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Undisputed: A Champion's Life
Par Donovan Bailey. 2023
A memoir of Olympic glory, the value of mentorship and the courage to champion your own excellence, from the long-reigning…
world's fastest man, Canadian sprinting legend Donovan Bailey.From the lush fields of his boyhood in Jamaica, to the basketball courts of Oakville, where he came of age in one of Canada’s most thriving cultural mosaics, to his sprint toward double Olympic gold for Canada in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey got a long way on natural talent. But he also learned that in the bureaucratic world of Canadian sports, an athlete who didn't come up in the system needed to take charge of his fate if he was going to become the world’s best. As he ascended from outsider to dominant athlete, others didn’t always understand the rigour at work behind Bailey’s confident demeanour. He’d learned from watching Muhammad Ali that a champion needed to act like a champion. But media grew fixated on the sprinter’s immodesty, the likes of which they never saw from Canadian athletes, especially track athletes in the wake of the Ben Johnson doping scandal at Seoul in 1988. Bailey was having none of it, and when he called out Canada's subtle racism and contradicted the prevailing idea most Canadians had of their country, he left in his wake a media uproar and cracked wide open the nation’s moral complacency. In addition to his unforgettable 100-metre and 4x100 relay gold-medal sprints in Atlanta, Bailey's track career was a litany of records and rare accomplishments, including his audacious 1997 race in Toronto's SkyDome against American 200-metre Olympic champion Michael Johnson to determine who was really the world’s fastest man. There was no disputing the result. Bailey had been coached in success before he was seriously coached in athletics. Following the lead of his father, a machinist-turned-real estate investor, Bailey became a millionaire by the age of 21, an experience he continues to draw on as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Frank about his dominance on the track and unapologetic for expecting as much of those around him as he expects of himself, Undisputed is an athlete's story that refuses to settle for second best.The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays
Par Andrew Forbes. 2016
Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America’s national pastime. A collection of essays for…
ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It’s a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication—whether we’re eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a rain delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about America through ball-diamond visits to the most famous triple play that never happened on Canadian soil, Forbes invites us to witness the adult conversing with the O-Pee-Chee baseball cards of his youth. Tender, insightful, and with the slow heartbreak familiar to anyone who’s cheered on a losing team, The Utility of Boredom tells us a thing or two about the sport, and how a seemingly trivial game might help us make sense of our messy lives.The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued . . .
Par Rick Mercer. 2023
THE INSTANT #1 BESTSELLERRick Mercer is back—again!—with the eagerly awaited sequel to his bestselling memoirAt the end of his memoir…
Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer was poised to make the biggest leap yet in his extraordinary career. Having overcome a serious lack of promise as a schoolboy and risen through the showbiz ranks—as an aspiring actor, star of a surprisingly successful one-man show about the Meech Lake Accord, co-founder of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, creator and star of the dark-comedy sitcom Made in Canada—he was about to tackle his biggest opportunity yet. The Road Years picks up the story at that exciting point, with the greenlighting of what would become Rick Mercer Report. Plans for the show, of course, included political satire and Rick’s patented rants. But Rick and his partner, Gerald Lunz, were also determined to do something that comedy tends to avoid as too challenging: they would emphasize the positive. Rick would travel from coast to coast to coast in search of everything that’s best about Canada, especially its people. He found a lot to celebrate, naturally, and was rewarded with a huge audience and a run of 15 seasons. The Road Years tells the inside story of that stupendous success. A time when Rick was heading to another town—or military base, sports centre, national park—to try dogsledding, chainsaw carving, and bear tagging; hang from a harness (a lot); ride the “Train of Death;” plus countless other joyous and/or reckless assignments. Added to the mix were encounters with the country’s great. Every living prime minister. Rock and roll royalty from Rush to Randy Bachman. Olympians and Paralympians. A skinny-dipping Bob Rae. And Jann Arden, of course, who gets a chapter to herself. Along the way he even found the time to visit several countries in Africa and co-found and champion the charity Spread the Net, which has gone on to protect the lives of millions. Join the celebration, and revive a wealth of happy memories, with what is Rick Mercer’s funniest, most fascinating book yet.The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes On Trial
Par John Densmore. 2023
Legendary drummer and founding member of The Doors, John Densmore, unpacks the intersection of art and commerce in this deeply…
principled middle finger to greed "The Doors drummer Densmore rockets through his tumultuous six-year lawsuit against former bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in this no-holds-barred account . . . Throughout, the author's initial question—at what point does money cheapen art's original message?—remains salient, even if he hammers it home a bit repetitively. Devoted fans will be eager to get their hands on this deep dive." —Publishers Weekly "Densmore's concerns about his band's legacy and its meaning in today's society are thought-provoking and worth pondering. Also impressive is his continued respect for his former bandmates' creativity and musicianship, despite the in-fighting, philosophical differences, and court battles. Not a typical rock memoir, but something more interesting to those who want to look past the hit songs and off-stage antics." —Kirkus Reviews "Part courtroom drama, part morality tale, The Doors Unhinged reminds us what happens when greed and deception get in the way of teamwork and the creative process." —Booklist IN THE DOORS UNHINGED, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR and legendary Doors drummer John Densmore offers a powerful exploration of the "greed gene"—that part of the human psyche that propels us toward the accumulation of more and more wealth, even at the expense of our principles, friendships, and the well-being of society. This is the gripping account of the legal battle to control The Doors's artistic destiny. In it, Densmore looks at his conflict with his bandmates over the right to use The Doors's name, revealing the ways in which this struggle mirrors and reflects a much larger societal issue: that no amount of money seems to be enough for even the wealthiest people. The Doors continue to attract new generations of fans, with more than one hundred million albums sold worldwide and counting, and nearly twenty million followers to the band's social media accounts. As such, Densmore occupies a rarefied space in popular culture. He's beloved by artists across the decades for his fierce, uncompromising dedication to art. His writing consistently earns accolades and has appeared in a range of publications, such as the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. As his friend and American novelist Tom Robbins recently said to him, "If you keep writing like this, I'll have to get a drum set." This is an incredibly timely and important volume in a contemporary world that is increasingly consumed by an insatiable profit motive. John Densmore has given us a blueprint for an approach to life and culture that is not driven by greed.Muse: Cicely Tyson and Me: A Relationship Forged in Fashion
Par B Michael. 2002
“Friendship, love and a beautiful sense of togetherness sew together this gem of a book. B Michael...presents to us a…
portrait of a woman who was a rare gift to fashion and culture.” —EDWARD ENNINFUL, OBE, Editor-in-Chief, British Vogue & European Editorial Director, VogueA poignant and glorious photographic memoir that pays homage to the lifelong friendship between the legendary Cicely Tyson and acclaimed fashion designer B Michael, who worked with her to make her gorgeous through her last bow.What greater act of friendship is there than making someone dear look and feel their most beautiful and powerful? That was the priceless gift acclaimed designer B Michael gave to one of Hollywood’s greatest actresses, Cicely Tyson over the course of their close, decades-long relationship. In this glorious four-color visual memoir packed with stunning photographs, many never before seen, B Michael recalls the bond they shared and what it was like to dress the Queen of Hollywood for all the extraordinary events of her life.In 2005, B was summoned to create a suitable wardrobe for Ms. Tyson for a high-octane weekend hosted by Oprah Winfrey. That first successful interaction led to a nearly twenty-year-long personal and professional collaboration that defined the Hollywood star’s personal aesthetic and showcased her impeccable personality and style. B was with Ms. Tyson for the most glamorous times—the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, White House functions, glittering galas, high-profile funerals—as well as the tenderest days. Their circle included a who’s who of Black celebrities, including Sidney Poitier, Barack Obama, Common, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Lenny Kravitz, Viola Davis, Oprah, Tyler Perry, Valerie Simpson, Phylicia Rashad, and many more, most of whom are featured in personal and paparazzi photographs in these pages.Throughout their time together, B and Cicely enjoyed shocking the fashionistas, shattering inane rules limiting what a woman of a certain age should wear, devoted themselves to changing the world for the better through philanthropic efforts, laughed, cried, and inspired and celebrated each other’s excellence. In this stunning book featuring studio photos, candids from the author’s personal collection, and paparazzi shots, B shares every aspect of their time together—from the drama of a good sleeve to how to be the best friend possible to those we love.Whether you’re a fan of pop culture, couture, Hollywood, B, or Cicely Tyson, Muse is a reminder that we all have the power to be showstoppers in our own lives.Includes written contributions from Lenny Kravitz, Bridget Foley, Susan Fales Hill, and Valerie Simpson.More: A Memoir of Open Marriage
Par Molly Roden Winter. 2024
A Top January Read: New York Times, Los Angeles Times • An intimate memoir of love, desire, and personal growth that…
follows a happily married mother as she explores sex and relationships outside her marriage • "This book about open marriage is going to blow up your group chat"—The Washington PostMolly Roden Winter was a mother of small children with a husband, Stewart, who often worked late. One night when Stewart missed the kids&’ bedtime—again—she stormed out of the house to clear her head. At a bar, she met Matt, a flirtatious younger man. When Molly told her husband that Matt had asked her out, she was surprised that Stewart encouraged her to accept.So began Molly&’s unexpected open marriage and, with it, a life-changing journey of self-discovery. Molly signs up for dating sites, enters into passionate flings, and has sex in hotels and public places around New York City. For Molly it&’s a mystery why she wants what she wants. In therapy sessions, fueled by the discovery that her parents had an open marriage, too, she grapples with her past and what it means to be a mother and a whole person.Molly and Stewart, who also begins to see other people, set ground rules: Don&’t date an ex. Don&’t date someone in the neighborhood. Don&’t go to anyone&’s home. And above all, don&’t fall in love. In the years that follow, they break most of their rules, even the most important one. They grapple with jealousy, insecurity, and doubts, all the while wondering: Can they love others and stay true to their love for each other? Can they make the impossible work?More is an electric debut that offers both steamy fun and poignant reflections on motherhood, daughterhood, marriage, and self-fulfillment. With warmth, humor, and style, Molly Roden Winter delivers an unputdownable journey of a woman becoming her most authentic self.My Life at the Wheel: Toward a Memoir
Par Lynne Sharon Schwartz. 2024
From an &“American literary treasure&” comes this humorous collection of essays on writing, friendship, family, and aging in an increasingly…
complex world(Publishers Weekly). In this diverting anthology, National Book Award finalist Lynne Sharon Schwartz explores the connections and complications of a life rich with travel, fascinating people, and writing. Her body of work includes acclaimed novels, poetry, essays, memoirs, and English translations of Italian books. With biting wit, My Life at the Wheel dissects the trials of Schwartz&’s recovery from major surgery; reveals her quest for hope and healing in the wake of the 9/11 attacks; comically muses on her fear of driving and her discovery of an &“unknown&” book by Henry James; and weaves colorful stories of hours spent arguing, drinking, and smoking with friends in a neighborhood bar in her native New York City. Her personal narratives range from riotous reflections on finding her calling to be an author, to the challenges of writing while raising children, and from a daughter struggling to understand her parents through adolescent eyes to an aging woman grappling with her own mortality. Relentlessly candid and often painfully funny, Schwartz fearlessly probes life&’s most difficult truths, as she willingly confronts the complexities of growing older in a rapidly changing world.Praise for the writing of Lynne Sharon Schwartz &“[Schwartz&’s]insights are at once sympathetic and drenched with irony.&” —The New York Times &“Reading Schwartz is like a pleasurable visit with a thoughtful and articulate friend.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“I can think of no other contemporary writer who writes so well.&” —Los Angeles Review of BooksThe Best American Essays 2013 (The Best American Series)
Par Cheryl Strayed, Robert Atwan. 2013
Curated by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wild, this volume shares intimate perspectives from some of today&’s…
most acclaimed writers. As Cheryl Strayed explains in her introduction, &“the invisible, unwritten last line of every essay should be and nothing was ever the same again.&” The reader, in other words, should feel the ground shift, if even only a bit. In this edition of the acclaimed anthology series, Strayed has gathered twenty-six essays that each capture an inexorable, tectonic shift in life. Personal and deeply perceptive, this collection examines a broad range of life experiences—from a man&’s relationship with Mormonism to a woman&’s search for a serial killer; from listening to the music of Joni Mitchell to surviving five months at sea; from triaging injured soldiers to giving birth to a daughter; and much more.The Best American Essays 2013 includes entries by Alice Munro, Zadie Smith, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Dagoberto Gilb, Vicki Weiqi Yang, J.D. Daniels, Michelle Mirsky, and others.Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
Par Craig McNamara. 2022
This unforgettable father and son story confronts the legacy of the Vietnam War across two generations: &“an important book that should…
be read by every American&” (Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran and author of Born on the Fourth of July). Craig McNamara came of age in the political tumult and upheaval of the late 60s. While Craig McNamara would grow up to take part in anti-war demonstrations, his father, Robert McNamara, served as John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Defense and the architect of the Vietnam War. This searching and revealing memoir offers an intimate picture of one father and son at pivotal periods in American history. Because Our Fathers Lied is more than a family story—it is a story about America. Before Robert McNamara joined Kennedy's cabinet, he was an executive who helped turn around Ford Motor Company. Known for his tremendous competence and professionalism, McNamara came to symbolize "the best and the brightest." Craig, his youngest child and only son, struggled in his father's shadow. When he ultimately fails his draft board physical, Craig decides to travel by motorcycle across Central and South America, learning more about the art of agriculture and making what he defines as an honest living. By the book's conclusion, Craig McNamara is farming walnuts in Northern California and coming to terms with his father's legacy. Because Our Fathers Lied tells the story of the war from the perspective of a single, unforgettable American family.Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero
Par Ashley Smith, Stacy Mattingly. 2005
In March 2005, Ashley Smith made headlines around the globe when she miraculously talked her way out of the hands…
of alleged courthouse killer Brian Nichols after he took her hostage for seven hours in her suburban Atlanta apartment. In this moving, inspirational account, the twenty-seven-year-old widowed mother of a six-year-old girl shares for the first time the little-known details of her traumatic ordeal and expands on how her faith and the bestselling book The Purpose-Driven®Life helped her survive and bring the killer’s murderous rampage to a peaceful end. Like her captor, Smith too has faced darkness and despair. Yet even during the most desolate times of her life, she yearned for something better. Seeking a new life, she moved to Atlanta, got a job, enrolled in a medical assistant training program, and was beginning to find her way to becoming the kind of mom she wanted her little girl to have. Then Brian Nichols took her hostage. Just hours earlier, he’d allegedly shot to death a judge, a court reporter, a deputy, and a federal agent and escaped in a stolen vehicle. Ashley had paid only passing attention to media coverage of the unfolding manhunt. Now she found herself face-to-face with Nichols, a desperate, heavily armed man with nothing left to lose. Unlikely Angel is Ashley’s gripping, powerful account of how this nightmare scenario developed into a remarkable connection between a man wanted for multiple murders and a single mother struggling to make a fresh beginning from her troubled past. Juxtaposing the minute-by-minute tale of her experience with the never-before-told tragedies and triumphs of her own life, Unlikely Angelis a story that will leave no reader untouched.Ashley has made appearances on Oprah, Good Morning America, 20/20, and Larry King Live.Burl: Journalism Giant and Medical Trailblazer
Par Jane Wolfe. 2022
Burl is the story of one man&’s unlikely rise from the coal mines of Appalachia to the pinnacle of journalism.…
After being diagnosed with a fatal kidney disease as a child, Burl Osborne pioneered home dialysis treatment and became the 130th person to undergo a live kidney transplant in 1966—then an unproven, high-risk operation.While managing his challenging illness, Burl distinguished himself early as a writer and reporter with The Associated Press, eventually rising to the top of the wire service&’s executive ranks. Then, against the advice of his colleagues and the newspaper&’s own doctors, he sought an even greater challenge: joining The Dallas Morning News to lead the fight in one of America&’s last great newspaper wars. Throughout his life and career, he garnered respect from business and political leaders, reporters, editors, and publishers around the country. Burl thrusts readers into the improbable and remarkable life of a man at the forefront of both medicine and the golden age of journalism.Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back
Par Claire Fontaine, Mia Fontaine. 2006
“Come Back is a testament to the power of the love between a mother and a daughter.” — New York…
Times Book Review“Best mother-daughter memoir.” — Glamour“We strongly recommend this powerful mother-daughter memoir...Intense, shocking, and ultimately triumphant...” — Barnes & Noble“A nightmarish saga of a teenage runaway in L.A. ends triumphantly. . . . Heart-wrenching, honest dialogue.” — Publishers Weekly“A powerful and moving story of two brave women who struggled through darkness into the light.” — Susan Forward, Ph.D., author of Toxic Parents“A rare, visceral reading experience....Offering lessons in living, loving, and accepting responsibility that could benefit every reader.” — Edwin John Wintle, author of Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir“One of those rare books I could hardly put down until I finished. . . . Brilliant—and often funny, too!” — Leah Komaiko, author of Am I Old Yet?Epilogue: A Memoir
Par Anne Richardson Roiphe. 2008
Anne Roiphe was not quite seventy years old when her husband of nearly forty years unexpectedly passed away. But it…
was not until her daughters placed a personal ad in a literary journal that Roiphe began to consider the previously unimagined possibility of a new man. Eloquent and astute, moving between heartbreaking memories of her marriage and the pressing needs of a new day-to-day routine, Epilogue takes us on her journey into the unknown world of life after love.Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power
Par James McGrath Morris. 2010
Like Alfred Nobel, Joseph Pulitzer is better known today for the prize that bears his name than for his contribution…
to history. Yet, in nineteenth-century industrial America, while Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Pulitzer ushered in the modern mass media. James McGrath Morris traces the epic story of this Jewish Hungarian immigrant's rise through American politics and into journalism where he accumulated immense power and wealth, only to fall blind and become a lonely, tormented recluse wandering the globe. But not before Pulitzer transformed American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence. As the first media baron to recognize the vast social changes of the industrial revolution, he harnessed all the converging elements of entertainment, technology, business, and demographics, and made the newspaper an essential feature of urban life. Pulitzer used his influence to advance a progressive political agenda and his power to fight those who opposed him. The course he followed led him to battle Theodore Roosevelt who, when President, tried to send Pulitzer to prison. The grueling legal battles Pulitzer endured for freedom of the press changed the landscape of American newspapers and politics. Based on years of research and newly discovered documents, Pulitzer is a classic, magisterial biography and a gripping portrait of an American icon.Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture
Par John Capouya. 2008
“Finally, the tawdry but glamorous details behind the legend of one of my first childhood heroes. Gorgeous George is such…
a good read I felt like bleaching my hair afterwards.” — John Waters“Capouya’s biography vividly re-creates Gorgeous George’s antics and the world in which he had more shock value than a numerically named wideout could hope for today.” — Sports Illustrated“Compelling. . . . The tension between George’s excess and his era’s reserve is one of many in his story, and those are what make Capouya’s cultural anthropology so interesting.” — Newsweek“Terrifically, tantalizingly weird. . . . GORGEOUS GEORGE does leave the words of one long-ago sports reporter ringing in your ears: ‘Oh, my, what a strut. If only this man had been born in the barnyard. What a rooster he would have made.’” — New York Times“...[Capouya] delivers a solid, entertaining book about a long-forgotten character and a peculiar slice of American history.” — Entertainment Weekly“Capouya vividly portrays the ins and outs of wrestling and [Wagner’s] own struggle to maintain the ‘Gorgeousness’ of a public life in his private life as well.” — Publishers Weekly“In GORGEOUS GEORGE, Capouya combines extensive research and interviews with a colorful writing style and presents Gorgeous George as a cultural pioneer...Capouya’s words are as fast-paced as the action in the ring and connect with the reader as solidly as a dropkick to George’s kisser.” — Tampa Tribune“Compulsively entertaining...” — Penthouse“You see the title of John Capouya’s biography of Gorgeous George - which claims the flamboyant wrestler “created pop culture” - and you are struck by its audacity. A wrestler responsible for something that important? Impossible. But as you go through the pages, you can’t help but agree.” — New York Post“Gorgeous George invented a style of showmanship that was imitated by entertainers and athletes. With this biography, John Capouya has done an excellent job in introducing the most inventive of sport’s anti-heroes to a new generation of readers.” — Ishmael Reed (novelist, poet, and cultural critic)NO DOUBT OF IT: GEE GEE’S THE BIGGEST THING IN TV — Washington Post, 1949“I don’t know if I was made for television, or television was made for me.” — Gorgeous George“Liberace stole my entire act, including the candelabra!” — Gorgeous George“One can explain the American condition as an eternal, televised battle between the Babyface and the Heel. That said, there’s never been a heel like Gorgeous George. John Capouya has done a fine job here, excavating a forgotten life and explaining why it mattered.” — Mark Kriegel, author of Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich; National Columnist for FOXSports.com“Like the man himself, this inside look at a legendary performer challenges the reader to think beyond the wrestling ring. We give it four suplexes out of five.” — Pro Wrestling Illustrated“Former Newsweek editor John Capouya reveals the gory underworld of pre-WWE wrestling and shows how the Gorgeous One inspired James Brown, who loved George’s robes, and Muhammad Ali, whose “I am the prettiest” echoed the wrestler’s own vainglorious boasts.” — Los Angeles Magazine“As a show-biz bio and, for those who subscribe to a loose definition of sport, a sports bio, too, this is great stuff, entertaining and well referenced.” — BooklistModel Patient: My Life As an Incurable Wise-Ass
Par Karen Duffy. 2000
From Revlon spokesmodel to film actress to one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People," Karen Duffy was living the…
life most of us only dream of. Then her whirlwind life of celebrity parties came to an abrupt, grinding halt when she was stricken with a serious illness in one of its rarest forms: sarcoidosis of the central nervous system.Duffy soon realized that the only way for her to survive was not to take the disease too seriously. Instead of hiding from life, she chose to run toward it. She learned to embrace the chaos of a life-threatening disease with a wit and humor that helped her to find the love of her life at a time when things seemed darkest.Model Patient is a gripping, inspiring, and hilarious memoir that recounts the singular triumphs and tragedies of coping with a chronic, life-threatening disease.The SEC. The Masters. The Olympics. March Madness. The Dallas Cowboys. Yes sir, Uncle Verne has seen it all.Over the last…
fifty years, few voices have epitomized the sound of sports television quite like that of Verne Lundquist’s. A fixture on air since the 1960s—first broadcasting University of Texas baseball and Dallas Cowboys football games on radio before eventually joining the legendary CBS Sports team—Verne has covered just about every sport there is, and in the process he’s made some of the most enduring calls in the history of golf, football, figure skating—and everything in between.In Play by Play, Verne goes inside those calls and his remarkable career, telling the behind-the-scenes story of how he ended up with the best seats in the house, giving voice to history time and time again. From Christian Laettner’s buzzer-beater in the 1992 NCAA tournament, to the saga of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding at the 1994 Olympics, to the shocking finish of the Iron Bowl in 2013, to Jack Nicklaus’s and Tiger Woods’s unforgettable victories at the Masters, Verne’s five decades as a sportscaster routinely put him in the midst of greatness. With his trademark humility and his goal to make the athlete the legend, instead of the call itself, Verne details his view of the plays that have captured our collective imagination for two generations, featuring an incredible cast of characters that includes names like Terry Bradshaw, Pat Summerall, John Madden, Scott Hamilton, and Tom Landry.What emerges is an invigorating portrait of the games that matter most, in life and on the field. A moving recollection of the moments that make sports worth watching, Play by Play reminds us all that sports are about more than games played—they’re about the history that we share together and the voices that we remember long after the final whistle has blown.Stand Tall: Fighting for My Life, Inside and Outside the Ring
Par Dewey Bozella. 2016
The inspiring story of one man’s fight against his wrongful incarceration and his eventual triumph—both inside and outside the boxing…
ring.In the late 1970s, Dewey Bozella was wrongfully convicted of murdering Emma Crapser, a ninety-two-year-old resident of Poughkeepsie, New York. Sentenced to twenty years to life in prison, Bozella fiercely maintained his innocence throughout his ordeal at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and even refused the prosecutor’s offer of freedom in exchange for an admission of guilt. But in 2009, more than a quarter century later, Dewey Bozella would reclaim his identity and his humanity when his conviction was vacated.In this raw and uplifting memoir, Bozella takes us through the trials, tribulations, and joys of his life inside prison and, eventually, as a free man. While at Sing Sing, he took up boxing to channel his anger, and eventually became the prison’s light-heavyweight champion. Bozella also met and married the love of his life from behind bars, lost countless parole hearings, and spent agonizing time on a cell block with both his brother’s murderer and, it turned out, the true crim-inal in whose place Bozella served so much time. But Bozella never gave up. After he was refused parole and had his sentence extended, the Innocence Project caught word of his case. Thanks to his undying faith, stalwart persistence, and the aid of a young pro bono attorney at the Innocence Project who doggedly worked toward Bozella’s release when all hope seemed lost, he was released from prison in 2009. Shortly thereafter, he won his professional boxing debut against Larry Hopkins, started an afterschool athletics program for at-risk youth, and was awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage.An incredibly uplifting underdog story, Stand Tall recounts one man’s perseverance in the face of injustice and his difficult road to freedom.NFL Confidential: True Confessions from the Gutter of Football
Par Johnny Anonymous. 2016
Meet Johnny Anonymous. No, that’s not his real name. But he is a real, honest-to-goodness pro football player. A member…
of the League. A slave, if you will, to the NFL. For the millions of you out there who wouldn’t know what to do on Sundays if there wasn’t football, who can’t imagine life without the crunch of helmets ringing in your ears, or who look forward to the Super Bowl more than your birthday, Johnny Anonymous decided to tell his story.Written during the 2014–2015 season, this is a year in the life of the National Football League. This is a year in the life of a player—not a marquee name, but a guy on the roster—gutting it out through training camp up to the end of the season, wondering every minute if he’s going to get playing time or get cut. Do you want to know how players destroy their bodies and their colons to make weight? Do you wonder what kind of class and racial divides really exist in NFL locker rooms? Do you want to know what NFL players and teams really think about gay athletes or how the League is really dealing with crime and violence against women by its own players? Do you wonder about the psychological warfare between players and coaches on and off the field? About how much time players spend on Tinder or sexting when not on the field? About how star players degrade or humiliate second- and third-string players?What players do about the headaches and memory loss that appear after every single game? This book will tell you all of this and so much more. Johnny Anonymous holds nothing back in this whip-smart commentary that only an insider, and a current player, could bring.Part truth-telling personal narrative, part darkly funny exposé, NFL Confidential gives football fans a look into a world they’d give anything to see, and nonfans a wild ride through the strange, quirky, and sometimes disturbing realities of America’s favorite game. Here is a truly unaffiliated look at the business, guts, and glory of the game, all from the perspective of an underdog who surprises everyone—especially himself.JOHNNY ANONYMOUS is a four-year offensive lineman for the NFL. Under another pseudonym, he’s also a contributor for the comedy powerhouse Funny Or Die.You can pretty much break NFL players down into three categories.Twenty percent do it because they’re true believers. They’re smart enough to do something else if they wanted, and the money is nice and all, but really they just love football. They love it, they live it, they believe in it, it’s their creed. They would be nothing without it. Hell, they’d probably pay the League to play if they had to! These guys are obviously psychotic.Thirty percent of them do it just for the money. So they could do something else—sales, desk jockey, accountant, whatever—but they play football because the money is just so damn good. And it is good.And last of all, 49.99 percent play football because, frankly, it’s the only thing they know how to do. Even if they wanted to do something “normal,” they couldn’t. All they’ve ever done in their lives is play football—it was their way out, either of the hood or the deep woods country. They need football. If football didn’t exist, they’d be homeless, in a gang, or maybe in prison.Then there’s me.I’m part of my own little weird minority, that final 0.01 percent. We’re such a minority, we don’t even count as a category. We’re the professional football players who flat-out hate professional football.Remember the Sweet Things: One List, Two Lives, and Twenty Years of Marriage
Par Ellen Greene. 2009
For twenty years, Ellen Greene kept a running list of the thoughtful, funny, touching things that her husband, Marsh, said…
and did. She wrote them down secretly, then shared them with him every Valentine’s Day when he would find pages from her “Sweet Things List” tucked inside a card. A lovely and poignant tribute to a man and a marriage, written with grace and candor, Remember the Sweet Things captures the kindness, sharing, humor, and affection that defined the Greenes’ union and encourages us to acknowledge the goodness in our own lives and relationships.