Other books that might interest you

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  The Way of the Gardener - Lost...

  Lyndon Penner

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  Reverence takes on a new meaning in this original memoir of an avid gardener walking the Camino de Santiago.
  		 
  The Camino de Santiago has been a journey for pilgrims for more than 1,000 years, testing—to varying degrees—their spirit, faith, and physical endurance. Lyndon Penner’s attention lies elsewhere. A renowned gardener and lover of literature, he revels in the plants, trees, and flowers that tell the history of the people and ecology of northern Spain.
  		 
  Brimming with wry observations—of nature, himself, and other pilgrims on the road—The Way of the Gardener reveals the beauty and the darkness of the human condition while underscoring the deeply fascinating nature of nature itself. This textured work makes for perfect armchair—or garden—reading.

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  Gibby - Tales of a Baseball Lifer

  John Gibbons, Greg Oliver

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  A captivating and candid memoir from one of the most beloved and colorful figures in Toronto Blue Jays history
  		 
  Over 11 years and two separate managerial stints with the Toronto Blue Jays, John Gibbons endeared himself to fans with his folksy manner and his frequent battles with umpires: “Here comes Gibby!” Winning helped too. Under Gibbons’s management, the Jays made the American League Championship Series in 2015, ending a 22-year playoff drought; then they did it again in 2016. Along the way the team defied odds, won over a nation, and with one flip of a bat produced one of the most iconic moments in MLB history. Now, in his memoir, Gibby shares the story: an on-field career that didn’t pan out, but a managing career that did … eventually.
  		 
  Raised in a military family, he played his first competitive baseball in Newfoundland and Labrador, and, with the family now in San Antonio, Texas, Gibby, a catcher, developed into a first-round draft pick of the New York Mets. While Gibbons only played 18 major league games, he did earn a World Series ring as the 1986 Mets bullpen catcher and knew all the characters from that team, including Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra, and Gary Carter. In 1990, Gibby began his journey as a coach and manager. An old teammate, J.P. Ricciardi, hired him to work with the Jays, and he moved his way up the ranks and into the hearts of baseball fans.

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  A Year of Playing Catch - What a...

  Ethan D. Bryan

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  Journey with prolific author and avid baseball fan Ethan Bryan on an exciting quest to play catch every day for a year, and discover the lessons he learned about the sacredness of play, finding connections, and being fully present to the human experience. A Casey Award finalist! 
  Ethan Bryan played and wrote about baseball for years. Then his daughters challenged him to set out on a yearlong experiment: to play catch with someone every day. This experience led him across 10 states and 12,000 miles on a quest both quixotic and inspiring. 
  Taking you from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to the home of the Daytona Tortugas in Florida, Bryan played ball and swapped stories with public school teachers, veterans, journalists, nurses, musicians, entertainers, entrepreneurs, athletes from every level--amateur to pro--and members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Plus, he visited famous destinations such as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Miracle League fields, and the original "Field of Dreams" in Iowa. 
  But throughout the book, Bryan reveals it's about much more than who he played catch with: it's what he learned from their vastly different stories. Lessons include:How play can reignite a fire within you and transform your lifeHow to find joy in the simple thingsHow one life can impact a whole community. . . and more. 
    
  For baseball fans and everyone who loves a good story, A Year of Playing Catch is an inspiring journey about finding joy in the simple things, and the power of play to transform our lives. 
    
  A complete list of everyone who played catch with Bryan and his daughter's illustrated version of one of the stories are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

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  Stand Tall - Fighting for My...

  Dewey Bozella

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  In this inspiring memoir, Dewey Bozella recounts his life and the twenty-six years he spent behind bars for a murder he did not commit—a stirring tale of courage, strength, faith, and perseverance. 
  In the late 1970s, Dewey Bozella was wrongfully accused of murdering Emma Crapser, a ninety-two-year-old resident of Poughkeepsie, New York. Sentenced to twenty years to life in prison, Bozella fiercely maintained his innocence throughout his ordeal at Sing Sing, and even refused the prosecutor’s offer of instant freedom in exchange for admission of guilt. But in 2009, more than a quarter century later, Dewey Bozella would reclaim his identity and his humanity when his conviction was vacated. 
  In this powerful memoir, Bozella tells his harrowing and amazing story—interweaving his time in prison with stories of a childhood marked by violence and pain. He shares the joys of marrying the love of his life from behind bars, becoming a champion boxer, and earning his education; the agony of being denied parole four times, and living in a cellblock with his brother’s murderer and, eventually, the killer whose thumbprint was found in Emma Crapser’s apartment. Yet the fighter in Bozella never gave up. He would become a free man thanks to his undying faith, stalwart persistence, the aid of the Innocence Project, and Wilmer Hale, the Park Avenue law firm whose young pro bono attorney doggedly worked toward his release when all hope seemed lost.  
  Today, Bozella considers himself blessed. Stand Tall is a testament to optimism and love. It is the compelling story of a man who fought against inequity and hardship and, against all odds, came out on top.

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  The Game Is Not a Game - The...

  Robert Scoop Jackson

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  A study of “the hypocrisy of the game, capitalism, activism (a la Kaepernick), disrespect to female athletes, and who benefits from sports the most” (Electric Lit).   Part play-by-play, part op-ed, The Game Is Not a Game is an illuminating and unflinching examination of the good and evil in the sports industry. Liberating and provocative, with sharp wit and generous humor, Jackson’s essays explore the role that sports plays in American society and the hypocritical standards by which the athletes are often judged. The Game Is Not a Game is distinctly intended to challenge accepted ideology and to push the boundaries of mainstream sports media beyond the comfort zone. Chapters expose “Our Miseducation of LeBron James,” “#ThemToo: The UnRespected Worth of the Woman Athlete,” the duplicity of the NFL in its treatment of Colin Kaepernick and the anthem protests, the cultural bias of analytics, and the power of social activism versus the power and politics of professional sports ownership—all from the sharp, savvy, and self-critical perspective of one of the leading voices for social justice in sports media.   “Bristles with bracing and brutal insights that take no tea for the fever and offer no discount on truth or justice . . . an instant classic that reckons with the factors that make sports possible, and at the same time wrestles with the forces that make protest in sports necessary. The Game Is Not a Game is intersectional cultural analysis at its best!” —Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author   “Jackson’s work is not about scores; rather, he stresses that sports are a self-contained microcosm of society at large. A thought-provoking, unfailingly insightful book.” —Booklist

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  Muhammad Ali - His Life and Times

  Thomas Hauser

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  A sweeping biography of one of the greatest and most provocative athletes of all time—“a life that needs to be understood whether you care a whit about boxing or not” (The Boston Globe). Athlete, activist, rebel, poet, legend—Muhammad Ali stood larger than life in the imagination of hundreds of millions of people around the world. A gold medalist at the 1960 Olympics, he won the heavyweight championship at age twenty-two by conquering Sonny Liston in dramatic fashion. In the weeks after the upset victory, he confirmed his membership in the Nation of Islam and told reporters he would no longer answer to his “slave name”: Cassius Clay. The political establishment stripped him of his heavyweight title when he refused induction into the United States Army during the height of the war in Vietnam. Ultimately, Ali returned to reclaim his crown, prevailing in epic fights against the likes of Joe Frazier and George Foreman. His talent and charisma—and above all, his adherence to principle—made him a cultural icon and one of the most beloved sporting figures of all time.   But that is only half the tale. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times is also the story of Ali, the man. Author Thomas Hauser got closer to Ali than any previous biographer. His work—told in Ali’s own words and those of hundreds of family members, friends, rivals, and others who interacted with “The Greatest” over the decades—reveals a deeply spiritual, complex man, whose public and private battles, including his struggle against the devastating effects of Parkinson’s disease, gave new meaning to the word courage and changed forever our conception of what makes a champion.   Heralded by the New York Times as “the first definitive biography of the boxer who transcended sports as no other athlete ever has,” Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the legacy of one of the twentieth century’s most charismatic and controversial superstars.   This enhanced ebook includes rare video footage, audio clips, and photos authorized by Muhammad Ali Enterprises.  

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