pop fifty:

Open: An Autobiography

By: Andre Agassi

Knopf

From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.

Agassis incredibly rigorous training begins when he is just a child. By the age of thirteen, he is banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair, pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning-fast return.

And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the worlds best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in th...

The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy

By: Bill Simmons

ESPN

Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: The Book of Basketball is a 700-page work of hoops genius that would make Dr. James Naismith beam proudly – and probably blush. Author Bill Simmons, best known as ESPN.com's "The Sports Guy," explores the NBA with hilarious insight, brilliant analysis, and a bevy of irreverent footnotes. Simmons is a fan first – a fact best explained in an entertaining foreword by Malcolm Gladwell – and writes from the stands, not the press room. His knowledge and passion for the game provide him with few peers, yet his voice represents those who stick by their teams through thick and thin. As a result, The Book of Basketball is not just a tribute to hardwood heroes, but also a celebration of yelling at TV sets,...

When the Game Was Ours

By: Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson Jr., Jackie MacMullan

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Amazon Exclusive: Bill Walton Reviews When the Game Was Ours

Bill Walton played in the NBA for 13 years, and in 1996, was named one of the top 50 players in NBA history. He's been an analyst for CBS Sports and NBC Sports, and since 2002, he's been a game analyst for ESPN NBA telecasts. Read his guest review of When the Game Was Ours:

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are transcendent, iconic and timeless standard bearers of excellence who changed "The Game" forever, always bringing out the best in each other and never failing to put a smile on all our faces.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

By: Christopher McDougall

Knopf

Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the worlds greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong. Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexicos deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague mo...

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

By: Jon Krakauer

Doubleday

BRAND NEW HARDBACK

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

By: Michael Lewis

W. W. Norton & Company

"Lewis has such a gift for storytelling...he writes as lucidly for sports fans as for those who read him for other reasons."Janet Maslin, New York Times One day Michael Oher will be among the most highly paid athletes in the National Football League. When we first meet him, he is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game in which the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the pr...

The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel

By: Garth Stein

Harper Paperbacks

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hopea captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it

The Blind Side (Movie Tie-in Edition)

By: Michael Lewis

W. W. Norton & Company

Opening on November 20, 2009, as a major motion picture, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. Opening in theaters November 20, 2009, The Blind Side is a feature movie based on Michaels Lewiss New York Times bestseller, produced by Alcon Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The Blind Side tells the inspirational story of Michael Oher, a homeless black teen taken under the wing of the Touhys, a wealthy white Memphis family. Ohers size and speed on the football field bring him accolades. But learning the games strategy and making it as a student take the help of his new family, coaches, and tutor.

Sandra Bullock stars as Leigh Anne Touhy, the sharp-witted and compassionate matriarch. Tim McGraw stars as her s...

Eating the Dinosaur

By: Chuck Klosterman

Scribner

A Book of All-New Pop Culture Pieces by Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman has chronicled rock music, film, and sports for almost fifteen years. He's covered extreme metal, extreme nostalgia, disposable art, disposable heroes, life on the road, life through the television, urban uncertainty and small-town weirdness. Through a variety of mediums and with a multitude of motives, he's written about everything he can think of (and a lot that he's forgotten). The world keeps accelerating, but the pop ideas keep coming.

In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watchi...

The Dangerous Book for Boys

By: Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden

William Morrow

Equal parts droll and gorgeous nostalgia book and heartfelt plea for a renewed sense of adventure in the lives of boys and men, Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys became a mammoth bestseller in the United Kingdom in 2006. Adapted, in moderation, for American customs in this edition (cricket is gone, rugby remains; conkers are out, Navajo Code Talkers in), The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. The book's ambitions are both modest and winningly optimistic: yo...

Hard Work: My Life On and Off the Court

By: Roy Williams, Tim Crothers

Algonquin Books

One of the most respected and successful basketball coaches in the nation, Coach Roy Williams traveled an unlikely path to a career that boasts the highest winning percentage among all active college coaches. Now, for the first time, he tells the story of his life, from his turbulent childhood to the North Carolina Tar Heels 2009 national championship season.

With unbridled honesty, Williams recounts his rough early years in the mountains of Western North Carolina. During the troubled times of his adolescence, Roys escape was a basketball courtwhether it was a neighbor's dirt court or the local school gym where hed shoot for hours at night. There was nowhere else to go, but as it turned out, no place hed rather be. The first in his family to go to college, Williams wound up at ...

Lost Balls: Great Holes, Tough Shots, and Bad Lies

By: Charles Lindsay

Bulfinch

Charles Lindsay's photographs offer a humorous and inquisitive foray into the hazards where golf balls are lost--rough, woods, bunkers, and wetlands--as well as unexpected encounters with wildlife on and off the green. An avid golfer with plenty of experience losing balls, Lindsay photographs his way to the heart of the game with a light touch and an eye for telling details. In the process, he discovers balls ravaged by golfers, gators, and foxes--and lost for over a century.

Lindsay even encounters what is believed to be the world's oldest golf ball--unearthed in a cellar in the Netherlands alongside a primitive club.

The photographs were taken at celebrated courses in North America, England, Scotland, and Ireland: Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, Bethpage, Fossil Trace, Troon, St...

The Daring Book for Girls

By: Andrea J. Buchanan, Miriam Peskowitz

William Morrow

The Daring Book for Girls is the manual for everything that girls need to knowand that doesn't mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it's female heroes in history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it's not just a guide to giggling at sleepoversalthough that's included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly-girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl's invitation to adventure.

Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance

By: Tony Dungy, Nathan Whitaker

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Super Bowlwinning coach and #1 New York Times best selling author Tony Dungy has had an unusual opportunity to reflect on what it takes to achieve significance. He is looked to by many as the epitome of the success and significance that is highly valued in our culture. He also works every day with young men who are trying to achieve significance through football and all that goes with a professional athletic careersuch as money, power, and celebrity. Coach Dungy has had all that, but he passionately believes that there is a different path to significance, a path characterized by attitudes, ambitions, and allegiances that are all too rare but uncommonly rewarding. Uncommon reveals lessons on achieving significance that the coach has learned from his remarkable parents, his ...

Encyclopedia of Immaturity (Klutz)

By: Editors of Klutz

Klutz

The Klutz Encyclopedia of Immaturity is the perfect companion for the secret show-off in you. If you're a parent or teacher, you may want to hide this book from your kids, but you'll definitely want a copy for yourself. Don't let the "Immaturity" label fool you. These are some of the coolest and funniest stunts and activities you've ever seen. Some may be new to you, but we're betting you've pulled a few of these in your past already. Brush up on the old ones and learn some new tricks--then try them out on an appreciative audience. You will find yourself surrounded by admirers who can only hope they'll grow up to be as immature...um...clever as you!

Once a Runner: A Novel

By: John L Parker

Scribner

Once a Runner captures the essence of what it means to be a competitive runner; to devote your entire existence to a single-minded pursuit of excellence. It has become one of the most beloved sports novels ever written.

Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author's car, the book eventually found its way into the hands of high school, college, and postgraduate athletes all over the country. Reading it became a rite of passage on many teams, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation. It ranked as the number one most sought-after out-of-print book in the United States in 2007.

Once a Runner is the story of Quenton Cassidy, a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University whose l...

Bicycle Diaries

By: David Byrne

Viking Adult

A renowned musician and visual artist presents an idiosyncratic behind-thehandlebars view of the world's cities

Since the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bike as his principal means of transportation in New York City. Two decades ago, he discovered folding bikes and started taking them on tour. Byrne's choice was made out of convenience rather than political motivation, but the more cities he saw from his bicycle, the more he became hooked on this mode of transport and the sense of liberation it provided. Convinced that urban biking opens one's eyes to the inner workings and rhythms of a city's geography and population, Byrne began keeping a journal of his observations and insights.

An account of what he sees and whom he meets as he pedals through metrop...

The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the ...

By: Joe Posnanski

William Morrow

There are memorable teams in baseballand then there are utterly unforgettable teams like the 1975 Cincinnati Reds. From 1972 to 1976, the franchise known as the Big Red Machine dominated the National League, winning four division crowns, three league pennants, and two World Series titles. But their 1975 season has become the stuff of sports legend.

In The Machine, award-winning sports columnist Joe Posnanski captures all of the passion and tension, drama and glory of this extraordinary team considered to be one of the greatest ever to take the field. Helmed by Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson, the lineup for the '75 Reds is a Who's Who of baseball stars: Pete Rose, Ken Griffey, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster, Cesar Geronimo, and Dave Concepci...

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life

By: Tony Dungy

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Tony Dungy's words and example have intrigued millions of people, particularly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI, the first for an African American coach. How is it possible for a coach--especia

K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

By: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts

Broadway

115042 Features: Get the harsh inside details without the usual rose-colored lenses, Viesturs delivers the story of each climber in the harsh light of day when life-threatening situations cause tensions to build as personalities clash Specifications: Pages: 352 pages Edition: first Jacket: hardcover ISBN-10: 0767932501 Publisher: Broadway

The Merriam-Webster Official Scrabble Players Dictionary Illustrated E dition

By: Cathy Meeus

DK ADULT

The wildly popular word game, Scrabble(r), was conceived by Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect out of work during the Depression, and was trademarked in 1948. More than 40 years later, over 100 million Scrabble sets had sold worldwide, including 30 million in the USA alone. And, in 1991, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the first worldwide Scrabble tournament had been scheduled. With so many Scrabble aficionados, and the solid success of other Scrabble dictionaries, especially the Merriam-Webster titles, the time is right to add an illustrated dictionary to the Scrabble lexicon, using the Merriam-Webster text.

The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary

By: Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster

New edition! The book that millions of SCRABBLE players consider the only necessary resource. Ideal for recreational and school use. More than 100,000 playable two- to eight-letter words including 4,000 new entries. Includes variant spellings. Endorsed by the National SCRABBLE Association.

Obsessed with...Baseball: Test Your Knowledge of America's Pastime

By: The Baseball Guys

Chronicle Books

Obsessed with BASEBALL explores little known facts, fascinating anecdotes, and great trivia of America's national pastime. This comprehensive yet compact book offers more than 2,500 questions to engage and challenge even the greatest baseball buff. In addition, each spread features a lengthier question that goes deep into the subject. What makes this package truly different from any other trivia book is the computerized module embedded in a corner of the book's cover, which allows readers to test themselves or compete against a friend. Play ball!

Sports Illustrated: The Basketball Book

By: Editors of Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Continuing Sports Illustrated's tradition of producing best-selling coffee-table books for the holiday season, SI presents The Basketball Book, a lavish celebration of the athleticism and pageantry of both the college and professional game. With the same kind of unforgettable photographs and award-winning writing that propelled The Baseball Book, The Football Book and The Anniversary Book to The New York Times best-seller list over the past three years, this volume brings to life the legendary players, the classic action and the great rivalries of the court. In 294 oversized pages, The Basketball Book commemorates the epic teams and characters, the personalities and performances and artifacts that have created legions of passionate fans since Dr. James Naismith nailed up a peach basket ...

The Best American Sports Writing 2009

Mariner Books

SCRABBLE Wordbook

By: Mike Baron

Sterling

Player's Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook (Bk.2)

By: Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt

Wizards of the Coast

Players Handbook II

Information
Release Date - March 2009
Game Type - Role Playing Game (RPG)
Page Count - 224
Hard Cover

Golf Digest 365 Golf Holes Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 (Color Page-A-Day(r) Calendars)

By: CC Editors of Golf Digest

Workman Publishing Company

From America's #1 golf magazine, 365 Golf Holes is a golf calendar, with hundreds of spectacular, scenic, and oh-so-challenging golf holes in full color. The 4th at Metrowest, a 610-yard dogleg right lined by five cavernous bunkers. The 9th at Oak Creek, a 500-yard par 5 that lives up to its nickname, "Fortitude." The par-3 3rd at Punta Mita, set on a rock outcropping used for whale watching. And the 6th at Royal Dornoch, the third oldest links in Scotland. Plus Weekend Reminders, outstanding public courses, quotes, lore, and more. This is what golfers' dreams are made of.

The Scrabble Word-Building Book: Updated Edition

Pocket

Want to outsmart, outwit, and outplay your Scrabble opponents? Usingthe completely revised and updated The Scrabble Word-BuildingBook, you can! This essential strategy guide shows you how to buildon your opponents' words and become a master of this classic game.For novice players and expert wordsmiths alike, this helpful referenceincludes:

• A handy list of the 94 two-letter words sure to pile on the points
• Over 800 three-letter words -- 550 of which can be formed fromtwo-letter words
• All eight-letter words that can be formed from seven-letter words
• Every word up to seven letters you can play!

To increase your word-building power and achieve the highest score,keep The Scrabble Word-Building Book at your fingertips -- and beatyour opponent every...

Everything Scrabble: Third Edition

By: Joe Edley, John D. Williams Jr.

Pocket

For both the beginner and the seasoned pro, this how-to book from the National Scrabble Association offers all the keys to better play:

• Basic board strategies for surefire results
• Turn the enemy -- Q -- into your best friend: a winner's list of Q words with and without U
• Master the terrific "twos" -- a complete list of two-letter words that can boost your scoring average by thirty to forty points
• Maximize your score with bonus squares and parallel play -- including triple triples, the pinnacle of SCRABBLE scoring success
• Make more seven-letter plays -- and earn a fifty-point bonus
• Secrets to getting better tiles
• How to get your words' worth with high-point tiles J, X, and Z
• Words with no vowels
• How the world's greatest players win -- twenty-eig...

Swimming Anatomy

By: Ian McLeod

Human Kinetics

See how to achieve stronger starts, more explosive turns, and faster times! Swimming Anatomy will show you how to improve your performance by increasing muscle strength and optimizing the efficiency of every stroke.

Swimming Anatomy includes 74 of the most effective swimming exercises, each with step-by-step descriptions and full-color anatomical illustrations highlighting the primary muscles in action.

Swimming Anatomy goes beyond exercises by placing you on the starting block, in the water, and into the throes of competition. Illustrations of the active muscles for starts, turns, and the four competitive strokes (freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke) show you how each exercise is fundamentally linked to swimming performance.

You'll als...

Scavenger's Guide to Droids: A Star Wars Roleplaying Game Supplement

By: Rodney Thompson

Wizards of the Coast

New droids, plus new options for droid heroes!

The Scavengers Guide to Droids gives players and Gamemasters access to a variety of droids from across the Star Wars saga. It includes new options for droid characters including talents, feats, equipment, modifications, quirks, and prestige classes, as well as other ways to customize droid characters, including templates based on different manufacturers. This supplement also contains scores of new droids that Gamemasters can include in adventures and campaigns set in any Star Wars era, as well as tips for building unique droid models.

The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership

By: Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh

Portfolio Hardcover

"Even when you have an organization brimming with talent, victory is not always under your control. There is no guarantee, no ultimate formula for success. It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself." (Bill Walsh)

Bill Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty that won three Super Bowls. In the process, he changed the way football is played-pushing it into the twenty-first century.

Walsh is famous for his strategic brilliance and innovations, such as the West Coast Offense, but his enlightened philosophy of le...

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

By: Caroline Alexander

Knopf

Melding superb research and the extraordinary expedition photography of Frank Hurley, The Endurance by Caroline Alexander is a stunning work of history, adventure, and art which chronicles "one of the greatest epics of survival in the annals of exploration." Setting sail as World War I broke out in Europe, the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, hoped to become the first to cross the Antarctic continent. But their ship, Endurance, was trapped in the drifting pack ice, eventually to splinter, leaving the expedition stranded on floes--a situation that seemed "not merely desperate but impossible."

Most skillfully Alexander constructs the expedition's character through its personalities--the cast of veteran...

Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence

By: Rory Miller

YMAA Publication Center

Experienced martial artist and veteran correction officer Sgt. Rory Miller distills what he has learned from jailhouse brawls, tactical operations and ambushes to explore the differences between martial arts and the subject martial arts were designed to deal with: Violence.

Sgt. Miller introduces the myths, metaphors and expectations that most martial artists have about what they will ultimately learn in their dojo. This is then compared with the complexity of the reality of violence. Complexity is one of the recurring themes throughout this work.

Section Two examines how to think critically about violence, how to evaluate sources of knowledge and clearly explains the concepts of strategy and tactics.

Sections Three and Four focus on the dynamics of violence itself and...

Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning - 3rd Edition

By: National Strength and Conditioning Association

Human Kinetics

Now in its third edition, Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning is the most comprehensive reference available for strength and conditioning professionals. In this text, 30 expert contributors explore the scientific principles, concepts, and theories of strength training and conditioning as well as their applications to athletic performance.

Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning is the most-preferred preparation text for the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) exam. The research-based approach, extensive exercise technique section, and unbeatable accuracy of Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning make it the text readers have come to rely on for CSCS exam preparation.

The third edition present...

The Official Scrabble Page-A-Day Calendar 2010 (Page-A-Day Calendars)

By: John D. Williams

Workman Publishing Company

It's Scrabble solo. This is the calendar for the 100 million Scrabble enthusiasts, written by National Scrabble Association executive director John D. Williams and Joe Edley, the only three-time winner of the National Scrabble Championship. With its clever mix of puzzles and plays, The Official Scrabble Calendar offers the fun of a new move every daywhile honing skills for the next game. High-Point Tiles. Four-Flushers. New Beginnings. The Name Game. And Five-Letter Shuffle: The word "sleep" has three useful anagrams. Can you find all of them?

98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive

By: Cody Lundin

Gibbs Smith

$14.95 gatefold paper * 1-58685-234-5 * May

6 x 9 in, 192 pp, 70 Line Drawings, 16 Color Photo Pages

Rights: W, Survival/Nature

"If you breathe and have a pulse, you NEED this book."

-Cody Lundin

Cody Lundin, director of the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Prescott, Arizona, shares his own brand of wilderness wisdom in this highly anticipated new book on commonsense, modern survival skills for the backcountry, the backyard, or the highway. It is the ultimate book on how to stay alive-based on the principal of keeping the body's core temperature at a lively 98.6 degrees. In his entertaining and informative style, Cody stresses that a human can live without food for weeks, and without water for about three days or so. But if the body's cor...

Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organizaion

By: John Wooden

McGraw-Hill

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

A compelling look inside the mind and powerful leadership methods of Americas coaching legend, John Wooden

"Team spirit, loyalty, enthusiasm, determination. . . . Acquire and keep these traits and success should follow."
--Coach John Wooden

John Woodens goal in 41 years of coaching never changed; namely, to get maximum effort and peak performance from each of his players in the manner that best served the team. Wooden on Leadership explains step-by-step how he pursued and accomplished this goal. Focusing on Woodens 12 Lessons in Leadership and his acclaimed Pyramid of Success, it outlines the mental, emotional, and physical qualities essential to building a winning organization,...

The Art of the Short Game: Tour-Tested Secrets for Getting Up and Down

By: Stan Utley, Matthew Rudy

Gotham

"The hottest instructor in golf" (Sports Illustrated) takes on old-school gurus with a far more accessible, intuitive, and innovative approach to those essential chip shots, pitches, and bunker rescues. Veteran golfers know that the secret to a lower score is a solid short game, but mastering those small strokes can be maddeningeven for the pros. One of golfs most revered instructors, Stan Utley now reveals the step-by-step tactics behind his revolutionary short-game techniques in The Art of the Short Game. After introducing readers to his groundbreaking philosophy that explains why most players dont see all the shots available to them near the green, Utley moves on to shatter conventional wisdom about stance, grip, and ball position. From choosing the right clubs (including a checklist...

Born to Play: My Life in the Game

By: Dustin Pedroia

Simon Spotlight Entertainment

The inspirational story of Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia -- a giant talent in a small package -- who defied his critics with hard work, relentless determination, and a looks-can-be-deceiving attitude to become one of the greatest players in the game today.

Dustin Pedroia, at five feet seven inches and 170 pounds, is not the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest player in the game of baseball, but in just two years of major-league play he's become a Rookie of the Year, a Most Valuable Player, and a 2007 World Championship titleholder. At a time when steroid scandals dominate media coverage of America's beloved pastime, Pedroia has proven to the world that a good baseball player is more than size and statistics. His success comes from the ...

The Official Scrabble Brand Word-Finder: The Ultimate Playing Companion to America's Favorite Wor...

By: Robert W. Schachner

Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

The Official Scrabble(R) Brand Word-Finder is designed with one thing in mind: scoring big points. The method is simple--present as many playable words as possible, in one place, for easy reference during a game. Over 60,000 high-scoring words are arranged alphabetically by first letter and by inside letters, providing the widest array of possible word variations. This innovative format allows Scrabble(R) fanatics to consider hundreds of potential plays with one quick glance. The Word-Finder is also a one-of-a-kind resource for the obscure words sometimes necessary to get you out of a pinch--like when you're stuck with a "z" and an "h" and time is running out ("hazard": 19 points).

In this straightforward format, standard suggestions are listed in regular type, high-scoring ...

When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi

By: David Maraniss

Simon & Schuster

As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince Lombardi turned perennial losers into a juggernaut, winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, and Superbowls I and II in 1966 and 1967. Stern, severe, sentimental, and paternal, he stood revered, reviled, respected, and mocked--a touchstone for the '60s all in one person. Which adds up to the myth we've been left with. But who was the man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss tackles. It begins with Lombardi's looming father, a man as colorful as his son would be conservative. Still, from his father Vince Lombardi learned a sense of presence and authority that could impress itself with just a look. If a moment can sum up and embrace a man's life--and capture the breadth of Maraniss's thorou...

The Backpacker's Field Manual, Revised and Updated: A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Backcountr...

By: Rick Curtis

Three Rivers Press

Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask

By: Thomas Tynander, Bill Meltzer

Middle Atlantic Press

Growing up in Sweden, Pelle Lindbergh dreamed of playing goalie in the National Hockey League. More specifically, he wanted to follow his boyhood idol, Bernie Parent, and play for the Philadelphia Flyers. The dream became a reality when the Philadelphia Flyers drafted him during the second round of the 1979 NHL entry draft. What no one knew at the time was the dream would end so tragically. Pelle made the Flyers full time during 1982-1983 season, and was named to the All Rookie team. In 1985, he helped lead the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final, and became the first European to win the Vezina trophy as the NHL s best goalie. In November of 1985, Pelle s life was cut short when he died in a car accident during the season. He was the first player to be posthumously voted to an al...

One Hundred Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know: Math Explains Your World

By: John D. Barrow

W. W. Norton & Company

Eminent cosmologist and writer John D. Barrow uses simple mathematics to answer one hundred perplexing questions from everyday life. Mathematics can reveal and illuminate things about the complex world we live in that cant be found any other way. In this hugely informative and entertaining book, John D. Barrow takes the most perplexing of everyday phenomenafrom the odds of winning the lottery and the method of determining batting averages to the shapes of roller coasters and the reasoning behind the fairest possible divorce settlementsand explains why things work the way they do. With elementary math and accompanying illustrations, he sheds light on the mysterious corners of the world we encounter every day. Have you ever considered why you always seem t...

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of the World's Smartest Horse

By: Mim E. Rivas

Harper Paperbacks

Beautiful Jim Key -- the one-time ugly duckling of a scrub colt who became one of the most beloved heroes of the turn of the century -- was adored not for his beauty and speed but rather for his remarkable abilities to read, write, spell, do mathematics, even debate politics. Trained with patience and kindness by one of the most renowned horse whisperers of his day -- former slave, Civil War veteran, and self-taught veterinarian Dr. William Key -- Jim performed in expositions across the country to wildly receptive crowds for nine glorious years, smashing box office records, clearing towering hurdles of skepticism and prejudice, and earning the respect and admiration of some of the most influential figures of the era, from Booker T. Washington to President William McKinley.

Thi...

The Fly Fishing Anthology

Voyageur Press

"The Fly Fishing Anthology" features glorious artwork and more than twenty stories and essays celebrating, reminiscing, and bemoaning the high sport of fly fishing.

This first-of-its-kind book is divided into six themed chapters. The first chapter features stories of initiation--none painless and all memorable. Chapter two explores the glorious vistas of fly fishing country. In the third chapter, our writers go nuts for trout, that highest echelon of game fish. Chapter four examines the seductive art of fly-tying. The fifth chapter is devoted to reminiscences, and the final chapter defends the great sport of fly fishing.

More than half of the pieces take jabs--some gentle, some sharp--at the sport of fly fishing and the men and women who aim to master it. Highlights includ...

The Sneaky Book for Boys: How to perfom sneaky magic tricks, escape a grasp, craft a c

By: Cy Tymony

Andrews McMeel Publishing

"Thank you, Cy . . . for opening up the world of tinkering and creativity to a whole new generation . . . looking to get their hands dirty with new and exciting projects." --NPR's Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday

It's The Dangerous Book for Boys meets Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook via The Boy Scouts of America Handbook--with lots of other cool sneaky boy stuff mixed in.

Cy Tymony's Sneaky Book for Boys picks up where The Dangerous Book for Boys left off. While The Dangerous Book for Boys includes sections on Morse code and an explanation of latitude and longitude, the Sneaky Book for Boys continues by featuring instructions on how to make and use a Morse code set, along with crafting a latitude quadrant and a longitud...

Pro Basketball Prospectus 2009-10

By: Bradford Doolittle, Kevin Pelton

CreateSpace

For the last two seasons, Basketball Prospectus has been at the cutting edge of the NBA's statistical revolution, exploring how teams win and why as well as integrating plenty of old-fashioned tape and first-hand observation to analyze players and teams. Now, we're following in the footsteps of our predecessors at Baseball Prospectus and our college counterparts by providing that same level of insight in book form.