Fantasy Sports

Max Best is not living his—ahem—best life. His job's a drag, his home's a shooting gallery, his hopes are nil, and lately, even his beloved game of football has devolved from a chaotic, ecstatic delight into a cold, calculating equation complete with stats, tech terms, and mindless lingo. But then Max rescues a mysterious old man from a mugging. "Nick" seems friendly enough . . . until he innocently asks his savior, "Would you sell your soul to be a top football manager?" Naturally, Max says yes, and in that instant, everything changes.

Daniel Barbarisi quits his job as the New York Yankees beat writer for The Wall Street Journal and begins a quest: to join the top 1 percent of Daily Fantasy Sports ("DFS") players, the so-called "sharks", and figure out whether DFS is on the level - while maybe cashing in along the way. DFS is fantasy sports on steroids. It's the domain of bitter rivals FanDuel and DraftKings, online juggernauts who turned a legal loophole into a billion-dollar industry by allowing sports fans to bet piles of cash constructing fantasy teams.

In Fantasy Life, Berry celebrates every aspect of the fantasy sports world. Brilliant trash talk. Unbelievable trophies. Insane draft day locations. Shake-your-head-in-disbelief punishments. Ingenious attempts at cheating. And surprisingly uplifting stories that remind us why we play these games in the first place.

For twenty years, I’ve been an unwanted changeling. I have no name, no family, and no answers. Until an irresistibly wicked faerie begins a seductive game of cat and mouse. I am his prey. His treasure. A perfect pet. He offers a trade: he will take me to the faerie realms to assist in my search for the truth of who I am. In return, I must agree to marry him. But things are not as they seem, and soon after arriving at his wintry manor, I begin to unravel a dangerous web of lies.

The inside story of the rise, fall, and rise of FanDuel and DraftKings - two companies that began as obscure startups and, seemingly overnight, became billion dollar companies, and just as quickly found themselves the target of the FBI and Department of Justice and the center of a national scandal.

Ron Shandler is a self-described rotoholic. In the beginning, he hoarded newspaper box scores and pored over every number at his disposal. Then came the compulsion to create his own numbers. A monthly newsletter expanded into an annual Baseball Forecaster book, which spawned a media company, websites, tournaments, and more. Part memoir, part madcap history, Fantasy Expert is a fascinating and wide-ranging look at the modern growth and development of the game that went from cottage industry to national obsession.

Against the odds, John Urschel found a way to manage his double life as a scholar and an athlete. While he was an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, he simultaneously pursued his PhD in mathematics at MIT. This is his story.

Bear shifter, Derek Holt, has finally achieved the pinnacle of fame as a platinum country recording artist. He just never thought it would leave him feeling so hollow inside. He knows just the woman who could fill his empty void, his assistant Red. But women like Red aren’t for men like him. As a single mom, the last thing Audrey Reid, a.k.a Red needs is a party guy like Derek Holt in her life. If only her brain could convince her heart to let go. This “babysitting” gig—accompanying Derek back to Jackson Valley to keep an eye on him—might make it harder than she thought to keep a ...