Sports Books

I reviewed several other hiking books on the Grand Canyon and read the trail guides for my selected and reserved trail. This book was the best written and most complete. I would generally say that this book might be the best bet for a good hiking volume for the GC.

While writing my book "The Tortoise Diet - Win The Race To Lose!", an account of my 120 pound weight loss, I bought this book an became interested in hiking in the canyon as a fitness goal. This very informative and well written book helped inspire me to hike in 2005 from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch, and back again the next day. This May (2006) my husband and I are hiking from the South Rim to the North Rim. We will be carrying along our copy of the book to help us appreciate the canyon more as we undertake this huge fitness challenge(my husband is 55 and I am 49.)

I have been hiking Grand Canyon since 1977 with over 9,000 miles below the rim and have hiked all the trails in this guide, in most cases multiple times. This guide has the most detailed descriptions of all canyon hiking guides; maps are more than adequate; nearly all information is up to date. Adkison's writing style is very clear. I especially appreciate his information about plant communities along the routes. This second edition is largely the same as the earlier edition. I am glad to see the addition of a section on cairns. How can this book be improved? Add an index. Looking through the guide I only found a few errors --- Western Union is no longer available inside the park and the Tanner Trail one way distance is not 7 miles but more like 10 miles!

I'm planning a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon. I've looked at several guidebooks and I've bought bought this book as well as Hiking Grand Canyon National Park, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series) by John Annerino, and Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology (Hiking Geology) (HTGCG) by Lon Abbott and Teri Cook.

I liked the straightforward and informative approach that Ron Adkinson takes in this book. The Grand Canyon is a big place with a lot of alternatives for trips. I was able figure out which trails I want to take using this book.

I especially like the capsule summary of each route that have clear ratings for the difficulty, water availability, average hiking times, suggested cache points, and distance.

Compared to this book, I found the HTGCG by Lon Abbott and Teri Cook nearly as good but the focus on the geology in HTGCG makes it harder to pull out the hiking information. Though, once your route is chosen, HTGCG, helps you understand what you see.

Dan Millman does a master job of explaining a lot of very important techniques needed in developing skills (in sport). I just wish I could have read this book many years ago... It is well explained, funny at times, enjoyable, well structured and with plenty of examples from many sports so everyone (almost) can related to situations similar to the ones described.

This is a must have book for any sportsman(woman)

This is a very solid book to read in your quest of mastery. Not quite the total package. I think the book on Mastery by George Leonard covers the whole realm of mastery a little better. This book does make a couple of great points, like when your practicing a skill to over compensate by doing the complete oppsoite. If your shooting a basketball & keep missing to the right then practice missing a couple to left so you can find balance & make the shot down the middle. This also teaches you mentally to that you can control balance by being unbalanced, which will make help you see being balanced more clearly. A little weird but works. But this is only one of many good points I think Millman gives. Its a great start for mastery & is highly recommend

The book has 166 pages of content and can be divided into three main parts. The first part is fairly abstract, Millman calls it "Understanding the Larger Game". The first chapter is about natural laws that Millman sees as being helpful to understand; the next has to do with bringing awareness to our activities as a way to see what we are doing wrong, what we are doing right, and then learning from our mistakes; last chapter of part 1 is about preparation, about slow and steady progress. Personally, having read alot of self help and mind body I didn't really find this first part very helpful. The second part and the first chapter of the third part are, to me, the meat and bones of the book, where the concrete content is. He has chapters on Mental, Emotional, and Physical talent and how to cultivate all three. He talks about the self concept, fear of failure, about breathing, and then about strength, suppleness, stamina, and sensitivity. Then there is a chapter with specific advice for working on skills, like hitting a golf ball or diving or gymnastics. The third part of the book criticizes the focus on results and urges more focus on focus, concentration and personal growth and the last chapter is about new sports, less competitive, that Millman sees developing in the future. Again, this part is more abstract and it is very normative, criticizing competition, though he does recognize that it can bring out the best in people, and then naming some new sports he sees as good developments. He also suggests requiring athletes in asymettrical sports such as golf, tennis, bowling and baseball to "use both arms equally" (pg 143). I found that a little annoying and I also didn't really see it as having a place in this book. Overall, there are a bunch of good points in here, it is clear that Millman understands how to pursue excellence and growth, but I felt the book was a bit unfocused and there was nothing really new for someone who has done some reading in this area. Greg ...

"Millman's work combines the best of the human potential movement with the practical tools needed to reach that goal. It features sections on the "Peaceful Warrior Warm-Up", the aging athlete, and instructions for creating a daily exercise routine. This work is as much about mastering life as it is about the game itself." - NAPRA REVIEW

Dan Millman is definetly one of my favorite authors and speakers. Ever since I read his book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, almost 15 years ago, I have gravitated towards his work. I even translated one of his books, The Laws of Spirit, from English to Icelandic a few years back. My review might therefore be tainted with my admiration : )

Body Mind Mastery is a great book for athletes and Millmans approach is balanced and invigorating. He challenges the athletes training routines and mindset with a perfect blend of information and practical guidlines.

Many coaches in Iceland have used this book with good outcomes as a result of my recommending it to them.

It has even come in handy for people I know that are not professional athletes. The philosophy expounded on can be used in varied situations in life.

Great book for covering all the major issues of attacking and defending. If you want to know where your defenders or forwards should position to maximize their position, this is a great book. There are many simple basic diagrams that are uncluttered, showing just the players involved in the play and this is a plus for sharing information with your players!

The book does not cover any drills for achieving these desired results, but I consider it a must read for the coach considering the 4-4-2, 4-3-3, or 3-5-2 formations.

Buy with confidence, this book will refresh your positioning and playing coaching skills as well as providing a way to copy handouts for your players from the many diagrams this book provides!

As stated on the back cover, this book is "aimed primarily at intermediate and advanced coaches" and "examines the principle formations used in modern soccer..." It states these formations clearly (along with diagrams) and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. It is a great resource for the coach who is looking to develop the appropriate offensive and defensive systems. The book does not cover other issues such as team management or practice drills. Look elsewhere for that.

An Amazing resource for starting players. The D&D books can be overly complicated & confusing to new players & non-RPGers. This Helps ALOT in explaining vast amounts of info. Some of it is a little out of date(it's a 3.0 book)but still a great resource. There are 3 premade characters for 4 of the base classes & notes on all classes that really help you out in the begining. The top 10 spell & monsters lists are a gream way for a beginer player or DM. It includes a premade adventure& sample map!

i bought this book for my 12 year old son, who is just starting to play D & D. He has really liked this book, and says that is has helped him a lot. It was also recommended by a more experiencecd player.

I do not deny that "D&D for Dummies" does an excellent job explaining the rules for the D&D 3.5 version, but would have been slightly happier with this product if it had told me early on in the reading that it was for version 3.5, as I was joing a D&D group for the first time, and they were using version 2.0. As it was, I had a basic grasp of the concepts, but had I know, I might not have done as much highlighting or note-jotting as I did.

The book is almost perfect, i miss ideas for wizard, druids, rangers, paladins, barbarians, bards and monks.

but i understand the main idea, sorcerer, rogue, cleric and fighters are really easier to play and construct, that's because it is for newbies.

While this book is easy to read and nicely arranged, there my compliments end. Any experienced roleplayers that pick this book up are likely to be turned off by the twinkish attitude it has. Though it's mainly for learning the technical side of the game, it makes no attempt whatsoever to mention the roleplaying aspect of the game. Much to my horror, I found a whole chapter on min-maxing something that's generally considered one of the worst aspects of D&D, complete with a big encouragement to multiclass solely for the abilities of the classes. I would suggest this book only to those players that only care about killing goblins in dungeons, as real roleplayers that want story and characters will hate this book.

As a book about violin basics, this is OK. However as a book about learning to play the violin, it fails. There is an included disk containing both audio and video clips, but it is only good for the audio clips. The video did not work on my copy of Real Player. I finally learned that if I were to pay another $40 to Real Player I could look at the videos that I had purchased. While the line drawings in the book are good, the photographs are very difficult to make sense of. They are all black and white and they have not been well done. For this reason, I would not recommend this book. Spend your money elsewhere.

Even though I am learning violin, I am not a dummy, and I do not like to be taught like one. There are much better book out there to learn how to play violin.

after wasting my money, I decided to get "Picture Yourself Playing Violin"- a much better decision

Katharine Rapoport brings a lot of experience to light in this book; designed for the very beginner through advanced. If you are trying to tackle violin pedagogy on your own maybe because you can't afford private lessons or maybe your schedule is not conducive for private lessons, or whatever reason; this book is a good place to start. The instruction is informative, structured, and relaxed in nature.

I am an adult who wanted to learn to play the violin without the expense of private lessons. So far, this book has been very easy to follow and the instructions are very clear. The CD is wonderful, it includes short videos and mp3 songs. I can play along with the songs and know that the notes are correct.
My only compaint is that I found alot of the photos in the book hard to see. They are in black and white and the photos are far to dark.

Having read this book and just spent a week using it in hiking in the Tetons, I found it generally useful and accurate. The maps and directions for finding trailheads are good, and the mileage counter provided gives a good indication of progress on the walks. I would make several recommendations for changes, however. First, I disagree with the level of difficulty ranking for some of the trails. For instance, the Amphitheater Lake trail is clearly more strenuous and difficult than the Holly Lake trail. Second, there should be numerical figure giving the actual elevation gain in addition to the useful elevation profile graph. Finally, the book did not include the excellent Hanging Canyon trail, which though unmaintained, is still a great climb. I found the book Day Hiking Grand Teton National Park by Tom Carter to be equally useful and much more packable based on its small size.

This guide lists 35 trails, organized by region. Unlike (say) the Yellowstone guide it does not sort the trails into short, medium, and long hikes. Like other Falcon guides, it provides maps of each trail and valuable information about elevations and steepness. Each listing include elevation diagrams that are very useful for letting you know what you are getting yourself into.

This is probably the best all-around guide to hiking the Grand Tetons. It's especially useful for finding good hikes while sitting at home. Bill Schneider writes well and does a good job describing the hikes so that you can decide which ones are best for you. Like other Falcon guides it has a chart listing best flat terrain day hike, best wildlife viewing, most strenuous, best scenery, and so on.

This book gives a pretty good summary of the hiking trails in Grand Teton National Park. My one complaint would be regarding the trail for Granite Canyon/Rendevous mountains (Chapter 3). The elevation map showed the trail being flat at the end. You actually ascend a bit at the end. I wish I had known that before because I was pretty tired at the end. Other than that, I found the book accurate, and a a great guide to hiking in the area.

This book covers only Grand Teton Nat'l Park, which is great beacuse most trail books throw GTNP in with Yellowstone trail books and those never seem to give the attention GTNP deserves. I have vacationed and hiked GTNP several times over the past ten years and purchased more than a few of these books looking for details on the longer hikes while being mindful of the abilities of my children (pre-teen and early teen). This book allows you to plan for both. The author provides elevation profiles for each hike as well as the usual distance and difficulty rating. Like most people, the ratings are always a bit hard to match with one's ability and stamina. The elevation profiles give you a real sense of what you're in for! In addition, each hike is described to you in detail: what you experience, what you'll see, what to watch for, how much time the hike will take, and offer some options for shorter or longer combined hikes. Excellent! If I had to recommend only one of the dozen or so that I have read about GTNP, this would definitely be the one!

Lawrence Ritter in his original Preface describes his book as about the early days of baseball. I'm going to make a correction. Mind you it is the only one I will make. His book is about the early days of modern professional Baseball.
With that being put aside , I must praise Mr. Ritter for his most original idea for a book. He took upon himself to travel the U.S.A. in search of the very players who established our National Pastime in the early part of the 20th Century. People talk of Shakespeare and Churchill as prolific writers of the English language. What Mr. Ritter has done is an epiphany for writing a book. His concept was indeed very simple. Why not seek out the very best living Baseball Players of the early 20th Century, and ask them to please describe their experiences.
In the early to middle 1960's when Mr. Ritter did this, he was able to talk to these pioneers of modern baseball in the twilight of their wise years. These 26 men had time to reflect on their careers and describe an age unknown to us. Mr. Ritter traveled to these men and I'm sure asked the correct questions and let these gentlemen record their responses on tape. What he captured will stir the heart of each true Baseball Fan.
For the record my two favorites are Stanley Coveleski and Bill Wambsganss. You can guess from these selections what my favorite team is.

I really enjoyed listening to the stories from some of our classic baseball heros. They brough history to life. This audio book was one of the best purchases I've made. I truly enjoyed just listening to these remarkable men tell there own stories of baseball's past.

I have been an avid reader of baseball history for most of my life and I first purchased this book in the 80's and wore it out and purchased another copy. There isn't a season that goes by that I don't read it again. When you read the interviews of the ballplayers, recorded by Lawrence Ritter, it's as if you are a fly on the wall hearing the conversations first hand and the ghosts of seasons long past are brought back to life.

You get a first person account of some of the most famous moments in early baseball history through the fond recollections of some of the participants. Merkle's boner, Snodgrass' muff, Wambsgan's unassisted World Series Triple play are all recounted. The most entertaining parts of the book recount tales of Germany Schaefer stealing first base, the chronicles of Charles Victory Faust, and Wilbert Robinson attempting to catch a grapefruit dropped from an airplane. You get a glimpse of Ty Cobb from his teammates Davy Jones and Sam Crawford. You get several different takes on the great manager John McGraw from several different players who once played for him.

This is hands down the greatest sports book I have read. It's not only a great history of the early days of 20th century baseball but a wonderful piece of Americana. The book breaths humanity and paints a portrait of the ballplayers of the past who played for the love of the game unsullied by steroids and multimillion dollar contracts.

If you love the game of baseball as it once was and still should be this is a "must read"...some of the players interviewed by Ritter were unknown to me and I was fascinated to learn of their exploits...I ordered an additional three books and sent them to long time fans of the game...If I was a GM today in MLB I would have every member of the team read this book so that they might appreciate the game as it was in its infancy...the modern player (in most cases)doesn't realize how fortunate he is to wear a major league uniform and earn the money today for playing a "game"

Statistically, baseball back then couldn't be more at variance with the game now. Cy Young threw 511 career victories, and 750 complete games. In 1909, Ty Cobb led the majors both in batting average (.377) and home runs (9). Cobb's teammate Sam Crawford hit over 300 triples in his career.

What to make of such numbers? Lawrence S. Ritter's "The Glory Of Their Times" strips away the statistical confusion by getting to the heart of Major League Baseball's early days, the players themselves. An economics professor, Ritter invested his downtime from 1962-66 in interviewing elderly men, baseball players all who knew what it was like to face a Walter Johnson fastball, or have Ty Cobb slide into the base they were covering.

"People were more unique then, more unusual, more different from each other," says Davy Jones, who played on the Tigers with Cobb and Crawford. "Now people are all more or less alike, company men, security minded, conformity - that sort of stuff. In everything, not just baseball."

Transcriptions of Ritter's interviews with Jones and 21 other former players, including Crawford and two others then in the Hall of Fame, makes up the whole of "The Glory Of Their Times," published in 1966 and later extended with four more interviews in 1984. Nearly all the interviews offer both testimony and color for the game as it was then.

Bill Wambsganss tells us about his unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series, and how Ring Lardner once used his last name to rhyme with "clam's chance" and "Ray Chapman's pants". Fred Snodgrass tells us about his famous muffed fly in the 1911 World Series, and how his New York Giants tried to psyche out the Philadelphia Athletics by sitting on the dugout bench, ostentatiously sharpening their spikes.

You hear so much about another famous World Series moment, the Merkle "boner" of 1908, that you feel like you were there on the field, too. There's a Rashomon-like quality to hearing various interviewees give their different takes on such things as the character of John McGraw and whether "Giant Killer" Harry Coveleski was run out of the league when he was caught chewing on bologna. (Snodgrass says so, while Harry's brother Stanley, a major-league pitcher himself, calls it "a lot of bull".

Not all the interviews are riveting. One wishes Ritter could have pushed some of the old players more, like the rumors that swirled around Smoky Joe Wood involving fixes. But allowing the subjects the reins probably drew more color out of them than a Grand Jury could have. I love how Crawford keeps telling Ritter he hasn't much time to talk, while giving Ritter one of the longest and most entertaining interviews in the book, describing how players would allow themselves to be rubbed down with "Go Fast," a noxious combination of Vaseline and Tabasco sauce that made them sweat like a sauna.

"I hope I haven't said anything I shouldn't," Crawford says at the end. "There are a lot of the old-timers still left,you know, and they're liable to say, 'That fathead, who the hell does he think he is, anyway, popping off like that!'"

If you like baseball even a little, you will enjoy "The Glory Of Their Times" quite a lot.

Do you like books about football, family problems, or steroids? If you answered yes to this question then Crackback is the perfect book for you. Miles Manning plays football for his highschool team. He appears to be just a regular guy. He doesn't live a regular life though. His parents are always fighting and have kept an important secret from him. To make matters worse his best friend is using steroids and they are not as close as they have been, and the girl that he likes disappoints him. Mile's gets a new football coach who dislikes him and disapproves of his play. His dad, who is supposed to be supportive only makes him feel worse. Found out how Miles overcomes all of theses obstacles and finds out the secret that his parents have been keeping from him. This book was a good one because it kept my attention, was the perfect highschool football player story and it had a good lesson. John Coy hooked me with his cliffhanger chapter endings. There is a surprise around every corner. This book will keep all highschool sports players and fans wanting more. I would say that this is a guy's book but girls will also enjoy it. In conclusion Crackback was a very hard book to put down and is the perfect story about Miles and his not so perfect life.

Josh Wenger

As a debut YA effort, I can't fault John Coy's CRACKBACK for trying. In fact, it shows hints of bigger things to come, but ultimately I think this novel will please most its niche audience only -- middle school-aged boys who love football. I plan to offer it to my students who claim they don't read because reading's too boring because I think this will be of interest to them if they love playing football.

Many other young readers will be disappointed or ambivalent about this book, however, as I was. Most notable to me was the overabundance of short, simple sentences in rather large font. They actually slowed me down because I wasn't able to get into any reading rhythm due to the "staccato-like" diction. My advice to Coy would be to mix it up with some longer sentences and paragraphs now and then.

I also thought the characterizations of both the protagonist's (Miles Manning's) father and one of his coaches (Coach Stahl) were too similar and too much like cardboard cutouts of creeps. There was an attempt at the end to salvage the father, but it just didn't go over so well. The good coach (Coach Sepolski), good teacher (Mr. Halloran), good little sister (Martha) and good mother (Mom) all had small roles here, so they didn't help to distract me from the Tweedledee and Tweedledum aspects of Dad and Stahl.

The same is true for the other football players on the team -- minor roles, overall. A field goal for Coy on his knowledge of football, however. It does come across as realistic because he knows his sport. One plot development -- the issue of steroid use -- kind of fizzled after showing promise early on. Ditto the plot points surrounding evil Coach Stahl. The end on that count is as unrewarding as a tie game after overtime.

What I liked best was Miles' point of view. I enjoyed some of his "quirky" thoughts about girls, adult hypocrisy, school, gays, and the importance (or nonimportance) of winning. Miles is not a stereotype like Dad or Coach Stahl, and readers will appreciate him as a real person with genuine thoughts and problems.

Coy, already famous as a picture book author for young children, is entering the YA field for the first time with this novel. I think he shows promise and, if I were a scout at the game, I'd put a check near his name to keep an eye on future works. If you have a kid who loves football (or if you ARE a kid who loves football), buy it and enjoy it. Otherwise it might be like paying a lot of money to watch the Arizona Cardinals play "NFL" football -- a tad disappointing.

Coy, John, Crackback, New York NY: Scholastic Inc., ©2005.
Pages 204


How does pressure from the coaches, news, parents, and fans affect a high school student who plays sports?

This book is about a kid name Miles Manning who is a starter at Wide Receiver for his varsity football team at 5'11'' and 155 pounds. He doesn't lift weights over the summer like rest of the guys, so he is weaker. The coaches are pushing him to work harder and listen to the coaches, but they still say that he catches the ball wrong. His friend offered him 2 pills that help him have an edge over everyone else and his friend says they're like a jolt of caffeine. Then later on his friends offered him some other pills to take. Miles does some research and finds out they are steroids.

His friends keep pushing him to take the pills so he can be bigger and stronger. His friends are getting bigger and bigger everyday, but the coach doesn't know they are taking steroids. The coach wants him to be big and strong like his teammates. He has a big choice to make taking the drugs and getting bigger plus hurting his body slowly or take the long way and keep his career.

My favorite part of the book is his final game because it's so intense and there's tons of action going on really fast. It feels like you are there watching them play out on the field and sometimes you feel like one of the players.

Overall I liked this book. The author, John Coy writes this book so you can't put it down. When you read it it's like watching a movie and sometimes you feel like you are there. Everyone should read this book. You get to see high school life, sports, girls, drugs, parties, and tons of other things in a high school student's life. This book is realistic fiction.

By Kyle Struiksma

Stunning, thrilling, fascinating, phenomenal, sports, one book you don't want to put down. Crackback. What does this mean. What kind of title is this? Think about football for one moment. Plays. Tackling. Running routes. Well the title of this book means/One play so well designed that it will crush your football dreams forever.

If you are in high school and play football then you will enjoy reading this book. As an18-year-old senior in high school, Miles Manning overcomes hell. He goes through peer pressure, overcomes fights, and still manages to do good in school. Have you ever played football? Have you ever been burned in football on a play that the other team scores on every time? If the whole team was counting on you and you were so nervous that you have no time to respond, and then BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM you are the first person to stop that play. What would you feel? What would you do?

Now one screw up and back at the bottom you are. This is a book that goes up to the climax and down to the bottom of boredom. There are lots of off your seat times in this book that will surprise you. This is a great book for those football players out there. This book is a great source to good football and to having fun doing it.

The book crackback has a realistic genre. It was written by John Coy. Also it was illustated by Marijka Kostiw. You got to give them both credit for this book. Because this book is an exciting novel that keeps you focused throughout the time you read. It's a high school and sports book. So if you like sports you will love this book. The sport they are playing in this book is football. High school football is one of the best times for football. The story is revolved around a young tennager fighting for a spot on the varsity fooball team for his school. The coach got sick and a new coach came in and made his life and tough one. The coach did not like the player, and it was a hard ride thoughout the year for the player. If I was looking at this book and I was deciding if i was going to read it or not. Since I have read it I would choose to read it again. I would recomened this book to anyone that love sports and who is addicted to it and remembers high school to read this book.

I had the older version of this book and absolutely loved it. I've planned many weekend trips and vacations based on the hikes in this book. I've never disagreed with the authur about a hike being one of the top 100 in Colorado.
The new version has elevation profiles which are very nice. However, I don't care for the new maps. The old book had maps which were very easy to see. The new edition has topo maps which I think are too crowded and busy to be able to make anything out. I can't tell if there are streams next to the trails, which is very important to me as I hike with a dog and it's usually the first thing I look at.
There are several new hikes: Bear Peak (Boulder), Lake Isabel (W. of Denver), Mount Falcon (Denver), Devil Head (Sedalia). Red Rock Canyon (Colo. Sprgs.), North Cheyenne Canyon (Colo. Spgs.), French Pass (Jefferson/Fairplay), Tater Head Loop (Crawford), Mosca Pass (Alamosa), No Name Lake (Antonito), Rabbit Ears Mesa (Grand Junction) and Sarvis Creek (Steamboat).

This is a "must have" guidebook if you enjoy hiking in Colorado. Each hike is described in some detail with a ranking of how strenuous each trek is considered. The text is concise and to the point, but gives an adequate feel of each hike. There is at least two pages devoted to each journey and the hike descriptions are to the point. Many such descriptions were the sole reason I decided to hike some of these mountains and I was never disappointed.

The quality of the book is also to be commended. The paperback binding holds up after major 1,000+ mile car journeys I've made with the book thrown in the back seat. If you buy one guidebook about hiking in Colorado, make it this one. I highly recommend it for the description of each trail and just the overall feel of the book.