The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, have begun in Paris, France. Olympic athletes are competing for gold, silver and bronze medals in thirty-two sports including a brand-new addition to the competition, breaking aka breakdancing. Four sports that debuted at the 2020 Summer Olympics will return this year: surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and 3x3 basketball. If you’re like me, and associate the Summer Olympics with gymnastics, swimming, and field and track, well, there’s whole lot more going on!
I’m going to date myself, here, but the first Summer Olympics I remember watching on television was in 1976 when the games were held in Montreal, Canada. Like many young girls, I was hyper-focused on a tiny gymnast named Nadia Comaneci. When she was awarded the first perfect score of 10.0, I along with a million other young girls, made up my mind that I wanted to be a gymnast. The glory, the adoration – what a life! Unfortunately, it took just two weeks at a basic gymnastics class, held in the recreation center of my small hometown, to confirm that my future did not include a vault or uneven bars (by the way, the balance beam is crazy scary.)
Fast forward forty-eight years, and I’m very happy to be a librarian instead of a gymnast. Plus, I will be able to watch Simone Biles, an absolutely incredible athlete, perform her gymnastics magic in Paris. I may not be able to attend or participate in the Olympics, but I can offer some Olym-picks from the library’s collection. Feel like a gold medal winner by adding one or more of today’s suggestions to your reading list.
- The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown.
- Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas by Alexi Pappas
- Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance by Simone Biles
- The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt
- Just Add Water by Katie Ledecky
- The Three-Year Swim Club: The Untold Story of Maui’s Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory by Julie Checkoway
New at the Library
Fiction
- The Beautiful People by Michelle Gable
- Farewell, Amethystine by Walter Mosley
- Galway Confidential by Ken Bruen
Nonfiction
- The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and Happier by Kasley Killam
- The Ikaria Way: 100 Delicious Plant-Based Recipes Inspired by My Homeland, the Greek Island of Longevity by Diane Kochilas
- Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers
Children
- My Best Friend’s Bangles written by Thushanthi Ponweera, illustrated by Maithili Joshi
- The Monarchs of Winghaven written and illustrated by Naila Moreira
- Mummies Unwrapped: Discover the World of Ancient Egyptian Mummies written by Victoria England, illustrated by Tom Froese
This is just a small sampling of the many new titles added each week to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District collection. Visit the district’s 15 locations, our website at www.fvrl.org, or call (360) 906-5000 to reserve titles or find additional listings.
You can email Jan at readingforfun@fvrl.org.
