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Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that made a Nation
John Carlin · back to the book
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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 Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics
Daniel James Brown · 227 pages
The Greatest: My Own Story
Richard Durham, Muhammad Ali · 424 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
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 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 Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
Wayne Coffey · 288 pages
Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a
Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football
Jim Dent · 304 pages
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Junction Boys" comes this amazing, inspirational story of a group of orphans and the man who created one of the greatest football teams Texas has ever known.
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
Joe Posnanski · 276 pages
Documents the author's cross-country travels at the side of Negro Leagues champion Buck O'Neil, a journey during which the pair sought to recapture their love of the game, remembered O'Neil's history-making career, and explored the numerous challenges that the sport has overcome.
The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation
Elizabeth Letts · 272 pages
"The Eighty-Dollar Champion tells the dramatic odyssey of a horse called Snowman, saved from the slaughterhouse by a young Dutch farmer named Harry. Together, Harry and Snowman went on to become America's show-jumping champions, winning first prize in Madison Square Garden. Set in the mid- to late-1950s, this book captures the can-do spirit of a Cold War immigrant who believed--and triumphed"--Pro
The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever
John Feinstein · 375 pages
When a fistfight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers one night in 1977, All-Star Rudy Tomjanovich raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington, a good player with a great reputation, and by an astonishingly ferocious punch, a single blow that has reverberated in both men's lives ever since. With his unerring insight into the deeper truths of professional sport
We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball
Kadir Nelson · 96 pages
Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through the decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. Illustrations from oil paintings by artist Kadir Nelson.
Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team
Audrey Vernick · 39 pages
Documents the story of the Baseball Hall of Fame honorees, tracing how the Acerra family of New Jersey formed their own semi-pro baseball team in the 1930s and became the longest-running all-brother team in history.
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 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."
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
Shooting Stars
LeBron James, H.G. Bissinger · 258 pages
From the ultimate team— basketball superstar LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August—a poignant, thrilling tale of the power of teamwork to transform young lives, including James's own.The Shooting Stars were a bunch of kids—LeBron James and his best friends—from Akron, Ohio, who first met on a youth basketball team of the sa
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.
One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season
Chris Ballard · 271 pages
viii, 254 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 25 cm1000L Lexile
The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron
Howard Bryant · 616 pages
This book is the first definitive biography of Henry Aaron -- baseball's great home-run champion and one of its most enduring legends. As the steroid controversy has increasingly tarnished baseball's image, Hank Aaron's achievements have come to seem all the more remarkable: the first player to pass Babe Ruth in home runs, Aaron held that record for thirty-three years while shattering other record
Jackie Robinson: The Graphic Novel
Josh Bycel and Rich Korson; Illustrated by Tristan Roach
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
H.G. Bissinger · 367 pages
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unempl