Stu Levitan welcomes a true grandson of Madison, Andrew Maraniss, coming back this Thursday, at least virtually, for a presentation of his new award-winning book GAMES OF DECEPTION, the true story of the first U.S. Olympic basketball team, and the 1936 Olympics in Hitler’s Germany. That event is Thursday at 7 through our friends at Mystery to Me. More details at M2Mbooksdot com.

You all know what basketball is, you all know what the Olympics are, you all know who Hitler was. So that part doesn’t need any more introduction.

As to Andrew Maraniss. First of all, he is, as you may have surmised, the son of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author David Maraniss and the pioneering environmentalist Linda Maraniss, born right here in Madison, now a resident of Brentwood, Tenn., with his wife Alison, and their two young children. Follow Andrew on Twitter @trublu24 and visit his website at andrewmaraniss.com.

Second, he’s really good at telling historical and sports stories with a larger social message. GAMES OF DECEPTION has already received the 2020 Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Book Honors for middle grade readers and was named one of Amazon’s Top Books of 2019. His first book, the New York Times-bestseller STRONG INSIDE: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South, received the 2015 Lillian Smith Book Award and the lone Special Recognition honor at the 2015 RFK Book Awards, the first sports-related book so honored. The Young Reader edition was named one of the Top 10 Biographies and Top 10 Sports Books of 2017 by the American Library Association and was selected as a Notable Social Studies Book for 2019 by the National Council for the Social Studies.

Andrew is a contributor to ESPN’s TheUndefeated.com. and Visiting Author at Vanderbilt University Athletics, where he was formerly the associate director of media relations – a lesson in the value of leaving a job on good terms. He was also the first-ever media relations manager for the Tampa Bay Rays.

It is a pleasure to welcome to MBB my friend Andrew Maraniss.