Deep Rough - A Thriller in Augusta
by Chris Blewitt
When Craig Waltrip, an associate at a Philadelphia sports agency, uncovers a meeting with his boss and a man from Augusta National Golf Course, all bets are on. Deep Rough takes the reader inside The Masters, revealing not only the historical backdrop of the famed tournament, but of a plot that could destroy the very fabric of the tournament itself. Filled with hole by hole descriptions, high stakes and even murder, Deep Rough will make even the casual golfer ponder what really goes on at the most famous golf course in the country. A story about The Masters that you've never dreamed could happen, Deep Rough is a page-turning novel that is sure to please golfers, sports fans and readers of thrillers everywhere.
"Once you pick up Deep Rough, forget putting it back down. Meticulously researched and superbly paced, Chris Blewitt does a fantastic job of painting a detailed and realistic Masters Tournament, as well as piling on relentless suspense that makes you constantly want to peak ahead to the next page." -- Michael Robertson, author of Regret (writing as Dan Dawkins)
When Craig Waltrip, an associate at a Philadelphia sports agency, uncovers a meeting with his boss and a man from Augusta National Golf Course, all bets are on. Deep Rough takes the reader inside The Masters, revealing not only the historical backdrop of the famed tournament, but of a plot that could destroy the very fabric of the tournament itself. Filled with hole by hole descriptions, high stakes and even murder, Deep Rough will make even the casual golfer ponder what really goes on at the most famous golf course in the country. A story about The Masters that you've never dreamed could happen, Deep Rough is a page-turning novel that is sure to please golfers, sports fans and readers of thrillers everywhere.
"Once you pick up Deep Rough, forget putting it back down. Meticulously researched and superbly paced, Chris Blewitt does a fantastic job of painting a detailed and realistic Masters Tournament, as well as piling on relentless suspense that makes you constantly want to peak ahead to the next page." -- Michael Robertson, author of Regret (writing as Dan Dawkins)
The Long Run (Kindle Single)
by Mishka Shubaly
After nearly twenty years of chasing oblivion, a fight in a bar reveals to a newly sober Mishka Shubaly that he is able to run long distances. Despite his best attempts to dodge enlightenment and personal growth, the irreverent young drunk and drug abuser learns to tame his self-destructive tendencies through ultrarunning. His outrageous sense of humor, however, rages unabated.
After nearly twenty years of chasing oblivion, a fight in a bar reveals to a newly sober Mishka Shubaly that he is able to run long distances. Despite his best attempts to dodge enlightenment and personal growth, the irreverent young drunk and drug abuser learns to tame his self-destructive tendencies through ultrarunning. His outrageous sense of humor, however, rages unabated.
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is a timeless science fiction novel by H.G. Wells. Taking place in London, it covers the fears, escape plans and struggles for reunion of families amidst an invasion from mars. An inspiration to artists of every sort from radio to literature to film, this is the original edition updated with a working table of contents for easy navigation.
This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's..."
Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler
Moneyball
by Michael Lewis
from W. W. Norton & Company
“You need know absolutely nothing about baseball to appreciate the wit, snap, economy . . . and incisiveness of [Moneyball]. Lewis has hit another one out of the park.” —Janet Maslin, New York Times
Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager, is leading a revolution. Reinventing his team on a budget, he needs to outsmart the richer teams. He signs undervalued players whom the scouts consider flawed but who have a knack for getting on base, scoring runs, and winning games. Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball and a tale of the search for new baseball knowledge—insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.Billy Beane, general manager of MLB's Oakland A's and protagonist of Michael Lewis's Moneyball, had a problem: how to win in the Major Leagues with a budget that's smaller than that of nearly every other team. Conventional wisdom long held that big name, highly athletic hitters and young pitchers with rocket arms were the ticket to success. But Beane and his staff, buoyed by massive amounts of carefully interpreted statistical data, believed that wins could be had by more affordable methods such as hitters with high on-base percentage and pitchers who get lots of ground outs. Given this information and a tight budget, Beane defied tradition and his own scouting department to build winning teams of young affordable players and inexpensive castoff veterans.
Lewis was in the room with the A's top management as they spent the summer of 2002 adding and subtracting players and he provides outstanding play-by-play. In the June player draft, Beane acquired nearly every prospect he coveted (few of whom were coveted by other teams) and at the July trading deadline he engaged in a tense battle of nerves to acquire a lefty reliever. Besides being one of the most insider accounts ever written about baseball, Moneyball is populated with fascinating characters. We meet Jeremy Brown, an overweight college catcher who most teams project to be a 15th round draft pick (Beane takes him in the first). Sidearm pitcher Chad Bradford is plucked from the White Sox triple-A club to be a key set-up man and catcher Scott Hatteberg is rebuilt as a first baseman. But the most interesting character is Beane himself. A speedy athletic can't-miss prospect who somehow missed, Beane reinvents himself as a front-office guru, relying on players completely unlike, say, Billy Beane. Lewis, one of the top nonfiction writers of his era (Liar's Poker, The New New Thing), offers highly accessible explanations of baseball stats and his roadmap of Beane's economic approach makes Moneyball an appealing reading experience for business people and sports fans alike. --John Moe
Get Fit! (52 Brilliant Little Ideas)
by Steve Shipside
from Infinite Ideas
Most of us want to tone up and get fitter, and there’s plenty of advice out there to help us; a never-ending avalanche of books, magazines, websites and TV programmes. But who’s got the time to wade through this lot to sift the stuff that works from the rubbish? What we need are failsafe short cuts to increased fitness and an improved sense of well-being. Get fit! is the indispensable guide to improving general fitness and getting the most out of your workouts. Packed with down-to-earth, simple and effective advice, Get fit! will help you find ways to incorporate exercise into your daily routine, develop a healthier and more balanced lifestyle and take your first steps towards a fitter, healthier and happier way of life.
The Gospel According to Tim (Kindle Single)
by Joseph Bottum
What’s there left to say about Tim Tebow? He’s brilliant and appalling, inspiring and annoying--a straightforward young man who somehow played and prayed his way into being the most enigmatic figure in American sports.
In the essay-length Kindle Single “The Gospel According to Tim,” Joseph Bottum argues that Tebow strikes a nerve because he has slipped beyond all the usual categories of our wink-and-nudge culture of irony. And he’s done that mostly by being simply who he is: not a football-playing theologian but, in essence, a mystic:
“Isn’t that what everyone who has met Tebow does? Believe in him, I mean: believe that he’s for real. The young man is drunk on charity, in the same way he’s drunk on the endorphins that race through his body during his strenuous daily workouts. In the same way he’s drunk on the excitement of winning and losing football games before roaring crowds. In the same way he’s drunk on what the medieval mystics used to call “the gift of tears,” weeping easily and often. In the same way he’s drunk on his constant conversation with the Lord, referring all his victories and all his losses up to heaven.
“Tim Tebow isn’t a Christian theologian. He’s a Christian mystic — intoxicated, as all mystics are, with God. He’s King David, dancing in the joy of his youth before the Ark of the Covenant.”
Joseph Bottum, a writer in the Black Hills, is the author of the bestselling Kindle Single “Dakota Christmas.” He is, the essayist Andrew Ferguson has written, “one of America’s most gifted writers, with a perfect ear and a matchless style."
What’s there left to say about Tim Tebow? He’s brilliant and appalling, inspiring and annoying--a straightforward young man who somehow played and prayed his way into being the most enigmatic figure in American sports.
In the essay-length Kindle Single “The Gospel According to Tim,” Joseph Bottum argues that Tebow strikes a nerve because he has slipped beyond all the usual categories of our wink-and-nudge culture of irony. And he’s done that mostly by being simply who he is: not a football-playing theologian but, in essence, a mystic:
“Isn’t that what everyone who has met Tebow does? Believe in him, I mean: believe that he’s for real. The young man is drunk on charity, in the same way he’s drunk on the endorphins that race through his body during his strenuous daily workouts. In the same way he’s drunk on the excitement of winning and losing football games before roaring crowds. In the same way he’s drunk on what the medieval mystics used to call “the gift of tears,” weeping easily and often. In the same way he’s drunk on his constant conversation with the Lord, referring all his victories and all his losses up to heaven.
“Tim Tebow isn’t a Christian theologian. He’s a Christian mystic — intoxicated, as all mystics are, with God. He’s King David, dancing in the joy of his youth before the Ark of the Covenant.”
Joseph Bottum, a writer in the Black Hills, is the author of the bestselling Kindle Single “Dakota Christmas.” He is, the essayist Andrew Ferguson has written, “one of America’s most gifted writers, with a perfect ear and a matchless style."
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
from Megalodon Entertainment LLC.
Arguably America's most famous nonconformist, Thoreau lived at Walden Pond from July 1845 to September 1847, chronicling his experiences there. It was an experiment in living a life unhindered by social trappings and tradition. His work was not widely renowned for years after his death, but later became a staple in modern culture, defining not only what it means to be an American, but what it means to be human. Come see where the idea of marching to the beat of a different drummer originated. Walden is a classic and essential reading.
Through My Eyes
by Tim Tebow
from Harper
Over the course of the last five years, Tim Tebow established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of college football and a top prospect in the NFL. During that time he amassed an unparalleled resume—winning two BCS national championships, becoming the first sophomore in NCAA history to win the Heisman trophy, and in the face of massive public scrutiny, being drafted in the first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos.
Now, in Through My Eyes, Tebow brings readers everywhere an inspirational memoir about life as he chose to live it, revealing how his faith and family values, combined with his relentless will to succeed, have molded him into the person that he is today. As the son of Christian missionaries, Tebow has a unique story to tell—from the circumstances of his birth, to his home-schooled roots, to his record-setting collegiate football career with the Florida Gators and everything else that took place in between.
At every step, Tebow's life has defied convention and expectation. While aspects of his life have been well-documented, the stories have always been filtered through the opinions and words of others. Through My Eyes is his passionate, firsthand, never-before-told account of how it all really happened.
Alone
When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1934, he was already an international hero for having piloted the first flights over the North and South Poles. His plan for this latest adventure was to spend six months alone near the bottom of the world, gathering weather data and indulging his desire “to taste peace and quiet long enough to know how good they really are.” But early on things went terribly wrong. Isolated in the pervasive polar night with no hope of release until spring, Byrd began suffering inexplicable symptoms of mental and physical illness. By the time he discovered that carbon monoxide from a defective stovepipe was poisoning him, Byrd was already engaged in a monumental struggle to save his life and preserve his sanity.
When Alone was first published in 1938, it became an enormous bestseller. This edition keeps alive Byrd’s unforgettable narrative for new generations of readers.
Life on the Mississippi
Mark Twain's own story of his youthful years as a cub-pilot on a steamboat plowing up and down the Mississippi River.
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