You're Not Sure What to Do Now that Fantasy Football is Over
Are searching for a long book or are celebrating Galentine’s Day
Hi friends,
Last week, five of you let me know you enjoyed a book you picked up because of this newsletter. I love nothing more than helping people find the right read at the right time, so each of these conversations made me smile.
If you too have found a book you liked from What to Read If, consider letting me know by responding to this email, leaving a comment or even tweeting at me. It’ll help me make sure I’m sharing the types of books you all want to read.
In other news, Galentine’s Day, a holiday invented by “Parks and Recreation’s” Leslie Knope to celebrate lady friends, is Saturday. I’m celebrating with a Galentine’s Day-themed rec below, and my neighborhood bookstore, East City Bookshop, is marking the occasion with a virtual panel of female writers. It should be a lot of fun!
One last note: On Thursday, I’m publishing a Q&A with Eman Quotah about her debut novel Bride of the Sea. If you’ve read it — or even if you haven’t — and you have questions for Eman, please send them my way.
And now, what to read if…
You’re Bummed Your Football Pool is Over
Billion Dollar Fantasy: The High-Stakes Game Between FanDuel and DraftKings That Upended Sports in America by Albert Chen
As I write this, I just won $100 in one of two Super Bowl pools I’m in. I am riding high. Albert Chen channels that hope we all feel when we place a bet in Billion Dollar Fantasy.
It’s a book about multiple high-stakes gambles — million-dollar bets on games, building a startup from scratch and the biggest gamble of all, that the U.S. would legalize sports betting. The book follows the founders of FanDuel and DraftKings, daily fantasy betting websites, as they competed to attract customers, spending billions in advertising and jackpots along the way.
It’s a great behind-the-scenes look at building a company from nothing, with a gripping cast of characters that really takes off when Chen connects the dots between the rise of daily fantasy betting and the Supreme Court’s legalization of commercial sports betting. He chronicles the twists and turns of each appeal and ruling and their ramifications on the founders. Billion Dollar Fantasy is perfect for anyone interested in law, sports, tech, politics — and where they intersect.
It might even hold you over until your March Madness pool starts.
You Want a Long Book for a Short Month
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth with illustrations from Sara Lautman
A friend recently told me each February she reads one long book. I thought it was a delightful idea, so I’m suggesting Plain Bad Heroines for anyone who wants to take a similar path.
Plain Bad Heroines, Emily Danforth’s second book, almost defies categorization. It’s part queer gothic novel, part soapy Hollywood satire. It features two alternating plotlines that both involve a haunted New England girls’ school, Brookhants. The historical plotline depicts a series of deaths at Brookhants, while the contemporary story focuses on a movie being produced about the boarding school.
At 640 pages, this book certainly meets the definition of a long book, but I devoured it over the long Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a wild ride featuring deadly yellow jackets, an obsession with the real-life memoir of Mary Maclean and beautiful illustrations. If you’re looking for something that’s completely unlike anything you’ve read before, this is the book for you.
You’re Planning Your Galentine’s Day Zoom
Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship by Kayleen Schaefer
The message of Kayleen Schaefer’s book is, as she puts it, “There just isn’t only one love story in our lives. If you’re lucky, friends will be the protagonists in these multiple love stories. It’s high time that we start seeing it that way.”
Shaefer combines reflections on her own friendships with findings from interviews of more than 100 women about relationships. She examines how depictions of female friendships in pop culture have changed over the years from being catty and competitive to the strong relationships between women now found on “Big Little Lies,” “Insecure,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and more.
A friend gave me a signed copy of this book years ago, and I treasure it. Every few months, I find myself flipping through it and thinking about my own friends. It’s been a particular source of comfort the past year when I haven’t had that many opportunities to collect my own “I’m home safe” texts.
That’s it for today. I’ll be back on Thursday with my Q&A with Eman.
What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld.
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