"The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro" by Joe McGinniss USA Order GB Order
Joe McGinniss made a name for himself with "The Selling of the President" in 1968, a look at the repackaging of Richard Nixon and the triumph of image. Three decades later he has entered a new--although no less political or controversial-- arena with "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro," a hilarious and at times poignant memoir of his misadventures in Italy while following an underdog soccer team.

"Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy" by Lene Gammelgaard USA Order GB Order
Although Lene Gammelgaard became the first Scandinavian woman to summit Everest, she also lost friends in the killer storm that struck a day later. In detailed journals kept during the May 1996 expedition, she chronicled such triumphs and pains as they unfolded--now collected in "Climbing High."

"National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America" by Jon L. Dunn and Eirik A.T. Blom USA Order GB Order
One of the favorite portable guidebooks for birders just got better. The widely acclaimed "National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America" is now available in a new edition, combining even sharper illustrations with more extensive descriptive text and revised range maps.

This year's Major League All-Star game will be played at quirky, cranky Fenway, a baseball shrine as emblematic of New Englanders' idiosyncrasies as it is of the game itself. Soon there might not be a Fenway, so unless you can make off with a splinter of the Green Monster, consider any of these fitting tributes: "Fenway: A Biography in Words and Pictures" by Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld USA Order GB Order

"Our House" by Curt Smith and George Bush USA Order GB Order

"Fenway Saved" by Bill Nowlin and Mike Ross USA Order GB Order

"A Golfer's Life" by Arnold Palmer, with James Dodson USA Order GB Order

"The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf's Holy Grail" by John Feinstein USA Order GB Order

"Cinderella Story: My Life in Golf" by Bill Murray, with George Peper USA Order GB Order

"The Best American Sports Writing of the Century" edited by David Halberstam and Glenn Stout USA Order GB Order

"The Climb" by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston Dewalt USA Order GB Order

"Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul: 101 Stories of Insights, Inspiration and Laughter on the Links" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jeff Aubery, Mark Donnelly, and Chrissy Donnelly USA Order GB Order

"Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism" by Walter LaFeber USA Order GB Order
In "Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism," Walter LaFeber dissects the sports icon's high-profile collaborations with Nike, Gatorade, Wheaties, and Rayovac. The author, it should be said, is a die-hard fan. Still, he has some intriguing thoughts about Jordan's role as a corporate tool and his influence on world markets.

"Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race" by Rob Mundle USA Order GB Order
On December 26, 1998, 115 sailboats sped out of Sydney Harbor in pursuit of glory. The destination: Hobart, Tasmania, 630 miles away. Within a matter of hours, seven boats were abandoned, five sank, and six people perished. "Fatal Storm" reconstructs the horrific events.

"Some Horses" by Thomas McGuane USA Order GB Order
Although the author of several widely acclaimed novels, Thomas McGuane has avoided a case of "Ivory Snow writer's hands" by working cutting horses on his Montana ranch. In prose that bears his unique brand of muscular grace, "Some Horses" explores his relationship to the animals he breeds, cares for, and competes with in roping contests.

"Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible" by Dave Pelz, with James A. Frank and Lee Janzen USA Order GB Order
Our most popular golf book of the year.

"Fenway: A Biography in Words and Pictures" by Dan Shaughnessy and Stan Grossfeld USA Order GB Order
While the wrecking ball looms, a baseball shrine lives on in these pages.

"The Elements of Scoring" by Raymond Floyd, with Jaime Diaz USA Order GB Order
Lower your score with the sensible advice of former Masters, U.S. Open, and PGA champion Raymond Floyd.

"White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris" by Brian Herne USA Order GB Order
A former Kenyan hunting guide reflects on his star-studded shooting safaris.

"Climbing High: A Woman's Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy" by Lene Gammelgaard USA Order GB Order
Gammelgaard brings a unique and candid perspective to the 1996 tragedy that left several climbers dead on Mt. Everest.

"The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey" by Linda Greenlaw USA Order GB Order
Don't make the mistake of calling this incisive commercial swordfisher a "fisherwoman."

"The Right Set" by Caryl Phillips USA Order GB Order
A new anthology serves up great tennis writing from the likes of John McPhee, Martin Amis, and Arthur Ashe.

"The Last Voyage of the Karluk: A Survivor's Memoir of Arctic Disaster" by William Laird McKinlay USA Order GB Order
These doomed explorers, though intrepid (and foolish), didn't have the luck or skills of their "Endurance" counterparts.

"The Meadowlands: Wilderness Adventures at the Edge of a City" by Robert Sullivan USA Order GB Order
Sullivan's eloquent tribute to an abused urban wilderness is funny, revealing, and never dull.

"The Junction Boys" by Jim Dent USA Order GB Order
After 10 days of hell in September 1954, 34 exhausted but hopeful football players remained standing on the playing fields of Junction, Texas. "The Junction Boys" is the story of coach Bear Bryant's legendary Texas A&M team--and the training camp that led to an undefeated season a year later.

"Good Bounces and Bad Lies" by Ben Wright USA Order GB Order
Former golf broadcaster Ben Wright tells all in "Good Bounces and Bad Lies," a hilarious and penetrating look at professional golf and broadcasting--and his own controversial role in the two arenas.

"Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love" by Larry Bird USA Order GB Order
Larry Bird, the Celtics legend and Pacers coach, reveals his rarely-glimpsed private side in "Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love," laying up insights from his playing days, philosophies of coaching, and even anecdotes about his childhood in French Lick, Indiana.

"The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream" by Daniel Paisner USA Order GB Order
From a Costa Rican factory to a $3 million auction, "The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream" follows in hilarious and cautionary detail the trajectory of one special Rawlings baseball.

"The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey" by Linda Greenlaw USA Order GB Order
The term fisherwoman does not exactly roll trippingly off the tongue, and Linda Greenlaw, the world's only female swordfish boat captain, isn't flattered when people insist on calling her one. "I am a woman. I am a fisherman... I am not a fisherwoman, fisherlady, or fishergirl. If anything else, I am a thirty-seven-year-old tomboy. It's a word I have never outgrown."

"Fatal Storm: The Inside Story of the Tragic Sydney-Hobart Race" by Rob Mundle USA Order GB Order
In the world of competitive off-shore sailing, Christmas Day is thought of as Boxing Day Eve--that is, the eve of the annual Sydney-to-Hobart Race. One of the world's three major offshore races (along with the Fastnet out of England and America's Newport Race to Bermuda), the 630-mile course from Sydney, Australia, to Hobart, Tasmania, is a test of skills, guts, and endurance in notoriously unpredictable, fickle waters--and in any weather.

"Godforsaken Sea: Racing the World's Most Dangerous Waters" by Derek Lundy USA Order GB Order
The race is the Vendee Globe, and The Godforsaken Sea is the story of the 1996-1997 competition. Fourteen men and two women began the race in Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. Six officially finished; three were wrecked and rescued; one sailor performed emergency surgery on himself mid-race; one perished. This is high adventure of the most gripping, perilous sort, demanding a tightly controlled, suspenseful narrative.

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