Sports

I can't remember a time when I wasn't popular. Girls have always wanted me. Guys have always wanted to be me. I have a rep for being with a new girl every night and never settling down. But moving in with Abigail Hopkins has made me rethink everything. While sweet, virginal Abby isn't my usual type, she's the one girl I can't stop thinking about. It's enough to make me wonder if I should change my ways. Too bad my past is coming back to bite me.

Reader Cricket Bats, one of the last traditional batmakers back in England, has a contemporary home in the Antipodes, with Allan Reader keeping the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne. When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan's eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him, selecting the best piece of willow he's harvested in years to do so. As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, leaving his equally talented sister's dreams in his wake, Allan's magical bat takes centre stage as well.

When Christine, an idealistic young American teacher, meets and marries Hideki Yamada, an aspiring Japanese high school baseball coach, she believes that their love with be enough to sustain them as they deal with cultural differences. However, Hideki's duties, and the team of fit, obedient boys whom he begins to think of as a surrogate family, take up more and more of his time, just as Christine is struggling to manage the needs of their multiply-disabled daughter and their sensitive son. Things come to a head when their son is the victim of bullies. 

Raised on a ranch in Saskatchewan’s rugged Thickwood Hills, where the prairie transitions to forest, Willomena Swift, home from playing for the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, finds a precious foal killed by a rogue stallion. The stallion’s owner, once Willo’s baseball coach, now chairs the committee heading up the new cooperative pasture—a pasture that is set to swallow her family lease, where she grew up, learned to love and understand horses, and dreamed of returning to raise them. 

Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a new sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake. Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. 

Fairways, Greens, Lost Balls & Bad Lies is an amusing, entertaining story about real golfers just like you and your golf comrades. You will hear about adventures of friends who share the thrill and torture of playing the game we love. Most importantly, you will laugh. Funny things happen on every golf course, and you will undoubtedly connect with the characters you will meet in this book. Golf stories are remembered long after golf scores are forgotten. Listening to this book will lift your spirit, and you may stumble upon a tip or two that will improve your handicap. 

Leinster House had been burned to the ground. All that was left was a smouldering ruin and the blackened remains of an Irish flag. The old man was trying to pin the blame on Brussels, but I knew the actual truth? Unfortunately, Sorcha was too angry with me for having sex with our daughter's Irish teacher to listen. But I had, like, other irons in the—pardon the pun—fire. I'd just become Head Coach of the Ireland rugby team—albeit, women. The country might well have been focked. But very soon, we had everyone believing in fairy tales again.

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two. 

Lucas, the star quarterback, seems to have it all—superstar athletic abilities, expensive clothes, cars, and women who will stop at nothing to be his, if only for a night. Tessa is a young woman who lives her life always doing what is right. She tries desperately to hold herself accountable to the demanding expectations of her family, and everyone around her, while remaining virtuous. However, when two worlds collide, sparks fly and ignite in a fiery passion that neither Lucas nor especially Tessa are ready for. Will the fire and passion of first love win, or will it destroy them?

The Natural puts you in the boots of famed rodeo announcer Brad Turner, racing his horse Golden Boy into the arena and welcoming the crowd to a pro rodeo performance in Jackson, Mississippi. You'll hit the road with Brad as he crisscrosses the country, struggling with life, love, and business on the pro rodeo circuit. You'll meet Zola Johns, the rebellious, barrel-racing beauty with her eye on the prize of winning a national championship, and Shoat Krammer, the young rough-and-tumble rookie that's the real natural coming up the hard way.