Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong

A Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers

John Feinstein · 324 pages

Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Richard Ben Cramer · 553 pages

"In this biography, Richard Ben Cramer presents a stunning, often shocking portrait of the hero nobody knew. It is a story that sweeps through the twentieth century, bringing to light along the way not just America's national game, but her movie stars, mobsters, pols, writers...the birth (and the price) of modern national celebrity.". "This is the story Joe DiMaggio never wanted to tell - and nev

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

Concussion

Jeanne Marie Laskas · 288 pages

The unlikely story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the pathologist who made one of the most significant medical discoveries of the twenty-first century, a discovery that challenges the existence of America's favorite sport and puts him in the crosshairs of football's most powerful corporation: the NFL. In 2002 forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu picked up a scalpel in a Pittsburgh morgue and made a discov

Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong

David Walsh · 426 pages

Traces the journalist's efforts to uncover the truth behind cycling's biggest star.

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.

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

Jon Krakauer · 416 pages

The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man's haunting journey. Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in th

Michael Jordan: The Life

Roland Lazenby · 708 pages

Traces the life of one of the most legendary basketball players in the history of the sport, drawing upon interviews with Jordan's friends, family, and teammates, and following his career from college to the NBA.

Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series: Totally Revised and Updated 2011 Edition

Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, Jeff Passan · 238 pages

Reinvigorates the old argument against the BCS with new evidence and pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of college sports' most despised postseason.

In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle

Madeleine Blais · 266 pages

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

Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn

Larry Colton · 434 pages

In Native American tradition, a warrior gained honor and glory by "counting coup" -- touching his enemy in battle and living to tell the tale. This is a modern story of...COUNTING COUPIn this extraordinary work of journalism, Larry Colton journeys into the world of Montana's Crow Indians and follows the struggles of a talented, moody, charismatic young woman named Sharon LaForge, a gifted basketba

The Jordan Rules: The Inside Story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

Sam Smith · 333 pages

Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan

Bob Greene · 288 pages

Michael Jordan is considered the pre-eminent basketball player in the world. He is celebrated for his playing, for his lifestyle, for what he gets paid, and every move he makes is news. This is his story.

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Steve Sheinkin · 288 pages

An astonishing underdog sports story and more. It's an unflinching look at the US government's violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures. Native American Jim Thorpe became a super athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Indomitable coach Pop Warner was a football mastermind. In 1907 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they

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 Breaks of the Game

David Halberstam · 400 pages

The story of one season with the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team touches on many aspects of professional sports: stars, salaries, the media, fans, ethics, drugs, and racial tension.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Michael Lewis · 318 pages

"This delightfully written, lesson-laden book deserves a place of its own in the Baseball Hall of Fame." ―Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A's, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur basebal

Earnhardt Nation: The Full-Throttle Saga of NASCAR's First Family

Jay Busbee · 352 pages

"Published to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Earnhardt Sr.'s death, a profile of the influential NASCAR family is set against a backdrop of the history of the world's fastest stock-car-racing organization and traces the achievements of three generations of Earnhardt drivers"--

The Best Team Money Can Buy

Molly Knight · 336 pages

"The inside-the-clubhouse story of two tumultuous years when the Los Angeles Dodgers were re-made from top to bottom, from the ownership of the team to management to the players on the field, becoming the most talked-about and most colorful team in baseball"-- In 2012, an investment group bought the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt, who had driven the team into bankruptcy in the midst of an

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike

William Fotheringham · 308 pages

Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich

Marti Perarnau · 488 pages

Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time

David Edmonds, John Eidinow · 368 pages

Paterno

Joe Posnanski · 511 pages

Joe Posnanski's biography of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno follows in the tradition of works by Richard Ben Cramer on Joe DiMaggio and David Maraniss on Vince Lombardi. Having gained unprecedented access to Paterno, as well as the coach's personal notes and files, Posnanski spent the last two years of Paterno's life covering the coach, on (and off) the field and through the scanda