Book picks similar to
Things Change by Troy Aikman
picture-books
sports
sports-misc
personal-library
Are You My Boyfriend?
C.B. Bryza - 2013
Makes a great gift!What’s a confident, self-reliant young woman with a heart full of love—but no boyfriend—to do? Look for her soul mate, of course! Like the intrepid baby bird in P.D. Eastman’s beloved Are You My Mother?, the independent young woman in C.B. Bryza’s witty and uplifting picture book for grown-ups takes readers along on an entertaining journey of hope and discovery. Is her boyfriend the poker-faced tough guy, the wealthy cad full of empty promises, or the nice average dude who’s really more into her friend? From the coffee shop, to the movie theater, to the self-help section of the bookstore, our heroine encounters a host of potential mates who could be perfect—for someone else. Will she ever have a happily-ever-after? Replete with Seussian, retro-style illustrations, Are You My Boyfriend? is an irresistibly charming and empowering story you’ll want to share with everyone who’s ever looked for love.
The Youngest Hero
Jerry B. Jenkins - 2002
Guided by his mother's firm and steadfast wisdom and his extraordinary talent, both mother and son make it to the major leagues. In the end, "The Youngest Hero" reveals that when it comes to finding your way in life, a God-fearing mother is more important than God-given talent.
They Call Me Assassin
Jack Tatum - 1980
He hits people with pile driver force. Running backs and pass receivers shudder with expectation as the charging free safety crashes into them. Surprisingly, Jack Tatum is a gentle man off the gridiron. Though he loves the combat, he hates the injuries that result, some permanently, and he has been responsible for his share. He also hates the cheap shot. Tatum says enforce the rules...cut down the injuries and allow the game to be played with some degree of civilized behavior. This is the only sport, except for boxing and hockey, where everyone is inevitably injured because the rules don't provide for adequate safety. The classic combat of the gridiron began for Tatum, an under-privileged kid, in Passaic, New Jersey, where he became just about the most celebrated football player that area of the country had every produced. Tatum makes no apologies for his roughness; but he says the wold picture and was strongly moved by the terrible accident which paralyzed Darryl Stingley after Tatum hit him in a pres-season game. In the book, Tatum evaluates the players, especially the quarterbacks, the coaches, his teammates, the fans and the total ambiance of the football experience in a hardhitting colorful style.
The Doper Next Door: My Strange and Scandalous Year on Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Andrew Tilin - 2011
Soon wielding syringes, this forty-something husband and father of two children becomes the doper next door.During his yearlong odyssey, Tilin is transformed. He becomes stronger, hornier, and aggressive. He wades into a subculture of doping physicians, real estate agents, and aging women who believe that Tilin’s type of legal “hormone replacement therapy” is the key to staying young—and he often agrees. He also lives with the price paid for renewed vitality, worrying about his health, marriage, and cheating ways as an amateur bike racer. And all along the way, he tells us what doping is really like—empowering and scary.
Stunt Water: Selected Poems of Buddy Wakefield, 1991-2011
Buddy Wakefield - 2015
It is a vulnerable cross section of his writing that moves from disarmingly human to sudden bursts of beast, able to seamlessly blend back into grounded stories of humor, heartache and identity using crisp, innovative and unforgettable metaphors. If you can only buy one Buddy Wakefield book, this collection is the most comprehensive of his most compelling works to date. His craft mimics the intrigue of propellers when they make themselves invisible. Buddy’s honest story is a one-man relay race to the light; that of a boy at gentleman practice who sometimes wants to blend in so badly he forgets his purpose has already arrived and there is no need to fight a war that’s long been over. The reader must be prepared for the recurring nightmares from which Buddy wakes up only to realize that whatever supposedly awful thing was stalking him was actually just trying to help.
Bigger Than the Game: Restitching a Major League Life
Dirk Hayhurst - 2014
Newly married, with a big league paycheck and a brand new house, Hayhurst was ready for a great season in the Bigs. Then fate delivered a crushing hit. Hayhurst blew out his pitching shoulder in an insane off-season workout program. After surgery, rehab, and more rehab, his major-league dreams seemed more distant than ever. From there things got worse, weirder, and funnier. In a crazy world of injured athletes, autograph-seeking nuns, angry wrestlers, and trainers with a taste for torture, Hayhurst learned lessons about the game--and himself--that were not in any rulebook. Honest, soul?searching, insightful, hilarious, and moving, Dirk Hayhurst's latest memoir is an indisputable baseball classic. Praise for The Bullpen Gospels and Out of My League"Dirk Hayhurst writes about baseball in a unique way. Observant, insightful, human, and hilarious." --Bob Costas "A fun read. . .This book shows why baseball is so often used as a metaphor for life." --Keith Olbermann"Entertaining and engaging. . .reminiscent of Jim Bouton's Ball Four." --Booklist"A rare gem of a baseball book." --Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated"A humorous, candid, and insightful memoir of Hayhurst's rookie season in the majors. . .Grade: Home Run." --Cleveland Plain Dealer
Play by Play: Calling The Wildest Games In Sports – From SEC Football to College Basketball, The Masters and More
Verne Lundquist - 2018
In his first memoir, he replays highlights from his career, taking sports fans behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic moments in modern sports history.Lundquist goes back to the early days of his broadcasting career, recalling his time as a producer and radio show host in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was shot. He reminisces about Tom Landry and the great Dallas Cowboy teams of the 1970s, recalls the most unbelievable moments in Masters Tournament history, and relives the excitement of Christian Laettner's buzzer beater in the NCAA tournament and a host of other memorable thrills.One of the defining voices of Saturday afternoon football for the SEC, Lundquist offers an in-depth look at the fans, the schools, and the game, recounting never-before-told stories about some of college football's biggest personalities. He also speaks honestly about his friendships with Terry Bradshaw, John Madden, and other greats, and his difficult relationship with legendary colleague Pat Summerall. Bringing these memories vibrantly to life with his beloved catchphrases and warm humor, and sharing fifty photos from his personal collection, Lundquist gives readers a front row seat to history as he witnessed it unfold.
Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Mick Foley - 1999
So how to explain those Japanese death matches in rings with explosives, golden thumbtacks and barbed wire instead of rope? The second-degree burn tissue? And the missing ear that was ripped off during a bout-in which he kept fighting? Here is an intimate glimpse into Mick Foley's mind, his history, his work and what some might call his pathology. Now with a bonus chapter summarizing the past 15 months-from his experience as a bestselling author through his parting thoughts before his final match. A tale of blood, sweat, tears and more blood-all in his own words-straight from the twisted genius behind Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind.
A Champion's Mind: Lessons from a Life in Tennis
Pete Sampras - 2008
While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now. In A Champion’s Mind, the tennis great who so often exhibited visible discomfort with letting people “inside his head” finally opens up. An athletic prodigy, Pete resolved from his earliest playing days never to let anything get in the way of his love for the game. But while this single-minded determination led to tennis domination, success didn’t come without a price. The constant pressure of competing on the world’s biggest stage” in the unblinking eye of a media machine hungry for more than mere athletic greatness” took its toll. Here for the first time Pete speaks freely about what it was like to possess what he calls “the Gift.” He writes about the personal trials he faced” including the death of a longtime coach and confidant” and the struggles he gutted his way through while being seemingly on top of the world. Among the book’s most riveting scenes are an early devastating loss to Stefan Edberg that led Pete to make a monastic commitment to delivering on his natural talent; a grueling, four-hour-plus match against Alex Corretja during which Pete became seriously ill; fierce on-court battles with rival and friend Andre Agassi; and the triumphant last match of Pete’s career at the finals of the 2002 U.S. Open. In A Champion’s Mind, one of the most revered, successful, and intensely private players in the history of tennis offers an intimate look at the life of an elite athlete.
The Dog Poop Initiative
Kirk A. Weisler - 2005
A wonderful tool used by managers and leaders to inspire engagement, initiative and meaningful discussion about the obstacles (poop) that needs to be removed so goals can be realized.
Mount Rainier: A Climbing Guide
Mike Gauthier - 1999
Name any route on Rainier, and he can describe its rewards and specific challenges (he's summited Rainier more than 170 times during all seasons and under intense conditions). Whether you choose the classic Liberty Ridge route, the drama of Success Cleaver, or the rarely attempted Mowich Face, Gauthier provides all the details you'll need for a successful and enjoyable climb.This edition presents the information on logistics, regulations, and permits. It includes expanded material on understanding and surmounting Rainier's famed glaciers; tips on selecting a guide service; excellent mountaineering training sites around Rainier for those bound for the world's highest peaks; and bonus routes on adjacent Little Tahoma, Washington's third highest peak.
Every Thing on It
Shel Silverstein - 2011
From New York Times bestselling Shel Silverstein, celebrated creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up, comes an amazing collection of never-before-published poems and drawings.Have you ever read a book with everything on it? Well, here it is! You will say Hi-ho for the toilet troll, get tongue-tied with Stick-a-Tongue-Out-Sid, play a highly unusual horn, and experience the joys of growing down.What's that? You have a case of the Lovetobutcants? Impossible! Just come on in and let the magic of Shel Silverstein bend your brain and open your heart.And don't miss Runny Babbit Returns, the new book from Shel Silverstein!
Franky the Frolicking Fox
J.S. Yee - 2012
Read it FREE as part of your PRIME or Kindle Unlimited membership Franky is a juvenile fox who loves to frolic about, until one day, he ventures out too far from his family. His quest back home brings him into the path of numerous animals that all have clues that eventually lead him home. The end of his adventure reunites him with his family and friends, frolicking about!Young readers will love the charming illustrations of the fox and his friends, while parents will appreciate the moral at the end of the story.
Knight: My Story
Bob Knight - 2002
Few people in sports have had more books written about them. This is the first by Bob Knight - one of the most literate, candid, quoted and outspoken men in American public life telling in this first-person account of his full, rich life.Much of that life has been in basketball, most of it because of basketball, but it also has brought him forward as a coach who has proved academic responsibility and production of championship college athletic teams not only can co-exist but should.His excitement as things start anew for him at Texas Tech is matched here by his characteristic frankness and remarkable recollection of a life he clearly has enjoyed. You'll see why, as he tells story after story - some delightful, some hilarious, some poignant, none of them dull.Knight, as a sophomore front-line reserve on the Ohio State team that won the NCAA championship, became the first man to play on and coach a championship team when he led his 1975-76 Indiana team to a 32-0 season that was capped by an 86-68 victory over Michigan in the NCAA championship game at Philadelphia.His Indiana teams in 1980-81 and 1986-87 also won NCAA titles, making him one of just four coaches in history to win as many as three championships. Twenty-six years later, the 1975-76 Indiana team still stands as the last unbeaten team in major- college men's basketball. Knight's coaching career includes six seasons at Army, where his teams - during the years when the Vietnam War made recruiting for West Point difficult - won 102 games and lost 50. He is one of five coaches who have won seven hundred games, and the only coach whose teams have won championships in the NCAA tournament, the National Invitation Tournament, the Olympic Games and the Pan American Games.During all that he has been at the heart of more controversies while running a winning and squeaky-clean program than any coach of any sport any time or anywhere.His excitement as things start anew for him is matched here by his candor and remarkable recollection of a life he clearly has enjoyed. You'll see why, with story after story - some delightful, some hilarious, some poignant, none of them dull: the story of Bob Knight's life.
Ellie and the Cupcakes
Amanda Kidd - 2020
However, she soon discovers that being a giant comes with its own challenges, and compared to her size, Mum’s delicious cupcakes are now way too small!BONUS FEATURE! The book also includes Ellie's favourite cupcake and buttercream recipe!