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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 Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc
Par Larissa Juliet Taylor. 1994
&“A fresh and provocative biography of La Pucelle . . . her transformation from a naive girl to a strong-willed,…
bold, and gifted captain of war.&”—Frederic J. Baumgartner, author of France in the Sixteenth CenturyFrance&’s great heroine and England&’s great scourge: whether a lunatic, a witch, a religious icon, or a skilled soldier and leader, Joan of Arc&’s contemporaries found her as extraordinary and fascinating as the legends that abound about her today. But her life has been so endlessly cast and recast that we have lost sight of the remarkable girl at the heart of it—a teenaged peasant girl who, after claiming to hear voices, convinced the French king to let her lead a disheartened army into battle. In the process she changed the course of European history.In The Virgin Warrior, Larissa Juliet Taylor paints a vivid portrait of Joan as a self-confident, charismatic and supremely determined figure, whose sheer force of will electrified those around her and struck terror into the hearts of the English soldiers and leaders. The drama of Joan&’s life is set against a world where visions and witchcraft were real, where saints could appear to peasants, battles and sieges decided the fate of kingdoms and rigged trials could result in burning at the stake. Yet in her short life, Joan emboldened the French soldiers and villagers with her strength and resolve. A difficult, inflexible leader, she defied her accusers and enemies to the end. From her early years to the myths and fantasies that have swelled since her death, Taylor &“goes deep into Joan of Arc&’s heart and soul and shows us the maiden, the warrior and the heroine&” (Kate Williams, New York Times bestselling author).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.The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science (Women Writing Science Ser.)
Par Julie Des Jardins. 2010
The historian and author of Lillian Gilbreth examines the &“Great Man&” myth of science with profiles of women scientists from…
Marie Curie to Jane Goodall. Why is science still considered to be predominantly male profession? In The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardin dismantles the myth of the lone male genius, reframing the history of science with revelations about women&’s substantial contributions to the field. She explores the lives of some of the most famous female scientists, including Jane Goodall, the eminent primatologist; Rosalind Franklin, the chemist whose work anticipated the discovery of DNA&’s structure; Rosalyn Yalow, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist; and, of course, Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer whose towering, mythical status has both empowered and stigmatized future generations of women considering a life in science. With lively anecdotes and vivid detail, The Madame Curie Complex reveals how women scientists have changed the course of science—and the role of the scientist—throughout the twentieth century. They often asked different questions, used different methods, and came up with different, groundbreaking explanations for phenomena in the natural world.3 Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager
Par Buzz Bissinger. 2005
This inside view with the Cardinals&’ Tony La Russa by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Friday Night Lights…
&“should appeal to any baseball fan&” (Publishers Weekly). A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year &“Plenty of books have taken us inside baseball, but August takes us directly inside players&’ heads.&” —Entertainment Weekly 3 Nights in August captures the strategic and emotional complexities of baseball&’s quintessential form: the three-game series. As the St. Louis Cardinals battle their archrival, the Chicago Cubs, we watch from the dugout through the eyes of legendary Tony La Russa, considered by many to be the greatest manager of the modern era. In his thirty-three years of managing, La Russa won three World Series titles and was named Manager of the Year a record five times. He now stands as the third-winningest manager in the history of baseball. A great leader, La Russa built his success on the conviction that ball games are won not only by the numbers but also by the hearts and minds of those who play. Drawing on unprecedented access to a major league skipper and his team, Buzz Bissinger portrays baseball with a revelatory intimacy that offers many surprisingly tactical insights—and furthers the debate on major league managerial style and strategy in his provocative afterword. &“Superb . . . Will be devoured by hard-core strategists.&” —The New York Times Book ReviewStrange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies
Par Stewart Copeland. 2009
When Stewart Copeland gets dressed, he has an identity crisis. Should he put on "leather pants, hostile shirts, and pointy…
shoes"? Or wear something more appropriate to the "tax-paying, property-owning, investment-holding lotus eater" his success has allowed him to become? This dilemma is at the heart of Copeland's vastly entertaining memoir-in-stories, Strange Things Happen. The world knows Copeland as the drummer for The Police, one of the most successful bands in rock history. But they may not know as much about his childhood in the Middle East as the son of a CIA agent. Or be aware of his film-making adventures with the Pygmies in the deepest reaches of the Congo, and his passion for polo (Brideshead Revisited on horses). In Strange Things Happen we move from Copeland's remarkable childhood to the formation of The Police, their rise to stardom, and the settled-down life that followed. It ends with a behind-the-scenes view of The Police's extraordinarily successful reunion tour. It's a book of amazing anecdotes, all completely true, which take us backstage in a life that is fully lived.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?Talking Irish: The Oral History Of Notre Dame Football
Par Steve Delsohn. 1998
An entertaining fusion of fact, legend, and lore, Notre Dame football has transcended the boundaries of the sport and the…
university to become a time-honored American tradition. For its legions of devoted fans and alumni, Talking Irish vividly captures it all: the exhilarating wins, the stunning defeats, the tumultuous coaching changes, and the celebrated mystique that surrounds this beloved football dynasty.With never-before-told anecdotes, this candid and revealing oral history -- the first ever written on Fighting Irish football -- is told in the words of more than 150 Notre Dame players, coaches, leading sports journalists, and school faculty. This rousing narrative begins in the 1940s, a decade after the death of the fabled Knute Rockne, and concludes five decades later, with the formidable exploits of Notre Dame football at the end of the twentieth century.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.Runnin' with the Big Dogs: The Long, Twisted History of the Texas-OU Rivalry
Par Mike Shropshire. 2006
Raucous, raw, and reliably remarkable, the century–old football riavlry between the state universities of Texas and Oklahoma stands as testimony…
that hate–based relationships are the most enduring. Texas and Oklahoma have been top–level programs for a long time, but in the last few years the rivalry has garnered ever more national attention. Mike Shropshire, an observer of this football war for more than 40 years, chronicles the long and colorful history of this fierce rivalry that has endured for more than a century. The teams have been playing at the Texas State fair since 1929–just a three–hour drive from each campus. This is the only football game in the country that is louder than a NASCAR race, because there's no place in the country that's more football–mad than Texas. Animosity runs deep in this relationship–but beyond the emotional urgency that the Texas–OU followers expend on this event, this is a union of like–minded spirits. They were brought up amid the simple mantra of the Red State road to success: "Get up early. Work hard. Find oil." Football would naturally become the spectator sports of preference in these parts. RUNNIN' WITH THE BIG DOGS is an account of that game and of the game and the events that lead up to the three–and–one–half hours when, deep in the heart of the heartland, it's the day the earth stands still. It will also chronicle the long and colorful history of this fiercest of football rivalries, and inundate the reader in the craziness of the week preceding the game. Year in, year out, the Texas–OU celebration equals or trumps any other rivalry in sheer excitement and entertainment value–and presently, these two teams more than any other pairing are consistently in the hunt for a national championship. The excitement is due in large part to the raw and dynamic history of the two states involved, from the Indian wars to the oil boom. Before statehood Oklahoma was known as Indian Territory, so this Red River Shootout is Cowboys and Indians all over again.The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness
Par Buster Olney. 2004
“Vivid, informed, and gracefully written, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty is sports writing at its very best.” —…
David Halberstam“The best and clearest view yet inside the secret society that is the New York Yankees.” — --John Feinstein, author of Season on The Brink and Caddy For LifeA well-mulled, highly atmospheric, and richly versed story of the Bronx Bombers’ great 1996-2001 ride. — Kirkus ReviewsThe definitive treatise on the great Yankee teams of the last seven years. — Peter Gammons, ESPN“A wonderful story about money, power, and baseball that will keep you reading until the bottom of the 9th.” — Mike Lupica, New York Daily News“The best contemporary book about baseball in several years. Yankee fans and haters alike will find it riveting.” — New York Sun“Buster Olney... has chronicled the definitive story of the Bronx Bombers at the end of the 20th century.” — New York Post“…An astonishing richness of detail here that you simply won’t find anywhere else.” — Boston GlobeWell-mulled, highly atmospheric, and richly versed …both subtle and opinionated... — Kirkus ReviewsA remarkably prescient work … Olney’s observations are eerily germane to … [2004’s] postseason meltdown. — Wall Street JournalBaseball has always had its share of colorful characters, and over the years they have expressed themselves in eminently quotable…
ways. In this treasury of more than 5,000 quotations, noted baseball writer and observer Paul Dickson has captured the flavor of the game, in the words of its most important participants and onlookers.They are all here—from Aaron (Estella, Hank's mother) to Zoldack ("Sad Sack" Sam), and everyone in between. From the players, sportswriters, and politicians, to noted personalities in other fields (a very diverse group), everyone has his or her say on our nation's pastime. Dickson skillfully selects and annotates each remark, presenting the good, the bad, and the ugly of baseball lore. Included are extended lessons in Stengelese, Reggiespeak, Earl Weaverisms, and famous announcers' home run calls (who can forget Mel Allen's classic "Going, going, gone!"?).These and thousands of other cheerful, pithy, and memorable voices from the past through the present day are all captured in Baseball's Greatest Quotations.Knuckler: My Life with Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch
Par Tim Wakefield. 2011
"An incredibly intelligent, self-aware glimpse inside an admirable career. The preseason pick for best baseball book of the season." –Booklist…
(starred review) "A must-read." -- Boston Globe “Knuckler is a terrific book about one of baseball's most underrated pitchers, not to mention baseball's most misunderstood pitch. There are wonderful stories and anecdotes here, but it's also a portrait of a humble, caring man who has carved out a special niche for himself. If you love baseball (not just Red Sox baseball), Knuckler is for you. If you don't care a hang about baseball, but like stories about exceptionally talented people behaving decently, Knuckler is also for you. And if you're sick to death of sports stories about athletes behaving badly, Tim Wakefield's book is the perfect antidote.” –Stephen King“To read Knuckler is to appreciate that there is no gimmick, no fluke, no chance to Tim Wakefield approaching 200 wins and 20 major league seasons. This book is about resiliency, diligence and the tunnel vision required to live by what appears to be the most fanciful pitch thrown by man." –Peter Gammons, MLB baseball analyst and member of the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame"Tim Wakefield’s Knuckler is a fastball right down the middle of the plate. It is an honest, straightforward and very enjoyable account of the national pastime.” –Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner of Baseball"I have always admired Tim Wakefield, as he plays baseball with a great deal of integrity, the way the game should be played. Knuckler gives readers a rare glimpse at the man behind the baseball and his remarkable work on and off the field." –Carlton Fisk, Hall of Fame catcher "Competent and entertaining, Wakefield's book is one to savor, especially for the stat-obsessed baseball fan and the novice pitcher in search of a knuckleball to call his own." –Publishers Weekly"Provides valuable insights on perseverance, professionalism, and the ability to forget the last pitch." –Library Journal —From beanballs to basebrawls, the most important rules governing the game of baseball have never been officially written down—until now.They…
have no sanction from the Commissioner, appear nowhere in any official publication, and are generally not posted on any clubhouse wall. They represent a set of time-honored customs, rituals, and good manners that show a respect for the game, one's teammates, and one's opponents. Sometimes they contradict the official rulebook. The fans generally only hear about them when one is bent or broken, and it becomes news for a few days. Now, for the first time ever, Paul Dickson has put these unwritten rules down on paper, covering every situation, whether on the field or in the clubhouse, press box, or stands. Along with entertaining baseball axioms, quotations, and rules of thumb, this essential volume contains the collected wisdom of dozens of players, managers, and reporters on the secret rules that you break at your own risk, such as:1.7.1. In a Fight, Everyone Must Leave the Bench and the Bullpen Has to Join In1.13.3. In a Blowout Game, Never Swing as Hard as You Can at a 3-0 Pitch5.1.0. In Areas That Have Two Baseball Teams, Any Given Fan Can Only Really Root For One of ThemFirst Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents
Par Bonnie Angelo. 2001
In this highly acclaimed book, Bonnie Angelo celebrates a group of remarkable women who played a pivotal role in developing…
the characters of the modern American presidents — their mothers. Angelo, a veteran reporter and writer for TIME magazine, explores the lives, thoughts and feelings of these women who so influenced the twentieth century’s most powerful leaders. From the aristocratic and formidable Sara Delano Roosevelt to diehard Democrat Martha Truman, from stoic Hannah Milhous Nixon to the hard-living Virginia Clinton Kelly, First Mothers is an in-depth look at the special mother-son relationship that has nurtured America’s presidents and helped them to achieve great things. A veteran correspondent at TIME magazine and the first woman to head a TIME foreign bureau, Bonnie Angelo has reported on the White House and presidential families throughout eight administrations. As a Washington correspondent and bureau chief in London and New York, she has covered newsmakers and major events in all fifty states and around the world. “A fascinating book, gracefully written ... gives the reader fresh insights into how the characters and values of our recent presidents were shaped.” — Washington Post Book WorldAmerica's Game: The NFL at 100
Par Jerry Rice, Randy O. Williams. 2019
“This book is an amazing compilation of the game’s history as seen through the eyes of my friend Jerry Rice,…
aka The GOAT. If you are a football fan, you are going to love this book almost as much as you loved watching Jerry play!” — Barry Sanders, Hall of Fame Class of 2004“Going back to our days together, Jerry Rice’s dedication to excellence has always been a trademark of his, and now it shines again with this highly entertaining book celebrating 100 years of the National Football League.” — Steve Young, Hall of Fame Class of 2005“Jerry played every snap, whether in practice or in games, as if it were his last. His new book reflects that same dedication to be the best.” — Brett Favre, Hall of Fame Class of 2016“It’s a daunting task to compress 100 years of history into just under 500 pages with any coherency, but Rice and Williams manage the task ably...a fun read and very informative.” — Booklist“A treat for gridiron fans.” — Kirkus ReviewsThe Best American Sports Writing 2016 (Best American Ser.)
Par Glenn Stout. 2016
For more than twenty-five years, The Best American Sports Writing has curated the year&’s finest sports journalism. Continuing the tradition…
in a long line of notable guest editors is Rick Telander, acclaimed journalist, author, and champion of the written word. His choices are defined by one shared thread: effort, on the part of athletes and writers alike. The physical strength it takes to play professional hockey and football, or for a forty-two-year-old writer to learn how to dunk in six months. The mental and emotional toughness needed to turn around a losing team, or to speak out about a coach. The careful striving to make everything seem effortless. This edition encompasses it all.The Best American Sports Writing 2016 includes Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham, L. Jon Wertheim and Ken Rodriguez, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Steve Fainaru, Brett Popplewell, Alexandra Starr, Wright Thompson and othersRICK TELANDER is a Chicago Sun-Times senior sports columnist and the Basketball Evangelist for Slam magazine. He has also written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN: The Magazine, and has been featured seven times in The Best American Sports Writing. He is the author of eight books, including Heaven Is a Playground and From Red Ink to Roses.GLENN STOUT, series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception, is the author of Young Woman and the Sea and Fenway 1912.Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School
Par Kendra James. 2022
NAMED A BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF 2022 BY ESQUIRE &“[C]harming and surprising. . . The work of Admissions is laying…
down, with wit and care, the burden James assumed at 15, that she — or any Black student, or all Black students — would manage the failures of a racially illiterate community. . . The best depiction of elite whiteness I&’ve read.&”—New York Times A Most Anticipated Book by Vogue.com · Parade · Town & Country · Nylon ·New York Post · Lit Hub · BookRiot · Electric Literature · Glamour · Marie Claire · Publishers Weekly · Bustle · Fodor's Travel· Business Insider · Pop Sugar · InsideHook · SheReads Early on in Kendra James&’ professional life, she began to feel like she was selling a lie. As an admissions officer specializing in diversity recruitment for independent prep schools, she persuaded students and families to embark on the same perilous journey she herself had made—to attend cutthroat and largely white schools similar to The Taft School, where she had been the first African-American legacy student only a few years earlier. Her new job forced her to reflect on her own elite education experience, and to realize how disillusioned she had become with America&’s inequitable system. In ADMISSIONS, Kendra looks back at the three years she spent at Taft, chronicling clashes with her lily-white roommate, how she had to unlearn the respectability politics she'd been raised with, and the fall-out from a horrifying article in the student newspaper that accused Black and Latinx students of being responsible for segregation of campus. Through these stories, some troubling, others hilarious, she deconstructs the lies and half-truths she herself would later tell as an admissions professional, in addition to the myths about boarding schools perpetuated by popular culture. With its combination of incisive social critique and uproarious depictions of elite nonsense, ADMISSIONS will resonate with anyone who has ever been The Only One in a room, dealt with racial microaggressions, or even just suffered from an extreme case of homesickness.Pennant Race: The Classic Game by Game Account of a Championship Season, 1961
Par Jim Brosnan. 1962
“Brosnan obviously knows his baseball, writes about it wittily, informally and with irony. He is a cynical, tough professional athlete…
and his book makes wonderful reading.”—New YorkerFrom the author of The Long Season—considered by many to be the greatest baseball book of all time—comes another classic sports memoir by legendary pitcher Jim Brosnan, which chronicles how his team, the Cincinnati Reds, went on to win the 1961 National League pennant.In Pennant Race, Brosnan—with his trademark wise-guy wit and plain-spoken practicality—once again offers a refreshingly candid alternative to hackneyed baseball mythologizing. Day by day, game by game, Brosnan reveals the real lives of professional ballplayers: their exhilaration and frustration, hope and despair, chronic worry over job security, playful camaraderie, world-weary cynicism, and boyish—if cautious—optimism. Although the Reds would ultimately lose the World Series to the Yankees, for Brosnan and his teammates, this was a winning season. Pennant Race vividly captures a remarkable year in the life of a ball club and the golden age of one of Major League Baseball’s most memorable eras.The Best American Sports Writing 2019 (Best American Ser.)
Par Glenn Stout. 2019
"Outstanding . . . This great mix of essays shines a spotlight on all aspects of the human condition .…
. . The quality of the writing and diversity of the subjects will delight readers and inspire and enlighten the next generation of writers." --Publishers Weekly "First-rate . . . As ever, a must for the sports collection." --Booklist —