Sports Books

Hot Stuff is the first in a trilogy about the Jordan sisters. Hot Stuff focuses on Annabelle who is the oldest of the three. The book itself isn't very deep but does deal with deep themes such as people with disabilities, trust, and abandonment issues. It's cute typical chick lit and is a solid story about two people, who both have issues with trust, finding the courage to let their guard down.

I love this whole series! I read all three boks within 2 weeks, I couldn't put them down. The story is predictable but entertaining all the same.

Picked this up in the office exchange for a business trip to Denver. What a fine little book to end summer with!!!

The trilogy I understand begins with the oldest sister, Annabelle and her prime target, Brandon Vaughn. It was a fun read from beginning to end. I liked the family 'situation' and applaud Uncle Yank for rising to the occastion of inheriting 3 nieces.

The sisters stick together like glue and I suppose this is why this is the beginning of the trilogy. Brandon makes a great hero! Family baggage and all. It's a feel good book. Looking forward to reading the next two. The author keeps us dangling with Uncle Yank's angst! :D:D:

Another plane ride conquered!!!!

This is the first book I,ve read of this author and it didn,t inspire me to read the other ones of the trilogy. Maybe I was expecting more of the plot or something,but the truth is none of the plot exited me very much. I like to read books that are hard for me to put down.The characters weren,t very interesting for me.But if you like an easy read and a happy ever after ending, this is not the worst book you could read.

Annabelle is a busy publicist whose firm is run by her and her family(2 younger sisters and her uncle).
Vaughn is a retired football star who is building his dream: to create a resort for children with disabilities; and is Annabelle's job for the time being. Only no matter how hard he tries to make his plans work, someone keeps making attempts to sabatage it. Annabelle is sent to this little town with Vaughn to see about spreading good vibes about the place(on TV, as is her special) even though strange things are happening to stop the building from being complete. And as the days wear on, and Annabelle meets Vaughn's friends and family, she starts to get a better idea of where Vaughn is coming from and her feelings become too much for her, so she makes a decision that only jumps the plot in deeper and more interesting.
This book's plot reminded me too much of Kat Martin's 'Midnight Sun', and it started getting predictible, but was still good enough to hold my attention and see what happened with all the other characters. And it definitely got me a little excited for 'Hot Number'.

My daughter has learned a lot from this read, it is informative and talks about rules of the game as well as moves.

I bought this for my 8 year old and even looked over it myself. It has alot of info but she didn't seem too interested. Maybe she just doesn't like to read - but she did it one day and hasn't touched it in a year. I never wrote my reviews - it's been a year and the book looks like brand new . . . should have saved my money - but is a good source of learning for kids who actually LIKE to read! LOL

Attention soccer kids and soccer moms!

Deborah W. Crisfield, author of "Winning Soccer for Girls" and "The Mom's Guide to Sports," has produced this challenging, educational book great for young soccer-players-to-be. This softback included professional instruction on the: RULES of the GAME, TECHNIQUES for DRIBBLING, TRAPPING, and HEADING the BALL, defense, GOALTENDING, DRILLS, TIP on maintaining POSSESSION of the BALL. The book also includes loads of PUZZLES and GAMES to play that relate nicely to DRILLS provided.

The book is easy to read for juvenile readers (8-10 yrs) full of fun graphics, tips, terms and soccer fun facts, and World Cup and American soccer star bios. The Everything Kids' Soccer Book even includes soccer jokes, like:

"Why won't CINDERELLA ever be a great goalkeeper?

BECAUSE she runs away from the BALL

Excellent book! I am happy to have it in my library! Learned a lot of new techniques! Highly recommended!

I think this book has a good amount of information in it for kids in the 8 - 11 year old age bracket. They introduce skills and strategies that many novice coaches may not be providing. I wish that some of the skills were illustrated in more detail. For example, just mentioning that you should keep your toe pointed down for an instep kick is not sufficient; it is critical to have the heel locked down. A better illustration would help emphasize points like this. Overall I would very much recommend this book.

It's quick & easy with lots of color & specific tips. It's particularly good if you feel like you're too old or out of shape to run a half-marathon. While there are great tips for training for more competent & experienced half marathoners, as a runner moving into the "masters" category, I really appreciated some of his insight into prioritizing workouts and pacing so I could avoid injury and enjoy myself longer. Took his advice on walk break and set a personal record at my next Half Marathon, despite the aging knees!!

I bought this book while in the middle of following another taining plan for my first half marathon. The other, simpler plan was based on just grinding out the miles though it did include a few longish runs (8-10 miles) split into 2 halves with a short walk in the middle. I kind of liked a short walk in the middle (100m or so), it seemed to rejuvenate my legs. But ultimately the plan I was on eliminated them in favor of pure running.

Galloway recommends many more walk breaks and, at first, this seemed to me like cheating. But I figured I'd give it a try. I started running my 8-12K runs 1000m "on", 100m "off" (walk) and I saw something amazing happen: my split times came down and I could run longer and more enjoyably. My run/walk ratio of 10:1 is actually a lot higher run than he recommends, but it works great for me.

I just used the technique in the San Jose Half Marathon and the results were great. I beat my baseline goal by 10 minutes and even beat my stretch goal by 3. I beat my last 13 mile time trial time by a whopping 20 minutes and, more importantly, I felt great coming across the finish line (I was *crawling* on my last time trial where I ran 3 x 7K with only very short walks). My pace actually sped up throughout the race and my last 2 miles were my fastest.

So, for me, the system works. I am doing another half in January and will follow the entire program this time.

I am basing this review on simply reading the book for about 15 minutes while killing some time at one of the big chain bookstores. From what I see, this book is wonderfully written and broken down perfectly, even for "older" novices like me (over 50, run a 9-10 minute mile, have run in about a half-dozen 5Ks' and looking to do more).

The presentation is colorful, motivational, and detailed enough for runners of all levels to get something out of it. I am currently reading the MARATHON YOU CAN DO IT book and that too is written in a breezy fun style yet there is a lot of text. HALF MARATHON seems almost like an outline with easy to view points and notes.

I also own the ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO HALF MARATHON but if you only want one guide, Galloway's book appears to be the better and handier guide to own.

Loved this book and still refer to it often. Jeff Galloway's training plan is great and helps you stay motivated till the race and beyond. Also great paired with Jeff's book on running.

Growing up in lower middle-class household led by a frugal and severe mother, haunted by his absent and mentally ill father, Nick Dawidoff turned to the Boston Red Sox as his beacon of hope and guiding light and baseball as his true love. Loathing the Yankees not only because they were the Sox's eternal enemies, but also because they represented everything horrible in his life--he had to visit a seedy part of New York monthly in his dreaded visits to his father--Nick managed to wend his way through a difficult and untutored childhood, ultimately attending and graduating from Harvard and becoming a fine writer.

This is an inspirational book of childhood angst, love, torment, and baseball.

The Crowd Sounds Happy is an eloquent autobiography written with keen awareness and insight by someone that has survived and understood Severe Mental Disorders (SMD) in a parent. Laced with periods of happiness, the disturbing story describes the periodic psychoses of the author's father that required his family to flee when Nicky was a toddler. Resulting family anxieties haunted his obstacle-filled youth.

Nicky's forced visitations with an explosive, dangerous parent throughout his youth are devastating to witness. More devastating is his frugal, frustrated mother, cursing him as an ingrate in the next room of their tiny flat, where he can hear every word.

Mom forbade television and snacks, but made room for adventures: trips to the country, baseball games, and summer baseball camp. As a teacher, Mom instilled the love of reading in her children. That and radio led Nicky to develop a loyalty to baseball and the Boston Red Sox that had been his maternal grandfather's and aunt's favorites. Nicholas adopted the Sox as more his own more than many fans do their teams. They were his family.

Nickolas spent the bulk of childhood in New Haven, Connecticut during the 1960-70s, witnessing the city's decline into ruined welfare projects, abandoned schools and factories, street prostitution, pedophiles, and widespread crime. This harsh backdrop hosts the neuroses of families of patients suffering SMDs and the book shows how long-lived these conditions all become.

Nickolas describes how he dealt with the injustices placed into his life by others' mental illnesses and family-based anxieties that create magical thinking, the need to control, and the drive to please a world of others in order to avoid attack. While some teens turned to TV heroes, Nicholas turned to the Red Sox and sports writing, becoming a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Missouri-based brain research indicates the magnitude of damage done to children's neurology by parents with unsuccessfully untreated SMDs. Readers from middle school through adult can read The Crowd Sounds Happy to discover strong examples and solutions.

Armchair Interviews says: Powerful and well-written memoir from a child's point of view.

Among my all time favorites in the personal memoir about growing up with baseball are those of Doris Kearns Goodwin and Wilfrid Sheed. Nicholas DaWidoff's recent entry in this category has topped them all. It's not the usual "fathers playing catch with sons" story, for Dawidoff's parents were divorced and his father, suffering from mental illness, was an unsettling and sometimes looming presence on the fringe. This is an elegantly written and deeply moving account of a boy growing to manhood in the shadow of a broken family, coming to grips with it and learning to understand the heroic efforts of his mother to make things work. His own passion for and participation in baseball is not incidental, but is a primary source of solace and strength.

A great book relating real-life to baseball fandom especially from the perspective of a teenaged youth! Nick Dawidoff has always had more than a way with words dating back before his college newspaper years and his descriptions actually transport you to his New Haven CT home and neighborhood with his single mom, sister, and classmates. An avid and long-suffering Red Sox fan, he describes the complexities of a simpler time, when one hung on the every syllable of the radio play-by-play announcer for the game details. Nonetheless, these diamond idols were a great preoccupation for a young man facing the severe mental illness of his father in the yet unrejuvenated New York City. In addition to his fantastic description, you may be occasionally running to your (unabridge) dictionary to enlighten your vocabulary, yet these words are used judiciously and knowledgeably, giving expanse to his autobiographical account. A truly enjoyable read! The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness, and Baseball

For me, this book is a picture of financial poverty and intellectual richness. What this broken family of three couldn't afford was plain as day to all of them, but the riches of language, of books, of words were flowing like so many rivers through their little cramped apartment, as if that was so normal. I love this book. There is a beauty in the way this not so interesting place comes into full color. ND is great at capturing his boyhood self. It makes me appreciate the details and undefined moments of my own childhood and alerts me to the overflowing otherness that my own children are likely experiencing in the world beside me.

Agent A

A very good book, but disappointed that the shipment was lost and almost 3 weeks delayed

I found that book was lagely inspirational in that it said how good everything would be if you followed certain steps. The trouble was that Orlick never actually gave many steps to follow. On the whole I found the book useless and devoid of any practical tips to improve performance.

This book has many useful tools not just for athletes but also for individuals seeking something for their everyday lives.

Best section I thought was on setting goals, the wheel of excellence, maintaining positive perspectives and outlook, and how to deal with distraction control, quest for consistency, etc etc.

These are all very important concepts not just for the athlete in training but also for everyday people seeking a goal or purpose in life, maintaining that path to success, and knowing how to deal with every day bumps and grinds and highs and lows.

Book talks about:
Setting a goal
Make commitment to that goal
And Initiate Action to accomplish your goals
and don't let distractions, criticism, or other people distract you from your path.

Sounds simple? But for most of us we really have to work on it! Takes lotsa work and discipline to know what you want, work to towards getting it, and not stray from distractions or criticism.

There are a lot of good books on mental training for athletes but I think Terry Orlick's stands out by carrying information that is insightful, well-rounded, very practical, beneficial to reducing anxiety, increasing focus on the task and, ultimately, performance.

As an Olympic medal winner who now manages a online sport psych shop (sportsmindskills.com) I've come across a lot of books on the subject and this is the winner!

In college I took a sports psychology class taught by a practicing Sports Psychologist who coached Many NFL & PGA Tour players. This was one of out main books we used and it is still in my library today. As a collegiate athlete (baseball), I was able to easily apply the concepts to my own game. I don't know if it helped my physical ability, but mentally I was much more confident and focused.

I agree with Mark-from-DC; there is WAY to much verbage and WAY too few diagrams. Verbose "how-to" passages must be read several times to get the gist of what the author is trying to describe. I actually ended up diagramming my own sketches as I re-read sections. I too, would not recommend this book, and for the same reasons. I found it a big disappointment.

This book might be packed with information about the various paddling techniques but takes at least three readings to understand what the author is trying to describe. The narrative would be helped tremendously if some pictures were included. Simple things like showing the proper wrist rotatation during strokes, even body positioning during the stroke are not illustrated.

In addtion, the authors writing style leaves a lot to be desired. The author wants to imagine he is right next to us while we sit in the kayak. Things like, '...go ahead and pick up your kayak while we walk down this hill together....' UGH!!!!

Just describe each technique and some illustrations to go with each step would do wonders for this book.

As a novice to kayaking I can't recommend this book

Disclaimer - This reader has no kayaking experience. Your humble reviewer has taken to the waters on the Nimitz, in canoes on still and running bodies of water, a twenty one foot sloop, pontoon boats, rowboats, down the rapids of the Chatahoochie in a guided raft, and on the garden variety cabin cruisers that litter the waterways like so much floating garbage. (do you detect a bias?)

Your reviewer does read a fair bit, and compared to other books on this and other subjects, found Kayaking Made Easy to to be a very enjoyable read. The conversational style of the author reached me loud and clear. With some experience in boating and outdoor activities the advice seems sound.

The work is geared to touring and casual flatwater kayaking with some great advice for "gunkholing" and generally loitering about the calm waterways. Serious touring and navigation is also discussed. One thing that really impressed me was the brief tutorial on boarding the kayak - notably missing in a different book.

I am contemplating the purchase of an inflatable kayak and found this book more help than the one I bought specifically on inflatable kayaking.

Since I am not a kayaker per se, this book could be entirely bogus. I seriously doubt that, it seems sound and a very enjoyable read. I would buy another book from this author. Even those who don't ever plan to kayak might like this book for non-ficiton. Very happy with my purchase.

A wonderful gift idea for the outdoorsy, water loving type buddy who does not own a boat but might be inspired by this introduction to the world of kayaking.

Good information for a beginner, also helps with understanding terms used in kayaking.

Done with humor and well done instructions even for the one who has never touched a kayak.

Good book, easy games with comprensive images, is a good book to start to teach how introduce the principles of soccer.Is a book you must be have in your library.

These game-style drills make soccer practices much more fun, and they help teach fundamentals at the same time. This book doesn't really get into strategies or position playing, but it is a good collection of drills that will keep all of your players busy and learning.

This is a useful book when you know what you want to work on with your players and are just looking for another way to approach it. Not all the games are going to be effective but you should find some that will apply to your team and age group. Specifically, if players can't "score' and earn points "goals" then they are of more limited use and are really drills not games. The book has both.

One of the best books on soccer coaching ever. The drills are very simple to follow. I have incorporated some of the ideas into my own coaching sessions and the team that I coach really loves it. They have fun whilst at the same time they learn some basic skills. With this book, you will not be short of ideas on how to run soccer practices.

I've read all of Luxbacher's soccer books. Judging by how he writes, he's one of the best youth coaches in America. I've incorporated many of Luxbacher's drills and small-sided games into my sons' teams' practices. Luxbacher and publisher Human Kinetics are the best in America!

This is a great book for beginning and experienced marathoners alike. It provides history, motivation, and a complete guide for everything from completing a first marathon to attaining a PR. Higdon has done a great job updating editions to keep up with nutrition products, such as gels and sport drinks.

I'm training for my first marathon and was given this book by my cousin who has run multiple marathons. I should say that I am in college and have been distance running since I was around 13. I run for fun, not really for competition and the idea of a marathon intimidated me because it seemed like such a far leap from what I am used to.

This book provides a lot of motivation but in ways I did not expect. I didn't realize upon getting this book that it was not only targeted to first time marathoners but also to people who really don't run. I found the provided training schedules to be a bad fit for my personal fitness. The novice schedules were too slow to start, and the advanced schedules were too intense. I also come from running 6, sometimes 7, days a week so only running 4 days is a problem for me.

Ultimately, this book is a great marathon book and I really enjoyed reading it. However, I do think it is targeted to the non-runner and wish it was a little bit more advanced.

Hal Higdon is one of the first names I heard when I started running. He's a true expert in a sport that can benefit anyone-no matter who you are.

I'm a pretty slow runner, but I like this book because it's welcoming. Higdon has helped thousands of people finish their first marathon and this book is putting years of experience on paper.

It's friendly even to beginners, and presents very specific ways to train for a marathon. It's idiot-proof and very, very forgiving.

This book is also a big shot of motivation, as well! Every time you pick it up it makes you want to go for a run-work toward that goal. I'd recommend this book to anyone. Not just people who want to run marathons, either-because it gives tips helpful for any runner from nutrition to clothing to pace and keeping yourself mentally in the game.

Sat and read this book all the way through in a sitting. Lots of fantastic practical tidbits for the first time marathoner, as well as those who have not quite qualified for Boston (yet). The August injury chapter was a favorite. Those sub 3 hour folks are probably reading something else anyways. His website is also quite good. Nice job, Hal!

Tons of great tips make this reference guide a must-have for marathon runners. There are also inspirational tidbits to get you back on the track.

I purchased this book because I liked the previous writings of Jason so much. A few years ago, I read his book "Tap Out" and since then I modified my training with excelent results.

I was very excited when this "new book" arrived and was expecting to move to even more advanced traininglevels.

It turns out than the new book is the exact same text as the previous one I got a few years back.

So, for the trainingprogram itself, I still give 5 stars. However, buying a book I already have was very disappointing.

Fit to Fight by Jason Ferruggia is an excellent book with tons of great training advice for anyone thinking about fighting MMA, or just trying to get into great shape. Some of the things I enjoyed most about this book were the diet and nutrition sections as well as the various training plans and versatile exercises that can be customized to any program for beginners to expert. This book was also a very quick read which made it that much more enjoyable.

More myth-busting warrrior workouts from a real world expert. Jason Feruggia is straight-ahead with good advice and just the right amount of supporting anecdotes.
Enjoyed the book and would purchase it again.

This is a good book, with some good ideas as far as different workout ideas. My review is simple and to the point. My biggest complaint is that the author offers little to back up what he says. Most of his arguments are based on the "trust me I'm a pro" concept. Which is great for picking up pointers but not so good when trying to compare this book to others. For example their is a whole chapter devoted to what supplements work and which ones are bogus. However, he never gives any real reasons as to why the supplement s that are no good are so bad. Overall I would say this is a nice book to have but there are others which are far better.

I'd take the reviews for this book with a BIG grain of salt. Jason Ferruggia is one of a cadre of online strength training "experts" (typically self-taught amateur personal trainers) who are very adept at marketing themselves and each other. The "reviews" for this book have a very suspicious sameness to them in terms of both content and tone ("Jason has outdone himself!)". I'm not endorsing or rejecting the book itself. Just warning the unwary reader think twice about purchasing it based on the reviews posted here.

Fantastic book! I use this daily when exercising our dressage/western/english horses. All the maneuvers and exercises benefit any manner of riding, not just dressage. Easy to use and understand - diagrams and instructions are clear. Highly recommended!

I'm riding an intelligent horse that, when exercises are repeated, quickly begins to anticipate. This book's creative, insightful, and well described exercises have provided me with new ways to work on developing his strength and flexibility with enough variety to keep us both interested. I leave it in the barn and pick a new exercise before each ride. Though my copy is still in great shape, I think it would be terrific if it was printed on coated (barn-proof) paper.

Very useful tool to have in every instructors library. There's a breif description on the benefits of each exercise and how to execute. Some of the exercises added another layer to the ones that I already use and I found this to be an added plus!

Brilliant diagrams, excellent keys, simply mapped out and laid out information for difficult and also the easiest of dressage manoevres. It's bound at the top for a vertical flip, with a hole punched down near the bottom so you can hang the book on a nail on your bulletin board or at home to study it and keep it open while you study it. It has handy hints how to achieve positions and gives you ideas to improve certain flaws. It is by far the best book on dressage I have read so far.

Just about EVERY page has another full A4 dressage arena on it showing the pattern where the horse is going, it shows crossbars and it shows trotting poles and where to place them, it shows where you should do a certain manoevre such as a flying change or shoulder-in with an excellent use of diagrams and patterns which have a key right next to it so the design remains uncluttered and simple to read. A best buy for anyone serious about dressage - or even jumping - to keep their horse supple and to keep their horse from boredom. Brilliant.

This book lists and illustrates a wide variety of exercises for the dressage horse and explains the value of each exercise. Good illustrations guide you through each exercise and they are logically grouped into lessons to improve specific aspects of the horse's development. However, this book is not for beginning riders. It does not explain the aids nor does it explain the movement, so if you don't already know shoulder-in, counter canter, etc. you will find this very frustrating and be forced to reference a book that does explain the application of the aids and movements. The format is too large to be of much use at the barn or ringside; it would have been more helpful to be half the size.