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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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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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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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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Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail

Day One, and already she was lying in her journal. It was 1993, Suzanne Roberts had just finished college, and when her friend suggested they hike California's John Muir Trail, the adventure sounded like the perfect distraction from a difficult home life and thoughts about the future. But she never imagined that the twenty-eight-day hike would change her life. Part memoir, part nature writing, part travelogue, "Almost Somewhere" is Roberts's account of that hike.
John Muir had written of the Sierra Nevada as a "vast range of light," and this was exactly what Roberts was looking for. But traveling with two girlfriends, one experienced and unflappable and the other inexperienced and bulimic, she quickly discovered that she needed a new frame of reference. Her story of a month in the backcountry--confronting bears, snowy passes, broken equipment, injuries, and strange men--is as much about finding a woman's way into outdoor experience as it is about the natural world she so eloquently describes. Candid and funny and, finally, wise, "Almost Somewhere" is not just the whimsical coming-of-age story of a young woman ill-prepared for a month in the mountains but also the reflection of a distinctly feminine view of nature.

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Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling

Following the success of Proficient Motorcycling in 2000, author David L. Hough released a second book of motorcycling topics and lessons called More Proficient Motorcycling in 2003. Now, a decade later, Hough returns to overhaul the book for a new generation of riders with new lessons, safety tips, illustrations, and full-color photos. A favorite of safety courses and instructors, Mastering the Ride: More Proficient Motorcycling, 2nd Edition will be the must-have guidebook to motorcycling across the country. The 2nd Edition will be updated with the tips and lessons that are most commonly asked of the author, with answers conveyed through added text, illustrations, colorful graphics, and recent statistics.

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Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day

When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world's most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time. Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan explore the intersecting lives of Chhiring Dorje Sherpa and Pasang Lama, following them from their villages high in the Himalaya to the slums of Kathmandu, across the glaciers of Pakistan to K2 Base Camp. When disaster strikes in the Death Zone, Chhiring finds Pasang stranded on an ice wall, without an axe, waiting to die. The rescue that follows has become the stuff of mountaineering legend. At once a gripping, white-knuckled adventure and a rich exploration of Sherpa customs and culture, Buried in the Sky re-creates one of the most dramatic catastrophes in alpine history from a fascinating new perspective.

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The Smart Guide to Bridge

Twenty million people in North America play bridge. If you are not one of them, you are missing out on the world's most popular card game. But that's not all. Bridge is a social game and a thinking game. It's a great way to keep your mind sharp. It's great mental exercise to follow the cards, count your points and plan your strategies. It's easy to learn the basics, but when you discover the endless variety of bridge - every hand you pick up is a new adventure - you will want to know more. You will learn that there are different ways to communicate with your partner in the bids that you make. You will learn new and exciting ways to manipulate the cards to come out on top. This book is designed to help you at all stages of your development - teaching you from scratch but adding the extra touches that will help you become a good player. It's all there: the mechanics of play, how to bid, how to relate to your partner, how to take those all-important tricks that make you a successful player. You will learn when to be aggressive and when to rein in your enthusiasm. To be sure, bridge can be a challenging game. This book will help you get the most out of the most fascinating card game ever. Don't wait - get started today.

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A Warrior's Heart: The True Story of Life Before and Beyond the Fighter

With the success of the critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-winning film "The Fighter," the world stood up and cheered for the inspiring true story of Micky Ward--a heart-and-soul warrior who overcame the odds to make history in the ring. But that was only part of the tale... Now, in his own words, "Irish" Micky Ward tells his inspirational life story as only he can. From his first bout at the age of seven, Micky Ward was known first and foremost for giving as good as he got, and for leaving absolutely everything he had in the ring. When he fought, quitting was never an option. It was that indomitable spirit that would allow him to survive, battle against, and overcome the harsh realities that he faced every day of his life. For it was outside the ring that Ward's heart would be most needed, from witnessing his idolized older half-brother Dicky fall from grace, to dealing with his wildly dysfunctional--if frighteningly loyal--family, to the darkest of secrets that he has never revealed until now, and the numerous setbacks and defeats that would have stopped a lesser man. Micky Ward has remained a fighter, through and through--both as a professional boxer, and as a man who finally found his greatest strength in friendship, family, and faith in himself From the rough streets of Lowell, Massachusetts, to the blood and sweat of the international fight game, to the bright lights and adulation of Hollywood, this is the rousing, moving, tragic, and humorous story of the one and only Micky Ward.


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Tainted Glory: Marshall University, the NCAA, and One Man's Fight for Justice

In 1997, Dave Ridpath walked onto the campus of Marshall University as a sports-loving athletic administrator with a career on the rise. Less than five years later, Ridpath's quest to reform one of the most corrupt athletic departments in college sports, while simultaneously standing up to the behemoth governing body that is the NCAA, had all but destroyed that career. While serving as assistant athletic director for compliance and student services at Marshall University from 1997 through 2001, Ridpath unearthed violations of several NCAA rules. These violations included overt academic fraud and impermissible, booster-devised employment for members of the Marshall University football team-a team had taken the nation by storm because of its incredible success on the field. Ridpath now chronicles his experiences through this trying time in Tainted Glory: Marshall University, the NCAA, and One Man's Fight for Justice. Instead of being hailed as a conquering hero determined to clean up an outlaw program, Ridpath had the tables turned on him. He found himself out of a job when Marshall University and the NCAA determined that the path of least resistance would be to remove him rather than address the issues head-on. With this action, they hoped to avoid damaging the university, the athletic department, and the NCAA overall. This story is about more than the NCAA or Marshall University. It is about the state of the business of intercollegiate athletics told by someone on the inside who lived it-the good and the bad.

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