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Seeing Serena
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
A riveting, revealing portrait of tennis champion and global icon Serena Williams that combines biography, cultural criticism, and sports writing to offer “a deep, satisfying meditation” (The New York Times) on the most consequential athlete of her time.
There has never been an athlete like Serena Williams. She has dominated women’s tennis for two decades, changed the way the game is played, and - by inspiring Naomi Osaka, Coco Gauff, and others - changed, too, the racial makeup of the pro game. But Williams’s influence has not been confined to the tennis court. As a powerful Black woman who struggled to achieve and sustain success, she has emerged as a cultural icon, figuring in conversations about body image, working mothers, and more.
Seeing Serena chronicles Williams’s return to tennis after giving birth to her daughter - from her controversial 2018 US Open final against Naomi Osaka through a 2020 season that unfolded against a backdrop of a pandemic and protests over the killing of Black men and women by the police. Gerald Marzorati, who writes about tennis for The New Yorker, travels to Wimbledon and to Compton, California, where Serena and her sister Venus learned to play. He talks with former women’s tennis greats, sports and cultural commentators - and Serena herself. He observes Williams from courtside, on the red carpet, in fashion magazines, on social media. He sees her and writes about her prismatically - reflecting on her many, many facets.
The result is an “enlightening…keen analysis” (The Washington Post) and energetic narrative that illuminates Serena’s singular status as the greatest women’s tennis player of all time and a Black woman with a global presence like no other.
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- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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No one can touch Bart Starr's record setting 5 NFL Championships including 3 straight. America's Quarterback tells the story of the man who helped create the legend of Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. This biography traces Starr’s life from childhood in Alabama to stardom in Green Bay and beyond. Not a simple sports story, Dunnavant traces the story of one man reaching for the American dream while professional football emerged from the shadows to capture the nation’s imagination.
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awesome
- By Anthony nyman on 03-30-15
By: Keith Dunnavant
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The Breaks of the Game
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A New York Times best seller, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been NBA champions. The tactile authenticity of Halberstam's knowledge of the basketball world is unrivaled. Yet he is writing here about far more than just basketball. This is a story about a place in our society where power, money, and talent collide and sometimes corrupt, a place where both national obsessions and naked greed are exposed.
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This book is a must read for all NBA junkies.
- By Kyle on 06-13-18
By: David Halberstam
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The Cup They Couldn't Lose
- America, the Ryder Cup, and the Long Road to Whistling Straits
- By: Shane Ryan
- Narrated by: Shane Ryan
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The task facing Steve Stricker at the 2021 Ryder Cup was enormous. It was his job, as the American captain, to stare down almost 40 years of Ryder Cup history, break a pattern of home losses that had persisted almost as long, and reverse the tide of European dominance in one of golf's most tense and emotional events. This was the epitome of a must-win, but it was also something more—in the entire 93-year history of the event, no American side had ever faced this kind of pressure.
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Great listen
- By Amazon Customer on 05-27-24
By: Shane Ryan
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Pistol
- The Life of Pete Maravich
- By: Mark Kriegel
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Pistol is more than the biography of a ballplayer. It's the stuff of classic novels: the story of a boy transformed by his father's dream and the cost of that dream. Even as Pete Maravich became Pistol Pete, a basketball icon for baby boomers, all the Maraviches paid a price. Now acclaimed author Mark Kriegel has brilliantly captured the saga of an American family: its rise, its apparent ruin, and, finally, its redemption.
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Extremely Good!
- By steve on 12-12-12
By: Mark Kriegel
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Golden Days
- West's Lakers, Steph's Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball
- By: Jack McCallum
- Narrated by: Jack McCallum
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In Golden Days, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum uses these two teams - the Jerry West/Wilt Chamberlain/Elgin Baylor Lakers and the Stephen Curry/Kevin Durant/Draymond Green Warriors - to trace the dynamic history of the National Basketball Association, which for much of the last half century has marched memorably through the state of California. Tying together the two strands of McCallum's story is Hall of Famer West, the ferociously competitive Laker guard who later became one of the key architects of the Warriors.
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Very interesting and fun to read
- By Joe on 06-12-18
By: Jack McCallum
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Late to the Ball
- Age. Learn. Fight. Love. Play Tennis. Win.
- By: Gerald Marzorati
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Being a man or a woman in your early 60s is different than it was a generation or two ago, at least for the more fortunate of us. We aren't old...yet. But we sense it coming: Careers are winding down, kids are gone, parents are dying (friends, too), and our bodies are no longer youthful or even middle-aged. Learning to play tennis in your 50s is no small feat, but becoming a serious, competitive tennis player at the age of 60 is a whole other matter.
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It’s all here. Everything you need to know.
- By BENJAMIN on 11-21-19
By: Gerald Marzorati
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The Barcelona Complex
- Lionel Messi and the Making—and Unmaking—of the World's Greatest Soccer Club
- By: Simon Kuper
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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FC Barcelona is not just the world’s highest grossing sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organizations on the planet. At last count, it had approximately 214 million social media followers, more than any other sports club except Real Madrid CF—and by one earlier measure, more than all 32 NFL teams combined. It has more in common with multinational megacompanies like Netflix or small nation-states than it does with most soccer teams. Journalist Simon Kuper tells the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful club in the world.
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Fantastic
- By steve finkelstein on 10-27-23
By: Simon Kuper
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The Strenuous Life
- Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete
- By: Ryan Swanson
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In full and intricate detail, featuring an amazing cast of characters from the worlds of politics, athletics, entertainment and more, this is the story of how President Theodore Roosevelt helped shepherd in a sports and fitness revolution that forever changed the complexion of the United States.
By: Ryan Swanson
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It's Better to Be Feared
- The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness
- By: Seth Wickersham
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 19 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFL's most dominant team, but also - and by far - the most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness - and what were the costs? In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the country's finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them.
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Don’t bother if you’ve read other patriots books
- By Brandon O. on 10-14-21
By: Seth Wickersham
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Tall Men, Short Shorts
- The 1969 NBA Finals: Wilt, Russ, Lakers, Celtics, and a Very Young Sports Reporter
- By: Leigh Montville
- Narrated by: Leigh Montville
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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They don’t set up any better than this. The greatest basketball player of all time–Bill Russell–and his juggernaut Boston Celtics, winners of ten (ten!) of the previous twelve NBA championships, squeak through one more playoff run and land in the Finals again. Russell’s opponent? The fearsome 7’1” next-generation superstar, Wilt Chamberlain, recently traded to the LA Lakers to form the league’s first dream team. Bill Russell and John Havlicek versus Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.
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Very good book with a caveat
- By Hebern on 12-06-21
By: Leigh Montville
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Curveball
- How I Discovered True Fulfillment After Chasing Fortune and Fame
- By: Barry Zito, Robert Noland
- Narrated by: Barry Zito
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2007, pitcher Barry Zito signed a seven-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. At that time, it was the largest contract ever given to a pitcher. He was at the top of his game, in peak physical condition, and had the kind of financial security most people can only dream of. He was also miserable. And it began to show. Zito's career declined over the next few years until he hit rock bottom - watching from the bench as his team won the World Series in 2010. In Curveball, Zito shares his story with honesty and transparency.
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The Seeker
- By Gary T. on 11-14-19
By: Barry Zito, and others
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Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
- The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters
- By: Joan Ryan
- Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the world of women's gymnastics and figure skating. From starvation diets and debilitating injuries to the brutal tactics of tyrannical gymnastics guru Bela Károlyi, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes portrays the horrors endured by girls at the hands of their coaches and sometimes their own families - and is now updated with a new introduction and foreword that address the sexual abuse scandal perpetrated by USA Gymnastics national team doctor, Larry Nassar.
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Holds up 20 years later
- By Pink Amy on 04-04-21
By: Joan Ryan