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The Autumn Balloon
by Kenny Porpora<P>Every autumn, Kenny Porpora would watch his heartbroken mother scribble messages on balloons and release them into the sky above Long Island, one for each family member they'd lost to addiction. <P> As the number of balloons grew, his mother fell deeper into alcoholism, drinking away her sorrows every night in front of the television, where her love of Regis Philbin provided a respite from the sadness around her. <P> When their house was foreclosed upon, Kenny's mother absconded with him and his beloved dog and fled for the Arizona desert, joining her heroin-addicted brother on a quixotic search for a better life. <P>What followed was an outlaw adolescence spent in constant upheaval surrounded by bizarre characters and drug-addicted souls. <P>In the wake of unspeakable loss, Kenny convinced a college to take a chance on him, and turned to the mentors, writers, and poets he found to rebuild the family he lost, and eventually graduated from the Ivy League with a new life. <P>Porpora's memoir is the story of a deeply dysfunctional but loving family, and follows his life from the chaos of his youth to his triumphs in the Ivy League. <P>At times darkly comic, at times elegiac, The Autumn Balloon is a beautifully written testament to the irreplaceable bonds of family, even under the most trying circumstances, and one that marks the debut of an exciting new writer. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
B & Me
by J. C. HallmanA funny, frisky, often outrageous book about love, literature, and modern life--and a wink of the eye toU and I, Nicholson Baker's classic book about John Updike--by an award-winning author called "wonderfully bright" by The New York Times Book Review.Nearly twenty-five years ago, Nicholson Baker published U and I, the fretful and handwringing--but also groundbreaking--tale of his literary relationship with John Updike. U and I inspired a whole sub-genre of engaging, entertaining writing about reading, but what no story of this type has ever done is tell its tale from the moment of conception, that moment when you realize that there is a writer out there in the world that you must read--so you read them. B & Me is that story, the story of J.C. Hallman discovering and reading Nicholson Baker, and discovering himself in the process. Our relationship to books in the digital age, the role of art in an increasingly commodified world, the power great writing has to change us, these are at the core of Hallman's investigation of Baker--questions he's grappled with, values he's come to doubt. But in reading Baker's work, Hallman discovers the key to overcoming the malaise that has been plaguing him, through the books themselves and what he finds and contemplates in his attempts to understand them and their enigmatic author: sex, book jackets, an old bed and breakfast, love, Monica Lewinsky, Paris, marriage, more sex, the logistics of libraries. In the spirit of Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage and Elif Batuman's The Possessed, B & Me is literary self-archaeology: a funny, irreverent, incisive story of one reader's desperate quest to restore passion to literature, and all the things he learns along the way.
The B Side
by Ben YagodaFrom an acclaimed cultural critic, a narrative and social history of the Great American Songwriting era. Everybody knows and loves the American Songbook. But it's a bit less widely understood that in about 1950, this stream of great songs more or less dried up. All of a sudden, what came over the radio wasn't Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin, but "Come on-a My House" and "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" Elvis and rock and roll arrived a few years later, and at that point the game was truly up. What happened, and why? In The B Side, acclaimed cultural historian Ben Yagoda answers those questions in a fascinating piece of detective work. Drawing on previously untapped archival sources and on scores of interviews--the voices include Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Linda Ronstadt, and Herb Alpert--the book illuminates broad musical trends through a series of intertwined stories. Among them are the battle between ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc.; the revolution in jazz after World War II; the impact of radio and then television; and the bitter, decades-long feud between Mitch Miller and Frank Sinatra. The B Side is about taste, and the particular economics and culture of songwriting, and the potential of popular art for greatness and beauty. It's destined to become a classic of American musical history.
Babe Ruth
by Seymour Fleishman Guernsey Van Riper Jr.A biography of the well-loved baseball personality who set many records and made home runs a common part of the game.
Backlund: From All-American Boy to Professional Wrestling's World Champion
by Bob Backlund Robert H. Miller Roddy PiperBob Backlund began life as a poor farm boy in the little village of Princeton, Minnesota, with a population of just over 2,000 people. He was a below-average student with a lackluster work ethic and a bad attitude, who hung with the wrong crowd and made a lot of bad choices. He was a kid whose life was headed for disaster-until a local coach took interest in him, suggested that he take up amateur wrestling, and offered to work with him if he promised to stay out of trouble.It was in North Dakota that Bob Backlund had the first of several chance encounters that would shape his destiny. While working out at the YMCA gymnasium in Fargo, North Dakota, where he wrestled for North Dakota State, Backlund met a well-known professional wrestler, "Superstar” Billy Graham. The men talked, and at Graham’s suggestion, Backlund was inspired to pursue a career in professional wrestling.Less than five years from that day, on February 20, 1978, Backlund would find himself halfway across the country, standing in the middle of the ring at Madison Square Garden with his hand raised in victory as the newly crowned World Wide Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion. The man Backlund pinned for the championship that night was none other than "Superstar" Billy Graham.Featuring contributions from Bruno Sammartino, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Pat Patterson, Ken Patera, Sergeant Slaughter, The Magnificent Muraco, George "The Animal” Steele, "Mr. USA” Tony Atlas, The Iron Sheik, and many others, this book tells the incredible story of the life and nearly forty-year career of one of the most famous men to ever grace the squared circle.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports-books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team.In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Bad Kid: A Memoir
by David CrabbFrom comedian, storyteller, and The Moth host David Crabb, comes a music-filled, coming-of-age memoir about growing up gay and Goth in San Antonio, Texas. In the summer of 1989, three Goth kids crossed a street in San Antonio. They had no idea that a deeply confused fourteen-year-old boy was watching. Their dyed hair, fishnets, and eyeliner were his first evidence of another world—a place he desperately wanted to go. He just had no idea how to get there.Somehow David Crabb had convinced himself that every guy preferred French-braiding his girlfriend’s hair to making out, and that the funny feelings he got watching Silver Spoons and Growing Pains had nothing to do with Ricky Schroeder or Kirk Cameron. But discovering George Michael’s Faith confirmed for David what every bully already knew: he was gay. Surviving high school, with its gym classes, locker rooms, and naked, glistening senior guys, would require impossible feats of denial. What saved him was finding a group of outlandish friends who reveled in being outsiders. David found himself enmeshed with misfits: wearing black, cutting class, staying out all night, drinking, tripping, chain-smoking, idolizing The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, and Joy Division—and learning lessons about life and love along the way. Richly detailed with 80s pop-culture, and including black and white photos throughout, BAD KID is as laugh-out-loud funny as it is poignant. Crabb’s journey through adolescence captures the essence of every person’s struggle to understand his or her true self.
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
by William FotheringhamThe thrilling life of France's finest cyclist Bernard Hinault is one of the greatest cyclists of all time. He is a five-time winner of the Tour de France and the only man to have won each of the Grand Tours on more than one occasion. Three decades after his retirement, Hinault remains the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France and his victory in 1985 marks the turning point for a nation who had dominated the first eight decades of the race they had invented. In this biography, bestselling author William Fotheringham details how Hinault, nicknamed the "Badger" for his combative style, was the last old-school champion: a larger-than-life personality from a working-class background, capable of winning on all terrains, in major tours, and one-day classics. A full portrait of this fascinating character, The Badger also explores the reasons why France, the nation that considers itself cycling's home, has found it so hard to produce another champion.
Bailey's Remarkable Plan
by David R. HardimanAn inspiring memoir that &“shows how service dogs can save lives . . . Hardiman shares his story of faith and perseverance&” (North Dallas Gazette.com).A dog. A man. A miracle. In Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan, David R. Hardiman shares his poignant story of struggle, prejudice, and pain. But this is also a story of perseverance, triumph, and love. Hardiman discovers that his four-footed companion, delivered to him by chance, is more than his best friend. Bailey is also his service dog, a shih tzu with an extraordinary gift—part of God&’s &“remarkable plan&”—that allows her to assist, to protect, and to love.Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan will inspire you, inform you, and challenge you to feel compassion for those suffering silently among us because of circumstances beyond their control. God sent Bailey to this earth as part of His plan, an angel in the form of a remarkable dog. Not the typical service dog, Bailey performs a miracle in the life of her owner and friend. And Hardiman&’s story will touch your heart as you journey along with the boy who became a man encircled by love.&“This book takes the reader on the author&’s decades-long journey living with a rare medical condition coupled with post-traumatic stress disorder and Bailey&’s intuitive ability to help him cope.&”—Fort Worth Magazine&“Bailey&’s Remarkable Plan is a powerful, true story about a service dog that breaks all stereotypes and reveals a timely message of hope.&”—Mike Norris, film director
Bandaging the Blitz
by Ian Roberts Phyll Macdonald RossIn 1938, eighteen-year-old Phyllis Ellsworth packs her bags, says goodbye to her anxious parents and sets off from her quiet seaside home for the Hackney Hospital in London's bustling East End, where she is to fulfill her dream to train as a nurse. At first, it is a whirlwind of long days, hard work, new friends and plenty of mischief, but just ten months later Britain declares war on Germany and life at the hospital is transformed. Phyll's days become an endless cycle of air-raid sirens, injured servicemen and anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. And when she falls in love with a handsome young solider, Alistair, Phyll's work provides the only distraction from worrying about his safety. Bandaging the Blitz is a true story of coming-of-age in terrible times, of the blossoming of first romance into a life-long love affair, and of a young woman whose eagerness to do good in the world brought her suddenly face-to-face with death and drama in all its many guises.
Bandaging the Blitz
by Mrs Phyll Macdonald Ross I. D. RobertsAn incredible true coming-of-age storyIn 1938, eighteen-year-old Phyllis Ellsworth packs her bags, says goodbye to her anxious parents and sets off from her quiet seaside home for the Hackney Hospital in London's bustling East End, where she is to fulfill her dream to train as a nurse. At first, it is a whirlwind of long days, hard work, new friends and plenty of mischief, but just ten months later Britain declares war on Germany and life at the hospital is transformed. Phyll's days become an endless cycle of air-raid sirens, injured servicemen and anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. And when she falls in love with a handsome young solider, Alistair, Phyll's work provides the only distraction from worrying about his safety.Bandaging the Blitz is a true story of coming-of-age in terrible times, of the blossoming of first romance into a life-long love affair, and of a young woman whose eagerness to do good in the world brought her suddenly face-to-face with death and drama in all its many guises.
Bandaging the Blitz
by Mrs Phyll Macdonald Ross I. D. RobertsIn 1938, eighteen-year-old Phyllis Ellsworth packs her bags, says goodbye to her anxious parents and sets off from her quiet seaside home for the Hackney Hospital in London's bustling East End, where she is to fulfill her dream to train as a nurse. At first, it is a whirlwind of long days, hard work, new friends and plenty of mischief, but just ten months later Britain declares war on Germany and life at the hospital is transformed. Phyll's days become an endless cycle of air-raid sirens, injured servicemen and anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. And when she falls in love with a handsome young solider, Alistair, Phyll's work provides the only distraction from worrying about his safety.Bandaging the Blitz is a true story of coming-of-age in terrible times, of the blossoming of first romance into a life-long love affair, and of a young woman whose eagerness to do good in the world brought her suddenly face-to-face with death and drama in all its many guises.
Bang Bang: My Life in Ink
by Bang BangThe celebrity tattoo artist takes fans on a tour through his life and art, combining captivating vignettes and stories with more than one hundred color photos.Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rita Ora, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna, and many more of the hottest celebrities in the world have been seen on the red carpet, on concert stages, and in magazine spreads wearing stunning ink created by Keith “Bang Bang” McCurdy, the most in-demand tattoo artist in the entertainment world. Bang Bang’s work has taken him across the country and around the globe, to any and every locale a celebrity client may request. From Rihanna’s controversial gun tattoos, to inking Justin Bieber at 40,000 feet—a record—each of Bang Bang’s tattoos comes with its own epic story. Now, this creative genius invites readers along on his adventures, sharing amazing tales from his life and career.Named for the duel guns tattooed on his neck, Bang Bang began his career in his mom’s tiny Delaware kitchen. Self-taught, he practiced with a kit from an art store before eventually moving to New York. Over the past decade, Bang Bang’s talent and vision propelled his rise into the spotlight, and today, his fresh, accessible aesthetic draws men and women, tattoo vets and novices alike eager to experience his ultra-fluid and realistic designs created with the finest needles and inks. Bang Bang’s visual style transcends the clichés of the tattoo world; he creates a truly different form of art.Filled with engaging personal stories and striking photographs that bring his bold, vibrant designs into detail, Bang Bang is a must-have for Bang Bang fans and tattoo lovers everywhere.
Barack Obama
by Beatrice GormleyRight on time for election season comes an updated biography of our 44th President--written just for kids!President Barack Obama's election in 2008 energized the United States and the world. And though the last few years haven't been easy, this president has spent a lifetime overcoming obstacles. President Barack Obama's early involvement with politics was inspired by his mother's interest in the controversial social issues of her times--a passion that she passed on to her son. As the first African America editor of the Harvard Law Review, the first African American presidential nominee of a major political party, and eventually the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama has consistently shattered barriers--barriers that some people thought could never be overcome. However, President Obama's life has had its challenges. Born to a Kenyan father and an American mother, Barack grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, where he faced discrimination and struggles with his own racial identity. Despite these obstacles, Barack persevered and had a successful political career even before his historic win in the 2008 presidential election. Containing vital and current information, this biography will bring you up to date with all the latest from the Oval Office, and much more!
Barbara Kopple: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
by Gregory BrownWith a career spanning more than forty years, Barbara Kopple (b. 1946) long ago established herself as one of the most prolific and award-winning American filmmakers of her generation. Her projects have ranged from labor union documentaries to fictional feature films to an educational series for kids on the Disney Channel. Through it all, Kopple has generously made herself available for a great many print and broadcast interviews. The most revealing and illuminating of these are brought together in this collection.Here, Kopple explains her near-constant struggles to raise money (usually while her films are already in production) and the hardships arising from throwing her own money into such projects. She makes clear the tensions between biases, objectivity, and fairness in her films. Her interviewers raise fundamental questions. What is the relationship between real people in documentaries and characters in fictional films? Why does she embrace a cinéma vérité style in some films but not others? Why does she seem to support gun ownership in Harlan County, U.S.A., only to take a decidedly more neutral view of the issue in her film Gun Fight?Kopple's concern for people facing crises is undeniable. So is the affection she has for her more famous subjects--Woody Allen playing a series of European jazz concerts, Gregory Peck on tour, and the Dixie Chicks losing a fan base but making a fresh start.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
by William Finnegan<P>Barbarian Days is William Finnegan's memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. <P>Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses--off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves. <P>Finnegan shares stories of life in a whitesonly gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly--he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui--is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world's greatest waves. <P>As Finnegan's travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity. <P>Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, an intellectual autobiography, a social history, a literary road movie, and an extraordinary exploration of the gradual mastering of an exacting, little understood art. Today, Finnegan's surfing life is undiminished. Frantically juggling work and family, he chases his enchantment through Long Island ice storms and obscure corners of Madagascar. <P><b>**Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography**</b>
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
by William FinneganWinner of the Pulitzer Price and William Hill Sports Book of the Year: Barbarian Days is a deeply rendered self-portrait of a lifelong surfer looking for transcendence 'that recalls early James Salter' (Geoff Dyer, Observer)Surfing only looks like a sport. To devotees, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a mental and physical study, a passionate way of life.New Yorker writer William Finnegan first started surfing as a young boy in California and Hawaii. Barbarian Days is his immersive memoir of a life spent travelling the world chasing waves through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa and beyond. Finnegan describes the edgy yet enduring brotherhood forged among the swell of the surf; and recalling his own apprenticeship to the world's most famous and challenging waves, he considers the intense relationship formed between man, board and water.Barbarian Days is an old-school adventure story, a social history, an extraordinary exploration of one man's gradual mastering of an exacting and little-understood art. It is a memoir of dangerous obsession and enchantment. 'Reading this guy on the subject of waves and water is like reading Hemingway on bullfighting; William Burroughs on controlled substances; Updike on adultery. . . . a coming-of-age story, seen through the gloss resin coat of a surfboard' Sports Illustrated
Barefoot at the Lake
by Bruce FogleEvery year, from the end of June to the end of August, Bruce and his family go to their cedar-clad cottage on the blue, wide lake. At first, this summer of 1954 seems like any other: floating in the row boat with Grace from next door, jumping off the diving raft, eating peach pie, exploring with Angus the dog, watching the seagulls, frogs and herons and catching crayfish.But just when he realizes life is perfect, everything starts to change. He's ten, the family dynamics are shifting, and over the summer both the harshness of the adult world and the patterns of the natural world reveal themselves. By the time the weather turns he will be a different child, and will have chosen his own path to understanding the wilderness that waits behind their wooden homes. Funny, subtle and true, Barefoot at the Lake transports us to a long, hot, poignant summer.
The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China
by Chen GuangchengAn electrifying memoir by the blind Chinese activist who inspired millions with the story of his fight for justice and his belief in the cause of freedomIt was like a scene out of a thriller: one morning in April 2012, China's most famous political activist—a blind, self-taught lawyer—climbed over the wall of his heavily guarded home and escaped. Days later, he turned up at the American embassy in Beijing, and only a furious round of high-level negotiations made it possible for him to leave China and begin a new life in the United States.Chen Guangcheng is a unique figure on the world stage, but his story is even more remarkable than anyone knew. The son of a poor farmer in rural China, blinded by illness when he was an infant, Chen was fortunate to survive a difficult childhood. But despite his disability, he was determined to educate himself and fight for the rights of his country's poor, especially a legion of women who had endured forced sterilizations and abortions under the hated "one child" policy. Repeatedly harassed, beaten, and imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Chen was ultimately placed under house arrest. After nearly two years of increasing danger, he evaded his captors and fled to freedom.Both a riveting memoir and a revealing portrait of modern China, The Barefoot Lawyer tells the story of a man who has never accepted limits and always believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle.
Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story
by David PayneAn Amazon Best Book of 2015, A Kirkus Reviews’ Best Book of 2015 A brave book with beautiful sentences on every page.” New York Times Piercing...a tour de force.” Los Angeles Times In 2000, while moving his household from Vermont to North Carolina, David Payne watched from his rearview mirror as his younger brother, George A., driving behind him in a two-man convoy of rental trucks, lost control of his vehicle, fishtailed, flipped over in the road, and died instantly. Soon thereafter, David’s life hit a downward spiral. His career came to a standstill, his marriage disintegrated, and his drinking went from a cocktail-hour indulgence to a full-blown addiction. He found himself haunted not only by George A.’s death, but also by his brother’s manic depression, a hereditary illness that overlaid a dark family history whose roots now gripped David. Barefoot to Avalon is Payne’s earnest and unflinching account of George A. and their boyhood footrace that lasted long into their adulthood, defining their relationship and their lives. As universal as it is intimate, this is an exceptional memoir of brotherhood, of sibling rivalries and sibling love, and of the torments a family can hold silent and carry across generations.
Bartolomé de las Casas (Colección Españoles Eminentes)
by Bernat HernándezUna gran biografía de Bartolomé de las Casas, un personaje fascinante y contradictorio cuyas ideas siguen generando debate. Esta biografía de Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) pretende devolver al personaje a su época, en una Monarquía Hispánica cuya expansión en Indias iba dando forma a un Nuevo Mundo del que surgían las estructuras e identidades del Occidente moderno. Como primer hombre atlántico, infatigable nómada entre Europa y América, con una notable capacidad de concitar intereses para crear nexos de comunicación y poder, Bartolomé de las Casas protagonizó episodios fundamentales del siglo XVI en Indias. A partir de una interpretación de la conquista que contempla sus dimensiones simultáneas de destrucción y de formación de ese Nuevo Mundo, la trayectoria de Bartolomé de las Casas encarnó las contradicciones de muchos conquistadores, que han suscitado polémicas valoraciones sobre su figura. Auténtico animal político,desde las filas de la orden dominica y en los entornos más decisivos de poder real, impulsó una legislación protectora de los indígenas americanos, aunque sus iniciativas de poblamiento y evangelización tuvieron desenlaces más ambiguos. Ese activismo se conjugó con un perfil intelectual enorme, forjado en la escuela de pensamiento hispánico moderno, con crónicas y estudios comparados de las civilizaciones americanas, pero que tuvo en la defensa de la evangelización pacífica, la crítica a la guerra de conquista, y en sus propuestas de justicia restaurativa o de apología republicana, contribuciones de carácter universal. Los debates entre Iglesia y Monarquía, entre idealismo evangélico y realismo político, que marcarían el pensamiento occidental posterior acabaron teniendo en la vida y obra de Bartolomé de las Casas el auténtico protagonismo, hasta restar trascendencia objetiva en su biografía a episodios como la controversia de Valladolid o la publicación menor y polémica de la Brevísima, para hacer del indio, como metáfora de la víctima y de su imperativa compensación, el sujeto de reclamación de la primera y la última utopía: lograr la dignidad humana del conjunto de Occidente. La crítica ha dicho... «El innovador análisis de Bernat Hernández es una excelente #biografía social#.»ABC Cultural «En sus obras subyace un profundo sentido ético y una verbo que nos sigue aguijoneando.» Diario de Córdoba ESPAÑOLES EMINENTES Esta colección persigue fomentar el desarrollo del género biográfico en España a la luz de la ejemplaridad de determinadas personalidades que, por su excelencia moral o humanística, destacaron en su época y siguen teniendo vigencia en la conciencia colectiva. Su propósito es aportar biografías verdaderamente modernas que contribuyan a reescribir nuestra historia de una forma mucho más integradora, a la vez que dar a conocer la influencia de figuras que por sus méritos y su general reconocimiento pueden ejercer una influencia vertebradora en la sociedad actual.
Baseball Maverick: How Sandy Alderson Revolutionized Baseball and Revived the Mets
by Steve Kettmann“An intimate portrait of one of the shrewdest, most decorated men to ever occupy the GM chair . . . A really fun read” (Jonah Keri, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Up, Up, & Away). In 2010, the New York Mets were in trouble. One of baseball’s most valuable franchises, they had recently suffered an embarrassing September collapse and two bitter losing seasons. To whom did they turn? Sandy Alderson, a former marine who got his baseball start in Oakland, where he led a revolution in the sport. The A’s partnered with Apple in 1980, pioneering the use of statistical analysis in baseball, and became a powerhouse—winning the 1989 World Series. Granted unprecedented access to the working general manager over several seasons, bestselling author Steve Kettmann traces Alderson’s history and his revival of the Mets, despite a limited budget, through big trades that brought back high-profile prospects to the development of young aces including Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and Jacob deGrom. Baseball Maverick is a gripping, behind-the-scenes look at a Major League team and a fascinating exploration of what it means to be smart. A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Sports Book for Spring “A fascinating and fresh look at the resurgent team’s winning strategy. Whether you’re a diehard Mets fan like me or just a curious baseball fan in general, you’ll want to read Steve Kettmann’s new book because it’s a compelling human interest story and you will gain insight about how the game has changed.” —Forbes “Extremely well-written and unflaggingly interesting, [Baseball Maverick] will appeal to any baseball fan who wants insight into what GMs do and into how contemporary winning major league baseball teams are built.” —Spitball magazine “Outstanding.” —Dennis Eckersley, Hall of Fame pitcher “Revealing . . . [Alderson] gave serious access to Kettman, an astute reporter.” —George Vecsey, New York Times sports columnist and author of Baseball: A History of America’s Favorite Game
The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams
by Michael Tackett&“Field of Dreams was only superficially about baseball. It was really about life. So is The Baseball Whisperer . . . with the added advantage of being all true.&” —MLB.com From an award-winning journalist, this is the story of a legendary coach and the professional-caliber baseball program he built in America's heartland, where boys would come summer after summer to be molded into ballplayers—and men. Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl&’s original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the Los Angeles ghetto who would one day become a beloved Hall-of-Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith. The Baseball Whisperer traces the &“deeply engrossing&” story (Booklist, starred review) of Merl Eberly and his Clarinda A&’s baseball team, which he tended over the course of five decades, transforming them from a town team to a collegiate summer league powerhouse. Along with Ozzie Smith, future manager Bud Black, and star player Von Hayes, Merl developed scores of major league players. In the process, he taught them to be men, insisting on hard work, integrity, and responsibility. More than a book about ballplayers in the nation&’s agricultural heartland, The Baseball Whisperer is the story of a coach who put character and dedication first, reminding us of the best, purest form of baseball excellence. &“Mike Tackett, talented journalist and baseball lover, has hit the sweet spot of the bat with his first book. The Baseball Whisperer takes one coach and one small Iowa town and illuminates both a sport and the human spirit.&” —David Maraniss, New York Times-bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered
Basketball's Greatest Players (Step into Reading)
by S. A. KramerWhose hands were so big he held the basketball like a grapefruit? Which center singlehandedly changed the way defense was played? From Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, young hoops fans can read about eleven legendary players in this exciting look at basketball's greatest slam-dunking, hoop-hanging superstars.
The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy
by Rainn WilsonRainn Wilson's memoir about growing up geeky and finally finding his place in comedy, faith, and life. For nine seasons Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute, everyone's favorite work nemesis and beet farmer. Viewers of The Office fell in love with the character and grew to love the actor who played him even more. Rainn founded a website and media company, SoulPancake, that eventually became a bestselling book of the same name. He also started a hilarious Twitter feed (sample tweet: "I'm not on Facebook" is the new "I don't even own a TV") that now has more than four million followers. Now, he's ready to tell his own story and explain how he came up with his incredibly unique sense of humor and perspective on life. He explains how he grew up "bone-numbingly nerdy before there was even a modicum of cool attached to the word." The Bassoon King chronicles his journey from nerd to drama geek ("the highest rung on the vast, pimply ladder of high school losers"), his years of mild debauchery and struggles as a young actor in New York, his many adventures and insights about The Office, and finally, Wilson's achievement of success and satisfaction, both in his career and spiritually, reconnecting with the artistic and creative values of the Bahá'í faith he grew up in.From the Hardcover edition.
Bastards: A Memoir
by Mary Anna King"A stirring, vividly told story of a young woman's quest to find the family she lost . . . an impressive debut." --Peter Balakian In the early 1980s, Mary Hall is a little girl growing up in poverty in Camden, New Jersey, with her older brother Jacob and parents who, in her words, were "great at making babies, but not so great at holding on to them." After her father leaves the family, she is raised among a commune of mothers in a low-income housing complex. Then, no longer able to care for the only daughter she has left at home, Mary's mother sends Mary away to Oklahoma to live with her maternal grandparents, who have also been raising her younger sister, Rebecca. When Mary is legally adopted by her grandparents, the result is a family story like no other. Because Mary was adopted by her grandparents, Mary's mother, Peggy, is legally her sister, while her brother, Jacob, is legally her nephew. Living in Oklahoma with her maternal grandfather, Mary gets a new name and a new life. But she's haunted by the past: by the baby girls she's sure will come looking for her someday, by the mother she left behind, by the father who left her. Mary is a college student when her sisters start to get back in touch. With each subsequent reunion, her family becomes closer to whole again. Moving, haunting, and at times wickedly funny, Bastards is about finding one's family and oneself.