Miscellaneous Books - Page 3

Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

John Carlin

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Mandela, Nelson
Subjects -> History -> Africa -> South Africa
Subjects -> History -> World -> General

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Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A thrilling, inspiring account of one of the greatest charm offensives in history—Nelson Mandela’s decade-long campaign to unite his country, beginning in his jail cell and ending with a rugby tournament

In 1985, Nelson Mandela, then in prison for twenty-three years, set about winning over the fiercest proponents of apartheid, from his jailers to the head of South Africa’s military. First he earned his freedom and then he won the presidency in the nation’s first free election in 1994. But he knew that South Africa was still dangerously divided by almost fifty years of apartheid. If he couldn’t unite his country in a visceral, emotional way—and fast—it would collapse into chaos. He would need all the charisma and strategic acumen he had honed during half a century of activism, and he’d need a cause all South Africans could share. Mandela picked one of the more farfetched causes imaginable—the national rugby team, the Springboks, who would host the sport’s World Cup in 1995.

Against the giants of the sport, the Springboks’ chances of victory were remote. But their chances of capturing the hearts of most South Africans seemed remoter still, as they had long been the embodiment of white supremacist rule. During apartheid, the all-white Springboks and their fans had belted out racist fight songs, and blacks would come to Springbok matches to cheer for whatever team was playing against them. Yet Mandela believed that the Springboks could embody—and engage—the new South Africa. And the Springboks themselves embraced the scheme. Soon South African TV would carry images of the team singing “Nkosi Sikelele Afrika,” the longtime anthem of black resistance to apartheid.

As their surprising string of victories lengthened, their home-field advantage grew exponentially. South Africans of every color and political stripe found themselves falling for the team. When the Springboks took to the field for the championship match against New Zealand’s heavily favored squad, Mandela sat in his presidential box wearing a Springbok jersey while sixty-two-thousand fans, mostly white, chanted “Nelson! Nelson!” Millions more gathered around their TV sets, whether in dusty black townships or leafy white suburbs, to urge their team toward victory. The Springboks won a nail-biter that day, defying the oddsmakers and capping Mandela’s miraculous ten-year-long effort to bring forty-three million South Africans together in an enduring bond.

John Carlin, a former South Africa bureau chief for the London Independent, offers a singular portrait of the greatest statesman of our time in action, blending the volatile cocktail of race, sport, and politics to intoxicating effect. He draws on extensive interviews with Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and dozens of other South Africans caught up in Mandela’s momentous campaign, and the Springboks’ unlikely triumph. As he makes stirringly clear, their championship transcended the mere thrill of victory to erase ancient hatreds and make a nation whole.

Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier

Terry Laughlin

List Price: $15.00 By: Fireside Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $3.40

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Swimming
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> General AAS

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Total reviews: 101 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Swim Better Than You Ever Thought You Could!

If you think fastest way to better swimming is more laps, you're wasting your breath, literally. Now you can swim better -- and enjoy it more -- using simple and original techniques developed by veteran swim coach and top-ranked Masters swimmer Terry Laughlin. Laughlin has helped more adults to swim faster, more smoothly, and with less effort than any other swimming coach in the country. Total Immersion, named for the popular workshops he gives across the country, will change the way you move your body through the water, Laughlin will take the way you swim and turn it inside out as you learn that it's technique -- not athletic ability -- that makes a strong swimmer. And best of all, you'll eliminate the boredom that comes with repetitive lap swimming. Total Immersion features:

* Step-by-step skill drills that anyone can master for better swim stokes, improved form, and more enjoyable workouts
* Tips on how to eliminate energy-robbing "drag" and swim more powerfully-with less effort
* The Total Immersion self- taught stroke makeover
* Dry land exercises to improve what you do in the water
* How to swim to burn off the most fat
* Easy-to follow illustrations

You will also learn which "pool toys" -- like hand paddles and fins -- can help you improve the most; how to swim for general fitness; how to stay injury-free; and much more. Based on more than twenty years of teaching, coaching, and research, Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion is sure to improve the quality of your swimming, whether you're skilled athlete or an average swimmer. And best of all, no more boring laps.

ESPN Sports Almanac 2009 (Espn Information Please Sports Almanac)

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Subjects -> Sports -> Miscellaneous -> Reference
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Subjects -> Sports -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great resource on sports trivia 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love books like this. Jam-packed with facts, including sometimes little known facts. Sports trivia catches my attention. . . .

The ESPN Sports Almanac exemplifies the genre.

It begins with a look at the past year in sports. My favorite section in this part of the book is "Extra Points," weird things that happened. For example, John McEnroe, playing in a kind of "old-timers" match got thrown out of his match for going ballistic over a line call. I thought he'd mellowed?

Following are sections organized largely by sport: baseball, college football, pro football, college basketball, pro basketball, hockey, and a host of other topics (such as Halls of Fame, Olympic games, motor sports, and miscellaneous sports (such as bowling, chess, Westminster Kennel Club competition, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champs, and so on).

Take baseball as an illustration. You have team hitting and pitching statistics (Among Chicago White Sox hitters, Jermaine Dye had the highest average among those with 125 or more at bats [.292], while Bobby Jencks had the lowest ERA among Sox pitchers [2.63]). I could spend an entire evening porting over such figures. There are also box scores of the 2008 post-season games; World Series winners from 1903 onward; home run champions each year; batting champ each year; Cy Young Award winner; and so on and on and on.

Another feature is a listing of Halls of Fame. For instance, looking at the Hockey Hall of Fame, I see some of the players whom I watched on TV and listened to on radio in the 1960s (Stan Mikita, Jean Beliveau, Gump Worsley) as well as recalled some classic officials (Andy van Hellemond and Ray Scapinello). The Boxing Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, Bowling Halls of Fame, and so on.

Anyhow, if you like sports statistics and trivia, this book will be a treasure for you.

Editorial Review:

For more than ten years, the ESPN Sports Almanac has been the go-to reference for answers to nearly every sports question. From all-time record holders to yearly champions, from auto racing to the Iditarod, from the Australian Open to the Super Bowl—the ESPN Sports Almanac 2009 covers all the bases, with hundreds of photographs, thousands of tables, countless facts and figures, plus expert analysis from ESPN’s most respected commentators. Add fan input from ESPN.com’s SportsNation polls, along with ESPN’s unique blend of irreverence, and this new edition remains the reigning champion among sports information resources.

New for 2009:
• Full recaps of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and Ryder Cup 2008
• Expanded sections of pro-football records
• More in-depth fantasy sports league analysis
• Bigger and better coverage of ballparks and arenas, mixed martial arts, and more

Kerplunk!: Stories

Patrick F. McManus

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $6.68

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Essays
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Satire
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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Patrick F. McManus's gently comic stories about outdoor life have earned him millions of fans worldwide. With Kerplunk!, McManus delivers a collection of folksy, wonderfully wise depictions of country life worthy of Mark Twain.

In these tall tales, McManus and his buddies learn how not to net a fish, why you should never get your hair cut by someone who's mad at you, what to do when a deer wanders into camp but your sleeping bag has frozen shut, and how to avoid bird-dog flatulence.

Traveling the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest, the delightful backcountry characters of Kerplunk! understand how a life of hunting and fishing -- and its inherent potential for misadventure -- can resonate with larger meaning. McManus's characters know exactly why it costs $500 to make a fly lure that retails for $2; why installing a boat trailer hookup can lead to divorce; and, most important, why you should always listen for the sound of your fishing line hitting the water -- because in life as it is in fishing, you don't know you're in the water until you hear the kerplunk!

These wry, curmudgeonly tales appeal to real outdoorsmen and the armchair variety alike. Often nostalgic, occasionally philosophical, and always funny, the stories in Kerplunk! reaffirm Patrick F. McManus's reputation as an American classic.

College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009: The Essential Guide to the Men's College Basketball Season (College Basketball Prospectus: The Essential Guide to the)

Ken Pomeroy, John Gasaway

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> College & University -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> College & University -> General AAS
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Education -> By Level -> College

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the winning tradition of the New York Times bestselling Baseball Prospectus, the ultimate guide to college basketball.

From the brand that brought sports fans the New York Times bestselling Baseball Prospectus comes an all-new, one-of-akind, authoritative guide to college basketball. Utilizing the same unique prediction model, College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009 applies objective knowledge, original hardhitting statistical analysis, and provocative writing to one of America’s most popular sports.

Divided into three sections, the prospectus includes essays on various aspects of the college game and the past season, previews of all thirty-one Division-I conferences, and a statistical abstract with the same cutting-edge mathematical analysis that has yielded a winning record of accurate predictions for the Baseball and Pro Football Prospectus series. For the 60 million Americans who are diehard college basketball fans, College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009 is a slam dunk.

The Worst Call Ever!: The Most Infamous Calls Ever Blown by Referees, Umpires, and Other Blind Officials

Kyle Garlett, Patrick O'neal

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Subjects -> Sports -> Miscellaneous -> History of Sports
Subjects -> Sports -> General
Subjects -> Sports -> General AAS

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In any sport, whenever an official takes the field, court, ice, ring, or pitch, they do so with a bright red bull's-eye on their backs. For even with their great accuracy and passion for the game, they do make errors—occasionally, great big fat ones—that change the tide of sports history.

In The Worst Call Ever, keepers of truth and enlightenment, sportswriters Kyle Garlett and Patrick O'Neal, expose the most injurious mistakes and desecrations, document their lasting damage—which to some wronged parties has evolved into a condition akin to post-traumatic stress disorder—and hopefully become the soothing balm of reconciliation.

Each piece details the play in question and examines the players and stakes involved, the scope of the injustice, and the path of change that was often its result. Garlett and O'Neal cover mishaps in all sports, from the four Major Leagues to golf and auto racing to even curling, in this fascinating look at the worst calls in sports history.

A People's History of Sports in the United States: From Bull-Baiting to Barry Bonds . . . 250 Years of Politics, Protest, People, and Play (New Press People's Histories)

Dave Zirin

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Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Social History
Subjects -> Sports -> Miscellaneous -> History of Sports
Subjects -> Sports -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Brilliant and Mind bending 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I am a sports fan and someone who cares about the politics of social change. This book brought these worlds together in a way that has me rethinking how I understand both the history of sports and the history of the United States. Each story told might be worth its own book but I will take with me the stories of Moses Fleetwood Walker, the African American baseball player in the 19th century who saw his career die with the end of reconstruction, and the way the famed US women's soccer team threatened to strike in 1996 - on the advice of Billie Jean King - for equal pay. This is a must read - an antidote to the narrow politics of election season.

Eye-opening 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Games are never just games. Even when children play, they are mastering the skills and cultural messages they will need to become successful adults. Yet in America, we cling to a cultural myth that sports are apolitical. We have the news channel CNN and the sports channel ESPN, and they are supposed to be entirely separate and distinct.

In this enlightening book, sportswriter Dave Zirin debunks this myth, exposing the politics, business interests, and cultural forces that have shaped modern sports. Zirin traces the history of sports from the lacrosse-playing days of the Choctaw Indians all the way to the modern steroid scandals and the behind-the-scenes politics of the international Olympic Games. Throughout, he focuses on how race-related conflicts have helped to shape modern athletics.

The host of a popular blog called "The Edge of Sports" (edgeofsports.com) and a regular contributor to the L.A. Times and the Nation magazine, Zirin has an engaging style that will appeal to sports fans, history buffs, and anyone else who wants their eyes opened. The favorable reviews and high sales certainly suggest that this book will help reduce the myth of sports as apolitical. (See the publisher's website, newpress.com, for links to recent publicity, which includes a favorable plug in Time Magazine.) Author Jeff Chang promises that after reading this book "you'll never see sports the same way again"; author Jim Bouton (Ball Four) goes even further by predicting that this is "the opening shot in the battle to reclaim sports."

Not only is the book enlightening, it is also a fun read full of engaging stories that you can share with friends and family while you are waiting for the game to begin. And if by game time you haven't yet convinced them that politics is embedded in sports, Zirin recommends an exercise that will unmask the "coercive patriotism" surrounding them: Have them try staying seated while the national anthem is being played, and they are being told to stand to support the troops in Iraq.

Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game - Audiobook [UNABRIDGED]

Joseph Parent

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Buddhism -> Zen
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> New Age -> New Thought
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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Connects the Mind and Body 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Finally, a book that puts the mental game into sections that make sense. Told in a down-to-earth way, the examples and insights provided by "Zen Golf" really do pertain to the game we love. Understanding that the results of a swing are not necessarily the be-all and end-all is very powerful knowledge. Learning to breathe will apply to a myriad of endeavor, both athletic and personal. Ostensibly, it is a book about golf, but one that fills many gaps in all kinds of life situations. Dr. Parent is a born teacher.

Zen Golf is the Second Best 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book! I learned more about the art of the mental game of golf in this thin volume than in a half dozen longer times (.e.: The Mental Games of Golf). I would put this up there with "See It Sink It" or "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose".

A must have for any serious golfer. I dare you to read the story about the golden statue and tell me that it didn't affect you!

Editorial Review:

By applying classic insights and stories from the Buddhist tradition to the challenges of golf, Zen Golf shows how to make one's mind an ally instead of an enemy: how to stay calm, clear the interference that leads to poor shots, and eliminate bad habits and mental mistakes. Read by Dr. Joseph Parent 4 CDs Unabridged.

Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes

Maurice Isserman, Stewart Weaver

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Subjects -> History -> Asia -> Central Asia
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa teammate Tenzing Norgay is a familiar saga, but less well known are the tales of many other adventurers who also came to test their skills and courage against the world’s highest and most dangerous mountains. In this lively and generously illustrated book, historians Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver present the first comprehensive history of Himalayan mountaineering in fifty years. They offer detailed, original accounts of the most significant climbs since the 1890s, and they compellingly evoke the social and cultural worlds that gave rise to those expeditions.

 

The book recounts the adventures of such figures as Martin Conway, who led the first authentic Himalayan climbing expedition in 1892; Fanny Bullock Workman, the pioneer explorer of the Karakoram range; George Mallory, the romantic martyr of Mount Everest fame; Charlie Houston, who led American expeditions to K2 in the 1930s and 1950s; Ang Tharkay, the legendary Sherpa, and many others. Throughout, the authors discuss the effects of political and social change on the world of mountaineering, and they offer a penetrating analysis of a culture that once emphasized teamwork and fellowship among climbers, but now has been eclipsed by a scramble for individual fame and glory.

(20080915)

If You Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat: Misadventures in Hunting, Fishing, and the Wilds of Suburbia

Bill Heavey

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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> Essays
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Subjects -> Entertainment -> Humor -> General

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For nearly a decade, Bill Heavey, an outdoorsman marooned in suburbia, has written the “Sportsman’s Life” column on the back page of Field & Stream, where he does for hunting and fishing what David Feherty does for golf and Lewis Grizzard did for the South. His work is adored by readers—one proclaims him “the greatest sportswriter who has ever walked the planet”—and his peers have recognized his work with three prestigious National Magazine Award nominations. If You Didn’t Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat? is the first collection of Heavey’s hilarious observations on life as an enthusiastic (but often hapless) outdoorsman. Whether he’s hunting cougars in the southwest desert, scheming to make his five-year-old daughter fall in love with fishing, or chronicling his father’s slow decline through the lens of the numerous dogs he’s owned over seventy-five years, Heavey is a master at blending humor and pathos—and wide-ranging outdoor enthusiasms—into a poignant and potent stew. Funny, warmhearted, and supremely entertaining, this book is an uproarious addition to the literature of the outdoors. The paperback edition features two new pieces.