Non-Fiction 101: Sports & Wellness

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Describes the author's experiences as a lifelong surfer, from his early years in Honolulu through his culturally sophisticated pursuits of perfect waves in some of the world's most exotic locales.

True belonging doesn't require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are." Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives--experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling, and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping a clear path to true belonging.

On September 2, 2013, at the age of 64, Diana Nyad emerged onto the shores of Key West after completing a 110 mile, 53 hour, record-breaking swim through shark-infested waters from Cuba to Florida. Her memoir shows why, at 64 she was able to achieve what she couldn't at 30 and how her repeated failures contributed to her success.

Noting the recovery themes that have dominated fitness-industry recommendations in recent years, a popular science writer examines the latest athletic trends, rituals and training practices to determine if any help the body recover and achieve optimal performance.

Contestants have died, been maimed, and spiraled down into the nightmarish realm of madness. Half of them don't finish—in fact, only 200 racers have ever made it to the end. Outside magazine calls it "the toughest test of endurance in the world." RAAM (the Race Across America) is a bicycle race like no other. This epic race is the most brutal organized sporting event you've never heard of and one of the best-kept secrets in the sports world. Author Amy Snyder follows a handful of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 event, the closest and most controversial in history. Hell on Two Wheels is a thrilling and remarkably detailed account of their ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. By experiencing the race from the perspective of the racers themselves, Hell on Two Wheels breaks new ground in helping us appreciate how such a grueling effort can be so cleansing and self-revelatory. This is more than just a race; it's a monster, a crucible, an unforgettable allegory about the human experience of pain and joy and self-discovery.

Even the slightest calibration can turn a baseball from an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation.Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the ten major pitches, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball.

From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world--where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

From the executive director of the NFL Hall of Fame comes a sweeping and lively history of the NFL, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary season. Compelling, eye-opening, and authoritative, it is a must-read for NFL fans and anyone who loves the game of football.

Ibtihaj Muhammad's path to Olympic greatness has been marked with opposition and near-debilitating challenges because of her race, religion, and gender. As the only woman of color and the only religious minority on the U.S. women's saber team, she had to push past sterotypes, misconceptions, and negativity to find her own path to success and Olympic Glory. Her reflection provides an unflinching and honest portrayal of how she managed to stay true to herself and still play by the rules.

In Why We Can't Sleep, Calhoun opens up the cultural and political contexts of Gen X's predicament and offers solutions for how to pull oneself out of the abyss--and keep the next generation of women from falling in. The result is reassuring, empowering, and essential reading for all middle-aged women, and anyone who hopes to understand them.

Walker answers important questions about sleep: how do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs, and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and accessible, Why We Sleep is a crucial and illuminating book.

A revelatory history of basketball draws on hundreds of interviews with leading athletes, coaches, executives, and journalists from the NBA, WNBA, NCAA and international leagues.

The Boys in the Boat describes how a group of working class youths from the University of Washington rowing team emerged from obscurity to defeat a field of elite international rivals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Sports fans who love a good "Cinderella story" will cheer this fast-paced, emotionally charged account of the players' and coaches struggles set against stark Depression-era realities.

ALSO GREAT FOR ADULTS
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.

ALSO GREAT FOR ADULTS
In this fun, irreverent and fact-filled history, Sean McIndoe relates the flip side to the National Hockey League's storied past.

Author Gene Luen Yang turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the high school where he teaches.

At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals.

This is the incredible true story of basketball, from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible. Includes photos throughout, a Who's-Who of the 1936 Olympics, bibliography, and index.

A graphic memoir recounts the years Walden spent competitively figure skating, before her developing love of art and first girlfriend causes her to question the insular world of figure skating.

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 forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football," they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work. Sheinkin provides an true underdog sports story-- and an unflinching look at the U.S. government's violent persecution of Native Americans and the school that was designed to erase Indian cultures.

Award-winning coach and sports psychologist Jim Afremow has helped everyone from Olympians to professional athletes train their mind, body, and spirit. Now, in this new young adult edition of his highly praised The Champion s Mind, Dr. Afremow is helping student athletes do and feel their best.