books Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
<em>Thrown</em> Is The Only MMA Book Anyone Ever Needs To Write
Nearly no one writes really well about fighting, which I've always thought was less because of the sport itself than because of the institutions around it. Promoters, matchmakers, agents, sponsors, and reporters are, after all, at all times engaged in a conspiracy to deny the essential humanity of t...
The Professional: Donald E. Westlake
Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of our most prolific and entertaining writers. Now, we've got this posthumous treat: The Getaway Car: A Donald Westlake Nonfiction Miscellany, published by the University of Chicago Press and edited by Levi Stahl. The book is a ton of fun. I recently had the ch...
So Normal It Hurts: The Triumph And Tragedy Of Phil Hartman
There were few thrills in preadolescent life as dependable as the voice of Troy McClure. That first resoundingly confident "Hi!" triggered a Pavlovian response like no other single syllable: Here, without a doubt, comes a belly laugh....
"Killed by my eyes! My cursed, mutant, energy-blasting eyes!"
Bought a pile of Classic X-Men for 50 cents apiece and came across this gem in context....
Haughty Dipshit Gregg Easterbrook Makes Terrible Book Recommendations
For today's Buffalo News, columnist Greg Connors did a neat thing, asking a bunch of sports media people—some local, some national—to name their favorite sports books. They listed some really good titles, and it's fun to see what writers like Bryan Curtis, Will Leitch, and Josh Levin came up with. Y...
White And Needy: What I Learned From Richard Ford's Sportwriter Trilogy
Be they neurotic, tragic, horny, or (preferably) all of the above, white guys entering midlife have plenty of novels to reference on their journey. But John Updike's Rabbit series, Philip Roth's Nathan Zuckerman books, and the like don't offer real-world models of behavior any more than Slim Shady p...
BrooklyKnight Is Dead And Never Coming Back
BrooklyKnight, one of the more extraneous, inappropriate, and unspellable mascots in all of sports, has been euthanized at his home above a transit hub. It was two years old. It lived too long. It will not be missed....
What It's Like To Live Inside A Rio De Janeiro Favela
From Dave Zirin's newest book, Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup the Olympics and the Fight for Democracy,available now. We'll be running excerpts throughout the World Cup....
19 Tips For Comic Artists From Moebius
Via Royalboiler here are 19 tips for comic artists from Moebius. ...
Ruud Gullit: The Netherlands' Response To White Supremacy
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
<em>Joga Bonito</em> Incarnate: The Joy And Tragedy Of Brazil's Garrincha
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
"Soccer," From <em>Soccer In Sun And Shadow</em>
From Eduardo Galeano's classic, now available as an ebook. We'll have excerpts throughout the week....
Ava And Barbara: Two The Hard Way
Jeanine Basinger in the New York Review of Books:...
Miami Marlins Owner's Insane Book About <em>Peanuts</em> Will Melt Your Brain
When we speak of spring and baseball, we speak of renewal. New shoots of grass, possibility, the warm rays in Florida. We rarely mention the game's antipodal force that dwells there too, a darkness that consumes joy—its unblinking saurian eyes unevolved for 37 million years, unregenerate in its pred...
The Eternal Martyrdom Of Lance Armstrong
The following is excerpted from Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong (HarperCollins), which is available now on Amazon....
Dan Jenkins: His Ownself
Dwight Gardner reviews Dan Jenkins' memoir, His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir today in the Times: ...
Pills, Bullies, And Pink Weights: Life As A Fringe Major Leaguer
From Bigger Than The Game: Restitching a Major League Life (Kensington). ...
Richard Ben Cramer Takes On Ted Williams
I wrote about Richard Ben Cramer's Esquire story on Ted Williams for the latest e-magazine from The Classical:...
Buster Keaton: Hero
When I was sixteen the Regency Theater on the Upper West Side ran a Buster Keaton-Charlie Chaplin-Woody Allen revival for a few months. That was my introduction to Buster and it was love at first sight. I adore Chaplin too but Buster speaks to me in a more direct, personal way....