July 25, 2022
In this engaging book, Paul McDonald offers advice for living a happier, more fulfilling life.
A former NFL quarterback with a “million-dollar smile,” McDonald had seemingly made the transition from sports to a successful career in business. Yet there was a period of time when he floundered, drinking too much and working at a job […]
November 15, 2021
Coaching like a champion, Steve Miller posits in this slim book, has little to do with X’s and O’s or overseeing repetitive drills. While those things are important, the foundation of truly outstanding coaching comes down to elements related to understanding and inspiration.
Miller names these qualities as: communication, humility, accountability, mental toughness. passion, integrity, […]
February 1, 2021
In Old School, former professional baseball player Ted Kubiak reflects on his history with the game while also examining the present and the potential future of America’s favorite pastime.
Major League Baseball fans of a certain age remember Kubiak for playing with the Oakland Athletics (aka the “A’s”) during its run of three consecutive World […]
September 28, 2020
Book 1 of The Wheels of Friend by Duluth, Minnesota-born Eric Norland recounts the first year of his around-the-world cycling adventure in 1983 at age 28.
The idea began taking shape in 1978, soon after Norland graduated from college with a degree in fine arts. His first jobs out of college, as a mechanic and […]
March 30, 2020
A key component of American “sports entertainment” culture, roller derby has had its ups and downs. It was relegated to niche interest for much of the 1980s and 1990s; its widespread resurgence in the early 2000s was powered by a wave of all-female leagues. It has since regained popularity with players of both genders in […]
March 9, 2020
The Leeds United Football Club celebrated its centenary in 2019. With Leeds, Money, and Misery Me, dedicated fan Dave Tomlinson takes an in-depth look at the last twenty years—and what he sees is not pretty.
Tomlinson lays out how this once-proud professional football club (“soccer team” to Americans) endured more than two decades of gross […]
October 7, 2019
Hardcore football fans know the name Mike Hart. He was one of the country’s top running backs during his mid-2000s tenure at the University of Michigan, ultimately finishing fifth in Heisman Trophy balloting. His subsequent NFL career was short-lived, owing to injuries, and he moved on to coaching for various college programs.
But […]
August 5, 2019
Barbara Jagoda’s winning book, Magna Terra Smoky, joins the ranks of popular stories about underdog race horses who triumphed against the odds.
Magna Terra Smoky’s saga begins in 1988 on the Colorado grasslands, where the two-year-old Arabian posed a number of problems for his owner. He was shy, didn’t like or trust people and appeared […]
January 21, 2019
In A Road to Barcelona: A Mother’s Account, Terri Stober writes about her struggle to reconcile feelings and finances while her two daughters shoot for Olympic gold.
In looping, repetitive prose, Stober writes about the decision to let her kids, in middle and high school at the time, leave their California home to live with […]
September 3, 2018
A book that brings together golf and the ancient Japanese poetic form of haiku seems highly unlikely; however, author Paul J. Zingg makes such a combination seem as natural as the gorse and broom that line the fairways of Scottish links courses.
Relevant original haiku (usually, but not always, 17 syllables each) introduce […]