction

Athens to Atlanta: 100 Years to Glory

This book, an official publication of the U.S. Olympic Committee, highlights great achievements at the Summer Games. (794.4 At)

The Complete Book of the Olympics by David Wallechinsky

This book is a treasure trove of lore, drama, and anecdote from 116 years of Olympic history. It includes full descriptions of rules and scoring for every event included in the London Olympics, plus the top eight finishers in every Summer Olympic event since 1896. (796.48 Wal)

Gold in the Water by P.H. Mullen

Mullen examines the psyches, backgrounds, and motivations of the United States 2000 Olympic swim team and describes the journey theses swimmers must take to compete in the Olympics, including training and competitions. (797.21 Mul)

How to Watch the Olympics by David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton

As the subtitle suggests, this is the essential guide to the rules, statistics, heroes, and zeroes of every sport. (796.48 Gol)

Munich 1972 by David Clay Large

Large relates the compelling story of the most controversial of all modern Olympiads within the turbulent context of simmering global tensions. The 1972 Games will forever be remembered for the murder of eleven Israeli Olympians by Palestinian terrorists: a grisly episode that ruined a much-anticipated coming-out party for newly democratic West Germany and for "new Munich" itself, the erstwhile "capital" of Hitler's Nazi movement.364.1523 Lar)

The Olympic Games: Athens, 1896 – Sydney, 2000

Each Olympics boasts a recap of the major events and personalities that defined it, followed by several pages of portraits and action shots with informative captions. The book's last 100 pages are devoted to results and statistics— including every gold, silver, and bronze medalist and the lighter of each Olympic torch. (796.48 Oly)

The Naked Olympics by Tony Perrottet

Peeling away the layers of myth, Perrottet lays bare the ancient sporting experience—including the round-the-clock bacchanal inside the tents of the Olympic Village, the all-male nude workouts under the statue of Eros, and history's first corruption scandals involving athletes. Featuring sometimes scandalous cameos by sports enthusiasts Plato, Socrates, and Herodotus, The Naked Olympics offers essential insight into today's Games and an unforgettable guide to the world's first and most influential athletic festival. (796.48 Per)

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics by Jeremy Schaap

At the 1936 Olympics, against a backdrop of swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers, an African-American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four gold medals and single-handedly demonstrated that Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy was a lie. The story of Jesse Owens at the Berlin games is that of an athletic performance that transcends sports. It is also the intimate and complex tale of one remarkable man's courage. (Bio Owens Jesse)