What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?: A Remembrance


Richard Ben Cramer - 2002
    Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed biographer of Joe DiMaggio, decodes this oversized icon who dominated the game and finds not just a great player, but also a great man. In 1986, Richard Ben Cramer spent months on a profile of Ted Williams, and the result was the Esquire article that has been acclaimed ever since as one of the finest pieces of sports reporting ever written. Given special acknowledgment in The Best American Sportswriting of the Century and adapted for a coffee-table book called Ted Williams: The Seasons of the Kid, the original piece is now available in this special edition, with new material about Williams' later years. While his decades after Fenway Park were out of the spotlight -- the way Ted preferred it -- they were arguably his richest, as he loved and inspired his family, his fans, the players, and the game itself. This is a remembrance for the ages.

Second Wind


Jimmy White - 2014
    All I’ve ever wanted to do is entertain the public and hear the roar of the crowd as they chant my name. From the age of just 11, snooker has given me a life of fun, fame, fortune and freedom. But it’s not always been easy – there have been plenty of ups and downs, on and off the table. I’ve lived the way I’ve played my snooker – fast, hard and with plenty of risks. Some of those risks have nearly cost me everything; my career, my family, even my life. If I had my time again I might do it differently. Doesn’t mean I have any regrets. My journey has taken me from Tooting to Thailand, from Higgins to Hendry, from cocaine to the Crucible. I’ve been through a Whirlwind of change and come out the other side. There’s a reason why I’ve held back from telling my real story. We all need a second chance... Welcome to my mad, bad world.

Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation


Ellen Fitzpatrick - 2010
    Kennedy, in 1963. The first book ever to examine this extraordinary collection, Letters to Jackie presents 250 intimate, heartfelt, eye-opening responses to what was arguably the most devastating event in twentieth century America, providing a fascinating perspective on a singular time in the history of our nation.

Straw: Finding My Way


Darryl Strawberry - 2009
    A National League Rookie of the Year, eight-time MLB All Star, and four-time World Series Champion, Strawberry’s baseball achievements were often overshadowed by his struggles off the field. In Straw, he tells it all: his boyhood in Crenshaw, Los Angeles; his rise to baseball superstardom; the high life and low life; his brushes with the law; his triumphant battle over cancer; his religious awakening, and his marriage to the love of his life.

Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey


Roland Lazenby - 2000
    Along the way he turned multimillionaire players on to meditation, transformed the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls from a one-man show to a five-man team of domination, and after battling with Bulls management, ended one dynasty to start another on the West Coast. Sportswriter Roland Lazenby, author of the bestselling Blood on the Horns, reveals the fascinating story of Jackson's life, from his years with the New York Knicks under the legendary Red Holzman to his remarkable nine championships coaching first the Chicago Bulls and then the Los Angeles Lakers. In Mindgames Lazenby compellingly portrays a man with a unique determination to control the competitive environment he inhabits. A clear picture of the Jackson mystique emerges: philosopher, teacher, manipulator, counselor, psychologist, shaman, champion, master of mind games.

Saint Mick: My Journey from Hardcore Legend to Santa's Jolly Elf


Mick Foley - 2017
    After a lifetime of putting his body on the line to entertain his dozens (and dozens!) of fans, the Hardcore Legend is paying the price - both physically and emotionally.. Unable to resist the roar of the crowd, Mick returned to the ring too often, risking too much, losing belief in the characters that had defined him, and losing sight of his dreams. When the final bell on Mick's career finally tolled - not with glory inside the ring, but with solemn words in a neurologist's office, the future is far from merry and bright. Until hope and redemption come to him in the form of a beloved figure from his past. Given the chance to become Santa Claus - not dress up, not pretend, but become - Mick Foley rediscovers the joy of performing, finds a character he can believe in, and even finds a way to put his body on the line in commitment to his new craft, enduring an excruciating six hour bleaching so that the beard on his chin can be as white as the snow. Mick charts a course from the heartwarming to the surreal, detailing the drastic measures he takes to keep the magic age of belief alive for his younger children, as well as taking us inside the secret world of the Santa subculture - where -real-bearded Santas- and -traditional- or -mystical- Santas are quite often at odds as to who makes the better red suit ambassadors. Along the way, Mick worries that he will be excommunicated from the Santa world for everything from his colorful WWE background, to his Santa character being run over by a motor vehicle on Christmas Eve on WWE television, to his intentional breaking of -The Santa Claus Oath- by promising toys to families in need, to his participation in a controversial Santa Claus documentary. With Saint Mick , Mick Foley sails into the Holiday season with the earnestness of George Bailey discovering how wonderful life can be, the dog-eared determination of Ralphie on his Red Ryder quest, and with the speed and precision of a Buddy Elf snowball barrage. And with the help of an unlikely elf -- 8 time Grammy award winner Norah Jones -- Mick learns valuable lessons about the real power and responsibility of the red suit, and that success as Santa comes not by appearing in front of millions on TV, but by touching hearts and creating -Santa moments- for the young and the young at heart - one memory at a time.

Life in a Jungle: My Autobiography


Bruce Grobbelaar - 2018
    And yet, question marks have followed him around; question marks about his goalkeeping suitability after arriving on Merseyside; question marks about his integrity after match fixing allegations were laid against him. Here, Grobbelaar takes you to Africa, where nothing is at it seems; he takes you back to an era when Liverpool ruled Europe; he takes you to the benches of the Anfield dressing room, where only the strongest personalities survived. For the first time, he takes you inside the court room, detailing the draining fight to clear his name.

It's Not About the Pom-Poms: How a 40-Year-Old Mom Became the NFL's Oldest Cheerleader--and Found Hope, Joy, and Inspiration Along the Way


Laura Vikmanis - 2012
    But she proved them all wrong. . . . Laura Vikmanis has got spirit . . . and pom-poms, too! But before she stepped onto the field as the oldest cheerleader in the National Football League, she was sidelined by a bad marriage and the many responsibilities of stay-at-home motherhood. She finally got the courage to leave her husband and to ask herself something she had never asked before: What do I want to do? Remembering her teenage love of dance, she signed up for a pole-dancing fitness class, where she met a former cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals. When the woman suggested that Laura audition to be a “Ben-Gal,” Laura laughed her off but soon realized that the audition process could be a way of healing herself—and regaining her confidence. Her boots were made for walking—but also for stomping on a football field.She tried out for the team next to girls young enough to be her daughters. Girls with tighter abs, fuller hair, no kids, and no crow’s-feet. After much adversity and multiple auditions, she finally made the team, becoming the oldest cheerleader in the League.It’s Not About the Pom-Poms follows Laura’s inspiring, funny, and eye-opening journey from demoralized divorcée to high-kicking Cincinnati Ben-Gal. Readers will cheer her on as she rediscovers her passion for dancing, takes hip-hop classes with twelve-year-olds, loses twenty-five pounds, discovers her abs, finds love again, and becomes a new kind of role model to her daughters. Laura also provides an inside look into the fascinating world of NFL cheerleaders—the grueling workouts, bad pay, twice-weekly weigh-ins, but, most important, the lifelong bond between the women, who do it all for the glory.Leading with her heart, Laura Vikmanis faces adversity with her head held high as she learns in mid-life to take a flying leap. Powerful and uplifting, It’s Not About the Pom-Poms shows that, no matter your age, it’s never too late to go, fight, and win!

Trail Blazer: My Life as an Ultra-distance Runner


Ryan Sandes - 2016
    Since bursting onto the international trail-running scene by winning the first multistage race he ever entered – the brutal Gobi March – Ryan has gone on to win various other multistage and single-day races around the globe. Written with bestselling author and journalist Steve Smith, Trail Blazer – My Life as an Ultra-distance Trail Runner recounts the life story of this intrepid sportsman, from his experiences as a rudderless party animal to becoming a world-class athlete, and includes details on his training regimes, race strategies and aspirations for future sporting endeavours.Sports enthusiasts will enjoy the adrenaline-inducing trials and tribulations of one of South Africa’s most awe-inspiring athletes, while endurance-sport participants – from beginners to aspirant pros – will benefit from his insights and advice. As Professor Tim Noakes says in the Foreword to this book: ‘However much we might think we know and understand, there are some phenomena which now, and perhaps forever, we will never fully comprehend. We call such happenings “enigmas”. Or even miracles. Ryan Sandes is one such.’

The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs


Roberta Brandes Gratz - 2010
    Crime was at its highest, the middle class exodus was in high gear, and bankruptcy loomed. Many people credit New York’s “master builder” Robert Moses with turning Gotham around, despite his brutal, undemocratic. and demolition-heavy ways.Urban critic and journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz contradicts this conventional view. New York City, Gratz argues, recovered precisely because of the waning power of Moses. His decline in the late 1960s and the drying up of big government funding for urban renewal projects allowed New York to organically regenerate according to the precepts defined by Jane Jacobs in her classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and in contradiction to Moses’s urban philosophy.As American cities face a devastating economic crisis, Jacobs’s philosophy is again vital for the redevelopment of metropolitan life. Gratz who was named as one of Planetizen’s Top 100 Urban Thinkers gives an on-the-ground account of urban renewal and community success.

Green Hills of Africa


Ernest Hemingway - 1935
    Hemingway's well-known interest in - and fascination with - big-game hunting is magnificently captured in this evocative account of his trip. It is an examination of the lure of the hunt and an impassioned portrait of the glory of the African landscape and of the beauty of a wilderness that was, even then, being threatened by the incursions of man.

The Corfu Trilogy


Gerald Durrell - 2006
    All three books are set on the enchanted island of Corfu in the 1930s, and tell the story of the eccentric English family who moved there. For Gerald, the budding zoologist, Corfu was a natural paradise, teeming with strange birds and beasts that he could collect, watch and care for. But life was not without its problems - his family often objected to his animal-collecting activities, especially when the beasts wound up in the villa or - even worse - the fridge. With hilarious yet endearing portraits of his family and their many unusual hangers-on, The Corfu Trilogy also captures the beginnings of the author's lifelong love of animals. Recounted with immense humour and charm, this wonderful account of Corfu's natural history reveals a rare, magical childhood.

99% True: Almost a National Bestseller


Paul McGowan - 2019
    From his not-so-innocent youth growing up in the shadow of Disneyland and summer evenings in the innocent 1950s, to his dope-smoking, snake-eating, draft-dodging, loony-bin misadventure through Europe, to his struggles to build a thriving enterprise from a stack of dusty albums—see how the CEO of a worldwide company took fifty years to become an overnight success.Unlike Paul, you may never get picked up by the Secret Service or carry the shame of bankruptcy, but you just might see yourself in his repeated failures or in his refusal to let life keep him down. You'll laugh and you'll cry as Paul describes the struggle of finding his place in a community you never knew existed. Through it all, you'll discover what Paul did: life's detours offer the best opportunities to find your way.

L.E.O.: The True Stories of Lt. Wayne Cotes


Wayne Cotes - 2018
    Some of his tales will seem far fetched, unless you're a cop and then you know that anything can happen - and just when you think you've seen it all, someone will surprise you.

The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Wrestling


Joe Laurinaitis - 2011
    Revealing riveting stories about his participation in the 1980s and 1990s superstar wrestling team the Road Warriors, it recounts memorable fights with his partner Mike "Hawk" Hegstrand. He describes how he and Mike rose to become a revolutionary tag team—reinventing themselves with spiky accessories and wearing face paint before it was popular—and chronicles famous rivalries, movement between different wrestling associations, and dealing with Mike's longtime struggle with drugs and alcohol. He also invites fans into his personal life and discusses his family and newfound Christian faith. Featuring stories of incredible physical feats and deep-felt companionship, this testimony will help fans relive the glory days of a wrestling legacy.