Anyone who has shot baskets at a playground court will relate to Hoop. As a former college basketball player, who is married to a former college basketball player, and whose two sons play college basketball, and as a writer and reader who has read countless books about basketball, I can tell you that this is one of the best books I've read about the game and its culture.--Todd F. Davis "editor of Fast Break to Line Break: Poets on the Art of Basketball"

I am not the ideal reader for this book but I became the ideal reader. I didn't think I could read essays about basketball because I do not play the game. I read it to hear Brian Doyle's voice, which is one of the most distinctive voices in nonfiction. I read it to learn, against my will, what a hook shot is, how to box someone out, and what a pick is. I read this book with the hope and the recognition that the big stories exist in the small stories and that paying attention to and remembering the details is what amounts to the big stuff. As a writing lesson and a life lesson, Hoop completes a generous pass.--Nicole Walker "coeditor of Bending the Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction"

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Pub date: 2019-03-01

Length: 240 pages