There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”

There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.

wow look at me reading 2 books about basketball in one month!! But this isn't really about basketball, or it's not only about basketball? it's about hope and community and fandom and identity? and as always his prose is so, so beautiful and powerful. He is LITrally a genius (per MacArthur). Maybe his best work yet? And all his work is incredible???

This was a super interesting book. The way Hanif always pieces his books together is not only beautiful but entertaining in a way that will captivate you. This book is about so much more than basketball. It's perfection int he way the whole book feels like you are having a conversation with a close friend.

If you enjoy non-fiction, you must give this book a go!

This book is gifted and my views are my own

If you love basketball and more so, if you love humanity and it's complexities and stife and glory- you'll enjoy this. Hanif has such a way of weaving stories and uses such beautiful langauge along the way.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a Genius (I mean officially: he's a MacArthur fellowship recipient) and a national treasure. You don't have to like basketball to appreciate his latest release, although a bit of familiarity with the LeBron James phenomenon is helpful. But that's simply the framework Abdurraqib uses to muse about his past, his love for Columbus Ohio and its people, “making it,” loneliness, grief, music, prayer, fathers and sons, and how a Nike sneaker commercial can break your heart. His writing is poetic and beautiful and angry and joyous. If this book doesn't sound appealing to you, I urge you to seek out some of his earlier work including [b:They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us 33947154 They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us Hanif Abdurraqib https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1678391460l/33947154.SX50.jpg 54916808] and [b:A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance 49247757 A Little Devil in America Notes in Praise of Black Performance Hanif Abdurraqib https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606110758l/49247757.SX50.jpg 62219511]. Or just google him and read one of his articles or this poem , in which a nameless Editor tries to tell Abdurraqib why his submission that uses a pooping dog as a metaphor for love is not suitable for their publication.