NBA High-Flyers (Bill Gutman)

NBA High-Flyers

Bill Gutman

Blurb: They're the high-flying, slam-dunking, in-your-face magicians, America's hottest court superstars, attracting record-breaking crowds to basketball. Check em out: Basketball's bad boy, Charles Barkley, the driving force behind the Phoenix Suns...Patrick Ewing, one of the league's best scorers and leader of the powerful New York Knicks...San Antonio Spurs' all-star centre, David Robinson...the incredible Shaquille O'Neal, who led the Orlando Magic to their first playoff ever...Hakeem Olajuwon, the Houston Rockets' great scorer, outstanding rebounder and shot blocker...Scottie Pippen, emerging from the shadow of his Chicago Bulls teammate Michael Jordan to showcase his own superstar talents... Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson of the Charlotte Hornets, considered the best of the young one-two superstar tandems in the NBA...and veteran leader of the Golden State Warriors, Chris Mullin.

They're all here, up-close and personal, in NBA High-Flyers.

ISBN: 0671887394 (Paperback)

Year: 1995

Publisher: Archway Paperback

Pages: 166 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Buy from the Book Depository

3. Buy from Barnes & Noble

4. Official site of the NBA

5. Yahoo! NBA page

The Vancouver Canucks Quizbook - Puzzles, Games, Trivia, Facts and Fun (The Puzzling Sports Institute)

The Vancouver Canucks Quizbook - Puzzles, Games, Trivia, Facts and Fun

The Puzzling Sports Institute 

Blurb: Catch Canucks fever and celebrate 40 years of Vancouver Canucks hockey! This must-have collection - jam-packed with puzzles, crosswords, games, trivia, facts and fun for towel-waving fans of all ages - will have you Luu-ing and riding your stick like Tiger Williams in no time. From Harold and the Steamer to Gino and the Russian Rocket, from Thomas Gradin to the record-setting Sedins, from Trevor Linden and the '94 Cup run to the high-scoring Westcoast Express, it's all here in this exciting trivia book that will bring hours of fun and memories to every loyal Canucks fan.

ISBN: 9780889712508 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Nightwood Editions

Pages: 77 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Publisher's page

3. Buy from the Book Depository

4. Canucks Official site

5. Wikipedia page for the Canucks

Go Dockers (Lorraine Wilson, Paul Harvey & David O'Brien)

Go Dockers

Written by Lorraine Wilson

Illustrated by Paul Harvey & David O'Brien

Blurb: Fremantle is the newest club in the AFl. Many of our players come from local teams. I've joined the Kid Dockers Club. Sometimes KDC members are invited onto the oval after training.

ISBN: 1863917632 (Paperback)

Year: 1995

Publisher: Reed

Pages: 24 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Bookworld

2. Google books page

3. Official website of the Fremantle Football Club

4. Wikipedia page for Freo

5. Follow the team on Twitter

Melbourne 2006 - XVIII Commonwealth Games - Pocket Guide (Various)

Melbourne 2006 - XVIII Commonwealth Games - Pocket Guide

Various

Blurb: The must-have guide to the Commonwealth Games.

Packed full of interesting facts and figures, and colour photographs of everyone's favourite athletes and events, this pocket guide includes information on all of the Commonwealth sports, results tables to fill in the 2006 Games winners and keep, fold-outs of Commonwealth Games highlights and much, much more.

This special guidebook has everything you need to know about the Games, just in time for the XVIII Commonwealth Games! 15-26 March.

ISBN: 1741171350 (Hardback)

Year: 2005

Publisher: Explore Australia

Pages: 64 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Page on the 2006 Games

2. Wikipedia page for the Games

3. PDF Government Documents on the games

4. Page on the book

5. Order the book from McLeods Booksellers in NZ

Wisdom: Life Lessons from an Australian Legend (Ron Barassi)

Wisdom: Life Lessons from an Australian Legend

Ron Barassi

Blurb: Ron Barassi is an iconic figure in Australian sporting culture, with a record of personal and team success that is unrivalled. Beyond sport, he has become a greatly respected elder in our broader society.

In Wisdom, he shares with us 31 maxims and quotations that he has collected and which are integral to forging that reputation. Ron reflects on reach and explains their importance in delivering ideas, motivation and inspiration, and how he applied them in sport and life - words of wisdom, indeed.

Containing beautiful illustrations from artist James Money, Wisdom is a book to come back to time and time again.

ISBN: 9781742378756 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Pages: 115 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Borders

2. Article on the book

3. Buy this and other AFL related books

4. Radio interview with the author

5. Wikipedia page on the author

The Wide World of Ken Sutcliffe (Ken Sutcliffe with Ian Heads)

The Wide World of Ken Sutcliffe

Ken Sutcliffe with Ian Heads

Blurb: He's been a fixture in Australian lounge rooms for decades - the face of sport on the Nine Network for 30 years. He's presented the sports report on the evening news, been the long-time host of The Wide World of Sports and acted as the network's anchorman at many of the world's biggest sporting events, including the Winter Olympics, The Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon and the US Masters.

He has been a legendary survivor in an industry notorious for its fickleness and has worked closely with some of the biggest names in Australian television and sport. Who could forget his almost nightly fits of giggles as Graham Kennedy's 'straight man' co-host?

He is Ken Sutcliffe, much-loved journalist, sportscaster and personality.

The story of Ken's life also takes in many landmark events in Australian sport and television, and it is told with characteristic good humour and larrikin charm. His firmly help opinions on all things sport are fascinating and insightful, and included here is his insider's view on the Matthew Johns and Cronulla Sharks scandal that threatened to blow rugby league apart.

How a boy living in a tent beside a railway line grew to become one of our most familiar faces and respected names makes for an entertaining and revealing read. He is the man behind the face of Australian sport and his is a great Australian story.

ISBN: 9781741757903 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Pages: 289 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page for the book

2. PDF file of the first chapter of the book

3. Nine News page on the author

4. Wikipedia page on the author

5. Buy the book from Angus and Robertson

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Michael Lewis)

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game

Michael Lewis

Blurb: When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write. He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family's love and the evolution of professional football into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost. Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback's greatest vulnerability, his blind side.

ISBN: 9780393338386 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company

Pages: 339 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Wikipedia page for the book

3. Good reads page for the book

4. Summary of the book

5. Review of the book

One in a Hundred - The AFL Centenary Diaries of Gavin Brown, Wayne Carey, James Hird, Glen Jakovich and Tony Modra (Various)

One in a Hundred - The AFL Centenary Diaries of Gavin Brown, Wayne Carey, James Hird, Glen Jakovich and Tony Modra

Various

Blurb: For anyone who's missed the hype, 1996 represents one hundred years of Australian Rules football. In this centenary season, five of the AFL's greatest stars give us a complete and personal record of their very different seasons - Collingwood's Gavin Brown, North Melbourne's Wayne Carey, Essendon's James Hird, West Coast's Glen Jakovich and Adelaide's Tony Modra.

Week by week they take us through the football year, from pre-season training to the Grand Final itself. Along the way we see through their eyes the dramas and controversies, triumphs and disasters that made up football's centenary, from club mergers and devastating injury to winning the AFL's greatest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal, and the ultimate achievement of all, captaining a team to premiership victory. Their views and insights - always forthright, fascinating and often very funny - make One in a Hundred reading for anyone interested in how it feels to play AFL at the highest level.

ISBN: 033035860 (Paperback)

Year: 1996

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Pages: 240 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Abebooks

2. Official Website of the AFL

3. Info on Australian Rules Footy books

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Football Stamps from the 1996 Centenary Celebration

Barassi: The Biography (Peter Lalor)

Barassi: The Biography

Peter Lalor

Blurb: His is a biblical tale, appropriate for a game that's a religion.

Ron Barassi is modern football's first-born son and saviour.

His father wore the No. 31, then was tragically killed in the Second World War just months after playing in a premiership.

Ron Barassi Jnr was raised in the Australian bush before moving back to Melbourne with his devoted mother. Later the boy was taken under the wing of legendary coach Norm Smith. He slept in a sleep-out at the back of Smith's home as together they conspired to take football to another level. Smith turned Barassi into the definitive - some argue first - ruck rover. The pair won six premierships in a golden era for the Demons.

Barassi's break with Smith, and Melbourne, shocked the football world. It was the 'death of loyalty', an unconscionable betrayal, but at Carlton, and later North Melbourne, Ron fulfilled the second part of his destiny. The game's most determined player became its super coach, football's hot-gospeller. At half time in the 1970 grand final, with Collingwood miles in front, Ron screamed 'handball, handball, handball' and the game changed forever.

Barassi goes behind the scenes with the game's most revered and most loved figure. It is an examination of an unexamined life. Where did the passion come from? How did the events of his early years resonate through the decades?

In his seventies, Barassi trekked Kokoda and risked his life to help a woman being attacked on a St Kilda street. In an era when our sporting heroes are flawed and fallen, Ron Barassi is a true icon, a man whose integrity burns bright to this day.

Ron Barassi is a hero for the ages and Barassi is his unforgettable story.

ISBN: 9781741752120 (Hardback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Pages: 424 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy at the ABC Shop

2. Barassi's Official Site

3. Barassi's Wikipedia page

4. Barassi's Bio with information on how to get him as a speaker for a function

5. Google books page

Shaq Attaq! (Shaquille O'Neal & Jack McCallum)

Shaq Attaq!

Shaquille O'Neal & Jack McCallum

Blurb: Shaquille O'Neal is the hottest player to hit the NBA in years, with his combination of incredible talent, versatility, maturity, and charisma.

Scoring a high of 46 points in one game, and already in the record books for scoring and rebounding, Shaquille truly is a star - and it comes as no surprise that he was voted Rookie of the Year.

Now Shaquille opens up to his fans in an unprecedented, no-hold-barred account, to let them know what it's really like to be the new 7-foot, 300-pound kid on the block.

What's it like to be compared at age 21 to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among others?

Shaq discusses with complete honesty his fears and apprehensions; what makes him happy (including rappin' with favourite group Fu Schnickens); what makes him sad; what makes him blow his stack - including what really happened on court with Alvin Robertson, and being suspended from the Southeastern Conference Tournament for throwing a punch.

He discusses the influence of his father and mother, and how he needed discipline to avoid becoming a 'juvenile delinquent' when moving from one army base to another while growing up.

A fascinating and candid account by the biggest and brightest star of the NBA, including 8 pages of never-before-seen photos, Shaq Attaq! is the perfect book for all of Shaquille's fans.

Jack McCallum is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, and is author of a previous book, Unfinished Business: On and Off the Court with the 1991-2 Boston Celtics.

ISBN: 1863501665 (Paperback)

Year: 1993

Publisher: Wilkinson Books

Pages: 202 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Shaq Attaq Fansite

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Good reads page

4. Shaq's Wikipedia page

5. Shaq's Twitter Page

Drop Punts and Torpedoes: The best ever footy quotes (Suzi Petkovski)

Drop Punts and Torpedoes: The best ever footy quotes

Suzi Petkovski

Blurb: 'It's been a big week in football!' Classic footy quotes from the glory days of the VFL right up to the 2007 AFL Grand Final.'

Talking football is the ultimate participant sport. Most of us will never fly up there like Cazaly on the sacred turf of the MCG, but the footy industry provides endless fascination and speculation through commentary, interviews and chatter. Whether it's a withering blast from a coach, a sharp witticism from a commentator or a player's verbal clanger, football language can be as colourful, chaotic, brutal and uniquely Australian as the game itself.

This classic collection of quotes from players, coaches, commentators and fans is perfect for the diehard follower of the Australian game.

ISBN: 9781741667226 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Random House

Pages: 216 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Random House

2. How to kick a football further

3. AFL website

4. Books by Suzi Petkovski

5. Buy online