Riding rental bikes and carrying a bare minimum of supplies, Rob Cocuzzo and his sixty-fouryear-old father, Stephen, embark on a 425-mile ride from Florence to San Donato Val di Comino, an ancient village in the mountains outside of Rome from which the Cocuzzo family emigrated a hundred years earlier.Prompted by Rob's ailing grandfather, who regrets having never visited his home village, the two cyclists pledge to make the trip in the old man's honor. Despite an expired passport, getting lost, some near misses, and other misadventures, the father and son finally reach the quirky village of San Donato. For Italian Jews in the 1940s, the road to San Donato was one of exile, and many of the people in the village banded together to protect nearly a hundred Jews. While meeting his many new "cousins," Rob attempts to unlock this history and glean what role his family played at the time--resistors or collaborators? The Road to San Donato is a generational story that many Americans share and a travel adventure not to be missed.

    In 1972 he became the youngest winner of the World Championship, repeating his victory in emotional style in 1982.Higgins's story is so much more than just snooker. Head-butting tournament officials, threatening to shoot team-mates, getting involved with gangsters, abusing referees, affairs with glamorous women, frequent fines and lengthy bans, all contributed to Higgins slipping down the rankings as he succumbed to drink and lost his fortune. After suffering throat cancer, Alex Higgins now reflects on his turbulent life and career in his first full autobiography. The Hurricane is back - prepare to be caught up in the carnage.

    Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words.In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket – while appealing, in Cardus’ words to people who ‘didn’t know a leg-break from the pavilion cat at Lord’s’- he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions.Among those who venerated Cardus were PG Wodehouse, John Arlott, Harold Pinter, JB Priestley and Don Bradman. However, behind the rhapsody in blue skies, green grass and colourful characters, this richly evocative biography finds that Cardus’ mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father and he received negligible education. Infatuations with younger women ran parallel to a decidedly unromantic marriage. And, astonishingly, the supreme stylist’s aversion to factual accuracy led to his reporting on matches he never attended.Yet Cardus also belied his impoverished origins to prosper in a second class-conscious profession, becoming a music critic of international renown. The Great Romantic uncovers the dark enigma within a golden age.

    Illustrated with 16 pages of photographs.

    What if The Undertaker had hatched out of a giant egg? What if Daniel Bryan hadn't got his WrestleMania XXX push? What if 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin had been named Chilly McFreeze? All of this nearly happened. Over the course of wrestling history there have been many bad gimmicks, baffling angles, and confusing storylines that have left fans scratching their heads, wondering how they made it through the company's quality filter. We know all about those, we have been unfortunate enough to suffer through them. But what about those plans that never got off the drawing board? What of those ideas that remained unpopped kernels in the minds of the creative team? How different could the landscape of modern professional wrestling be had some of these shocking plans actually made it onto our screens? WhatCulture.com takes a journey behind the scenes to explore a whole host of what ifs, what might have beens, and what almost was. We look at proposed matches that never were, characters that could have been very different to what they became, booking plans that were changed at the last minute, promotional jumps that nearly happened, and backstage shenanigans that would have changed the business. The book also has a feature delving deep into the psyche of Vince McMahon penned by Attitude Era writer Vince Russo, and insight from former WWE Creative Team members George J. Rutherford and Dan Madigan. Join us as we take you on a journey into a world of Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened!

     2.  Fascinating Memoir:  This book has it all: high stakes gambling, drugs, jail, psychotic episodes and debilitating depression and mental illness, plus the depths of despair and heights of victory.  3.  Very High Profile:  Mike Matusow is one of the most recognizable and followed players in poker today.  Yahoo's online search engine identifies over 1.1 million websites that provide content about Mike Matusow.  His weekly online video show "The Mouthpiece" at CardPlayer.com, averages over 2,000 viewers per day. 4.  Super Popular Subject: Poker is the third most watched sport on cable television, behind auto racing and football. 5.  Secondary Market Possibilities: The National Institute of Mental Health estimates there are 5.7 million people in the U.S. that have bipolar disorder and the CDC estimates 1.6 million elementary school children have been diagnosed ADHD.Get Ready for a Wild Ride… Hang on tight as Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, poker player extraordinaire, takes you with him on a breathtaking, true-life roller coaster ride from his humble beginnings in a trailer park to a rock and roll lifestyle full of hot women, sex, wild drug-filled parties and million-dollar wins and losses. Yet behind the glamour and glory of his high-stakes poker career lurked the flip side: a person torn between two debilitating mental illnesses?—?bipolar disorder and ADHD. To dig himself out of depression and suicidal despair, Matusow turned to dangerous street drugs to self-medicate a problem he didn’t understand, and spiraled deeper into the darker world of addiction, police narcotic stings, and jail time. In this revealing and tumultuous autobiography, the combustible Matusow holds nothing back. You’ll get a mouthful of the man behind the infamous Matusow Meltdowns seen on national TV. Riveting, exhilarating, sexy, sometimes shocking and always fascinating, this voyeur’s look into the world of high-stakes poker, mental illness, and ultimately, Matusow’s inspiring redemption, will keep you glued to your seat until the very last page!

     It doesn't make for "easy" reading, but since when did ignoring an issue make it disappear? After all, this is the world we all live in. Isn't it time we did something about it? DISCLAIMER: This book is based upon a true story of child abuse, and as such contains passages that some readers may find disturbing.

    'I'm a businessman trying to make a hard-earned crust. Understood?'I didn't give him time to reply. I took the barrel out of his mouth and smashed him in the face with the butt. His lip split, but he wasn't a dead man. He seemed to appreciate that his life had been spared.He spluttered his thanks: 'Ok, you’re not a gangster. You are not a gangster.' This is the gripping true story of how one man ruled his north London manor with an iron fist – and a sawn-off shotgun called Kennedy. It’s a shocking insight into a society where the rules are made by gangland leaders and if anybody dare break them, they have to deal with the consequences. Bobby was sent to prison for the first time in 1967, aged 16, and over the next decade he established himself as a hardened criminal running protection rackets and robberies against a backdrop of all-out gang warfare, where doorstep slayings and bloody shoot-outs were common. Eventually Bobby was sentenced to 12 years in Britain’s most notorious prisons, along with the Krays, Charlie Richardson and the Yorkshire Ripper. Inside, he was introduced to the Open University and on his release he soon got down to business again. Only this time his efforts saw him go from custody of Her Majesty’s Prison Service to meeting with the Queen herself... I Am Not A Gangster is an explosive account of life in the criminal underworld by one of Britain’s most dangerous men, but above all it’s a remarkable tale of redemption with the biggest turnaround in gangland history.

     Are you stuck playing in lousy cash games versus lousy opponents? Despite your best efforts, do you manage to lose even at the smallest stakes? It’s time to master small stakes cash games with a world-class poker champion as your guide. Jonathan Little has cashed for more than $6.4 million in live poker tournaments. This two-time World Poker Tour champion knows that to make millions on poker’s biggest stage, you have to start small. In fact, he started with only a $50 bankroll. Through his revolutionary approach, you can finally master the skills it takes to win in cash games. By learning how to crush your small stakes opponents, you’ll be prepared to handle bigger challenges -- and bigger cash outs -- that come with larger buy-in cash games. In Strategies for Beating Small Stakes Poker Cash Games, you’ll discover: - Skills that will instantly improve your poker game - How to stop blaming bad luck and learn the real secret to mastering poker - The pitfalls to avoid that will allow you to crush your mistake-prone peers - The reasons pros make the plays they make and how you can adopt their methods - How to win more money from poker, and much, much more! When you learn to think for yourself and adjust your strategy based on specific opponents, you’ll start to turn your game around. As the author of 11 best-selling poker books, Little can show you exactly how to learn these skills and win much more money in the long term. If you like concise, actionable information you can start using right away, then you’ll love Little’s game-changing poker guide. Buy the book to start cashing out today!

    His soccer talent was spotted at a young age and, in 1985, he signed with City. Just three years later he was handed the team captaincy, becoming the youngest ever City captain. An international career soon beckoned and, after trying out for the England under–21 team, he was called up to the England training camp for Italia ’90. Despite missing out on a place in the final squad he suitably impressed the management, with Bobby Robson marking him as an England captain in the making. As a rising star Paul became a target for top clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs, and Liverpool, but he always stayed loyal to his beloved club, deeming Maine Road the spiritual home at which his destiny lay. But then, in September 1990, disaster struck. Paul ruptured his crucial ligament and so began his nightmare. Neglected, ignored, and misunderstood by his club after a career–saving operation was irreversibly botched, Paul’s career began to fall apart. Watching from the sidelines as similarly injured players regained their fitness, he spiraled into a prolonged bout of severe depression. With a forced retirement from the game he adored, the death of his father, and the collapse of his marriage, Paul was left a broken man. Set against the backdrop of one of the world’s wealthiest football clubs at the end of their era at Maine Road, I'm Not Really Here is the powerful story of love, loss, and the cruel, irreparable damage of injury. It is a story of determination, spirit, resilience, and broken dreams.

    

    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.

    A few years ago, now in his sixties and one of the most respected golf writers of all time, Dodson rediscovered the piece of paper in an old trunk. Realizing that he had yet to achieve many of his thirteen-year-old dreams, and pondering the things he’d add to the list if he wrote it today, he expanded the list into a golfing “bucket list” of the people and places he had yet to meet and see in the golf world. In this tribute to the game he loves, Dodson takes readers on a journey around the world and into the lives of characters large and small. From an interesting lunch with Donald Trump to rounds with John Updike and intimate conversations with Arnold Palmer, from scoring a memorable thirteen on a hole at St. Andrews to revealing the real reason The Masters has always been broadcast on CBS, The Range Bucket List is simultaneously an exhilarating armchair adventure and one man’s love letter to a game that has fundamentally shaped him and his life, filled with unforgettable characters, untold history, and lots of heart.

    He was a celebrity during the height of America’s Gilded Age. In this book, you will read about his friendship with Mark Twain, his furious competition with his former employer Thomas Edison, his uneasy relationship with billionaire J.P. Morgan, and his rivalry with Albert Einstein. During his lifetime, Tesla revolutionized the field of electrical engineering with his most famous invention: the induction motor. But that wasn’t all he contributed to the world of technology. His coils, turbines, robotic boats, and mysterious “death ray” continue to beguile the imagination and inspire the inventors of the 21st century. But who was Tesla really? This book will take you from his early childhood in Croatia, where he experienced strange optical visions and “luminous phenomenon” that gave him near super-human powers of memory and visualization, to the “War of the Currents”, Thomas Edison’s bizarre campaign to ruin Tesla’s reputation. From trying to fight the Spanish American War with robots, to electrifying the skies of the Colorado desert, and to starting an earthquake in the middle of New York city, learn how Nikola Tesla shaped the world we live in today.

    He not only invented an exercise regimen—which today is practiced by more than ten million people—but in the process, reinvented himself.John Howard Steel brings Joseph Pilates and his eponymous exercise regime to life from his unique perspective as a student, friend, and confidant. Joe’s influence profoundly changed Steel’s life; in turn, Steel was crucial for the survival of the Pilates Method and Joe’s legacy. Steel’s vivid account traces the expansion of Pilates from a small cadre of dedicated adherents, through two periods of near extinction, to the global sensation it is today. Steel describes Joseph Pilates’s years as a prisoner during World War I, Joe’s motivation to discover his system of exercises, his inspirational teaching technique, and the unique attraction of the Pilates Method. It’s quite a story.