Other books that might interest you

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  Flower of Battle by Fiore dei...

  Guy Windsor, Fiore dei Liberi

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  Il Fior di Battaglia, the Flower of Battle, was written by the great Italian master at arms Fiore dei Liberi around the year 1400. It covers knightly combat on foot and on horseback, in armour and without, in great depth and detail. The sections of the manuscript include an introduction, then plays of wrestling, the dagger, the sword in one hand, the sword in two hands, the sword in armour, the pollax, the spear, the lance on horseback, the sword on horseback, and wrestling on horseback.  
  This audiobook is the translation into English by Dr. Guy Windsor.

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  The Match of the Century -...

  Matt Clough

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  On 25 November 1953, the footballing landscape was altered forever. In a mist-shrouded Wembley Stadium, the beautiful game's historic dominant force, England, met the most exciting team of the 1950s, Hungary. What followed sent shockwaves through the very foundations that the sport was built upon.
  
  
  After years of crumbling decline, the British Empire seemed to be enjoying a resurgence with the coronation of the popular young Elizabeth II. As such, England played with the crushing weight of expectation upon their shoulders, defending their proud, unbeaten home record and protecting the reputation of the nation. Hungary, meanwhile, took on football's most venerated team in the knowledge that they had the opportunity to make history by emerging victorious – anything less would not be tolerated.
  
  
  The newspapers called it the Match of the Century before it had even begun. By the time it was over, writers, players and fans were wondering if such a lofty billing had in fact undersold the contest. Now, over sixty years later, the match is imbued with meaning and symbolism far beyond the football pitch. This is the story of a match that would change the course of football history forever.

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  Straight Up

  Ruby Tui

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  This is Ruby Tui. An open, raw and honest account of her journey from a troubled and unstable childhood, searching for a better option in life, to Olympic champion and the world's best rugby sevens player. 
   
  After a childhood filled with neglect Ruby yearned for another path. Determined not to let her upbringing limit her, she survived abuse, drugs and tragedy to become one of the most successful women's rugby players in the world. 
   
  The explosion of women's rugby on the global stage has matched the rise of Ruby's stellar career, as she has grown with the game from amateur to professional. 
   
  In Straight Up Ruby looks herself in the eye, understanding that she can turn pain into purpose. 
   
  It's time to be straight up.

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  Owning It - A deeply personal...

  Andy Carroll

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  A deeply personal football memoir from former Newcastle United and West Ham striker Andy Carroll.In January 2011, at the age of twenty-two, Andy Carroll became the most expensive British footballer in history. A Geordie powerhouse, one moment he was the hero of Newcastle United at St James’ Park, the next he was boarding a helicopter to Liverpool FC, with a £35-million price tag.But behind the record-breaking fee lies a far more personal story. For the first time, Andy speaks candidly about the pain of leaving his boyhood club (and later the emotional reality of his high-profile return) and reveals what really happened on that frantic Transfer Deadline Day and what it felt like to be the most talked-about man in the country. With humour and honesty, he also confronts the injury-prone label, a narrative that has followed his career, and speaks about the long, gruelling months in the treatment room and the mental strain it took.From the nightclubs of Newcastle to the quiet streets of France, Owning It is more than a football memoir. It’s a raw, often humourous story of a career shaped by soaring highs, crushing lows and an unshakeable desire to step back onto the pitch.He may not have been what the pundits wanted – or what the tabloids made him out to be – but he was always Andy Carroll. This is his untold story.

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  At the Mercy of the Sea - The...

  John Kretschmer

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  A "normal" Caribbean hurricane travels from east to west, but Lenny was anything but normal. Spawned south of Cuba in 1999, this late-season storm defied all predictions by moving steadily east toward the Leeward Islands. Eventually building almost to Category 5 strength, Lenny squatted for two days between the Virgin Islands and St. Martin, whipping the ocean with 155 mile-per-hour winds and sixty-foot seas. 
   
   
   
  In its path in the Anegada Passage were three sailboats and their unfortunate crews: La Vie en Rose, a forty-one-foot sloop captained by ex-army lieutenant colonel Carl Wake; English Braids, a tiny twenty-one-foot racer skippered by would-be elite competitive sailor Steve Rigby; and Frederic-Anne, a sixty-five-foot schooner skippered by ambitious Guillaume Llobregat. None of the men knew each other, yet they converged by fate in a tiny circle of the sea in the midst of a storm no boat could withstand. And even as he battled for survival, Carl Wake lived the crowning hours of his life. 
   
   
   
  John Kretschmer's At the Mercy of the Sea retraces the journeys of these three sailors through life and across oceans. It is a taut, suspenseful re-creation that seeks to make sense of the improbable intersection of three lives at the height of a storm, and a gripping reconstruction of Carl Wake's search for meaning and, ultimately, for his soul.

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  Tackling The Everyday - Race and...

  Tracie Canada

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  A Black feminist takes on exploitation and care in America's favorite game. 
   
   
    
  Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college football players, anthropologist Tracie Canada reveals the ways young athletes strategically resist the exploitative systems that structure their everyday lives. 
   
   
   
  Tackling the Everyday shows how college football particularly harms the young Black men who are overrepresented on gridirons across the country. Although coaches and universities constantly invoke the misleading "football family" narrative, this book describes how a brotherhood among Black players operates alongside their caring mothers, who support them on and off the field. With a Black feminist approach—one that highlights often-overlooked voices—Canada exposes how race, gender, kinship, and care shape the lives of the young athletes who shoulder America's favorite game.

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