In Wild Winter, John D. Burns, bestselling author of The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, sets out to rediscover Scotland's mountains, remote places and wildlife in the darkest and stormiest months. He traverses the country from the mouth of the River Ness to the Isle of Mull, from remote Sutherland to the Cairngorms, in search of rutting red deer, pupping seals, minke whales, beavers, pine martens, mountain hares and otters. In the midst of the fierce weather, John's travels reveal a habitat in crisis, and many of these wild creatures prove elusive as they cling on to life in the challenging Highland landscape. As John heads deeper into the winter, he notices the land fighting back with signs of regeneration. He finds lost bothies, old friendships and innovative rewilding projects, and - as Covid locks down the nation - reflects on what the outdoors means to hillwalkers, naturalists and the folk who make their home in the Highlands. Wild Winter is a reminder of the wonder of nature and the importance of caring for our environment. In his winter journey through the mountains and bothies of the Highlands, John finds adventure, humour and a deep sense of connection with this wild land.

In 1962, following two losing seasons, Coach John McKay was fighting for his job. The 1962 team was undersized but smart quick and tough. Although underdogs in four games, including the Rose Bowl, the Trojans finished with an 11-0 record and defeated Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and become national champions. Although the 1962 Trojans were the least talented of Coach McKay's four national championship teams, their success enabled USC to once again become a football power. You'll meet the players from this team and learn about their joys and sorrows as well their successes and failures.

The team included tempestuous end "Prince" Hal Bedsole, who still holds USC's season and career records for most yards per reception. Fleet Willie Brown, whose clutch plays on offense and defense preserved an undefeated season. Fiery Trojan captain Marv Marinovich, whose athletic techniques have become legendary, and Fred Hill, whose daughter, Kim, became the inspiration for the Ronald McDonald House.

""Gridiron Gumshoe"" My life in and out of the NFL Films' Vault" by Ace Cacchiotti is a Pro Football Fanatics' guide to my literal life working with the most accomplished producers who have lent their artistic values to all that follow the game and who live vicariously through one who contributed to the company by "Paying attention to detail and Finishing like a Pro." From young Steve Sabol's "They Called it Pro Football" produced in 1967, to "Joe and the Magic Bean" again written and produced by Steve in 1976, "75 Seasons"; "The Story of the National Football League" in 1994 to "America's Game" from 2005 and to the late NFL Films' President's tribute; Steve Sabol, "The Guts and Glory of Pro Football" on February 12th, 2013, the game of Pro Football is watched by hundred of millions through the camera eye of what is without a doubt the measuring stick for all others when it comes to capturing passion in and on any field. This author was given a wonderful opportunity to express himself and by doing so left a legacy with not only my peers but with my late loving boss; my friend Steve Sabol.

I hope you will be able to experience through the ""Gridiron Gumshoe"" a most rewarding Pro Football Journey.

Enjoy;

Ace Cacchiotti

Fanciful dreams of gold-medal glory led Jennifer Sey to the local gymnastics club in 1976. A natural aptitude and a willingness to endure punishing hard work took her to the elite ranks by the time she was eleven years old. Jennifer traveled the country and the world competing for the U.S. National team, but the higher she set her sights--the world championships, the 1988 Olympics--the more she began to ignore her physical and mental well-being. Jennifer suffered devastating injuries, developed an eating disorder, and lived far from family and friends, all for the sake of winning. When her parents and coaches lost sight of her best interests, Jennifer had no choice but to redefine her path into adulthood. She had to save herself.

Chalked Up delivers an unforgettable coming-of-age story that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt not good enough and has finally come to accept who they were meant to be.

The NFL legend and Heisman Trophy winner shares the inspiring story of his life and diagnosis with dissociative identity disorder.

Herschel Walker is widely regarded as one of football's greatest running backs. He led the University of Georgia to victory in the Sugar Bowl on the way to an NCAA Championship and he capped a sensational college career by earning the 1982 Heisman Trophy. Herschel spent twelve years in the NFL, where he rushed for more than eight thousand yards and scored sixty-one rushing touchdowns.

But despite the acclaim he won as a football legend, track star, Olympic competitor, and later a successful businessman, Herschel realized that his life, at times, was simply out of control. He often felt angry, self-destructive, and unable to connect meaningfully with friends and family. Drawing on his deep faith, Herschel turned to professionals for help and was ultimately diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder.

While some might have taken this diagnosis as a setback, Herschel approached his mental health with the same indomitable spirit he brought to the playing field. It also gave him, for the first time, insight into his life's unexplained passages, stretches of time that seemed forever lost. Herschel came to understand that during those times, his "alters," or alternate personalities, were in control.

Born into a poor, but loving family in the South, Herschel was an overweight child with a stutter who suffered terrible bullying at school. He now understands that he created "alters" who could withstand abuse. But beyond simply enduring, other "alters" came forward to help Herschel overcome numerous obstacles and, by the time he graduated high school, become an athlete recognized on a national level.

In "Breaking Free, " Herschel tells his story -- from the joys and hardships of childhood to his explosive impact on college football to his remarkable professional career. And he gives voice and hope to those suffering from DID. Herschel shows how this disorder played an integral role in his accomplishments and how he has learned to live with it today. His compelling account testifies to the strength of the human spirit and its ability to overcome any challenge.

The single-handed sailing pioneer and his vessels
For anyone interested in single-handed sailing the name of R. T. McMullen and his book, 'Down Channel'-an abiding classic of sailing literature and considered to be essential reading for any yachtsman sailing in coastal waters-require little elaboration. The principal value of this special Leonaur edition is that it includes all of McMullen's writings in a single volume. Published singly McMullen's books contain some repetition of the text, for this edition Leonaur's editors have removed the duplication to create a single cohesive and complete volume of McMullen's writings about his pioneering voyages and his vessels. We have also enhanced and enlarged the original maps and diagrams to provide clear information to the contemporary reader. This is an ideal book for any library on sailing.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Many have called him the greatest dirt-track Sprint car driver of all time. This exciting biography of Tommy Hinnershitz, by veteran writer Gary Ludwig, is a superb account of the life and times of this racecar driver who became an auto-racing legend. This beautifully printed hardcover book is a fascinating history of the Sprint car, telling how it evolved, beginning during the first few years of the 1900s, to become the true American race car. You'll read about the drivers, mechanics, owners, and promoters who spent their American ingenuity and willpower to invent, innovate, and engineer the development of the automobile through high speed rough and tough competition. You'll learn about the early champions, including Ted Horn, Joie Chitwood, Jimmy Bryan, Johnny Thomson, and many more, who were Hinnershitz's rivals during his career that began in 1928 and spanned five decades. Racing and winning on the dusty dirt horsetracks at state and county fairs across America earned him a chance to race in the Indianapolis 500.He was there at the beginning, one of a handful of daredevil athletes, the champions who invented the broadslide; going in low and coming off high, or vice versa. After leading the way, setting the pace, and developing the syle, Hinnershitz set himself apart from all the others; he went in high and stayed there.This history of his life and amazing career includes over 20 pages of photographs and his complete race by race career statistics. This first ediion book is a treasured collector's item for thousands of Hinnershitz's fans.For the modern race fan this book serves as a catalyst for a better understanding of the men who had to overcome awesome obstacles to achieve success during the early years of auto-racing. Hinnershitz raced during an era without safety equipment or concerns. It was before seat belts, roll-bars and cages. He and his contemporaries seemed to embrace a greater lack of fear, adopting the adage that tragedy can't happen to them, only to the "other guy." Because of this lack of safety equipment and much less sophisticated racecars, many drivers died young. Tommy Hinnershitz was there through it all, and he was one of those that survived. He was a true pioneer of American auto-racing. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, and honored by numerous other organizations.

Henry Aaron left his mark on the world by breaking Babe Ruth's record for home runs. But the world has also left its mark on him.

"Hammering Hank" Aaron's story is one that tells us much about baseball, naturally, but also about our times. His unique, poignant life has made him a symbol for much of the social history of twentieth-century America.

Raised during the Depression in the Deep South enclave of Mobile, Alabama, Aaron broke into professional baseball as a cross-handed slugger and shortstop for the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League. A year later, he and a few others had the unforgettable mission of integrating the South Atlantic League. A year after that, he was a timid rookie leftfielder for the Milwaukee Braves, for whom he became a World Series hero in 1957 as well as the Most Valuable Player of the National League.

Aaron found himself back in the South when the Braves moved to Atlanta in 1965. Nine years later, in the heat of hatred and controversy, he hit his 715th home run to break Ruth's and baseball's most cherished record--a feat that was recently voted the greatest moment in baseball history. That year, Aaron received over 900,000 pieces of mail, many of them vicious and racially charged.

In a career that may be the most consistent baseball has ever seen. Aaron also set all-time records for total bases and RBIs. He ended his playing days by spending two nostalgic seasons back in Milwaukee with the Brewers, then embarked on a new career as an executive with the Atlanta Braves. He was for a long time the highest-ranking black in baseball. In this position, Aaron has become an unofficial spokesman in racial matters pertaining to thenational pastime.

Because of the depth and pertinence of Aaron's dramatic experiences, "I Had A Hammer" is more than a baseball autobiography. Henry Aaron's candor and insights have produced a revealing book about his extraordinary life and time.

On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, " a book destined to become a modern classic. Much like his acclaimed biography of Vince Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered, " Maraniss uses his narrative sweep and meticulous detail to capture the myth and a real man.

Anyone who saw Clemente, as he played with a beautiful fury, will never forget him. He was a work of art in a game too often defined by statistics. During his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won four batting titles and led his team to championships in 1960 and 1971, getting a hit in all fourteen World Series games in which he played. His career ended with three-thousand hits, the magical three-thousandth coming in his final at-bat, and he and the immortal Lou Gehrig are the only players to have the five-year waiting period waived so they could be enshrined in the Hall of Fame immediately after their deaths.

There is delightful baseball here, including thrilling accounts of the two World Series victories of Clemente's underdog Pittsburgh Pirates, but this is far more than just another baseball book. Roberto Clemente was that rare athlete who rose above sports to become a symbol of larger themes. Born near the canebrakes of rural Carolina, Puerto Rico, on August 18, 1934, at a time when there were no blacks or Puerto Ricans playing organized ball in the United States, Clemente went on to become the greatest Latino player in the major leagues. He was, in a sense, the Jackie Robinson of the Spanish-speaking world, a ballplayer of determination, grace, and dignity who paved the way and set the highest standard for waves of Latino players who followed in later generations and who now dominate the game.

The Clemente that Maraniss evokes was an idiosyncratic character who, unlike so many modern athletes, insisted that his responsibilities extended beyond the playing field. In his final years, his motto was that if you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth. Here, in the final chapters, after capturing Clemente's life and times, Maraniss retraces his final days, from the earthquake to the accident, using newly uncovered documents to reveal the corruption and negligence that led the unwitting hero on a mission of mercy toward his untimely death as an uninspected, overloaded plane plunged into the sea.

For the first time, Real Madrid galáctico and Croatian legend Luka Modric tells the story of his journey from a childhood in his war-torn homeland to becoming a serial UEFA Champions League winner and one of the most celebrated footballers in the world.

Regarded as one of the great midfield players of the last 20 years, Luka reveals the difficulties of growing up during the Croatian War of Independence and his beginnings as a footballer. The FIFA World Cup finalist sets the record straight regarding key moments at Dinamo Zagreb, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid; he gives us intimate insights into his treasured home life; and he brings us his personal account of his career peak - Croatia's dramatic path to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final.

What were his thoughts during decisive matches? What was his relationship with key players and coaches? What is the inner determination that keeps him on the pitch? What does it take to become the best footballer in the world?

Luka was consistently underestimated in his early career, but through grit and determination he has defied the expectations of everyone who doubted him, and reached the ultimate heights of world football. This is Luka Modric in his own words.

The baseball term, "snake jazz," refers to those squiggly pitches (curve, slider, screwball, etc.) that deviate from a direct path on their way to the catcher. This could also describe the strange and sometimes amusing twists in Dave Baldwin's progress on his way to the big leagues.
As a skinny, awkward kid in the 1940s, Dave learned to throw under the searing Arizona sun amidst cacti and snakes. Despite that modest beginning, his father convinced him that success would come with focused hard work. His dad's encouragement enabled him to become one of the most highly sought-after pitching prospects in the nation as a teenager. Scouts and sportswriters said he was a "natural," "another Bob Feller." He began to see his ability as a gift. Scouts had a favorite mantra - "We can teach a kid to throw a curve, but he has to be born with a fastball." Upon hearing this often from the "experts," Dave lost the idea of self-development his father had instilled. If baseball skill is genetic, there's nothing to be done. Either the kid has the genes or he doesn't.
This philosophy seemed to work well enough until one day during his sophomore year at the University of Arizona he threw a curveball that severely damaged his arm. All that "natural" ability went out the window.
This would have ended his career before it began except he couldn't see life continuing without baseball. Thus, he started a desperate eight year struggle that culminated in his transformation into an unorthodox but successful major league pitcher - the drastic changes in his throwing style inspired by insights gained from his study of ecological genetics and advice he received from Max Surkont, an aging pitcher in Dave's first spring training camp.
On Dave's baseball odyssey he found a roommate who sleepwalked swinging a bat, another who chewed Gillette double-edged razor blades, and still another who was working up to a stretch in prison. He eavesdropped on the witty repartee aboard a burning airplane and a death-defying bus trip, during epicurean brushes with the criminal underworld, and in that awkward moment right after a bullet had ripped through a taxi window. He got to dodge tornadoes, lightning, and baseball hobgoblins. He experienced the bonding effect of minor league pranks and comedy acts, and got a taste of what it was like playing baseball askew in the metaphysical whirl of Steppenwolf and the hippie generation. And he learned the irresistible attraction of Janis Joplin and the dry spitball.
The odd adventures didn't end once Dave made it to the major leagues. He spent a season busily tormenting Ted Williams, and once he unexpectedly found himself teaching the knuckleball to Seri Indians in a remote desert village in northern Mexico.
Snake Jazz includes a number of anecdotes reflecting the world around baseball during the 1960s and '70s, such as the beginnings of the Viet Nam war and the impact on baseball of racial bigotry during the Civil Rights Movement. One chapter recounts the peculiar and dangerous situation of American ballplayers in Havana shortly after Fidel Castro's rebels had gained control of Cuba.
Snake Jazz is more than a series of remarkable anecdotes, however. It is a demonstration of the importance of motivation and mindset in reaching objectives. Dave's dream of playing major league baseball and his stubborn determination drove him to overcome the notion that ability is inherent. If his dad was right, there must be some way to make it to the majors through hard work, even after inherent advantage had been lost. The big question was, "Work hard at what?" He needed a good pitching coach to give him that critical suggestion that would turn his career around. He rarely saw a pitching coach in the minor leagues, and those few that were available did more harm than good.
He continued to work hard to improve, but he was still practicing the same way

Excerpt: "We could get partly undressed-so that we had only such clothes as would be delicious to hug & squeeze in & then you could sit in my lap & we'd kiss & hug & squeeze & cuddle each other until we couldn't stand it any longer. . . ." Ronald A. Smith, a well-known sport historian and emeritus professor at Penn State University, has published several books in sport history, including an edited diary belonging to the subject of these love letters. "Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905: The Diary of Coach Bill Reid" chronicles the most important year in college football, when the crisis in brutality led to the creation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the legalization of the forward pass. Bill Reid had another side to his life, however-a passionate one in which he and his girlfriend, fianc, and wife exchanged intimate love letters for well over a decade. The passionate nature of Bill and Christine's letters during the late Victorian period and early twentieth century are rare and distinguish them from other collections. Bill and Christine wrote intimate love letters when they first met, through their engagement and a lengthy separation while Christine took an eight-month voyage with her parents to Europe, and especially after their marriage and the birth of their first three children. The explicit love letters of upper-middle and upper class individuals are an exceptional find, and they broach issues between couples that are almost universal, often appearing timeless. The love letters of Bill and Christine not only illuminate aspects of life in the early twentieth century, but also they make us reflect on our own lives.

To everyone who truly loves the game, Mickey Mantle epitomizes the golden age of baseball, when the mighty New York Yankees indisputably ruled, appearing in an unprecedented twelve World Series in fourteen years! In this intimate memoir, Mantle recounts the joys and trials of his rise from rural Oklahoma youngster to the pinnacle of baseball greatness.

In "All My Octobers," the one and only Mick relives every one of his World Series appearances -- from the 1951 battle when he played alongside an aging Joe DiMaggio to his three-home-run performance in the 1964 showdown. In addition to the on-field heroics, Mantle talks candidly about the injuries, the alcohol, the parties and celebrations, and the terrible toll they can take on a young athlete's life. But most of all, it is a remembrance of October greatness, of postseason pyrotechnics . . . and a loving appreciation of a team of titans that achieved something marvelous and unequaled to this day.

An intimate, original biography of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, and the first to cover his entire career.

After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world's pre-eminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Nadal, the Spanish force of nature. When he arrived on the scene in 2005, the record for men's singles titles at the French Open stood at six. Nadal more than doubled that total to a mind-blowing fourteen titles: one of the greatest sporting achievements in history.

Nadal won big and won often on all of tennis's surfaces: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and six on the US Open and Australian Open hard courts. But clay, the grittiest of the game's playgrounds, is where it all came together best for his whipping forehand and warrior mindset.

Clarey, who has covered Nadal since he was seventeen, draws on interviews over twenty years with Nadal, his team and rivals like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Brimming with behind-the-scenes insight, The Warrior tells the story of a global sporting icon, interlacing man and place in a unique, must-read account of the evolution of excellence.