Search Results for: life as sport

Showing 121-144 of 329 results for life as sport

Sometimes You Win--Sometimes You Learn for Kids

Sometimes You Win--Sometimes You Learn for Kids

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John C. Maxwell, Steve Bjorkman

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$18.99
$23.99
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Wendy and Wade love to play their favorite sport–Woggleball–and, like most kids, they like to win. But after a disappointing loss leaves Wendy and Wade ready to quit, they turn to their grandpa for advice.

Papa tells them:
“Woggles are winners, yes, that much is true.
But whether you win depends upon YOU.
Winning takes effort, this much you will see.
What you learn from your loss can bring victory!”

In Sometimes You Win–Sometimes you Learn for Kids, #1 New York Times bestselling author, coach, and motivational teacher John C. Maxwell adapts his inspiring life lessons for the youngest readers, showing kids that having the right attitude will help them turn any loss into a win.
The New York Yankees

The New York Yankees

Contributors

Matt Christopher

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$10.99
$14.99
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Trade Paperback
A revised and expanded edition of The New York Yankees: Legendary Sports Teams! The New York Yankees played their first game in the American League in 1903. Since then, they have become the best team in baseball, bar none. Now this action-packed and fact-filled volume brings the Yankee’s great history to life. From Babe Ruth’s called shot and Lou Gehrig’s tearful farewell speech, to Reggie Jackson’s three hits on three pitches and Derek Jeter’s game-saving catches, classic moments are recounted with such vivid description that readers will swear they can smell the popcorn and hear the crack of the bat. Updated content includes team records and post-season results from 1903 to 2011, as well as lists of Yankees inducted into the Hall of Famers and photos of the most memorable plays and people in Yankee history.

Maximum Ride Boxed Set #1

Maximum Ride Boxed Set #1

Contributors

James Patterson

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$32.99
$40.99
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Trade Paperback
Discover the #1 New York Times bestselling series that inspired the movie and manga with the ultimate sleek box set.

Join Max and her flock on three Maximum Ride adventures: The Angel Experiment (#1), School’s Out-Forever (#2), and Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (#3). Being a kid with wings sounds like a dream come true, but when you’re facing half-human, half-wolf “Erasers” and a sinister science experiment, life can be complicated. From the deadly heat of Death Valley to the treetops of Central Park in Manhattan, this is one set of adventures you will never forget.

This box set also includes a bonus teaser and an exclusive excerpt from Angel (Maximum Ride #7) and a Witch & Wizard teaser!
One Shot at Forever

One Shot at Forever

Contributors

Chris Ballard

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$21.99
$28.99
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Trade Paperback
One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . This isn’t merely a book about baseball. It’s a book about heart.” — Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There the Ironmen would play against a Chicago powerhouse in a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.

In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet: a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Together they embarked on an improbable postseason run that buoyed a small town in desperate need of something to celebrate.

Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town.

“Macon’s run at the title reminds us why sports matter and why sportswriting has such great power to inspire. . . [It’s] one hell of a good story, and Ballard has written one hell of a good book.” — Jonathan Eig, Chicago Tribune
Make It Count

Make It Count

Contributors

CeCé Telfer

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$39
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By turns harrowing and hopeful, MAKE IT COUNT is the inspiring story of the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA title, following her traditional upbringing in Jamaica, her fight to become a US citizen, and her efforts to achieve her Olympic dreams.

CeCé Telfer is a warrior. The first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA championship, she has contended with transphobia on and off the track since childhood. Now, she stands at the crossroads of a national and international conversation about equity in sports, forced to advocate for her personhood and rights at every turn. After spending years training for the 2024 Olympics, Telfer has been sidelined and silenced more times than she can count. But she's never been good at taking no for an answer.

MAKE IT COUNT is Telfer's raw and inspiring story. From coming of age in Jamaica, where she grew up hearing a constant barrage of slurs, to beginning her new life in Toronto and then New Hampshire, where she realized what running could offer her, to living in the backseat of her car while searching for a coach, to Mexico, where she trained for the US Trials, this book follows the arc of Telfer's Olympic dream.

This is the story of running on what feels like the edge of a knife, of what it means to compete when you're not just an athlete but treated like a walking controversy. But it's also the story of resilience and athleticism, of a runner who found a clarity in her sport that otherwise eluded her—a sense of being simply alive on this earth, a human moving through space. Finally, herself.
 
He/She/They

He/She/They

Contributors

Schuyler Bailar

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$30
$38
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Hardcover
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Go‑to expert on gender identity, Schuyler Bailar, offers an essential, urgent guide that changes the conversation.

Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced in state governments around the United States in record-breaking numbers. Trans people are under attack in sports, healthcare, school curriculum, bathrooms, bars, and nearly every walk of life. He/She/They clearly and compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to more complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving and why allowing trans youth to play sports is good for all kids. With a relatable narrative rooted in facts, science, and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively coopted and deceptively politicized.

Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his transition and share his experience has touched people around the world. His plain-spoken education has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation. In He/She/They, Schuyler uses storytelling and the art of conversation to give us the essential language and context of gender, meeting everyone where they are and paving the way for understanding, acceptance, and, most importantly: connection. He/She/They is more than a book on allyship; it also speaks to trans folks directly, answering the question, “does it get better?” with a resounding yes, celebrating radical trans joy. Myth-busting, affirming, compassionate, and fierce, He/She/They is a crucial, urgent–and lifesaving–book that forever changes the conversation about gender.
Bad Lies

Bad Lies

Contributors

Gary McCord, Charles Lindsay

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$15.99
$20.99
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ebook
In Bad Lies, golf’s wittiest observer, photographer Charles Lindsay, celebrates the hazards and pitfalls of the game. Lindsay stakes out the diabolic border territories that encroach on golf courses — moon-crater bunkers, waist-high fescue grass, murky lake bottoms — to capture the unbelievable my-ball-went-where? moments that make the game so infuriating and so addictive for so many.

This hilarious follow-up to Lindsay’s popular Lost Balls features inspired and gorgeous color photographs, plus larger-than-life pictures of some of the world’s rarest — and oddest — golf balls. Texts include a foreword by outspoken golf commentator Gary McCord, definitions of the game’s offbeat terminology, and a meditation on the golf ball and the immortal soul.
Shaq Uncut

Shaq Uncut

Contributors

Shaquille O’Neal, Jackie MacMullan

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$21.99
$28.99
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Trade Paperback
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Superman. Diesel. The Big Aristotle. Shaq Fu. The Big Daddy. The Big Shaqtus. Wilt Chamberneezy. The Real Deal. The Big Shamrock. Shaq.

You know him by any number of names, and chances are you know all about his legendary basketball career: Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal is a four-time NBA champion and a three-time NBA Finals MVP. After being an All-American at Louisiana State University, he was the overall number one draft pick in the NBA in 1992. In his 19-year career, Shaq racked up 28,596 career points (including 5,935 free throws!), 13,099 rebounds, 3,026 assists, 2,732 blocks, and 15 All-Star appearances.

These are statistics that are almost as massive as the man himself. His presence-both physically and psychologically-made him a dominant force in the game for two decades.

But if you follow the game, you also know that there’s a lot more to Shaquille O’Neal than just basketball.

Shaq is famous for his playful, and at times, provocative personality. He is, literally, outsize in both scale and persona. Whether rapping on any of his five albums, challenging celebrities on his hit television show “Shaq Vs.,” studying for his PhD or serving as a reserve police officer, there’s no question that Shaq has led a unique and multi-dimensional life. And in this rollicking new autobiography, Shaq discusses his remarkable journey, including his candid thoughts on teammates and coaches like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Phil Jackson, and Pat Riley.

From growing up in difficult circumstances and getting cut from his high school basketball team to his larger-than-life basketball career, Shaq lays it all out in Shaq Uncut: My Story.

The Master

The Master

Contributors

Christopher Clarey

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This New York Times bestselling biography tells the life story of the most iconic men's tennis player of the modern era.

There have been other biographies of Roger Federer, but never one with this kind of access to the man himself, his support team, and the most prominent figures in the game, including such rivals as Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Roddick. In The Master, New York Times correspondent Christopher Clarey sits down with Federer and those closest to him to tell the story of the greatest player in men's tennis.

Roger Federer has often made it look astonishingly easy through the decades: carving backhands, gliding to forehands, leaping for overheads and, in his most gravity-defying act, remaining high on a pedestal in a world of sports rightfully flooded with cynicism. But his path from temperamental, bleach-blond teenager with dubious style sense to one of the greatest, most self-possessed and elegant of competitors has been a long-running act of will, not destiny. He not only had a great gift. He had grit.

Christopher Clarey, one of the top international sportswriters working today, has covered Federer since the beginning of his professional career. He was in Paris on the Suzanne Lenglen Court for Federer's first Grand Slam match and has interviewed him exclusively more than any other journalist since his rise to prominence. Here, Clarey focuses on the pivotal people, places, and moments in Federer's long and rich career: reporting from South Africa, South America, the Middle East, four Grand Slam tournaments, and Federer's native Switzerland. It has been a journey like no other player's, rife with victories and a few crushing defeats, one that has redefined enduring excellence and made Federer a sentimental favorite worldwide.

The Master tells the story of Federer's life and career on both an intimate and grand scale, in a way no one else could possibly do.

The Gashouse Gang

The Gashouse Gang

Contributors

John Heidenry

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$21.99
$28.99
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Trade Paperback
With The Gashouse Gang, John Heidenry delivers the definitive account of one the greatest and most colorful baseball teams of all times, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, filled with larger-than-life baseball personalities like Branch Rickey, Leo Durocher, Pepper Martin, Casey Stengel, Satchel Paige, Frankie Frisch, and — especially — the eccentric good ol’ boy and great pitcher Dizzy Dean and his brother Paul.

The year 1934 marked the lowest point of the Great Depression, when the U.S. went off the gold standard, banks collapsed by the score, and millions of Americans were out of work. Epic baseball feats offered welcome relief from the hardships of daily life. The Gashouse Gang, the brilliant culmination of a dream by its general manager, Branch Rickey, the first to envision a farm system that would acquire and “educate” young players in the art of baseball, was adored by the nation, who saw itself — scruffy, proud, and unbeatable — in the Gang.

Based on original research and told in entertaining narrative style, The Gashouse Gang brings a bygone era and a cast full of vivid personalities to life and unearths a treasure trove of baseball lore that will delight any fan of the great American pastime.
The Aftermath

The Aftermath

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R.J. Prescott

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$17.99
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The second book in a New Adult fiction series from USA Today bestselling author R.J. Prescott.

Cormac “The Hurricane” O’Connell’s star is on the rise. Billed as the most promising young boxer of his generation, his new career is taking him to places he never dreamed. But O’Connell only needs one thing in life: his wife.

In her final year of college, Em cannot follow him around the world but together they make it work. Just when everything they ever wanted is on the horizon, the past resurfaces to haunt them, and O’Connell realizes that justice might not be a part of his happy ever after. He couldn’t protect Em once before, but in the aftermath of the hurricane, he will make sure that never happens again.
Just Give Me the Damn Ball!

Just Give Me the Damn Ball!

Contributors

Keyshawn Johnson, Shelley Smith

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Price
$34
$44
Format
Hardcover
“Well, son, I guess we have to go the to bank.” That’s what Leon Hess told me the day the Jets drafted me as the number-one player in the NFL draft. But that first day, the day of the draft, was one of the happiest days in my life, because I knew I was ready to make things happen in the league and help turn things around for the sorry-ass Jets. But what a nightmare! Week after week, loss after loss. The Jets went in with a loser reputation, and they were earning it all over again. We had no emotion, no energy, no hunger. The media tried to cover it all. Rich Kotite tried to explain the disasters away. But nobody outside the team knew the real truth of what really went on. This book is going to change all that.
Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant

Contributors

Matt Christopher

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$6.99
$9.99
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Trade Paperback
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The #1 sports series for kids takes readers on the court and behind the scenes with beloved NBA icon Kobe Bryant in this inspiring biography.

As the son of Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, a former NBA player and star of various European teams, Kobe spent his childhood watching professional basketball. From the moment he could pick up a ball, he was learning to dribble and shoot. His basketball education was unique — a combination of lessons on basic fundamentals, one-on-one games against his dad, and observation and analysis of the world’s best players.

At age eighteen, Kobe was given the chance to prove his skills when he was drafted into the NBA. Fresh out of high school, Kobe showed that he had the talent and heart to make it in the pros — and the rest is history.

This biography gives readers a courtside seat to the achievements of one of basketball’s greatest legends as it traces Kobe’s life from childhood to his five NBA championships to his successful career outside of the game to his tragic death and lasting legacy.
She's Gone Country

She's Gone Country

Contributors

Jane Porter

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$24.99
$31.99
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Trade Paperback
Shey Darcy, a 39-year-old former top model for Vogue and Sports Illustrated led a charmed life in New York City with a handsome photographer husband until the day he announced he’d fallen in love with someone else. Left to pick up the pieces of her once happy world, Shey decides to move back home to Texas with her three teenage sons.

Life on the family ranch, however, brings with it a whole new host of dramas starting with differences of opinion with her staunch Southern Baptist mother, her rugged but overprotective brothers, and daily battles with her three sons who are also struggling to find themselves. Add to the mix Shey’s ex-crush, Dane Kelly, a national bullriding champ and she’s got her hands full. It doesn’t take long before Shey realizes that in order to reinvent herself, she must let go of an uncertain future and a broken past, to find happiness–and maybe love–in the present.
Soccer Against the Enemy

Soccer Against the Enemy

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Simon Kuper

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$21.99
$28.99
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Soccer is much more than just the most popular game in the world. It is a matter of life and death for millions around the world, an international lingua franca. Simon Kuper traveled to twenty-two countries to discover the sometimes bizarre effect soccer can have on politics and culture. At the same time he tried to discover what makes different countries play a simple game so differently. Kuper meets a remarkable variety of fans along the way, from the East Berliner persecuted by the Stasi for supporting his local team, to the Argentine general with his own views on tactics. He also illuminates the frightening intersection between soccer and politics, particularly in the wake of the attacks of 9-11, where soccer is obsessed over by the likes of Osama bin Laden. The result is one of the world’s most acclaimed books on the game, and an astonishing study of soccer and its place in the world.
Dan Rooney

Dan Rooney

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Dan Rooney, Andrew E. Masich, David F. Halaas

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$24.99
$31.99
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Trade Paperback
Legendary chairman of the five-time Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Dan Rooney, tells his life story for the first time. From growing up on Pittsburgh's notorious North Side, to vying with Johnny Unitas for top high school quarterback honors in Western Pennsylvania, from learning how to run a major sports franchise from his father, Art Rooney (“the Chief”), to helping shape the modern NFL, Rooney serves up a fascinating account of personal and professional achievement.

He also discusses his relationships with players, coaches, NFL commissioners, his beloved family, and the devoted fans known as “Steelers Nation.”

Whether advocating hiring more minority head coaches through creation of the Rooney Rule or helping pave the way for the merger of the AFL and NFL, Rooney reveals the dynamics that have made him such a respected force in pro football.

Together on Top of the World

Together on Top of the World

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Phil and Susan Ershler, Susan Ershler, Robin Simons

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$21.99
$28.99
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Trade Paperback
On May 16, 2002, Phil and Susan Ershler reached the top of Mt. Everest and became the first couple in history to scale the fabled Seven Summits. What made their achievement all the more remarkable was that Susan was not a mountain climber, but a high-powered Fortune 500 executive who had never hiked or climbed until she met Phil at the age of 36.

Phil, a professional mountain guide who was the first American to summit Everest from its treacherous north face, had climbed his whole life with Crohn’s disease, a chronic, debilitating illness. Adding to these challenges, just before their final summit, Phil was diagnosed with colon cancer, and the resulting surgeries and complications were expected to end his career.

This is Susan and Phil’s story: a tale of love set in the mountains, a story of triumphal highs and devastating lows in quest of a seemingly impossible dream.
Rafa

Rafa

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Rafael Nadal, John Carlin

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In his memoir, written with award-winning journalist John Carlin, tennis star Rafael Nadal reveals the secrets of his game and shares the inspiring personal story behind his success.

What makes a champion? What does it take to be the best in the world at your sport? Rafael Nadal has the answers.

It begins in Mallorca, where the tight-knit Nadal family has lived for generations. Coached by his uncle Toni from the age of four and taught humility and respect by his parents, Nadal has managed the uncommon feat of becoming an acclaimed global celebrity while remaining a gracious, hardworking role model for people in all walks of life.

Now he takes us behind the scenes, from winning the Wimbledon 2008 final — described by John McEnroe as “the greatest game of tennis” he had ever seen — to the family problems that brought him low in 2009 and the numerous injuries that have threatened his career.

With candor and intelligence, Nadal brings readers on his dramatic and triumphant journey, never losing sight of the prize he values above all others: the unity and love of his family.

From RAFA:
“During a match, you are in a permanent battle to fight back your everyday vulnerabilities, bottle up your human feelings. The more bottled up they are, the greater your chances of winning, so long as you’ve trained as hard as you play and the gap in talent is not too wide between you and your rival. The gap in talent with Federer existed, but it was not impossibly wide. It was narrow enough, even on his favorite surface in the tournament he played best, for me to know that if I silenced the doubts and fears, and exaggerated hopes, inside my head better than he did, I could beat him. You have to cage yourself in protective armor, turn yourself into a bloodless warrior. It’s a kind of self-hypnosis, a game you play, with deadly seriousness, to disguise your own weaknesses from yourself, as well as from your rival.”
Warrior

Warrior

Contributors

Lisa Guerrero

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$28
$35
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Lisa Guerrero chronicles her iconic career—from dealing with harassment as a sports broadcaster to chasing “bad guys” for Inside Edition—and proves that through small, daily acts, bravery is a muscle we can strengthen over time.

I’ve been a cheerleader. A corporate executive. A Barbie Doll. A sportscaster. A soap opera vixen. A sideline reporter. A Playboy cover model. A Diamond Diva. A red-carpet correspondent. An investigative journalist. A disrupter. 

I made Dennis Rodman cry. I’ve interviewed three presidents and hundreds of athletes. I costarred in a viral video that has one billion views. I sued the New England Patriots–and won. I tracked down a murderer. I was hit by a car. I butted heads with Barbara Walters. I even played myself in a movie starring Brad Pitt.

During her career in sports broadcasting, Guerrero covered Super Bowls, Worlds Series, NBA Finals, and interviewed sports superstars. From the outside it seemed glamourous, but often she was miserable, told to smile more, argue less, and show a lot of leg and cleavage. Colleagues would joke—sometimes on national TV—that she clinched big interviews because of sexual acts rather than talent. She made a mistake on air during the opening game on Monday Night Football that cost her her sportscasting career… and almost her life.

Fast forward a few years, and Guerrero has achieved phenomenal success as Inside Edition’s Chief Investigative Correspondent. Her stories have led to arrests, changed federal legislation and policies at Fortune 500 companies, and helped shine a light on crime, scams, child abuse, and even cold case murders. And in the last decade alone, she has won over thirty-five national journalism honors and awards.

Today, Guerrero is bombarded with emails and direct messages from people of every generation who all want to know the same thing: “How are you so brave? How can I be brave too?” Women dealing with husbands, friends, in-laws, co-workers, and bosses ask for the courage to request raises, be taken seriously at meetings, and stand up to abusive spouses. Teens and pre-teens ask for advice on dealing with bullies, teachers, and parents. Warrior—filled with the incisive stories of failure, struggles, challenges, perseverance, and finally, success—is her answer.

The World Beneath Their Feet

The World Beneath Their Feet

Contributors

Scott Ellsworth

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$32
$40
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Winner of the 2020 National Outdoor Book Award for Best History/Biography

A saga of survival, technological innovation, and breathtaking human physical achievement — all set against the backdrop of a world headed toward war — that became one of the most compelling international dramas of the 20th century.

 
As tension steadily rose between European powers in the 1930s, a different kind of battle was already raging across the Himalayas. Teams of mountaineers from Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and the United States were all competing to be the first to climb the world's highest peaks, including Mount Everest and K2. Unlike climbers today, they had few photographs or maps, no properly working oxygen systems, and they wore leather boots and cotton parkas. Amazingly, and against all odds, they soon went farther and higher than anyone could have imagined.

And as they did, their story caught the world's attention. The climbers were mobbed at train stations, and were featured in movies and plays. James Hilton created the mythical land of Shangri-La in Lost Horizon, while an English eccentric named Maurice Wilson set out for Tibet in order to climb Mount Everest alone. And in the darkened corridors of the Third Reich, officials soon discovered the propaganda value of planting a Nazi flag on top of the world's highest mountains

Set in London, New York, Germany, and in India, China, and Tibet, The World Beneath Their Feet is a story not only of climbing and mountain climbers, but also of passion and ambition, courage and folly, tradition and innovation, tragedy and triumph. Scott Ellsworth tells a rollicking, real-life adventure story that moves seamlessly from the streets of Manhattan to the footlights of the West End, deadly avalanches on Nanga Parbat, rioting in the Kashmir, and the wild mountain dreams of a New Zealand beekeeper named Edmund Hillary and a young Sherpa runaway called Tenzing Norgay.

Climbing the Himalayas was the Greatest Generation's moonshot-one that was clouded by the onset of war and then, incredibly, fully accomplished. A gritty, fascinating history that promises to enrapture fans of Hampton Sides, Erik Larson, Jon Krakauer, and Laura Hillenbrand, The World Beneath Their Feet brings this forgotten story back to life.
 
Let's Play Two

Let's Play Two

Contributors

Ron Rapoport

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$24.99
$31.99
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The definitive and revealing biography of Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks, one of America’s most iconic, beloved, and misunderstood baseball players, by acclaimed journalist Ron Rapoport.

Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, played in fourteen All-Star Games, won two MVPs, and twice led the Major Leagues in home runs and runs batted in. He outslugged Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Mickey Mantle when they were in their prime, but while they made repeated World Series appearances in the 1950s and 60s, Banks spent his entire career with the woebegone Chicago Cubs, who didn’t win a pennant in his adult lifetime.

Today, Banks is remembered best for his signature phrase, “Let’s play two,” which has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies the enthusiasm that endeared him to fans everywhere. But Banks’s public display of good cheer was a mask that hid a deeply conflicted, melancholy, and often quite lonely man. Despite the poverty and racism he endured as a young man, he was among the star players of baseball’s early days of integration who were reluctant to speak out about Civil Rights. Being known as one of the greatest players never to reach the World Series also took its toll. At one point, Banks even saw a psychiatrist to see if that would help. It didn’t. Yet Banks smiled through it all, enduring the scorn of Cubs manager Leo Durocher as an aging superstar and never uttering a single complaint.

Let’s Play Two is based on numerous conversations with Banks and on interviews with more than a hundred of his family members, teammates, friends, and associates as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources. Together, they explain how Banks was so different from the caricature he created for the public. The book tells of Banks’s early life in segregated Dallas, his years in the Negro Leagues, and his difficult life after retirement; and features compelling portraits of Buck O’Neil, Philip K. Wrigley, the Bleacher Bums, the doomed pennant race of 1969, and much more from a long-lost baseball era.
The Six Pack

The Six Pack

Contributors

Brad Balukjian

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$30
$39
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Hardcover
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From the bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture—professional wrestling—starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF in the 1980s. 

"Perhaps one of the most truthful and enjoyable reads about my profession ever. I absolutely loved this book." —Former WWF Champion Bret "The Hitman" Hart

In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri), to write his biography. Things quickly went south, culminating in the Sheik threatening Balukjian’s life. Now seventeen years later, Balukjian returns to the road in search of not only a reunion with the Sheik, but something much bigger: truth in a world built on illusion.

Balukjian seeks out six of the Sheik’s contemporaries, fellow witnesses to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) explosion in the mid-‘80s, to unearth their true identities. As Balukjian drives 12,525 miles around the country, we revisit the heady days when these avatars of strength, villainy, and heroism first found fame and see where their journeys took them. From working out with Tony Atlas (Tony White) to visiting Hulk Hogan’s (Terry Bollea) karaoke bar, we see where these men are now and how they have navigated the cliffs of fame.

The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater—often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.
Playing Partners

Playing Partners

Contributors

George Peper

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Price
$35
$45
Format
Hardcover
The editor-in-chief of Golf magazine examines the friendship that took root while he and his son set out to dispel the myth that golf is a good walk spoiled.

Teenagers are notorious for differences with their parents, but George Peper has been lucky to share a special friendship with his 18-year-old son, Scott. For the past decade, the two have bonded over a mutual passion for golf, spending hundreds of hours together they would never have enjoyed if not for their love of chasing around a little white ball. Now, Peper examines their relationship, analyzing how their roles have morphed from faultless father and worshipful son to teacher and pupil, dictator and insurgent, and ultimately, target and assassin, as son tries to outscore father over 18 holes. In an endearing portrait, George Peper hits on the universal lessons of life, love, and golf-as he’s learned them from his teenage son.
A Good Walk Spoiled

A Good Walk Spoiled

Contributors

John Feinstein

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Price
$19.99
$24.99
Format
Trade Paperback
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Other formats available
From the author of Raise a First, Take a Knee: John Feinstein's bestselling classic is "the best-ever account of life on the PGA tour" (Golf Magazine) and a must-read for anyone who loves the game of golf.
 
Traveling with the golfers on the PGA Tour, Feinstein gets inside the heads of the game's greatest players as well as its struggling wannabes. Meet superstars like Nick Price, who nailed a fifty-foot putt at the seventeenth to win the British Open, and Paul Azinger, who marked his return from a bout with cancer with an emotional appearance at the Buick Open. Go behind the scenes for Davis Love III's unforgettable come-from-behind victory in the Ryder Cup. In golf, Feinstein eloquently relates, the line that separates triumph from disappointment is incredibly fine. "One week you've discovered the secret to the game; the next week you never want to play it again."
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