Showing titles in Sports

Budd Schulberg's celebrated novel of the prize ring has lost none of its power since its first publication almost fifty years ago. Crowded with unforgettable characters, it is a relentless expose of the fight racket. A modern Samson in the form of a simple Argentine peasant is ballyhooed by an unscrupulous fight promoter and his press agent and then betrayed and destroyed by connivers.

Jack Aubrey and his old friend Dr Maturin are sailing on a secret mission with a hand-picked crew, most of them shipmates from the adventures and lucrative voyages of earlier years.

William McInnes' best-selling memoir, A Man's Got to Have a Hobby, takes us back to the long summer holidays of the 1960s and '70s and the last of the baby-boomer childhoods. William narrates with humour and affection about his family and especially his mum and dad, who talked to the TV set and enjoyed life in their house near the bay. William McInnes is a talented writer and a natural storyteller.

India Harris didn't have the best start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she and her twin brother, Kit, spent their lives in foster care, only having each other to rely on. Then, at a young age, a relationship with the wrong man left India pregnant. Wanting to give her son the life she never had, she put herself through school and graduated with honors. Now, at the age of 30, she's a highly respected therapist.

He always gets what he wants, and the football god next door wants me...I had it all. The Super Bowl rings. The hot shot TV gig. Then I got fired. Now I’m living in middle-of-nowhere Maine, playing assistant coach to the woman of my nightmares. Did I mention that she and her son are my new neighbors? If you talk to the locals, they’ll tell you Aspen Levi is the queen of high school football. But if you ask me, my new head coach is a pain in my left nut sac.

Trophy Son tells the story of tennis prodigy Anton Stratis, from an isolated childhood of grueling practice under the eye of his obsessed father to his dramatic rise through the intensely competitive world of professional tennis. Written with an insider knowledge of the tennis circuit, Trophy Son explores a young man striving to find balance in his life, navigating moral compromises, performance-enhancing drugs, and the elusive lure of wealth and celebrity.

Joe Skelton has never written anything longer than a shopping list, but now his brain tumor is making him write a novel. It's a baseball novel about a crippled janitor who cleans up at a forgotten minor league field, and who is accidentally discovered to be a perfect never-misses hitter. Will Joe die before we find out whether the Joltin' Janitor makes it to the big leagues? An imagined Roger Angell leads an unforgettable ensemble of quirky characters on a gentle and poignant race to discover the meaning of baseball, fate, will, and chance.

A secret descendant of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Ricky Lenin is a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist, fervently committed to overthrowing to the decadent world of British football. As a midfield maestro, he's perfectly placed to infiltrate England's top club, Felchester Rovers, where he proceeds to introduce his radical ideas. But there's more to his fellow players than meets the eye, and Ricky soon discovers he's not the only one seeking to foment revolution.

I never asked for the spotlight, but inheriting a pro hockey team pulls me into a world of chaos. All eyes are on me now. I’m no stranger to the world of hockey, but watching from the sidelines and calling the shots are two very different things. Especially when you’re not wanted.

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed 20 Slam titles. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan. At 37 years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement in an attempt to reclaim her record.

I've never had a man be kind to me unless he wanted something, so when a gorgeous hockey star shows interest, I don't believe it's genuine. I was a throwaway child of a drug addict and I learned to survive in dark places. Now I'm determined to get my life on track, and I don't need complications, especially from a drop-dead gorgeous professional hockey player with delusions of rescuing me. I don't need to be rescued by him or anyone else. I'm doing it on my own.

Don Sando y Miguel son dos veteranos macheteros, maestros de un antiquísimo arte marcial afrocolombiano, que parten tras el rastro de los «juegos de sombra», unas técnicas de combate prácticamente olvidadas, y en particular tras el legendario arte del «Elástico de sombra», que permite a quien lo domine luchar en la más absoluta oscuridad. Esta breve novela, tejida por Juan Cárdenas a partir de los relatos orales de los propios macheteros del Cauca, se convierte en un homenaje a la invencible dignidad de los oprimidos y un llamamiento a la necesidad de oponer una orgullosa resistencia.

Late summer, 1921. Disgraced former lightweight champion Pepper Van Dean has spent the past two years on the carnival circuit performing the dangerous "hangman's drop" and taking on all comers in nightly challenge bouts. But when he and his cardsharp wife, Moira, are marooned in the wilds of Oregon, Pepper accepts an offer to return to the world of wrestling as a trainer for Garfield Taft, a down-and-out African American heavyweight contender in search of a comeback and a shot at the world title.

Jess Singer, pitching prodigy and son of the infamous Jewish Joe Singer—who starred on the mound for the same MLB team twenty-five years earlier—is blessed with a plus-plus curveball, possesses immense athletic abilities, and is on the fast-track to stardom. But he's harboring perhaps the most potent secret a professional athlete can possess: his sexual preference.

When Charlie Fightmaster gets the call-up to the Major Leagues, all of his dreams are about to come true. But word that his little sister, Pippin, is struggling changes everything. Charlie returns to his childhood home, joins the amateur baseball team his father coaches, and begins helping Pippin with her dream of making the best baseball bat ever made. Charlie meets Bud Crawford, a reclusive local legend, who reluctantly teaches him the three secrets to finding perfect harmony at the plate.

Liv’s smart, shy, and a total control freak, but she’s ready to throw away a future in veterinary medicine to become a jockey. Nate’s good on a horse and good with people. Except Liv. He can’t quite crack Liv. Chique, though? He’s got that filly wrapped around his little finger.

Vikram Shastri has always been a good kid. He’s got a 4.6 GPA, listens to his parents, barely hits the parties, and is on track for a fancy college. But when he gets the chance to play on his high school football team, his world suddenly starts to shift. Basking in their recent victory, Vikram and his teammates Diego and MJ attend a party at an abandoned house in the Southern California foothills, located right below three ancient caves. They find themselves lost in the dark of night in one of the caves, carried away by male bravado, with a classmate who has annoyed them for years.

The Throwback Special is the story of 22 ordinary guys who gather each fall to reenact what ESPN has called "the most shocking play in NFL history": the November 1985 play in which Joe Theismann of the Washington Redskins had his leg horribly broken by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants on Monday Night Football. (The play was known by the Redskins as "the Throwback Special".)

In his first collection of golfing stories, presided over benignly by the Oldest Member, Wodehouse extracts high comedy from the noble and mysterious game. Including the clash of literature and golf that impedes the romantic progress of Cuthbert Banks; the horror of golfing garrulity; two cases of ordeal by golf between romantic rivals of sharply varying skill; the advantages of encouraging women to take up golf; and the remarkable golfing career of American multi-millionaire Vincent Jopp, whose overwhelming confidence seems certain to make him amateur champion in his first season.

Digger, an 85-kilo wrestler, and Sadie, a 26-year-old speed swimmer, stand on the verge of realizing every athlete's dream - winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Both athletes are nearing the end of their careers, and are forced to confront the question: what happens to athletes when their bodies are too worn to compete? The blossoming relationship between Digger and Sadie is tested in the intense months leading up to the Olympics, which, as both of them are painfully aware, will be the realization or the end of a life's dream.