My World Cup Book Club post on Alex Bellos’s Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life should be finished this weekend, but in the meantime you should check out Jonathan Wilson‘s recent book review, theoretically of two new books aimed at World Cup readers but really focused primarily on David Goldblatt’s Futebol Nation (click on image below or here for link).

It sounds like a great book, and it’s at the top of my list right now–in fact, I’d probably encourage you to read it ahead of the Bellos book on the strength of Wilson’s review.  Goldblatt, of course, is also the author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, which got a lot of good press on its original release in 2006.

If you don’t have the time or inclination for reading, you could just watch Goldblatt talking about his new book instead.  This is a lecture he delivered this past January at Pitzer College talking about the book, and it’s a pretty good advert as well.  Enjoy, and make the best of our last sixteen days of calm before the storm.