NextReads @ HPL

Having trouble viewing this newsletter? Click Here

Sports and Recreation October 2009

If you want to experience all of the successes and pleasure in life, you have to be willing to accept all the pain and failure that comes with it.
~ Mat Hoffman, BMX rider

New and Recently Released!


Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards and Stadiums from 1845 to 1988 - by Michael Benson
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc Pub
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/25/2009
ISBN-13: 9780786444212
ISBN-10: 0786444215
What grandstand collapsed during a game, killing twelve? How high is the Green monster in Fenway? In what park was the outfield fence only 187 feet from home plate? is a comprehensive encyclopedia of the grounds, yards and stadiums used for organized baseball from the invention of the sport in the 1840s to the year 1988. Entries, listed alphabetically by community, cover everything from cornfields to Yankee Stadium. Each entry gives the location of the park, who played there and when, home run dimensions, seating capacity, architectural comments, attendance records, and anecdotes.

"Football! Navy! War!": How Military "Lend-Lease" Players Saved the College Game and Helped Win World War II - by Wilbur D. Jones
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780786442195
ISBN-10: 0786442190
During World War II, the U. S. military and colleges joined forces, fielding competitive teams to prepare men for combat. The book highlights the Department of the Navy's role in preserving the game and football's impact on national morale and the war effort through their "Lend-Lease" to colleges of officer candidates, including All-America and professional players. It describes wartime college and military football throughout the globe and features a foreword by veteran ESPN college football commentator Beano Cook. It contains 81 photographs and illustrations; listings of college and military teams, records, scores, big games, and statistics; player and team profiles; and a glossary of period football terminology.

Rock Climbing - by Timothy W. Kidd
Publisher: Human Kinetics
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780736068024
ISBN-10: 0736068023
Rock Climbing will help you explore one of the world's fastest-growing activities safely and successfully. The experts at the Wilderness Education Association ensure you learn proper technique essential to a safe and enjoyable experience. They prepare you for your adventure with information on fitness and conditioning, equipment and gear selection, and nutrition. Safety skills are integrated throughout the book, ensuring safety is never overlooked. You'll learn how you can use indoor climbing to practice basic skills before moving on to refine and build on those skills in the outdoors. You'll find easy-to-follow instruction of climbing fundamentals, including knots, belaying, building anchor systems, moving on rock, descending, and lead climbing, giving you all the skills and knowledge you need to be a capable beginning climber.

Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities - by Jeff Mapes
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/01/2009
ISBN-13: 9780870714191
ISBN-10: 0870714198
In Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes explores the growing urban bike culture that is changing the look and feel of cities across the U.S. He rides with bike advocates who are taming the streets of New York City, joins the street circus that is Critical Mass in San Francisco, and gets inspired by the everyday folk pedaling in Amsterdam, the nirvana of American bike activists. Mapes, a seasoned political journalist and long-time bike commuter, explores the growth of bicycle advocacy while covering such issues as the environmental, safety, and health aspects of bicycling for short urban trips. Pedaling Revolution is essential reading for the approximately one million people who regularly ride their bike to work or on errands, for anyone engaged in transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and public health—and for drivers trying to understand why they’re seeing so many cyclists.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen - by Christopher McDougall
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/05/2009
ISBN-13: 9780307266309
ISBN-10: 0307266303
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?  In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.  Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.

Crash of the Titans: The Early Years of the New York Jets and the AFL - by William J. Ryczek
Publisher: McFarland
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/07/2009
ISBN-13: 9780786441266
ISBN-10: 0786441267
Remember the Titans?  Not many a casual football fan of today would.  The New York Titans played to meager crowds and mediocre results in the decrepit Polo Grounds. The organization, one of the charter members of the American Football League in 1960, was in constant danger of bankruptcy. After struggling for three seasons, the Titans would finally be assumed by the league. New owners were found, the franchise was renamed and a new stadium would welcome the team in 1964. The revised edition of this award-winning book covers the turbulent history and eventual crash landing of the team that would become the New York Jets. The early days of the upstart AFL are also explored, as are the league's constant feuds with the Titans' underfunded and overbearing owner, Harry Wismer.
"X" Marks the Sport

For all the daredevils out there, we feature a selection of books on extreme sports and recreational activities that go beyond the X-Games in this issue of "Sports and Recreation".


Pretty Good for a Girl: The Autobiography of a Snowboarding Pioneer - by Tina Basich
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2003
ISBN-13: 9780060532208
ISBN-10: 0060532203
The pioneering female snowboarder offers a provocative inside view of the sport that has made her a legend, providing a female perspective on life in snowboarding and the evolution of a culture into an industry and Olympic sport, accompanied by how-to instruction and tips, advice, sport etiquette, and dozens of photographs and line drawings.

Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World - by Lynn Hill
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2002
ISBN-13: 9780393049817
ISBN-10: 0393049817
The memoirs of the woman rock climber who was the first person to accomplish a "free ascent" of the Nose on Yosemite's El Capitan describe her early days as a Hollywood stunt artist, friendships with other climbers, near-fatal eighty-foot fall, and personal strategies.

Wide Open: A Life in Supercross - by Jeremy McGrath
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2004
ISBN-13: 9780060537272
ISBN-10: 0060537272
The champion supercross racer offers a personal memoir of his own life and the sport that has evolved from a 1970s sideshow to an internationally popular extreme phenomenon and provides expert tips on how to become a supercross racer, common bike problems, and more.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place - by Aron Ralston
Publisher: Atria Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2004
ISBN-13: 9780743492812
ISBN-10: 0743492811
A mountaineer who survived a near-fatal accident by amputating his arm when it became trapped behind a boulder in Utah describes how he endured more than five days of hypothermia, dehydration, and hallucinations before managing his own rescue.

Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey - by Kelly Slater
Publisher: ReganBooks
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2003
ISBN-13: 9780060096298
ISBN-10: 0060096292
A six-time world surfing champion and actor describes his life and career, recounting how he turned to surfing to escape his difficult home life, appeared on Baywatch for a year, briefly dated Pamela Anderson, and worked to achieve his athletic goals.

Falling: How Our Greatest Fear Became Our Greatest Thrill - by Garrett Soden
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2003
ISBN-13: 9780393054132
ISBN-10: 0393054136
A historical look at the concept of free-fall, from its origination by drunken British brawlers to the thrill seekers of today, describes how the sport has taken the world by storm, revealing the psychological significance of its performers, the future of the sport in the athletic forum, and the impact on our daredevil society through extreme sports and virtual reality technology.

Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance - by Peter Stark
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2001
ISBN-13: 9780345441508
ISBN-10: 0345441508
In the wake of the growing interest in adventures in some of the world's most dangerous places, the author of Driving to Greenland takes a close-up look at the physiological, psychological, and emotional stages that the human body and mind endures at the brink of death.

The Extreme Game: An Extreme Sports Anthology - by Dick Wimmer
Publisher: Burford Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 2001
ISBN-13: 9781580800891
ISBN-10: 1580800890
From David Quammen on kayaking in New Zealnd to Ira Berkow on the New York-to-San Diego ultra marathon, an exciting and fast-paced collection of stories details the extreme sports adventures of each contributor and captures the courage and thrill of these events.
Contact your librarian for more great books!

Have You Read ...
Looking for your next book? Librarians at Houston Public Library will create a customized reading list for you, based on your exact preferences.


Ask a Librarian
Houston Public Library's info 24/7 chat reference service is available
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.


NextReads
We've added newsletters!
Check out our NextReads Opt-in Page to see what's new.


If you are having trouble unsubscribing to this newsletter, please contact NextReads at 919-489-3713, 3710 Mayfair Street, Durham, NC 27707



© 2009 EBSCO Publishing, Powered by The Title Source TM