CityView Magazine

FEATURE for you to sit for a spell. It couldn't be a better time to relax with some hot chocolate or tea and read a good book. Liv- ing in North Carolina means that we have an abundance of authors to choose from, who've all been busy writing novels, mysteries and humor books. Not only is North Carolina rich in writing, it is also rich in T sports. Jimmy Tomlin, in his first book, Instant Replay, 365 Days of North Carolina Sports Trivia, has filled the calendar with North Carolina sports stories dating back to the early 1800s when horse racing was the most popular sport in the state. Tomlin, who has worked for more than 25 years as a newspaper and magazine journalist, says his love of North Carolina and interest in sports made the book a breeze for him to write. "When I came up with the idea, I was thick-headed enough to think I could find something for everyday and even came up with trivia for leap day, which is a story about a high school basketball game going into 13 overtimes," Tomlin said. Find- ing all the facts did take some digging. "I knew a core group of sports stories, like Babe Ruth hitting his first professional home run in Fayetteville," he said. But don't let this Univer- Curl up with some of North Carolina's most readable books BY DIANE SILCOX-JARRETT Southern Lit he holidays are over and there's still a lot of time until the grass needs to be cut every weekend. The couch or the chair by that window that lets in that steady winter sunbeam is beckoning sity of North Carolina graduate's modesty fool you; he has covered all the local ACC teams, stock car racing, tennis, high school football, and ice hockey. "We have a very rich and wide spectrum of sports in North Carolina; I can't imagine another state having as much," he said. He smiles when he thinks of North Carolina's only professional championship. "I think it is ironic that North Carolina's only professional level national championship is the Stanley Cup, which the Carolina Hurricanes won in 2006. Who would have thought that ten years ago?" You don't have to be a sports enthusiast to enjoy Instant Replay. The stories in the book are full of dedication, triumph, and humor. Check out the story for May 16th and read about how Jocko Flocko became the only monkey ever to win a NASCAR race, or the entry for March 12th to read about the first integrated college-level basketball game. "Many of the stories are so compelling because they are as much about hu- man nature as they are sports," said Tomlin. Reading Sarah Shaber's Simon Shaw mystery series is like eating homemade cinnamon jumbles on a winter's day, you can't stop with one. When Shaber created Simon Shaw, an American history professor-detective, she created a character you find yourself rooting for in spite of all his idiosyncrasies. Simon teaches at a small college located in Raleigh, where he is surrounded by friends and colleagues who have become CityViewNC.com | 49

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