A Season Inside: One Year in College Basketball


John Feinstein - 1989
    They get a close-up look at recruiting, referees, injuries, winning, losing, and the private lives of the game's biggest stars.

Weep For Me


John D. MacDonald - 1951
    Gripped by sexual obsession, he enters a world where he will never feel safe again. He puts himself in the hands and the plans of a woman who craves the contents of a very special suitcase from which even the prospect of death won't free her.

Hotel Pastis: A Novel of Provence


Peter Mayle - 1993
    As he surveys the desolation of his former home in the wake of his ex-wife, he yearns for a life free of complications. But somehow a short break in the warm seductive air of Provence quickly turns into something more.

Jeeves and the Wedding Bells


Sebastian Faulks - 2013
    Wodehouse documented the lives of the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster for nearly sixty years, from their first appearance in 1915 ("Extricating Young Gussie") to his final completed novel (Aunts Aren't Gentlemen) in 1974. These two were the finest creations of a novelist widely proclaimed to be the finest comic English writer by critics and fans alike.Now, forty years later, Bertie and Jeeves return in a hilarious affair of mix-ups and mishaps. With the approval of the Wodehouse estate, acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks brings these two back to life for their legion of fans. Bertie, nursing a bit of heartbreak over the recent engagement of one Georgina Meadowes to someone not named Wooster, agrees to "help" his old friend Peregrine "Woody" Beeching, whose own romance is foundering. That this means an outing to Dorset, away from an impending visit from Aunt Agatha, is merely an extra benefit. Almost immediately, things go awry and the simple plan quickly becomes complicated. Jeeves ends up impersonating one Lord Etringham, while Bertie pretends to be Jeeves' manservant "Wilberforce,"—and this all happens under the same roof as the now affianced Ms. Meadowes. From there the plot becomes even more hilarious and convoluted, in a brilliantly conceived, seamlessly written comic work worthy of the master himself.A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

There's Only Two David Beckhams


John O'Farrell - 2015
    The unbeatable national team have reached the final of the Qatar World Cup. But one journalist is convinced there is a scandalous secret behind England’s incredible form. His lifetime’s dream is to see the Three Lions win the World Cup. But if he pursues and exposes the shocking truth, his beloved England could be sent home in disgrace.Suddenly this is much more than England vs Germany; it’s Love vs Duty, it’s Truth vs Happiness. The pressure of the penalty shoot-out is nothing compared to this.There’s Only Two David Beckhams is John O’Farrell’s love-letter to football; part-detective story, part-sports memoir, part-satire on the whole corrupt FIFA circus; it just made the final for the funniest football fiction ever written...

The Hippopotamus


Stephen Fry - 1994
    Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too.Fired from his newspaper, months behind on his alimony payments and disgusted with a world that undervalues him, Ted seeks a few months repose and free drink at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Lord Logan.But strange things have been going on at Swafford.  Miracles, Healings, Phenomena beyond the comprehension of a mud-caked hippopotamus like Ted...

The Sinful Seven: Sci-fi Western Legends of the NCAA


Spencer Hall - 2020
    A collaborative book, written and edited in just 11 weeks, that examines college sports through the lens of an Old West that never existed, but feels very familiar.

The Doonesbury Chronicles


G.B. Trudeau - 1975
    In Washington, where Doonesbury is required reading, requests for original strips have come from White House aides, senators, congressmen, and—remarkably—most of the major Watergate conspirators whose maladventures gave the strip grist for some of its most celebrated moments."There are only three major vehicles to keep us informed as to what is going on in Washington: the electronic media, the print media, and Doonesbury, not necessarily in that order."—President Gerald FordSo loyal has been this following that on occasions when Doonesbury was suddenly notable for its absence from a paper following a satirical thrust that had somehow offended editors' notions of comic-strip propriety, readers have always managed to protest it back onto the page.The Doonesbury Chronicles marks the first hardcover appearance of Michael J. Doonesbury and cohorts, and is their first collection to include Sunday color pages. In all, 572 strips are presented, as selected by Garry Trudeau and encompassing the full Doonesbury canon, from its cozy campus origins at the frazzled end of the sixties through the stumbling first half of the seventies. Conducting us along the way is a motley though always redeemable cast that includes a student radical turned disc jockey, an immaculately dense but nonetheless charismatic quarterback, a nature freak who has nightmares about Mark Spitz, and a runaway housewife who ends up as a Berkeley law student by way of the Walden Commune Day-Care Center. For those hooked on Trudeau, as well as those still somehow deprived, for giving or hoarding, The Doonesbury Chronicles is a rich and Recession-proof treasure of a book.

The Swinger


Michael Bamberger - 2011
    A sports hero seeks a comeback in this wild, funny, and ultimately redemptive novel.

Dead Famous


Ben Elton - 2001
    and no evidence.Dead Famous is a killer read from Ben Elton – Reality TV as you've never seen it before.

Simply Irresistible


Rachel Gibson - 1998
    Hockey superstar John Kowalsky unknowingly helps her escape, and only when it's too late does he realize that he's absconded with his boss's bride. This bad boy isn't looking to be anybody's savior but his own. Still, a long night stretches ahead of them—a night too sultry to resist temptation.Seven years later, Georgeanne and John meet again. She is on her way to becoming Seattle's domestic darling and he is past his hellraising days. Shocked to learn that he has a daughter, John's determined to be part of her life. Georgeanne has loved John since the moment she jumped into his car, but will he risk the wrath of his boss, and one final chance at glory, to prove that this time his love will be everlasting?

About a Boy


Nick Hornby - 1998
    He's single, child-free, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He's also found a great way to score with women: attend single parents' groups full of available (and grateful) mothers, all hoping to meet a Nice Guy.Which is how Will meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old on the planet. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, looks after his mum and has never owned a pair of trainers. But Marcus latches on to Will - and won't let go. Can Will teach Marcus how to grow up cool? And can Marcus help Will just to grow up?

Sir Alex Ferguson: The Official Manchester United Celebration of his Career at Old Trafford


David Meek - 2011
    But re-establishing the Reds as the most successful club in the land was an enormous task. Famously, he knew he had to knock Liverpool of their perch. At the dawn of the Premier League era, in 1992-93, United had gone twenty-six years without being champions, but that season Ferguson finally led the club to title success and in 2010-11 he finally achieved the record-breaking nineteenth title. On top of that, Sir Alex has led Manchester United to two Champions League victories and many other trophies. This fascinating book not only celebrates what Sir Alex has achieved at United, but also seeks to explain just how he has gone about creating this remarkable dynasty, constantly rebuilding the team and driving them forward to yet more glory. In an era when most managers are lucky if they last two years, Sir Alex's achievement of lasting twenty-five years at the very top is truly astonishing. This book is the club's fitting tribute to his career.

Kensington Heights


Leslie Thomas - 1996
    Until the other bizarre and eccentric inhabitants of the building start arriving on his doorstep.And the Savage gets a visit from a homeless waif he meets in the local launderette called Korky.Korky's intrusion on Savage's private world alters his whole existence. High above the London rooftops this strange and contradictory relationship blooms like an improbable flower and Savage begins to realise that the world can creep under even the most firmly closed doors.'As ever in a Thomas novel, we constantly shift from tears to laughter and back again' Daily Express' A moving and jolly book ... with hardly a dull moment and difficult not to be cheered by' Times

Barren


J. Thorn - 2017
    The horror she discovers amongst the ruins is far worse than she could have imagined. The masked warriors of the Venganza clan chase Katy through the post-apocalyptic landscape, forcing her to decide between her past or the survivors’ future — a decision that could determine the fate of the human race. *For a limited time, the exclusive short story prequel BARREN: Blood Moon is included for FREE