What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time.
24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
Michael Lewis · 345 pages
Follows one young man from his impoverished childhood with a crack-addicted mother, through his discovery of the sport of football, to his rise to become one of the most successful, highly-paid players in the NFL.
The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football
Jeff Benedict, Armen Keteyian · 432 pages
A revelatory account based on the authors' unprecedented access to the NCAA's highest-level programs throughout the 2012 season describes its high-powered system of billion-dollar television deals, high-priced coaches, football "hostessing," castoff athlete-students and paid test takers.
The Boys of Summer
Roger Kahn · 445 pages
"A ... narrative of growing up within shouting distance of Ebbets Field, working for the Herald Tribune in the Jackie Robinson years ... and what's happened to everybody since."
Summer of '49
David Halberstam · 336 pages
Chronicles the 1949 baseball season, which marked the beginning of the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Franklin Foer · 261 pages
Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in b
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Road Trip into the Heart of Fan Mania
Warren St. John · 288 pages
Author's first person account of events occuring during a season of Alabama football focusing on travel, game day tailgating, and post-game celebrations or mourning. Focuses on the fans of the team, why they follow the team, and why they choose to attend games.
The Last Season: A Team In Search of Its Soul
Phil Jackson, Michael Arkush · 304 pages
Soccernomics
Simon Kuper, Stefan Szymanski · 448 pages
Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game of soccer works, "Soccernomics" reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about the world's most popular game. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Daniel James Brown · 416 pages
Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing f
Drive: The Story of My Life
Larry Bird, Bob Ryan · 259 pages
True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson
Kostya Kennedy
True is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball's—and America's—most significant figures. For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball’s singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half
Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football
David Winner · 260 pages
It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins · 289 pages
Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that made a Nation
John Carlin · 288 pages
Soon to be a major motion picture from Academy Award(r)—winning director Clint Eastwood, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: Use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodi
Days of Grace: A Memoir
Arthur Ashe · 418 pages
A remarkable and inspiring memoir by a remarkable and inspiring human being: Arthur Ashe, embodiment of courage and grace in every aspect of his life, from his triumphs as a great tennis champion and his determined social activism to his ordeal in the face of death, a casualty of AIDS. As he brings us into his childhood in Richmond, Virginia, where he was born in 1943, where his mother died when h
Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell · 320 pages
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand · 514 pages
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Se
The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams
Darcy Frey · 231 pages
It ought to be just a game, but basketball on the playgrounds of Coney Island is much more than that - for many young men it represents their only hope of escape from a life of crime, poverty, and despair. It is their last shot. This is the story of a small group of high school boys who have given their young lives to basketball, as neighborhood stars and as team members of the Abraham Lincoln Hig
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Haruki Murakami · 179 pages
King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero
David Remnick · 326 pages
There were mythic sports figures before him - Jack Johnson, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Joe DiMaggio - but when Cassius Clay burst onto the sports scene from his native Louisville in the 1950s, he broke the mold. He changed the world of sports and went on to change the world itself. As Muhammad Ali, he would become the most recognized face on the planet. This unforgettable story of his rise and self-cre
The Fight
Norman Mailer · 247 pages
In 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaïre, two African American boxers were paid five million dollars apiece to fight each other. One was Muhammad Ali, the aging but irrepressible “professor of boxing.” The other was George Foreman, who was as taciturn as Ali was voluble. Observing them was Norman Mailer, a commentator of unparalleled energy, acumen, and audacity. Whether he is analyzing the fighters’ moves, int
The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told By the Men Who Played It
Lawrence S. Ritter · 320 pages
Personal narratives by Rube Marquard, Tommy Leach, Davy Jones, Sam Crawford, Jimmy Austin, Fred Snodgrass, Stanley Coveleski, Al Bridwell, Harry Hooper, Joe Wood, Chief Meyers, Hans Lobert, Rube Bressler, Edd Roush, Bill Wambsganss, Sam Jones, Bob O'Farrell, Lefty O'Doul, Goose Goslin, Willie Kamm, Heinie Groh, and Paul Waner.
Fever Pitch
Nick Hornby · 247 pages
In America, it is soccer. But in Great Britain, it is the real football. No pads, no prayers, no prisoners. And that's before the players even take the field. Nick Hornby has been a football fan since the moment he was conceived. Call it predestiny. Or call it preschool. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Horn