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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Racing Through the Dark: Crash. Burn. Coming Clean. Coming Back.

"WORLD-CLASS CYCLIST"," "Tour de France stage winner, and time trial specialist David Millar offers a vivid portrait of his life in professional cycling--including his soul-searing detour into performance-enhancing drugs, his dramatic arrest and two-year ban, and his ultimate decision to return to the sport he loves to race clean--in this arrestingly candid memoir, which he wrote himself.
As a young Scottish expat living in Hong Kong with his father after his parents' divorce, Millar showed early promise with mountain biking and BMX. Two wise local cyclists took him under their wings, encouraging him to concentrate on road racing. Millar proved a ready convert. "Racing Through the Dark "offers the winning account of his climb through the ranks--first as an amateur and then as a pro, riding for the French team Cofidis. Among his early triumphs were several stage wins in the Tour de France.
From the moment Millar turned pro, he began to see hints of the unethical measures that many-- maybe most--of the other pros were taking in order to race at the very tops of their games . . . and beyond. At first, he felt that he was immune to temptation, that he could win clean. But the ugly pervasiveness of performance-enhancing drugs and the seemingly universal attitude that condoned it began to corrode his willpower. "Racing Through the Dark "details his eventual capitulation, his subsequent arrest and two-year ban from cycling, and his remarkable comeback as a clean cyclist who is now doing his utmost to keep performance-enhancing drugs out of the sport he so loves.
Filled with thrilling descriptions of the world's most spectacular courses, "Racing Through the Dark "captures the pure joy of cycling and includes some of the most vivid accounts of racing ever written by a true insider.

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Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Last Boys Picked: Helping Boys Who Don't Play Sports Survive Bullies and Boyhood

Boys who don't play sports are often the targets of bullying, but a boy's worst bully may be the one he can't see: society's expectations about how he should act, how he should relate, and how he should play.
Overlooked by a society that reinforces impossible standards of "masculinity," boys who are uninterested in competitive sports or have non-aggressive personalities are often vilified and bullied for being different as they grow up in the shadow of America's obsession with bigger, faster, richer, and stronger.
Through a fascinating assortment of in-depth interviews, clinical case studies, and examples from popular literature, Dr. Janet Sasson Edgette and Beth Margolis Rupp illustrate how these boys are relegated to a second-class social status simply because they can't make a free throw or because they can spell better than they can run.
Compassionate, empowering, and instructive, "The Last Boys Picked" will help parents, teachers, coaches, and caregivers identify the social and emotional hurdles that these boys face. It offers specific action steps to help any child build resilience and a healthy self-esteem-and tips for talking to them about their experiences and teaching them to face the schoolyard-and the world-with confidence.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

On Par: The Everyday Golfer's Survival Guide

Bill Pennington, author of the beloved and widely read "On Par" golf column for the "New York Times," knows how to interpret the experts and pros for the rest of us. For years, he has traveled the globe in search of golf's essentials--those basic principles, those elusive truths (and who are we kidding, any trick or quick fix he can pick up along the way) that will improve anyone's game. He has consulted the world's leading golf instructors as well as countless caddies, groundskeepers, parking lot attendants, and bartenders. He has played rounds with Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, and Justin Timberlake. He has sought the advice of psychiatrists, physicists, economists, zen masters. And on a particularly bad golf outing, he has even discussed the fickleness of golf with a quite helpful raccoon.
"On Par "captures it all: From equipment and instruction, to the rules and language of golf, to camaraderie and psychology, to the short game/long game debate, Pennington informs and entertains as he gets to the essence of this mercurial game, including golf's holy grail, the hole in one.
Part instruction, part education, part therapy, and shot through with Pennington's trademark wit, this is a book for everyone who has ever felt the game's distinct pull--and slice.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Grizzly Bears: A Falcon Field Guide

"Grizzly Bears: A Falcon Field Guide" presents readers with substantive yet easily digestible information on this most revered and feared of large mammals. Where do grizzly bears live? What do they eat? What type of predators might be capable of taking on a grizzly bear? How do they communicate? What issues exist with the relationship between grizzly bears and humans?
This book contains all the information you need to know to become familiar with these fascinating animals. Accompanied by numerous full-color photos of grizzly bears in their natural habitat, this handy field guide makes an excellent take-home souvenir and reference for anybody interested in the mighty grizzly.


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