Gelf's Varsity Letters sports reading series returns to New York on August 7 at 8 p.m., for an evening of the Olympics and the NFL. At this free monthly event at a Lower East Side bar, hosted by Gelf, Tom Caraccioli, Stefan Fatsis, and Aaron Schatz will read from and talk about their work, and take questions. Caraccioli will profile athletes whose dreams were lost when the US boycotted the 1980 Olympics, Fatsis will describe his brief-lived adventure as a sportswriter-turned-NFL kicker, and Schatz will offer a tour of the brave new world of football stats.

Admission is FREE. Please spread the word to sports fans and book lovers.

Event Details:

Happy Ending Lounge (official site, CitySearch, MySpace)
302 Broome St.
(between Forsyth and Eldridge)
212-334-9676
J/M/Z/F to Delancey
B/D to Grand Street
Look for the hot-pink awning with the words "Health Club" on it.

Doors open at 7:30.
Readings start at 8 sharp.
FREE!

More on this month's authors:

•Tom Caraccioli, co-author, with his brother Jerry Caraccioli, of Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games (Read Gelf's interview with Jerry and Tom; Jerry is unable to attend.)

•Stefan Fatsis, author of A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL (Read Gelf's interview with Fatsis)

•Aaron Schatz, editor of Pro Football Prospectus 2008: The Essential Guide to the 2008 Pro Football Season (Read Gelf's interview with Schatz)

Copies of the books will be available for sale, courtesy Mobile Libris. Questions? Suggestions for future readings? Email varsityletters@gmail.com.
Varsity Letters is on MySpace.

Varsity Letters 2008

September 4:
•Harvey Frommer, author of Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of "The House That Ruth Built"
•Buster Olney, author of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty New Edition: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness
•Dave Zirin, author of A People's History of Sports in the United States: 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play (New Press People's Histories) (Gelf is also co-sponsoring Zirin's book launch the previous night at New York's Brecht Forum.)

October 2:
•Jeff Pearlman, author of Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty
•Kate Torgovnick, author of Cheer!: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders
•Ralph Vacchiano, author of Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback: The Incredible Rise of the New York Giants

November 6:
•Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager
•Drew Magary, co-author of Kissing Suzy Kolber and author of Men with Balls: The Professional Athlete's Handbook
•Dan Steinberg, author of the Washington Post's D.C. Sports Bog

December 4:
•Gary Andrew Poole, author of The Galloping Ghost: Red Grange, an American Football Legend
•Liz Robbins, author of A Race Like No Other: 26.2 Miles Through the Streets of New York
•And another author TBA.

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