As a child I loved to read and write but I also loved sports. I played every sport I could, and races and games fueled me. My mother called me the âjoiner.â Teams create bonds and friendships and Iâm still in touch with former teammates. This gives me inspiration to write human interactions. Determination and perseverance are part of being an athlete and I write about strong characters who want to succeed but often meet obstacles along the way. I honestly believe that my sports background has helped me survive publishing, because both are full of highs and lows. Please, enjoy my recommended list because theyâre books with heart.
Written in poetic verse, this novel is captivating, clever, and emotional. I love it when a book is written with so much emotion that I have to wipe away the tears. Yes, I cried. Alexander combined sport with heart, and this book has depth, and covers so much more than basketball. The family scenes are realistic and powerful.
'With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . . The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I'm delivering'
12-year-old Josh and his twin Jordan have basketball in their blood. They're kings of the court, star players for their school team. Their father used to be a champion player and they each want nothing more than to follow in his footsteps. Both on and off the court, there is conflict and hardship which will test Josh's bond with his brother. In this heartfelt novel in verse, the boysâŚ
Amazing read! The detail in this book was incredible, especially about the sport of rowing, even down to how rowing shells are made. I was completely invested in the lives of the real-life characters because they were so well drawn. And then there was that final Olympic rowing race! I felt as if I was in the boat with the wind blowing and water splashing against the side of the shell.
The #1 New York Times-bestselling story about the American Olympic rowing triumph in Nazi Germany-from the author of Facing the Mountain.
Soon to be a major motion picture directed by George Clooney
For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times-the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of theâŚ
Winner of the Robert F. Lucid Award for Mailer Studies.
Celebrating Mailer's centenary and the seventy-fifth publication of The Naked and the Dead, the book illustrates how Mailer remains a provocative presence in American letters.
From the debates of the nation's founders, to the revolutionary traditions of western romanticism,âŚ
I love hockey so this book was an easy one for me to pick up. Once I started reading, however, I was so impressed with the âotherâ story surrounding the hockey team. To me, it was the story. This is a powerful read that stayed with me long after I turned the last page. I really appreciated that the hockey action and facts were well researched. There are multiple points of view, and all are handled with skill.
I personally donât think there are enough books on the shelves about Women in Sports. Although this is a middle grade book, I thoroughly enjoyed how the author brought her chosen athletes to life. Ignostofsky also illustrated the book and that added another dimension to the book that made it fun and entertaining. I was pleasantly surprised that she chose a few athletes who I hadnât heard of.
Women in Sport celebrates the success of the tough, bold and fearless women who paved the way for today's athletes. The sportswomen featured include well-known figures like tennis player Serena Williams and broadcaster Clare Balding, as well as lesser-known pioneers like Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, and Keiko Fukuda, the highest-ranked female judoka in history.
From the creator of the bestselling Women in Science, this richly illustrated book highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable sportswomen from the 1800s to today, including trailblazers, Olympians and record-breakers in more than forty sports. It also containsâŚ
Return to Hope Creek is a second-chance rural romance set in Australia.
Stella Simpson's career and engagement are over. She returns to the rural community of Hope Creek to heal, unaware her high school and college sweetheart, Mitchell Scott, has also moved back to town to do some healing ofâŚ
This is such a beautifully written book that combines art and sport, two of my passions. Imogene is a piano prodigy and there wasnât one moment in the book where I didnât root for her. The teen love story between her and the suspended hockey player is so believable and not like typical teen romance novels. I liked that Mills didnât sugarcoat the work that goes into being successful at something. The book was real and honest which made the ending completely realistic.
Imogen St. Pierre is a musical prodigy, a classical pianist touring Canada and abroad in a trio with her father and grandfather. Though clearly accomplished she is also painfully awkward socially, getting lost in the music even after it's over.
Imogen's in the final year in a private boarding school where she meets a boy of the same age, Nathan McCormick, who turns out to be the Next great hockey player. Nathan however has recently been penalized for a vicious fight in an international tournament. Imogen and Nathan don't exactly become an item, but there's an elusive special quality toâŚ
Seventeen-year-old Holly Callahan desperately wants to make the national rowing team so she can compete overseas, but she is the last rower cut. Her summer dreams are shattered, and she finds herself back at home, living with her mother's annoying new boyfriend, Super Stew.
Holly's not a quitter. She lands a summer job, and then is handed an unexpected lifeline in the person of a man who offers to coach her in a single rowing boat. For a girl raised without a father, the coach's generosity â and rigorous demands â are a gift. But where did he come from and who is he, really? Discovering the answer plunges her into sadness â but then he inspires her to work beyond her comfort zone.
In the bigoted milieu of 1945, six days after the official end of World War II, Bess Myerson, the daughter of poor Russian immigrants living in the Bronx, remarkably rises to become Miss America, the first âand to date onlyâ Jewish woman to do so. At stake is a $5,000âŚ
Jera Fowler is hardly excited about having to keep a journal for ninth-grade English class. âWhat can happen in a day?â she grumps as she chronicles the 1984-85 school year. She doesnât realize that a single day can be the dividing line between life and death. Forty years later, whileâŚ