en-US Thu, 14 Nov 2013 16:54:04 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 33684 417 Mitch Albom 0446601195 Kyle 5 4.29 1993
author: Mitch Albom
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 75639
"A Season on the Brink" not only captures the drama and pressure of big-time college basketball but paints a vivid portrait of a complex, brilliant coach walking a fine line between genius and madness.]]> 352 John Feinstein 0671688774 Kyle 5 4.16 1986
author: John Feinstein
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 246468
This is the book that changed the way the world viewed Michael Jordan, while delivering nonstop excitement, tension, and thrills.

The Jordan Rules chronicles the season that changed everything for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. After losing in the playoffs to the “Bad Boys� Detroit Pistons for three consecutive years, the Bulls finally broke through and swept the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, on the way to their first NBA championship.

Celebrated sportswriter Sam Smith was there for the entire ride. He reveals a candid and provocative picture of Michael Jordan during the season in which his legacy began to be defined, and seeks to figure out what drove him. The Jordan Rules covers everything from his stormy relationships with his coaches and teammates and power struggles with management—including verbal attacks on general manager Jerry Krause and tantrums against coach Phil Jackson—to Jordan’s obsessions with becoming the leading scorer, and his refusal to pass the ball in the crucial minutes of big games. Jordan’s teammates also tell their side of the story, from Scottie Pippen, to Horace Grant, to Bill Cartwright. And Phil Jackson—the former flower child who blossomed into one of the NBA’s top motivators and finally found a way to coax Jordan and the Bulls to their first title—is studied up close.

“Smith takes us into the locker room, aboard the team plane and team bus, and seats us on the bench during games. Sometimes, books reflecting on a team’s success don’t reach the personal level with the people who made it The Jordan Rules does� (Associated Press).

Discover the team behind the man, and the man behind the living legend, in this intense, fascinating inside story of the incomparable Michael Jordan.]]> 384 Sam Smith 0671796666 Kyle 5 4.26 1992
author: Sam Smith
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 119216 “I was born to be a point guard, but not a very good one. . . .There was a time in my life when I walked through the world known to myself and others as an athlete. It was part of my own definition of who I was and certainly the part I most respected. When I was a young man, I was well-built and agile and ready for the rough and tumble of games, and athletics provided the single outlet for a repressed and preternaturally shy boy to express himself in public....I lost myself in the beauty of sport and made my family proud while passing through the silent eye of the storm that was my childhood.�

So begins Pat Conroy’s journey back to 1967 and his startling realization “that this season had been seminal and easily the most consequential of my life.� The place is the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, that now famous military college, and in memory Conroy gathers around him his team to relive their few triumphs and humiliating defeats. In a narrative that moves seamlessly between the action of the season and flashbacks into his childhood, we see the author’s love of basketball and how crucial the role of athlete is to all these young men who are struggling to find their own identity and their place in the world.

In fast-paced exhilarating games, readers will laugh in delight and cry in disappointment. But as the story continues, we gradually see the self-professed “mediocre� athlete merge into the point guard whose spirit drives the team. He rallies them to play their best while closing off the shouts of “Don’t shoot, Conroy� that come from the coach on the sidelines. For Coach Mel Thompson is to Conroy the undermining presence that his father had been throughout his childhood. And in these pages finally, heartbreakingly, we learn the truth about the Great Santini.

In My Losing Season Pat Conroy has written an American classic about young men and the bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, about finding one’s voice and one’s self in the midst of defeat. And in his trademark language, we see the young Conroy walk from his life as an athlete to the writer the world knows him to be.]]> 402 Pat Conroy 0553381903 Kyle 1 3.89 2002
author: Pat Conroy
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2013/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 682745
Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960's, set during his coming-of-age from 12 to 15, he was a rebellious teenager making a place and a name for himself on the unforgiving streets of New York City. During these years, he chronicled his experiences, and the result is a diary of unparalleled candor that conveys his alternately hilarious and terrifying teenage existence. Here is Carroll prowling New York City--playing basketball, hustling, stealing, getting high, getting hooked, and searching for something pure.]]> 224 Jim Carroll Kyle 5 3.99 1978
author: Jim Carroll
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 11564
As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace, she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her - protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods...]]> 264 Stephen King 1416524290 Kyle 5 The victim in this novel is Trisha McFarland, a young girl dressed in a Red Sox Jersey and ball cap, is forced by her mother to go on a hike in the woods of Maine-New Hampshire. She wanders off the trail and away from her dysfunctional family epidemic. Of course, it was not her intention to wander off toward tremendous danger. Trisha however is a very strong and resourceful individual, which is not common for the average nine-year-old girl. She uses what her dad had taught her and what she had seen on television to piece together her forest surviving educate.
Trisha is lost in the woods for nine days, being tortured by thirst, hunger, loneliness, and most of all, fear. The only thing that keeps Trisha mildly sane, is her Walkman, where she is able to listen to the Sox games and keep a connection to the outside world. Trisha eventually develops a fantasy relationship with the relief pitcher, Tom Gordon, and continuously engages in fevered conversations with Tom.
King presents the woods as a unearthly fantasy world, shown by something (not specified what or who it is) stalking Trisha in the forest. This novel explores extraneous ideas and striking images, along with recurring themes. Brutality, suspense, and exhilaration shows how King did not hold back on “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.�
]]> 3.65 1999
author: Stephen King
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2013/09/30
date added: 2013/10/14
shelves:
review:
Stephen King’s novel “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon� is nothing short of a thriller. Known for cruelty and having no mercy, King goes straight for the jugular in writing this Novel. This story concerns not only people who get lost in the woods, but targets a nine-year-old girl coming from a broken family. His act of focusing on a child plays a great role in the harshness of this novel.
The victim in this novel is Trisha McFarland, a young girl dressed in a Red Sox Jersey and ball cap, is forced by her mother to go on a hike in the woods of Maine-New Hampshire. She wanders off the trail and away from her dysfunctional family epidemic. Of course, it was not her intention to wander off toward tremendous danger. Trisha however is a very strong and resourceful individual, which is not common for the average nine-year-old girl. She uses what her dad had taught her and what she had seen on television to piece together her forest surviving educate.
Trisha is lost in the woods for nine days, being tortured by thirst, hunger, loneliness, and most of all, fear. The only thing that keeps Trisha mildly sane, is her Walkman, where she is able to listen to the Sox games and keep a connection to the outside world. Trisha eventually develops a fantasy relationship with the relief pitcher, Tom Gordon, and continuously engages in fevered conversations with Tom.
King presents the woods as a unearthly fantasy world, shown by something (not specified what or who it is) stalking Trisha in the forest. This novel explores extraneous ideas and striking images, along with recurring themes. Brutality, suspense, and exhilaration shows how King did not hold back on “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.�

]]> 12607837 An irreverent, hilarious insider's look at big-time NCAA basketball, through the eyes of the nation's most famous benchwarmer and author of the popular blog ClubTrillion.com (3.6m visits!). Mark Titus holds the Ohio State record for career wins, and made it to the 2007 national championship game. You would think Titus would be all over the highlight reels. You'd be wrong.
Ěý
In 2006, Mark Titus arrived on Ohio State's campus as a former high school basketball player who aspired to be an orthopedic surgeon. Somehow, he was added to the elite Buckeye basketball team, given a scholarship, and played alongside seven future NBA players on his way to setting the record for most individual career wins in Ohio State history. Think that's impressive? In four years, he scored a grand total of nine—yes, nine—p´Çľ±˛ÔłŮ˛ő.

This book will give readers an uncensored and uproarious look inside an elite NCAA basketball program from Titus's unique perspective. In his four years at the end of the bench, Mark founded his wildly popular blog Club Trillion, became a hero to all guys picked last, and even got scouted by the Harlem Globetrotters. Mark Titus is not your average basketball star. This is a wild and completely true story of the most unlikely career in college basketball. A must-read for all fans of March Madness and college sports!


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 272 Mark Titus 0385535104 Kyle 0 to-read 3.95 2012
author: Mark Titus
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13152668 352 Jack McCallum 0345520483 Kyle 4 4.22 2012
author: Jack McCallum
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 2754656 297 Tim Green 0061122742 Kyle 2 4.22 2008
author: Tim Green
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 394841
Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.

For fans of The Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, the Mighty Ducks, and Mike Lupica's other New York Times bestselling novels Heat , The Underdogs , and Million-Dollar Throw , here is a book that proves that when the game knocks you down, champions stand tall.]]> 274 Mike Lupica 0142404624 Kyle 1 4.08 2004
author: Mike Lupica
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 75641 Ěý
When Stevie wins a writing contest for aspiring sports journalists, his prize is a press pass to the Final Four in New Orleans. While exploring the Superdome, he overhears a plot to throw the championship game. With the help of fellow contest winner Susan Carol, Stevie has just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of the star players . . . and why.
Ěý
John Feinstein has been praised as “the best writer of sports books in America today� ( The Boston Globe ), and he proves it again in this fast-paced novel.
Ěý
“A page-turning thriller and a basketball junkie’s bonanza.� � USA Today]]> 272 John Feinstein 0553494600 Kyle 4 4.06 2005
author: John Feinstein
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 28899 220 Mike Lupica 0142407577 Kyle 3 4.00 2006
author: Mike Lupica
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 85431 416 H.G. Bissinger 0306814250 Kyle 5 4.15 1988
author: H.G. Bissinger
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 7526
What changes? He takes up football, and school, after a rich, Evangelical, Republican family plucks him from the mean streets. Their love is the first great force that alters the world's perception of the boy, whom they adopt. The second force is the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist turns out to be the priceless combination of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability: his blind side.]]> 304 Michael Lewis 039306123X Kyle 5 4.09 2006
author: Michael Lewis
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 10538
Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century�1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as "The Thunderbolt Kid."

Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and OF his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends.

Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young.]]> 288 Bill Bryson 076791936X Kyle 0 to-read 3.92 2006
author: Bill Bryson
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Kyle 0 to-read 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 153025
But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, it's the real thing. And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere - behind the bedroom door... seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang... staring out from his widescreen TV - dangling a gleaming razor blade on a chain from one hand...]]> 376 Joe Hill 0061147931 Kyle 4 3.85 2007
author: Joe Hill
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 1804074
But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village. Japanese soldiers invade, and Nick's father is taken prisoner. Nick is stranded on the plantation, forced to work as a servant to the new rulers. As life in the village grows more dangerous for Nick and his young friend, Mya, they plan their daring escape. Setting off on elephant back, they will risk their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese POW camp.

In this thrilling journey through the jungles of Burma, Roland Smith explores the far-reaching effects of World War II, while introducing readers to the fascinating world of wild timber elephants and their mahouts.]]> 318 Roland Smith 1423104021 Kyle 5 4.09 2007
author: Roland Smith
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 1967633
A youth in Nazi Germany tells the truth about Hitler.

Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book, Hitler Youth, and fleshed it out into a full novel.]]> 202 Susan Campbell Bartoletti 0439680131 Kyle 3 4.02 2008
author: Susan Campbell Bartoletti
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 3002300 From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccably researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

Reading Level: Age 10 and Up ]]> 316 Laurie Halse Anderson 1416905855 Kyle 3 4.10 2008
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 781110 252 Laurie Halse Anderson 0689848919 Kyle 4 3.93 2000
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins Kyle 2 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 34
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
--back cover]]> 398 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346252 Kyle 4 4.36 1954
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 15803047 The Hobbit meets Moneyball in this definitive book on Dungeons & Dragons—from its origins and rise to cultural prominence to the continued effects on popular culture today. Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: The game has had a profound influence on our culture. Released in 1974—decades before the Internet and social media—Dungeons & Dragons is one of the original ultimate nerd subcultures, and is still revered by more than thirty million fans. Now, the authoritative history and magic of the game is revealed by an award-winning journalist and life-long dungeon master.

From its origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe, through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides, and to its apotheosis as father of the modern video game industry, Of Dice and Men recounts the development of a game played by some of the most fascinating people in the world. Chronicling the surprising history of D&D’s origins (one largely unknown even to hardcore players) while examining the game’s profound impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences. An enticing blend of history, journalism, narrative, and memoir, Of Dice and Men sheds light on America’s most popular (and widely misunderstood) form of collaborative entertainment.]]> 276 David M. Ewalt 1451640501 Kyle 0 to-read 3.69 2013
author: David M. Ewalt
name: Kyle
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Kyle 3 4.19 1947
author: Anne Frank
name: Kyle
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]>