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Books > Biography > Sport
Written by a New York Times bestselling author and reporter who “knows the world of professional golf…like few others” (The Wall Street Journal) comes “the most insightful and evenhanded book written yet about one of the signature athletes of the last twenty-five years” (Booklist, starred review) detailing Tiger Woods’s remarkable comeback and his journey back into winner’s circle.
Tiger Woods’s long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods’s DUI arrest that night came on the heels of a desperate spinal surgery, just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again. His mug shot and alarming arrest video were painful to look at and, for Woods, a deep humiliation. The former paragon of discipline now found himself hopelessly lost and out of control, exposed for all the world to see. That episode could have marked the beginning of Tiger’s end. It proved to be the opposite.
Instead of sinking beneath the public disgrace of drug abuse and the private despair of a battered and ailing body, Woods embarked on the long road to redeeming himself. In The Second Life of Tiger Woods, Michael Bamberger, who has covered Woods since the golfer was an amateur, draws upon his deep network of sources inside locker rooms, caddie yards, clubhouses, fitness trailers, and back offices to tell the true and inspiring story of the legend’s return. Packed with new information and graced by insight, Bamberger’s story reveals how this iconic athlete clawed his way back to the top.
This is a “gripping” (Kirkus Reviews) and intimate portrait of a man who has spent his life in front of the camera but has done his best to make sure he was never really known. Here is Tiger, barefoot, in handcuffs, showing a police officer a witty and self-deprecating side of himself that the public never sees. Here is Tiger on the verge of tears with his children at the British Open. Here is Tiger trying to express his gratitude to his mother at a ceremony at the Rose Garden. In these pages, Tiger is funny, cold, generous, self-absorbed, inspiring—and real.
The Second Life of Tiger Woods is not only the saga of an exceptional man but also a celebration of second chances. Bamberger’s bracingly honest book is about what Tiger Woods did, and about what any of us can do, when we face our demons head-on.
"An exciting and engrossing book with stories that are worth
telling. This work will engage fans of Charlie O. Finley and the
Oakland Athletics, along with anyone captivated by baseball
history." -- Library Journal, starred review The Oakland A's of the
early 1970s: Never before had an entire organization so
collectively traumatized baseball's establishment with its
outlandish behavior and business decisions. The high drama that
played out on the field--five straight division titles and three
straight championships--was exceeded only by the drama in the
clubhouse and front office. Under the visionary leadership of owner
Charles O. Finley, the team assembled such luminary figures as
Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue, and
with garish uniforms and revolutionary facial hair, knocked
baseball into the modern age. Finley's insatiable need for
control--he was his own general manager and dictated everything
from the ballpark organist's playlist to the menu for the media
lounge--made him ill-suited for the advent of free agency. Within
two years, his dynasty was lost. A sprawling, brawling history of
one of the game's most unforgettable teams, Dynastic, Bombastic,
Fantastic is a paean to the sport's most turbulent, magical team,
during one of major league baseball's most turbulent, magical
times.
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Swifty
(Hardcover)
Irv Burnett
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In 1965, 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham began a solo around-the-world
voyage from San Pedro, California, in his 24-foot sloop, Dove. Five
years and 33,000 miles later, he had accomplished what few would
dare attempt, returning to port with a wife and daughter and enough
extraordinary experiences to fill this bestselling book. Originally
published in 1972. 32 pages of photographs.
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Tissues
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Daniel D Servant Mendes
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Off Balance
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Dominique Moceanu; As told to Teri Williams
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In this searing and riveting "New York Times" bestseller, Olympic
gold medalist Dominique Moceanu reveals the dark underbelly of
Olympic gymnastics, the true price of success...and the shocking
secret about her past and her family that she only learned years
later.
At fourteen years old, Dominique Moceanu was the youngest member of
the 1996 US Women's Olympic Gymnastics team, the first and only
American women's team to take gold at the Olympics. Her pixyish
appearance and ferocious competitive drive quickly earned her the
status of media darling. But behind the fame, the flawless floor
routines, and the million-dollar smile, her life was a series of
challenges and hardships.
"Off Balance "vividly delineates each of the dominating characters
who contributed to Moceanu's rise to the top, from her stubborn
father and long-suffering mother to her mercurial coach, Bela
Karolyi. Here, Moceanu finally shares the haunting stories of
competition, her years of hiding injuries and pain out of fear of
retribution from her coaches, and how she hit rock bottom after a
public battle with her parents.
But medals, murder plots, drugs, and daring escapes aside (all of
which figure into Moceanu's incredible journey), the most unique
aspect of her life is the family secret that Moceanu discovers,
opening a new and unexpected chapter in her adult life. A
mysterious letter from a stranger reveals that she has a second
sister--born with a physical disability and given away at
birth--who has nonetheless followed in Moceanu's footsteps in an
astonishing way.
A multilayered memoir that transcends the world of sports, "Off
Balance "will touch anyone who has ever dared to dream of a better
life.
From the moment a hopelessly bored eleven year old boy watched
Gower effortlessly pull his first ball in Test cricket for four, he
instantly forgot the fact that West Ham were crap and had just been
relegated and his life long love affair with cricket had begun.
These are the recollections of how being pretty good at bowling a
hard red ball at three tall sticks in the ground has allowed Stuart
Simmonds the chance to travel the cricketing world, play against
some seriously good players, meet some very famous people and most
importantly avoid having to ever get what can only be described as
a normal, sensible job. Written with huge amounts of charm, Stuart
takes us on a journey around club grounds, county grounds, test
grounds and an enormous amount of time coaching in playgrounds, all
spent together with what seems like an awful lot of very
entertaining people. Any profits from this book will be distributed
between local charities. There are plenty of superstar
autobiographies that tell you what its like to receive a standing
ovation when you walk back through the pavilion at Lords, the Oval
or the MCG having scored a brilliant hundred or a match winning
bowling spell and of the boys on tour celebrations afterwards. This
sadly, is not going to be one of those books. This is the tale of
someone living their sporting life in the surreal world between so
called professional excellence and the so called charm of the
village green. There without the slightest hint of glamour, with
all the frustrations and the occasional triumphs of the top flight
club circuit in Sussex and its regular visits to the seaside. There
are also the recollections of the seasons spent playing and
coaching overseas, trying to see if you really were any good after
all. Told with intelligence, humour and above all honesty, these
are the memoirs of someone trying to make ends meet doing the
things they love for a living, whilst occasionally bumping into
somebody famous along the way.
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