Footballer: My Story


Kelly Smith - 2012
    She has been called the Zinedine Zidane of the women's game. She has scored more goals for England than any other player in history. Yet since she was old enough to kick a ball, Kelly Smith has had to battle every step of the way to play the game she loves. Girls were not welcome when Kelly first started out, practising for hours to hone her sublime skills, but after outshining all the boys in the teams she played in, she became a pioneer for English women's football. A teenage sensation and the nation's first professional footballer, Kelly was soon a star, a genius with the ball at her feet, but a series of injuries led to periods of depression and then alcoholism as she struggled to cope without the sport. As she nears the end of her glittering career, Kelly now tells the heartfelt story of her triumphs and tragedies, of how she beat her demons to put England on the world football map. It is a tale of overcoming prejudice to live your dream, and of how it feels and what it means to be a woman at the very top of her game.

Head Ball Coach


Steve Spurrier - 2016
    He's been called brash, cocky, arrogant, pompous, egotistical, and hilarious, but, mostly, he's known as the Head Ball Coach, a self-ordained term introduced to the lexicon of football by none other than the man, himself, Steve Spurrier. He is the only coach who can claim to be the winningest coach at two different SEC schools, and the only person who has won both the Heisman Trophy as a player and a national championship as a coach. Or who has won a Heisman and coached a Heisman winner.From the beginning, Spurrier didn't want to sound like other coaches, dress like other coaches, and, especially, coach like other coaches. As a controversial football pioneer, he ushered in a different style of leadership and play. Spurrier's press conferences were glorious -- he refused to lapse into coachspeak and was always entertaining, although he took his football very seriously. He was known for his fierce competitiveness, roaming up and down the sidelines, often throwing his signature visor to the ground in disgust. Now resigned from coaching at age 70 -- he doesn't like to say "retired" yet -- Spurrier has calmed down, but don't mistake that for a lack of fire. He can be just as feisty as the day he set foot on the East Tennessee dirt in Johnson City's Kiwanis Park, where he grew up to become one of the state's all-time greatest athletes, and went on to play for Florida where he launched one of sports history's all-time great careers.In his memoir, Spurrier talks for the first time about the circumstances under which he unexpectedly became a coach and why he resigned at South Carolina. He explains his unique style, the difference between winners and losers, his relationship with the media, why he follows the wisdom of ancient philosophers and warriors, his affinity everything taught by John Wooden, and the reasons behind his relaxed regimen for living well. Spurrier, as always, speaks candidly, bringing together his thoughts about his words, actions, and achievements, while telling countless wonderful anecdotes.From the Hardcover edition.

Vertigo: One Football Fan's Fear of Success


John Crace - 2011
    John Crace and Spurs were made for each other. But then the team started to play like possible champions. For most fans, these are the glory moments they dream about. For Crace they just opened a new dimension of anxiety: the fear of success. Crace has supported Spurs for 40 years. His wife thinks he suffers from a psychiatric disorder, but fandom is not only one of the ways he negotiates his relationships, it also helps him make some sense of his life. Vertigo is the story of why fandom that starts out in boyish hope always ends in dark comedy.

Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo: Head to Head with the World's Greatest Players


Luca Caioli - 2014
    With exclusive insights from their friends, families, teammates and managers – including interviews with managers Luiz Felipe Scolari and Vicente del Bosque – Caioli presents a unique insight into what makes a modern player not just successful, but truly great.

The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football


David Conn - 2004
    An outstanding, thought-provoking study of the state of modern professional football.

The Franchise Babe


Dan Jenkins - 2008
    Lately he’s been bored out of his mind writing about the PGA Tour, which he says has become “Tiger and a bunch of slugs playing pushover courses.” So he decides to check out what he calls “the Lolitas,” a new breed of young chicks on the LPGA Tour. Jack chooses as a magazine subject Ginger Clayton, a fiery eighteen-year old with flowing blond locks, legs up to here, and a personality that combines mischief with confidence. With her killer looks and killer game, Ginger looks very much like the kind of star who can take the LPGA to the next level of excitement and acceptance. She is, indeed, The Franchise Babe, and everyone seems to want a part of her.Jack’s interest in Ginger’s career might have something to do with her mother, Thurlene Clayton, a knockout herself who looks plenty okay in a jacked-up mini-to use Jack’s description of her outfit. As Ginger shows her grit on the ladies’ tour, the greedy hordes looking to benefit from the kid’s talent and personality aren’t the ones who worry Thurlene-and Jack-the most. Someone is trying to knock Ginger out of the competition-permanently.Jenkins captures the growing buzz around the Franchise Babe and all the insane and hilarious things that happen when the sports world anoints someone new to the throne of super-stardom. Along the way, Jenkins issues bawdy, dead-on takedowns of selfish sports moms, gasbag corporate sponsors, adventurous promoters, sleazy sports agents, point-missing magazine editors, and all the other modern annoyances that make life hard for a guy who, as they say in Texas, is just tryin' to get by without gettin' hurt.

Fearless: How Leicester City Shook the Premier League, and What it Means for Sport


Jonathan Northcroft - 2016
    Out on the pitch a lone brass player sounds the haunting Post Horn Gallop, for 80 years the home players' entrance tune. Spines tingle. Air is gulped into opposition lungs. Game time, time to begin the chase. Burning fox eyes peer down from between the decks of one of the stands. On the stadium's outside wall a royal blue LCD display says #Fearless.Welcome to Leicester City. They were always a club with a difference but in 2015-16 they created a story that in modern football stands unique. Who could believe it: from relegation certainties to champions of England? It was when, on behalf of every small club, dreams were hunted at the King Power, a season where the impossible became merely quarry.5,000-1 shots when the campaign started, Leicester's transformation has been remarkable. This is the most incredible cast of written-offs, grafters, misfits and journeymen, coming together in a special time and place to simultaneously have the season of their lives. Fearless will document Leicester's hunt of their impossible dream. It will tell the greatest football tale of the Premier League era, in loving detail, with the inside track. Now that Leicester have gone all the way and won the title, it is the best story in world sports - for years.Premier League champions. The side who'd been adrift at the bottom 12 months previously, who's started the season as relegation favourites, whose manager was favourite to be the first one sacked once the campaign got underway. A League One side only seven seasons previously. A squad of �500,000 and �1m men. Leicester. Ridiculous. Miraculous. Fearless.

The Title: The Story of the First Division


Scott Murray - 2017
    They may even have a point. But to build something so successful, so popular, so inescapable, you've got to have mighty strong foundations.Prior to 1992, the old First Division was England's premier prize. Its rich tapestry winds back to 1888 and the formation of the Football League. A grand century-long tradition in danger of being lost in the wake of Premier League year zero.No more! In The Title Scott Murray tells the lively, cherry-picked story of English football through the prism of the First Division. Rich with humour yet underpinned with solid research, this is a glorious meander across our national sport's varied terrain.With as much about Burnley, Wolves, West Brom and Portsmouth as the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, we learn the less well-known stories the sport has to tell, such as the plight of Glossop, the smallest club to ever play top-flight football, and final day drama involving Huddersfield and Cardiff that knocks Michael Thomas into a cocked hat. We bask in the managerial genius of Tom Watson, the bowler-hatted Victorian Mourinho; celebrate the joy of the Busby Babes; discover the shameless showmanship of George Allison; embark on righteous escapades with Hughie Gallacher; and meet some old favourites in Don Revie, Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough.At turns exciting, surprising, witty and bittersweet, The Title is a highly informed, fresh and affectionate love-letter to the English game, and a delight for any football fan.

Pass Judgment: Inside the Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl XLIX Season and the Play That Dashed a Dream (Kindle Single)


Jerry Brewer - 2016
    Instead of hiding from national ridicule, Coach Pete Carroll embraced the pain and used it as an opportunity to teach his ultra-competitive team about the quality he inspires the most in people: persistence. Pass Judgment is a poignant portrait of grit, an inside look at the Seahawks' taxing 2014 journey to the Super Bowl, the bond it restored, the heartache of losing and the arduous process to recover. How do you live with the worst error of your life? This is the story of how a proud team, led by a relentless coach, digested failure.Jerry Brewer is a sports columnist for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in June 2015, he worked for The Seattle Times, where he wrote opinions about the entire Seattle sports scene for nearly nine years and chronicled the Seahawks' rise to NFL prominence under Pete Carroll. Before Seattle, he worked at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., The Orlando Sentinel and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has received awards for his work from numerous journalism organizations, including the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors, Associated Press Sports Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, Best of the West and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He lives in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Karen, and sons, Miles and Austin.Cover design by Adil Dara

Ruck Me: (I’ve written another book)


James Haskell - 2021
    His glittering international rugby career that took him from England to New Zealand and France – including 77 caps for England – is over. What will he do now? What is his purpose in life?In Ruck Me, James sets out on a voyage of self-discovery speaking to ex-colleagues, friends and family, reflecting on his career and diving into some of his most memorable personal anecdotes to date. But what started out as a search for understanding and meaning soon turns into a – let’s face it, sometimes warranted – chastisement opportunity with James directly in the firing line. Turns out he has a lot of work to do…As funny as it is outrageous, this brilliant book acts as a lesson on how (not) to retire gracefully and move forward. And ruck me – you won’t want to miss it.

All the Light We Cannot See: A 30-minute Summary of Anthony Doerr's Novel


Instaread Summaries - 2014
    She hears planes flying overhead. A flyer warning of an impending assault by American bombers lands near her, but she is blind and cannot read it.Chapter 4Private Werner Pfennig wakes in the Hotel of Bees where his unit is billeted in Saint-Malo. A corporal orders him to go to the cellar. The hotel once was a privateer’s lair. It is fortress-like and houses an antiaircraft gun manned by a crew of Austrians.Chapter 5The townspeople who have not evacuated awake to the noise of guns and planes amid the shower of leaflets. In a fortress, the last German bastion on the Breton coast, French prisoners peer up at the sky. Other sieges have rocked the city of Saint-Malo over the centuries, but none like this...  About the Author With Instaread Summaries, you can get the summary of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.

The Hawaiian Quilt, SAMPLER


Wanda E. Brunstetter - 2016
    But when Mandy and one of her friends miss the cruise ship after a port of call on Kauai, how will they adjust and get back home? Find out in this brand new romance from New York Times bestselling author Wanda E. Brunstetter, writing with her daughter-in-law Jean Brunstetter.

Angry Birds #1: Mini-Comic #2 (Angry Birds Mini-Comic)


Jeff Parker - 2014
    Angry Birds, the world's favorite mobile game franchise, is now the world's favorite digital comic! This issue's featured story, "Propiganda" by Jeff Parker and César Ferioli is sure to slingshot it's way into your heart!

Suarez (Classic Football Heroes) - Collect Them All! (Ultimate Football Heroes)


Matt Oldfield - 2017
    Luis was too quick. Before they could move, he had pounced on the ball and fired a shot into the top corner.' Suarez follows the Uruguayan's winding path from love-struck youngster to Liverpool hero to Barcelona star. Grabbing goals and headlines along the way, this is the inspiring story of how the world's deadliest striker made his mark.Ultimate Football Heroes is a series of biographies telling the life-stories of the biggest and best footballers in the world and their incredible journeys from childhood fan to super-star professional player. Written in fast-paced, action-packed style these books are perfect for all the family to collect and share.