No comments about George Best: Tribute to a Legend.

5 comments about Stengel: His Life and Times.

1. Enjoyed reading this book almost as much as Harry Potter.
   It's funny how nowadays you can't get away with jumping up into the stands and punching fans.
   Well written and well told story.



2. Excellent. Well written, gives a good history yet moves right along.This guy had an amazing career and an amazing record.This is a must read for anyone interested in baseball.



3. This is a solid biography of one of baseball's most colorful characters. Charles "Casey" Stengel (1890-1975) spent parts of six decades in the big leagues in a career that lasted from 1912 until 1965. Stengel was a bit clownish and he spoke in a distinctly non-articulate style ("Stengelese"), but he was also an extremely intelligent man. The author details Stengel's youth in Kansas City and early ambitions to become a dentist. We get a descriptive look at his 14-year playing career with several national league teams. We get an equally effective look at his managerial tenure with the mediocre Brooklyn Dodgers (1934-36 )and Boston Braves (1938-1943), the powerhouse Yankee teams from 1949-1960, and the woeful expansion New York Mets from 1962-1965. There are many smiles (and a couple frowns) for readers as these pages examine a complex and colorful man.
   
   Author Robert Creamer uses straightforward readable prose, and the result is a very good and informative biography. Readers should also like his biography on Babe Ruth, and his look at the 1941 baseball seasons.



4. Growing up in NY in the early 1960's I remember Casey vaguely as the manager of the Yankees (really Ralph Houk was manager in my early years) but more as the comic elderly leader of those miserable Mets. While I learned later of his great career as manager of the Yankees, somehow he was always portrayed as the marginal player who excelled as a bench leader. Creamer works hard to dispel this perception (which maybe only I had) and repeatedly stresses Casey's fine playing career. I appreciated gaining this new insight and found it a valuable addition to our understanding of Casey's wonderful career as a manager and ambassador of the game.



5. Picked up this book because I enjoyed Creamer's book on Babe Ruth and Stengel is just as good, maybe better.
   You'd almost expect a book on Stengel to skip the earlier years in favor of his coaching years but this book doesn't. Stengel's early years are entertaining and provide a good look into the teens, 20's and 30's of baseball so if that's what you're after then you'll like this book. You'll probably also be surprised at the life that Stengel lived, there's so much more to this man than I expected - what a full life he lived. He was the Ulysses of baseball....as if the Gods of Baseball decided to pluck this Chaplin-like soul and make him wander through the game for a lifetime. Creamer really delivers.

3 comments about The Bright Country: A Fisherman's Return to Trout, Wild Water, and Himself.

1. Mr. Middleton is in a much darker period of his writing and life at the time of his writing this book and though he still writes well, the tone takes on a darker shade than The Earth is Enough or On the Spine of Time which are cherished pieces in my collection.



2. THE BRIGHT COUNTRY is a heartbreakingly beautiful, sad, hilarious, touching book that flows and burbles along like a favorite trout stream. I've probably bought 6-8 copies of the book over the years and loaned, given or otherwise forced it upon at least twice that number of people. It's not a perfect novel, but is easily the most honest look I've ever encountered into the heart of a guy I wish I'd had the opportunity to know. There's more than a little bit of trout fishing, but this is a book that hooks non-anglers as well.



3. I can't write Harry Middleton to tell him how much I admire his writing, or how much his stories and themes resonate in me. He died not long ago. And if I may quote Russell Chatham, "It hurts to know that Harry Middleton rode the back of a garbage truck every night during the wee hours to put groceries on his family's table." It's true. It's part of this story.

   This is the moving, affecting story of Middleton's struggle with depression, his mother's death of brain cancer, and, most memorably, a blind trout on the South Fork of the Platte River. Like all of Middleton's books, the language is wonderful and the characters are memorable. Perhaps more so than most, this book is Middleton laying his soul bare, telling a story as it happened, cutting close to the bone.

   And if flyfishing isn't the whole story here, it is part of the path to redemption.

   Harry, we hardly knew you, and I wish there had been more time, and more books. But you will live on for me and for those readers who discover you. Ollie ollie oxen free.

1 comments about Legends of Cricket (New Speciality Titles).

1. If you are an avid cricket fan you should own "Legends of Cricket" even if you don't agree with the author's rankings. Each article is very informative and thoroughly researched.

1 comments about The Big Z: The Carlos Zambrano Story.

1. I was encouraged to read this biography of Carlos Zambrano. He is a truly humble (if unpredictable!) baseball player who loves the Lord with all his heart. It's exciting to think of where the road will lead for The Big Z.

No comments about Memories of The Bear: A biography of Denny Hulme.

5 comments about Feel No Fear: The Power, Passion, and Politics of a Life in Gymnastics.

1. This book was written by Bela Karolyi, the Romanian coach who has coached such gymnastics legends as Nadia Cominici, Mary Lou Retton, Kim Zmeskal, Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug.

   This book tells you about his life in Romania, training Nadia, defecting to America, and all the way to the 1992 Olympics.

   Before I didn't know much about Bela or about the girls he had trained. But after reading this book, I now know much more about him and his wife, Marta.

   If you want to know more about this memorable coach, be sure to read this book!




2. Bela Karolyi is such a inspirational man to take what little he had and make winners. I had the advantage of meeting this man this summer. He seems like a father figure with strong discipline and a positive effort. I always loved it when he 'You can Do it! " Which is all so true when you use your body in a positive way in the sport of gymnastics or any other sport.



3. It tells the entire story of Bela Karolyi's life and it tells the stories of the many famous gymnasts he has coached. The book makes you appreciate this man more than anything else could! I read it before I met him at Karolyi's camp and it made it THAT MUCH better!!



4. I have read this book a while back. However, I often refer to it for the inspiration, and sometimes quote it to my students (I am a figure skating coach). Bela is a legendary coach, and it was interesting to find out about his coaching, and life philosophies. I hope I could be like him one day. The part of the book that especially moved me is when Bela found out that more than half of his students became p.e. teachers.



5. I thought the book was great, if you love Bela
   if you don't or are a true gymnastic stat follower
   you might not, because Bela includes many of his
   personal beliefs on many competitions, some of which
   are trully exagerated and completly from the point
   of view of a coach. Which is what i believe the point
   of the book was. Overall it was a cool book to read.

2 comments about My Life Full of Cars: Behind the Wheel With the World's Top Motoring Journalist.

1. This book is one of the best I've ever read over the world of cars. It will make you travel from Belgium to the States with a thousand of little stories really enjoyable. Try it !



2. A living legend in automotive journalism and racing, Paul Frère weaves his fascinating life story through the cars he has owned, tested and raced. This autobiography is jam-packed with historical and technical information that Frère lived through and experienced personally. Starting with the family car in the 1920s, Formula-One racing in the 50s, winning LeMans in 1960, with Olivier Gendebien, to writing about, helping develop, and driving cars for the 21st Century, Monsieur Frère, at the age of 84, still routinely test drives today's automobiles and racecars at over 150 mph!

   An intimate, unique viewpoint on the history of the automobile, as fun as a fast drive down the German Autobahn- with no speed limit!

5 comments about The Book of Landry.

1. I bought this book for three compelling reasons. First, I am a long-time Dallas Cowboys fan. Secondly, I always admired and looked up to Tom Landry as a leader and a devoted Christian gentleman. Lastly, I love to collect and use quotes. I loved reading this book for one simple reason - it exceeded all expectations for all my reasons for buying it.

   I cried the day Tom Landry died, and again the day after his death when I read articles and listened to television stories about the life and times of Tom Landry. This simple, little book brought back many of those same emotions. This book is not one author's lofty opinions about a man. It is a collection of quotes, stories, and vignettes from scores of people from all walks of life who are united in their deep love and respect for a man among men, a man of unquestioned character and integrity.

   You do not have to be a Dallas Cowboys fan, nor know a thing about Tom Landry, nor do you need to collect quotes to enjoy and be motivated by this book. If you are inspired by reading true accounts of moral, spiritual, and successful leaders, then this book will exceed all your expectations, too.




2. I had the privilege of meeting Tom Landry a few times and found him to be the most gracious person you could ever hope to know. These memories really took me back in time. The world is a poorer place without him



3. Famed football coach Tom Landry passed away in February 2000, leaving behind a life of accomplishment rarely equaled and never surpassed. Former Dallas Cowboys players, assistant coaches, and others close to Landry contributed to The Book Of Landry by offering fresh testimonials and remembrances of the man. Landry quotes are culled from materials published over the decades of Landry's professional and personal life. Here presented are tributes to his childhood, family, coaching philosophy, Christian faith, motivational tactics, and the Landry "Look". The Book Of Landry is "must" reading for all Landry fans.



4. It's nice to know what outsiders thought of Landry, but it's nicest to hear from insiders who knew the man. This book fills that need. It's classy, readable, beautifully organized and highly affordable and should be on every Cowboy (or Cowboy hater's) bookshelf.



5. Jennifer Briggs' "The Book of Landry" is an excellent tribute to the late Cowboy's coach, Tom Landry. I grew up in Wisconsin, where Landry and the Cowboys were "the enemy." This book gave me a whole new view of a man who is revered in Texas. He was a compassionate, principled, fun-loving and God-led man, a true hero. I keep re-reading chapter after chapter for inspiration! It's a great birthday or Father's Day gift!

No comments about Favre: The Total Package.