Winning sports book picks for both the athlete and the spectator sports fan in your life.
1. 'The Best American Sports Writing 2008'
© Houghton Mifflin
Not merely about sports, these pieces are about the sports figures they catalogue, people with their foibles and finery laid bare.
2. 'The Carolina Way' by Dean Smith
© Penguin Group
University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith's leadership lessons based upon 36 years of coaching.
3. 'Luckiest Man' by Jonathan Eig
© Simon & Schuster
This may be one of the best baseball books written. Lou Gehrig is presented warts and all, and modern baseball players would do well to read this book and learn something about integrity and sportsmanship.
4. 'Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game' by Michael Lewis
© W W Norton
Michael Lewis's irreverent reporting takes us from the dugouts and locker rooms to the boardrooms, where we meet owners who begin to look like fools at the poker table.
5. 'Motor Mouth' by Janet Evanovich
© Harpercollins
Janet Evanovich's NASCAR story, full of memorable characters, lots of drinking, and lots of sexual innuendo.
6. 'Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season' by Jonathan Eig
© Simon & Schuster
Jack Roosevelt Robinson changed the face of baseball. Some said he changed the face of America.
7. 'St. Dale' by Sharyn McCrumb
© Kensington
Sharyn McCrumb's NASCAR racing novel parallels the structure of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and does it well.
8. 'The Entitled' by Frank Deford
© Sourcebooks Landmark
Senior contributing editor for Sports Illustrated, Frank Deford, called "the world's greatest sportswriter" by GQ, turns novelist.
9. 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' by Haruki Murakami
© Knopf
When Haruki Murakami traded the physically demanding job of running his jazz club for the sedentary routine of a professional novelist, he learned he was going to have to make some life changes.
