by Josh Chetwynd
published by Ten Speed Press
Genre: Sports, Nonfiction, Historical
**I received from Blogging for Books (website) in exchange for an honest review and did not influence my opinions.
Summary (Goodreads): There are many metaphors we can quickly identify from the realm of sports: covering all the bases (baseball), game plan (football), and par for the course (golf). But the English language is also peppered with the not-so-obvious influence of sports and games, such as go-to guy (basketball) and dead ringer (horse racing). Filled with pithy entries on each idiom, plus quotes showing how big talkers from President Obama to rapper Ice-T use them, this quirky little handbook from former minor league ballplayer and award-winning journalist Josh Chetwynd is sure to be a conversation starter at tailgates, cocktail parties, and in the boardroom.
My Thoughts: If you have an interest in a words/phrases, sports, or just random trivia to throw around this book fits all of those. My family enjoys all three so I couldn't resist giving this book a try.
Overall, I mostly liked it with only a few complaints. Most of my complaints are not about the actual content of the book but the layout. There are inset boxes (with extra words/definitions) throughout that cause the reader to have to flip pages to finish the section they're on and then go back to read the inset box. This was something that just bothered me aesthetically. When I'm reading, I want to be able to read straight thru without have to keep going back to read things I had to skip at the time.
I was surprised how many phrases came from sports that I never would have associated with it. An example is Fluke: this word comes from billiards. Back when the billiard balls were made from ivory they would warp and not move perfectly. Fluke became a shorthand to explain a poorly played shot. This and others like it are the phrases that I found most interesting and kept me reading the book.
Rating: 4 due to layout/aesthetics
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