What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen


Kate Fagan - 2017
    This was a girl who succeeded at everything she tried, and who was only getting started.But when Maddy began her long-awaited college career, her parents noticed something changed. Previously indefatigable Maddy became withdrawn, and her thoughts centered on how she could change her life. In spite of thousands of hours of practice and study, she contemplated transferring from the school that had once been her dream. When Maddy's dad, Jim, dropped her off for the first day of spring semester, she held him a second longer than usual. That would be the last time Jim would see his daughter.What Made Maddy Run began as a piece that Kate Fagan, a columnist for espnW, wrote about Maddy's life. What started as a profile of a successful young athlete whose life ended in suicide became so much larger when Fagan started to hear from other college athletes also struggling with mental illness. This is the story of Maddy Holleran's life, and her struggle with depression, which also reveals the mounting pressures young people, and college athletes in particular, face to be perfect, especially in an age of relentless connectivity and social media saturation.

Soul Crew: The Inside Story of Britain's Most Notorious Hooligan Gang


David Jones - 2002
    Formed in the early Eighties, it took its name from its followers love of soul music and brought together disparate mobs from the Welsh capital city and from the surrounding valleys and industrial towns. And it has left mayhem in its wake. David Jones and Tony Rivers are former members of the Soul Crew and give a riveting insider's account of clashes with the violent crews from as far afield as London, Middlesborough, Plymouth and Glasgow. They describe the intense rivalry with the 'Jacks' of Swansea City, reveal how internal tensions have prevented the gang from having a clear leadership, tell of their obsession with the 'casual' fashion scene and explain how they have forged friendships with fellow terrace obsessives from all over Britain.Told with black humor and unflinching honesty, 'Soul Crew' is an explosive account of how the hooligan culture has prevailed despite the best efforts of police, politicians and the football authorities to stamp it out.

Mid-life Cyclists


Chris McHutchison - 2012
    This is the account of Chris, an Australian, who took up cycling in order to win over his Belgian girlfriend and her cycling obsessed father, and Neil, a Briton, who took up cycling when he realised it was the last sport left for him to try. Together they are two friends entering their midlife crisis years in a hurry, on bikes. Although living thousands of miles apart on different continents, Neil and Chris join forces through this addiction to cycling and play out an unforgettable and funny path to cycling greatness on the fields of Hong Kong, Sydney, England, Flanders and the French Alps. They lay it all out here; the training, the kit buying, the crashes, the clashes between family time, work time and cycling time, and the harsh realities of cycling together on the European continent alongside experienced club riders. This is a wonderfully humorous tale exposing the light-hearted determination of midlife cyclists everywhere.

Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre


Jeff Pearlman - 2016
    This peerless quarterback guided the Green Bay Packers to two Super Bowls and one championship win, shattering countless NFL records along the way.Gunslinger tells Brett Favre’s story for the first time, drawing on more than five hundred interviews, including many from the people closest to Favre. Jeff Pearlman charts an unparalleled journey from his rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last scholarship at Southern Mississippi to a car accident that nearly took his life. Favre clawed back, getting drafted into the NFL by the Atlanta Falcons, then finding his way to Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father, and a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved, a game he couldn’t bear to leave.Grand, gritty, and revelatory, Gunslinger is a big sports biography of the highest order, a fascinating portrait of the man with the rocket arm whose life has been one of triumph, of fame, of tragedy, of embarrassment, and—ultimately—of redemption.

The Wenger Revolution: Twenty Years of Arsenal


Amy Lawrence - 2016
    In the subsequent twenty years as manager he has transformed the club. English football's longest serving manager has overseen a period of radical change. His experience spans across the spectrum from complex challenges to historic success.The Wenger Revolution chronicles this fascinating era through the combination of distinctive photographs taken from the inner sanctum, and words from Amy Lawrence.This is a stunning photographic journey, based on the images captured by official club photographer Stuart MacFarlane, who has had exclusive access for many years. Publication coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Wenger's arrival in England.The Arsenal he joined bears little resemblance to what the club looks like as we approach 2016. A total renovation in terms of training, stadium, style, economics and a global audience has taken place under Wenger's instruction.His successes illustrate what a sensation he created in English football. He is regarded as a guru of new football methods, getting a club with a traditional English culture to give up drinking, modernize diet, embrace new training methods, and play with a panache that ripped up the stereotype of Boring Arsenal. The Wenger Revolution is worth commemorating, and this book will do so in style.

Dynamic Nymphing: Tactics, Techniques, and Flies from Around the World


George Daniel - 2011
    Advanced tight line nymphing tactics, including Czech, Polish, French, Spanish, and American techniques Rigging and fishing dry and droppers, curly Qs, and conventional indicators Fishing the extremes: shallow water, cold weather, high water, wind Casting and technique sequences that include tuck cast, bow and arrow cast, as well as elevating and leading when tight line nymphing62 nymph patterns

The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind


Ramachandra Guha - 2020
    He offers vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons and international stars.Following the narrative of his life intertwined and in love with the sport, Guha captures the magic of bat and ball that has ensnared billions.

Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff


Frits Barend - 1997
    He also talks about the philosophy behind total football, the driving force behind the great Dutch side of the 1970s, and a style of football many top teams attempt to emulate today. Then there was the eight years of success as manager of Barcelona, one of the most stressful jobs in the game, and back to Ajax, where, with his emphasis on youth and home-grown talent, he put together another team of superb ability.

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis


Tony Hawks - 2000
    And so it is, a pointless argument with a friend concludes in a bet - that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. And with the loser of the bet agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, this one was just too good to resist.The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land.In this inspiring and exceptionally funny book, Tony Hawks has done it again, proving against all odds that there is no reason in the world why you can't do something a bit stupid and prove all of your doubters wrong. Or at least that was the idea....

What If I Had Never Tried It: The Autobiography


Valentino Rossi - 2002
    Certainly he is the greatest in modern times and similarly the best loved. This is the official, personal story: fast paced yet insightful.Rossi’s record in the motorcycle road racing World Championship is supreme. First in the ultra-competitive 125 class starting in 1996; then in the 250 class only to graduate shortly thereafter to the big league of the 500s. In 2002 the premier class switched direction moving from 500 cc two-strokes to 990 cc four-strokes from then on to be known as MotoGP. Rossi rides for Honda and wins. He wins on a Honda the next year and then switches to Yamaha, to every race fans’ surprise, and wins against all odds. He wins again in 2005. No one is close. No one is faster. And all at speeds which approach 200 mph.Both on and off-track, on the ubiquitous TV screen or walking in the street, Rossi is idolized as though he were a rock star. From his native Italy to California, from Philips Island to Laguna Seca, he has raised the limits, reshaped the frontiers of the sport and set new trends. Rossi has become the 21st Century face of motorcycle road racing. Yet he remains faithful to himself—one moment the intelligent, articulate interviewee; the next a jokester; the next the single-minded, focused, strategic racer with split-second skills the rest of us can only dream of.

Around the World in 80 Pints: My Search for Cricket's Greatest Places


David Lloyd - 2018
    It's all a long way from his childhood, growing up in a terraced house in post-war Accrington, Lancashire. But cricket has taken him all over the globe, and he has experienced everything from excruciating agony Down Under to the Bollywood glamour of the IPL - he's even risked it all to cross the Pennines into Yorkshire.  In Around the World in 80 Pints, Bumble relives some of the most exciting and remarkable periods in his life, showing how his travels have opened up new and exciting avenues for him. The book is packed full of brilliant stories from famous Ashes matches and Roses clashes, sharing the commentary box with Ian Botham and Shane Warne, and much else besides - all told in his idiosyncratic style that has won him so many fans the world over. His previous autobiography, Last in the Tin Bath, was a huge bestseller, and this one is sure to appeal to anyone who shares Bumble's unquenchable love for cricket - and life!

Underneath the Southern Cross


Michael Hussey - 2013
    This is THE cricket biography of 2013. Michael Hussey's huge popularity does not rest solely on his incredible playing record. Popularly known as Mr Cricket, he made his Test debut against the West Indies in Brisbane in November 2005, and has scored 6,183 Test runs over 78 Tests in his career. But to his fans, it is the way he plays the game rather than simply the sum of his achievements that marks him out as one of the best-loved cricketers of his generation. He is a middle-order maestro with a batting average of 51.52, but he has always played cricket with an integrity and sense of values that is the epitome of what cricket stands for. His autobiography takes you behind the scenes to his world of cricket. From his lengthy struggle to break into the Australian side, through to his masterly achievements in the Australian team, in ODI and Indian Premier League - this book follows his extraordinary cricket career., with plenty of surprisingly frank admissions & behind the scenes dramas.

Hockey Night Fever: Mullets, Mayhem and the Game's Coming of Age in the 1970s


Stephen Cole - 2015
    The forces at play in the decade's battle for hockey supremacy-dazzling speed vs. brute force-are now, for better or worse, part of hockey's DNA. This book is a welcome reappraisal of the ten years that changed how the sport was played and experienced. Informed by first-hand interviews with players and game officials, and sprinkled with sidebars on the art and artifacts that defined Seventies hockey, the book brings dramatically alive hockey's most eventful years.

Mensch: Beyond the Cones


Jonathan Harding - 2019
     From the practical aspects on the training ground to the collective strength of the coaching community, some of the smartest minds in the game take you closer to understanding the human aspects required to nurture young professionals. Germany’s model is not perfect and constantly evolving so there’s also a look at what should be the next step for Germany’s coaching after a disastrous 2018 World Cup. As English players look to Germany to further their own careers, Mensch looks at what the wider football world can learn from a country and a coaching culture so clearly in love with the beautiful game.

Juventus: A History in Black and White


Adam Digby - 2015
    Known as La Vecchia Signora - "The Old Lady" - she is the perfect blend of flair, artistry and skill, combined with a ruthless determination and will to win that constantly flirts with the less savoury elements of the game.For every Michel Platini or Alessandro Del Piero to win the hearts of fans of the beautiful game, there has been a Claudio Gentile or Paolo Montero waiting their moment to launch a well-timed elbow into an opponent. For every Gianni Agnelli to woo the crowds with his sartorial elegance and well chosen words, a Luciano Moggi lurks, playing the villain and serving to heighten the levels of hate felt towards the club by rival supporters.It is all encapsulated by those starkly contrasting stripes which have become synonymous with the Turin giants.This is that story, a history in black and white.