best sports biography 2022

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Five of the best sport books of 2022

A warning about brain damage, a fresh perspective on Geoffrey Boycott, and the rise and tragic demise of a great cyclist

The best books of 2022

A Delicate Game: Brain Injury, Sport and Sacrifice Hana Walker-Brown (Hodder Studio ) Everyone knows that repeated blows to the head can cause long-term damage to the brain. The science is not ambiguous on this point. And so Walker-Brown takes us on a gripping and heartbreaking journey through the human debris of sport, from bereaved families to ex-athletes slowly losing their faculties to dementia. Along the way she asks the key question: why, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, have sports like football and rugby union proved so resistant to reform or even basic responsibility? In large part, she argues, the answers are social and cultural: sport’s sanctification of pain and suffering, frequently framed within Christian ideals of masculinity. And, of course, money has plenty to do with it. Walker-Brown is bleakly clear that there are no easy answers. But it might just help if we start asking the right questions.

A New Formation: How Black Footballers Shaped the Modern Game Edited by Calum Jacobs (Merky ) A New Formation is not a book about racism, even if racism is a frequent theme. Nor is it a book about politics, immigration or the media, even if all feature heavily. Rather, it is a celebration of the contribution Black British footballers have made to the game, told through a series of varied and sharply written essays placing them in their social and sporting context. The story of Chelsea forward Raheem Sterling is filtered through the lens of the Windrush generation and the notion of home. There is a timely and thought-provoking reassessment of the career of former striker Andrew Cole. Most of all, it’s terrific fun, and a formidable statement of intent from Jacobs, a rising star in the world of football writing.

Being Geoffrey Boycott Geoffrey Boycott and Jon Hotten (Fairfield ) You may have concluded that after more than three decades of commentary and opinion-spewing from Geoffrey Boycott, the world has probably heard enough. And yet somehow this fascinating account manages to offer a new perspective on one of English cricket’s most complex characters. Part memoir and part biography, switching between first and second person like the two halves of a tortured internal monologue, the book combines Boycott’s astonishing memory and the gentle provocation of his ghostwriter Hotten in a way that captures the cauldron of Test cricket at its most absorbing. Essentially, it’s a book about obsession: about the angst and fear of top-level sport, where the most scrutinised person on the field is somehow also the loneliest.

Expected Goals: The Story of How Data Conquered Football and Changed the Game Forever Rory Smith (Mudlark ) Football has undergone a spectacular data revolution in the last decade, which I suppose is kind of interesting, if you like that sort of thing. But where Smith’s book succeeds is in eschewing the boring, didactic stuff about stats and regression curves in favour of a story about people: about doubt and persuasion, insiders and outsiders, palace intrigue and subtle subterfuge. And mercifully, there isn’t a single graph or table in the entire book.

God Is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent Andy McGrath (Bantam ) In 2009, Frank Vandenbroucke was found dead in a hotel room in Senegal at the age of 34, with insulin and sleeping pills near his bedside. The last person to see him alive was a sex worker who had accompanied him there. And the fact that we know the tragically opaque ending of this story from the start is what lends such a devastating quality to McGrath’s careful biography. In his prime, the man they called “God” was one of the biggest sporting stars in cycling: handsome, effortlessly talented on the bike, yet with painfully human flaws that belied his divine nickname. Soberly told and with a clear affection for its wayward subject, McGrath’s account explores the narcotically corrupting power of sport itself.

• Best books of the year
• Best books 2022
• Sport and leisure books
• Autobiography and memoir
• Biography books

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Best Sports Books: Top 10 Athlete Biographies [2024 Update]

Posted by Rubin Alaie | The Best Book Lists | 2

What are the best sportsbooks in recent years? Here you will find a top 10 with the most beautiful sports biographies to be inspired by top athletes, including football players and other top athletes.

Contents of this page:

The top 10 best books about sports

Criteria for compiling these recommended books.

Our editors have carefully read as many as possible books about this subject. Then, they used the following criteria for choosing the best picks: ⠀

• The literary quality of the books.
• The amount of books sold worldwide.
• The professional reviews in newspapers.
• The expertise and experience from the author.
• The quality of the examples, knowledge and practicality
• The actuality and whether the information is useful or too old.
• Our editor’s opinions: they have read and judged the books extensively.

Full disclosure: as Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases.

1.The League: How Five Rivals Created the NFL and Launched a Sports Empire

The way the author weaved the narrative of the establishment and endurance of the NFL through the point of view of these five men was engaging from start to finish. A must-read for any NFL fans looking to gain a unique understanding of the birth of their beloved sport.

2.Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II 

An absolute necessity read for baseball darlings, history buffs, and any individual who wants to be taken back to a period of genuine legends. This is simply a must-read for anyone out there with eyes! A unique and jaw-dropping tale that is not to be missed.

3.The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

Our pick for any Kobe Bryant fans out there. This book has become even more relevant in recent years after the passing of the basketball lessons. From start to finish, this is an inspiring read that looks at both Bryant’s extraordinary talent and the man behind it.

4.The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond

This is the perfect Christmas present for any baseball fans out there. 30 individual and unique stories that often go untold. Interesting from start to finish and each story feels as if it has its own voice. A must-read for any die hard supporters of the sport.

5.One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season

An extremely enjoyable book about communities and humble community games. For those who love a true rags-to-riches underdog tale, this is about as good as it gets. Any baseball fans out there who do not know this story simply must read about it now!

6.The Ultimate Football Trivia Book: 600 Questions for the Super-Fan

If you’re a true football fan, then this book is a must try. Our pick for anyone looking for a stocking filler for a football fan this Christmas. This book is a great test of football knowledge with 600 questions of varying difficulty. Not only will you have fun, but you will learn too!

7.The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told: A True Tale of Three Gamblers, The Kentucky Derby, and the Mexican Cartel

The story is incredible! The author is a genius! A jaw-dropping story told in such an amazing way. You do not have to be a gambling fan at all to enjoy this story. It’s a tale that grips you from the very first word to the last.

8.The Story of Baseball: In 100 Photographs

The perfect gift for any baseball fans. There are plenty of information and trivia books out there but this book looks to compile the most important and game-changing moments in baseball in 100 photographs, from humble beginnings to finals viewed by millions.

9.Shoot Your Shot: A Sport-Inspired Guide To Living Your Best Life

For any young sport-lover growing up, no matter where they are, how wealthy they are, or what their dreams are, this is the book for them. Inspirational from the first word until the last, the author Vernon creates such a powerful guide to finding happiness in life.

10.Rising Above: How 11 Athletes Overcame Challenges in Their Youth to Become Stars 

Recommended for every sports lover. Real life always beats fiction! This book outlines 11 famous athletes who faced huge challenges in their early years but came out the other side stronger than ever. Eye-opening, informative and inspirational!

What do you find in these top 10 biographies of elite athletes?

Stacks of football books seem to be written every year. What is a good choice from this? In this list you won’t necessarily find the very best sports books ever, but they are certainly inspiring and poignant.

Also for children it is good to read some of these books about football and other sports, for example so that they know exactly how someone became successful or so that they become familiar with the pitfalls of being famous.

Biography books football players and other athletes : o ther recommendations outside the top 10

• I am Zlatan and Ik Zlatan are indispensable to learn what goes into the way Zlatan Ibrahimovic lives, thinks and plays. He has grown into a football player who continues to surprise and never disappoint.
• I think therefore I play – Andrea Pirlo
• I f you are specifically looking for good soccer books, check out these recommendations.

Enjoy reading!

Related: also read this...

About the author.

Rubin Alaie

Hello! Thanks for reading these articles. My intention is to make happiness as simple and clear as posssible. By the way, excuse my English. I am not a native English speaker since I live in Amsterdam. Much appreciated if you use the comments to make suggestions on my grammar. See ya in another blogpost!

Tags: sport biography

Dear, taste is always personal but still strange and unfortunate that the biography of the German goalkeeper Ronald Enke: “A life too short” by Ronald Reng is not mentioned here. A truly fantastic biography that stands out from many other popular biographies. One to really read!

Thank you for adding Stein 🙂

Further Reading (Related)

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As Amazon Associates we earn from qualifying purchases. Furthermore, certain content that appears on our our website, comes from Amazon. This content provided is ‘as is’ and is subject to change.

To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

The best sport autobiographies 2023: memoirs from the worlds of football, cricket and more.

• Calum Trenaman

Our guide to the best autobiographies, whatever your choice of sport

We live in an era where people want more access to their favourite sportspeople than ever before: interviews before matches, interviews after matches, analysis at the most granular levels. And that’s not to mention the social media presence that many sports clubs contractually require of their stars. For famous sportspeople, autobiographies are almost a guarantee once they do anything noteworthy. The market is flooded with them so we’re here to help narrow down your choices to the cream of the crop.

When a sportsperson has been in the public eye for such a long period of time, an autobiography is a time for them to reveal all, to be vulnerable and to finally open themselves up to their fans in a way they may never have done before.

The chosen autobiographies may not necessarily be from the biggest names in their field, but their stories offer something new and fresh, insightful and interesting, momentous and potentially ground-breaking. Read on for our buying guide and roundup.

Best sport autobiographies: At a glance

• Best early-career sports autobiography: A Clear Blue Sky by Jonny Bairstow and Duncan Hamilton
• Best end-of-career sports autobiography: Racing Through the Dark by David Millar in collaboration with Jeremy Whittle
• Best political sports autobiography: The Rodchenkov Affair by Gregory Rodchenkov

How to choose the best sport autobiography for you

There are so many sports autobiographies to choose from that it can be overwhelming when deciding which to commit to reading. Even more so when one sportsperson may have more than one autobiography. Try asking yourself these questions.

What’s the sport?

This may sound obvious when choosing a sports autobiography to read, but it’s crucial. If the subject of the book is someone considered the best in their field, and you want to find out more about their life and their mindset, that’s excellent. But that may be communicated through the medium of their sport and if you don’t know what they’re talking about, then that insight is going to be lost on you.

Likewise, the inverse is also true. If you consider yourself a serious fan of a particular sport, then you may not gain a lot from reading an autobiography of someone whose career you know intimately or a sport you know thoroughly. It could be a more interesting reading experience if you pick someone from a sport you know little about but that you know has had an incredible life.

How far beyond the sport does it go?

This is also important. Do you want the person to be delving deep into an analysis of a championship victory, taking you through each game and what their role in it was? Or do you want an autobiography in which the sport itself takes a back seat, with more of a focus on the feelings and inner monologue of that person as they traversed various obstacles in their career? Some of those in the former category can be very dry and clinical. But on the other hand, many sports fans are more interested in the tactics and physical aspect of the sport, and might find the mental and emotional side of things too “wishy-washy” for their reading consumption.

At what point in the person’s career was the autobiography written?

Arsene Wenger wrote his autobiography after he had completed his time as Arsenal manager. Sir Alex Ferguson did the same. They were retired and their managerial careers were over. Age also plays a factor, in the style of the autobiography. For example, when a 75-year-old is writing about their life in its entirety after a 55-year career in the sport, a lot of details will be skimmed over.

Many sportspeople write multiple autobiographies, and many may even write multiple memoirs while still playing. That means they can go into much more detail in shorter periods of time in their careers. For instance, at the time of writing, England Test cricket captain Ben Stokes already has two autobiographies, and he still has plenty of years left in his career. What kind of reading experience are you looking for and how deep do you want the person to dive into their own life and career? That will help you decide what you want to read.

The best sport autobiographies you can buy in 2023

1. a clear blue sky by jonny bairstow and duncan hamilton: best early-career sports autobiography.

England Cricketer Jonny Bairstow’s autobiography partially charts the tricky start to his international career, which began in 2013, up to his maiden Test century in South Africa in 2016.

But what sets this autobiography apart from other cricketing autobiographies, and perhaps what helped win it the Wisden Cricket Book of the Year in 2018, is its deeply personal discussion of his father’s suicide, and the effect it had on Jonny, his sister and their mum.

David Bairstow took his own life when his son was just eight-years old. His sister Becky was seven, and his mother was battling cancer for the first of two times in her life. Early in his professional career, Jonny could come across as prickly and sensitive when potentially vulnerable to the criticism of the cricketing press, but he shows a completely different side of himself here. He admits to feeling like he, Becky and their mum were survivors of a shipwreck in the aftermath of David’s suicide – and that since then they have stuck together through everything.

What makes the story of Bairstow’s life all the more compelling is that it isn’t just blue eyes and red hair that he inherited from his late father, but his cricketing talent too. While not as successful as his son, he had a long and prolific career for Yorkshire and occasionally England. The struggles of Jonny’s early career came across as laden with frustration of an unfulfilled legacy. Since his maiden Test century, Bairstow hasn’t looked back. This wonderful and sensitive autobiography explores the difficulties of establishing his career and the even tougher difficulties of his early life.

Key specs – Length: 320 pages; Publisher: Harper NonFiction; ISBN: 978-0008232696

A CLEAR BLUE SKY: A remarkable memoir about family, loss and the will to overcome

2. racing through the dark by david millar with jeremy whittle: best end-of-career sports autobiography.

David Millar was one of the many professional cyclists of the 90s and 00s to have doped. It was an era of cycling that was so juiced up, that any differentiation between real and fake was lost. It lost generations of fans who consequently turned away from the sport and will likely never return. Millar isn’t an outlier, but he wasn’t famous like Lance Armstrong. And he certainly wasn’t as lucky as Armstrong. Rather than being able to tell the truth from the comfort of a California mansion in his own words, Millar was arrested by the French police in 2004 for doping violations and was later banned by the British Cycling Federation for two years.

Millar’s autobiography is an honest account of how an enthusiastic and potentially naive young professional cyclist falls into the world of doping, having had no intention to cheat his way to the top. Often, those of us outside pro sport can’t fathom why a person would cheat in the field, and we may believe they must have been “evil” from the start. Millar’s contrition and genuine work after returning from his ban to help root out doping from the sport proves he is not one of those people. It’s a fascinating account of how a sport can be taken over by a culture of cheating, and that an individual is often powerless to confront or avoid that culture.

Key specs – Length: 368 pages; Publisher: Orion; ISBN: ‎978-1409120384

Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar

3. the rodchenkov affair by grigory rodchenkov: best political sports autobiography.

If you want to learn about contemporary Russia through the lens of sport, and how the country was able to coordinate the largest state-sponsored doping program in the history of professional sport, then this is the autobiography for you.

There’s a case to be made that Grigory Rodchenkov, while not a noteworthy professional sportsperson, had one of the biggest impacts on global sport in the 21st century. His autobiography walks us through the world of Russian sport, dating back well into the Soviet era, and how doping has always been a part of professional sport there. In the Soviet Union, it was individual coaches giving their athletes whatever they thought worked. It wasn’t an unrefined and unorganised system, but during the mid-2000s it became systematic. And Rodchenkov, now a whistleblower living in hiding in the US, was the man behind it.

What is most interesting in Rodchenkov’s autobiography is not necessarily his revelations of secret labs or the Russian secret service’s involvement in doping control at the Sochi Winter Olympics, but his thoughts and feelings as he facilitated it all. He frequently describes life in Russia in Orwellian terms, yet fails to see the role he played in fuelling that nightmare. And while his actions arguably rob professional sport of the thrill of fair competition, he’s remarkably unapologetic: if it wasn’t him, there’d be someone else, and doping is just part of trying to gain an advantage over other competitors. It’s a brilliant autobiography that, while telling the story of doping in Russia, reveals much about the Russian psyche in relation to global sporting politics.

Key specs – Length: 320 pages; Publisher: WH Allen; ISBN: 978-0753553350

The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Russia’s Secret Doping Empire – Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2020

4. the mamba mentality by kobe bryant: best “coffee table” sports autobiography.

In this coffee-table-sized book, basketballer Kobe Bryant – who lost his life in a helicopter crash in 2020 – tells of his self-named ‘Mamba Mentality’ on the court.

The book is split into two main sections: process and craft. While it tells lots of Bryant’s life, as with any conventional autobiography, Bryant is more concerned with passing on his wisdom of what ‘greatness’ is and what it takes to get there. When Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance docu-series was released in 2020, the world was given an insight into a man with a deep desire to win and to be the best. Bryant is cut from the same cloth.

Just a brief look over some of his achievements will tell you the scale of his greatness. Five-time NBA champion, 18-time NBA All-Star, 11-time All-NBA First Team, nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team and an NBA Hall of Famer. He’d probably tell you that those first set of achievements are the only ones that matter. And that says a lot about his mentality.

As with many coffee table books, there is more imagery than words here, displaying brilliant photography from Bryant’s life, and focusing on his storied career with the Los Angeles Lakers. This is not an autobiography just for basketball fans. It’s not even an autobiography just for sports fans. It’s a blueprint for anyone who wants to be at the top of their chosen field from someone who knows exactly what it takes to get there.

Key specs – Length: 208 pages; Publisher: MCD; ISBN: 978-0374201234

5. Addicted by Tony Adams and Ian Ridley: Most candid autobiography

When you hear the name Tony Adams, you may think of a hard-nosed and dedicated centre back, leading Arsenal’s defence for nearly two decades. And he was a leader in every sense of the word, becoming Arsenal captain at the age of just 21 and winning four league titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups during his 19 years at the club, retiring without ever having left. He is a footballing legend.

Despite all this, Adams may argue that it was his decision to quit drinking and sticking to it that may be his biggest achievement. He admits in his book that, in doing so, it was the first time in his entire life that he had ever asked for help.

Professional football was awash with alcohol during the 1990s, perhaps most of all at Arsenal. This was a Wild West period for football, where there was a lot of money, no social media and no defined sense of professionalism instilled in the game when it came to fitness, dieting and drinking. For Adams to admit he had a problem took a lot of soul searching and courage.

This was before mental health and illness had entered the realm of mainstream health conditions and, as ever, Adams led from the front and was open about his struggles. He is by no means the only England footballer to struggle with alcoholism, but his autobiography will inspire not only those going through similar struggles, but also any sports fans who understand what it means to battle inner demons of any kind.

Key specs – Length: 384 pages; Publisher: HarperCollins; ISBN: 978-0008268749

The 10 Best Sports Books To Start 2022

Some good sports reads to start 2022.

We are now officially in 2022, and that means it’s time for a new…well, everything. We’ve all heard the saying reading is fundamental, and while we may roll our eyes at the sentiment, it really is fundamental . To get your 2022 reading list off to a good start, we thought we’d put together some of our favorite sports books of 2021. These books tell the stories of your favorite athletes and teams, while providing interesting facts and anecdotes that may have been previously unknown. Here’s ten that you should consider purchasing today.

1. Unguarded

Author: Scottie Pippen

A New York Times bestseller, Pippen tells his story his way in Unguarded . The six-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and Hall of Famer chronicles his childhood, career with the Chicago Bulls, overcoming obstacles, and life post-basketball. Unguarded was given excellent reviews from critics.

2. Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP

Author: Mirin Fader

Fader does a beautiful job of telling the story of Giannis Antetokounmpo's journey from his childhood in Athens, Greece, to his improbable rise to NBA champion. The books dives deeper into his obstacles, backstory, and how his illegal immigrant status prevented him from playing for Greek’s top basketball clubs. This is definitely good entertainment for basketball fans as we approach the second half of the season.

3. Seven Days in Augusta: Behind the Scenes at the Masters

Author: Mark Cannizzaro

Every April, golf fans look forward to The Masters tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. While we see the action play out on national television every year, we haven’t really gotten a behind the scenes account of what goes on behind the cameras. Cannizzaro does just that at Seven Days in Augusta: Behind the Scenes at the Masters , and the forward is written by Phil Mickelson which is an added bonus.

4. No One Wins Alone

Author: Mark Messier

Legendary hockey player Mark Messier tells his inspirational story in 2021’s No One Wins Alone . Messier shares leadership and teamwork lessons, and documents his rise to becoming one of the most prolific athletes in sports history.

5. Sidelined: Sports, Culture, and Being a Woman in America

Author: Julie DiCaro

It’s no secret that being a woman in sports can be tough, and journalist Julie DiCaro details the misogyny in America’s sports media and across professional sports leagues, while detailing her own personal experiences. DiCaro also shares advice for fellow and upcoming women in sports, making this a definite must read.

6. The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance

Author: Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke

Let’s switch it up a bit. Everybody knows that what you put into your body food wise is extremely important in terms of health and optimal performance. This is especially true of athletes. In The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance , research-based guides are provided for connecting a plant-based diet, and features interviews with professional athletes who have adopted a similar lifestyle change. 

Author: Dwyane Wade

There’s one thing that everyone looks forward to when an athlete retires—their autobiography. We’re all familiar with Dwyane Wade the future hall of famer, and now we get the chance to learn more about Wade the person in his long-awaited photographic memoir which contains over 100 photos from Wade’s career both on and off the court.

8. Dynasties: The 10 G.O.A.T. Teams That Changed the NBA Forever

Author: Marcus Thompson

We’re always having the G.O.A.T. teams in sports convo, so why not a book that goes a little bit more into it? Acclaimed sports journalist Marcus Thompson looks at the ten dynasties responsible for transforming the NBA into what it is today, and what exactly makes a team a “dynasty.”

9. Where Tomorrows Aren't Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope

Author: Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony delivered a New York Times bestseller in 2021 with his memoir Where Tomorrows Aren't Promised: A Memoir of Survival and Hope , which tells the story of his journey growing up in the housing projects of Red Hook and Baltimore. This is an excellent way to learn more about another future hall of famer.

10. All In: An Autobiography

Author: Billie Jean King

Billie Jean King had a brilliant career. I’m addition to being one of the most prolific athletes of all time, King was also incredibly devoted to equality and social justice. The literal and figurative definition of a champion, All In: An Autobiography , is the official self-portrait.

So now that you’ve got your reading list started, be sure to check out some of the other books released during 2021, and keep an eye out for upcoming releases in 2022.

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The best sports books and autobiographies

From gritty sports autobiographies by olympic athletes and a multiple ballon d’or winner to explorations of marathon running and the cultural impact of football, here is a trophy cabinet of some of the best sports books jostling for position on the shelves..

Determined, competitive and possessing an impressive capacity for mental endurance – the characteristics that make great athletes often lead them to live extraordinary lives. Sports autobiographies offer us the opportunity to get the full story behind the goals, records and medals, as well as help us understand the wider impact of the athletic world off the field.

Whether your favourite sport requires a ball, an engine or even a hoof, here is a compilation of the best sports books and autobiographies out there.

• Running & athletics
• Other sports

The best football books

By chris kamara.

One of the most well-known faces of the beautiful game, Chris ‘Kammy’ Kamara is a national treasure. Now, he’s sharing the story of his incredible life. From his days in the Royal Navy and a playing career that took him all over England to becoming one of the game’s best-loved commentators, Kammy lifts the lid on a career that he could never have dreamt of growing up in Middlesbrough. Told with unflinching honesty, but with his trademark humour and positivity, this is a must-read for any football fan.

The World's Biggest Cash Machine

By chris blackhurst.

In The World's Biggest Cash Machine , Chris Blackhurst meticulously unravels the controversial reign of the Glazers over Manchester United. Purchasing the club in 2005, they ignited global discontent, driving it into record debts and marking the fiscal transformation of football. Despite on-field declines, they flourished financially. Blackhurst probes their secretive lives and business acumen, while mapping the club’s captivating journey amidst the Premier League’s metamorphosis into a billionaires' haven.

On Days Like These

By martin o'neill.

With a career spanning over fifty years, Martin tells of his exhilarating highs and painful lows; from the joys of winning trophies, promotion and fighting for World Cups to being harangued by fans, boardroom drama, relegation scraps and being fired. Written with his trademark honesty and humour,  On Days Like These  is one of the most insightful and captivating sports autobiographies and a must-read for any fans of the beautiful game.

Cheers, Geoff!

By geoff shreeves.

Packed full of hilarious stories on and off the pitch – including trying to teach Sir Michael Caine how to act, a frightening encounter with Mike Tyson, as well as getting a lift home from the World Cup with Mick Jagger –  Cheers, Geoff!  is a must-read autobiography for any football fan. A natural storyteller, Geoff brings an astonishing catalogue of tales to life with his unique brand of experience, insight and humour.

The Little Red Book of Klopp

By giles elliott.

It’s debatable whether Jürgen Klopp is better-known for his charisma off the pitch or his success on it. Having brought Liverpool back to winning ways in both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, Klopp is known for captivating press conferences and charming touch-line antics. The Little Red Book of Klopp is a collection of his most iconic sayings, from light-hearted witticisms to cutting insults.

The Age of Football

By david goldblatt.

For many people around the world, football is so much more than just a game. In The Age of Football , sport historian David Goldblatt widens the lens to trace how the game intersects politics, economics and wider culture. With focuses as diverse as prison football in Uganda, the presidency of Recep Erdogan and the importance of the beautiful game in the Arab Spring, David demonstrates the extent to which the sport impacts society today.

My Life in Football

By kevin keegan.

Whether it’s being the only Englishman to win the Ballon d’Or twice, achieving European glory with Liverpool or managing Newcastle from the bottom of the Second Division to the brink of winning the Premier League title, Kevin Keegan – known as ‘King Kev’ – has proven his pedigree both on the pitch and the touchline.  His autobiography details the highs and lows of an illustrious career, including clashes with Sir Alex Ferguson and his return to Newcastle during the controversial Mike Ashley era.

The best rugby books

By rassie erasmus.

Rassie Erasmus, a rugby maverick, unfolds his unconventional journey from player to coach in the pinnacle of the sport. This candid account delves into his pivotal roles in iconic Springbok teams, grappling with injuries, and pioneering coaching methods. Most crucially, Rassie talks about his greatest contribution to South African rugby: appointing its first black captain, Siya Kolisi, without much fanfare or controversy. As his bold plans for effective racial transformation of the national team achieved immediate success, they culminated in glory at the 2019 Rugby World Cup. 

Too Many Reasons to Live

By rob burrow.

The inspirational memoir from rugby league legend Rob Burrow on his extraordinary career and his battle with motor neurone disease.

This is the story of a tiny kid who adored rugby league but never should have made it  –  and ended up in the Leeds hall of fame. It's the story of a man who resolved to turn a terrible predicament into something positive  –  when he could have thrown the towel in. It's about the power of love, between Rob and his childhood sweetheart Lindsey; and of friendship, between Rob and his faithful team mates. Far more than a sports memoir,  Too Many Reasons to Live  is a story of boundless courage and infinite kindness.

‘ He is one in a million and his story is truly inspirational ’ Clare Balding on Rob Burrows

Belonging: The Autobiography

By alun wyn jones.

Belonging  is the story about how as a boy, Alun Wyn Jones left Mumbles and returned as the most capped rugby player of all time. It is the story of what it takes to become a player who is seen by many as one of the greatest Welsh players there has ever been. What it takes to go from sitting, crossed legged on the hall floor at school, watching the 1997 Lions Tour of South Africa to being named the 2021 Lions Captain.

But is it also about  perthyn  - belonging, playing for Wales, what it takes to earn the right to be there, and what it feels like to make the sacrifices along the way. 

‘ Unbelievable player. Magnificent captain. One of the game’s greatest icons. ’ James Haskell on Alun Wyn Jones

by Eddie Jones

One of the most successful sports coaches ever, Eddie Jones took three separate nations to Rugby World Cup Finals, and enjoyed a success rate with the England team of almost eighty per cent. An expert in guiding and managing high-performing teams, Jones believes that his methods can be applied to many walks of life. From fostering ambition to following your curiosity, Jones shares his methodology, much of it learned through conversations with other successful managers and leaders, including Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola. Leadership  is the ultimate guide to being your best, in rugby and in life.

My Life and Rugby

With a career spanning four World Cups, Eddie Jones is one of the most seasoned figures in Rugby Union. Possessing an unparalleled ability to transform teams, he built the Japan national team into the side that defeated South Africa in 2015, and turned a struggling England team into finalists at the 2019 World Cup. The England coach is never afraid to speak his mind, and his autobiography is told true to unflinching form.

The best running & athletics books

The running book, by john connell.

John Connell, award-winning author of The Cow Book, takes the reader on a marathon run of 42.2 kilometres through Ireland. Over 42 chapters and 42,000 words, John reflects on his life, Irish history and the stories of his greatest running heroes. Whether you’re a keen runner or you’d just like to read what it’s like to undertake a marathon, The Running Book is the perfect endorphin-filled sports book about the nature of happiness and how it can be found on foot.

Unbelievable - From My Childhood Dreams To Winning Olympic Gold

By jessica ennis.

Jessica Ennis-Hill has been one of the poster girls for women in sport for years. Indeed, arguably the greatest moment of the London 2012 games came when Jessica secured her heptathlon gold medal. But her rise was beset with challenges. From being bullied as a child for being small to her career-threatening injury on the eve of the 2008 Olympics, Jessica has had to show plenty of perseverance to prove her doubters wrong. This sports autobiography tells the full story behind the world’s greatest female all-rounder athlete.

The best tennis books

My life: queen of the court, by serena williams.

Serena Williams needs little introduction, having won every major title going in tennis. From growing up playing on courts covered in broken glass in Compton to reaching the top of world tennis, all while being criticised for her unorthodox playing style and dealing with the tragic shooting of her older sister, Serena has proven herself an inspiration to her multitudes of fans. In My Life , she reflects on her extraordinary journey.

The Inner Game of Tennis

By w timothy gallwey.

Recently named by Bill Gates as one of his 'all-time favourite books', and described by Billie Jean King as her 'tennis bible', this bestseller has been a must-read for tennis players of all abilities for nearly fifty years. Rather than concentrating on how to improve technique, Gallwey deals with the 'inner game' within ourselves as we try to overcome doubt and maintain clarity of mind when playing. 'It’s the best book on tennis that I have ever read,' says Gates, 'and its profound advice applies to many other parts of life.'

‘ Groundbreaking . . . It’s the best book on tennis that I have ever read, and its profound advice applies to many other parts of life. I still give it to friends today. ’ Bill Gates

The best boxing books

When fury takes over, by john fury.

Born into a family of Irish traveller heritage, Big John Fury descends from a long line of bare-knuckle fighters. So it’s no surprise that he too found himself fighting outside the ring at a young age. From his early years in Manchester, John learned to box by practising fighting within the travelling community, before graduating into the sport professionally. The ring has never been far from his sights, and John has played a crucial role in coaching and being a cornerman for his two-time British heavyweight champion son, Tyson Fury. From Netflix's  At Home With The Furys  this is the Gypsy Warrior, Big John Fury, totally unfiltered and in his own words.

Believe: Boxing, Olympics and my life outside the ring

By nicola adams.

Nicola Adams famously changed the face of sport at London 2012 when she became the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal for boxing. Repeating her medal haul at Rio 2016 further cemented her place in the nation’s hearts, while she has also gone on to become a champion for  LGBTQ+ rights and a contestant on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. Believe documents the grit and determination that got her to gold.

The best swimming books

By yusra mardini.

While Yusra Mardini was fleeing her native Syria for the Turkish coast in 2015, the small dingy she and many other refugees were on began to sink. Yusra, her sister and two others took to the water, pushing the boat for three and a half hours in open water until they arrived safely at Lesbos. Remarkably, Yusra went on to compete as a swimmer for the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and also became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. Her autobiography is for anyone who loves true-life stories of outstanding resilience.

In the 1970s, Diana Nyad was widely regarded as the greatest long-distance swimmer in the world but one record continually eluded her: becoming the first woman to swim between Cuba and the Florida Keys. Finally, after four failed attempts and at the age of sixty-four, Diana completed the crossing. This memoir shows her unwavering belief in the face of overwhelming odds. Winner of the Cross Sports International Autobiography of the Year, this is a story of perseverance, tenacity and commitment on an epic scale.

The best books about other sports

Jan ullrich: the best there never was, by daniel friebe.

In 1997, Jan Ullrich obliterated his rivals in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. So awesome was his display that it sent shockwaves throughout the world of cycling. Everyone agreed: Jan Ullrich was the future of cycling. He was also voted Germany’s most popular sportsperson of all time, and his rivalry with Lance Armstrong defined the most controversial years of the Tour de France. But just what did happen to the best who never was? This is an account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual – Lance Armstrong – can conspire to reroute destiny.

by Poorna Bell

Have you ever worried that you're not enough, or that, if you were stronger or more confident you would achieve more? In Stronger , award-winning journalist and competitive amateur powerlifter Poorna Bell investigates and unveils the potential that women can unlock when they realise their strength – both physical, and mental. Through examining her own experiences, as well as those of dozens of women, Bell shows how finding strength can work for you, regardless of your age, ability or background, and offers actionable ways for your to harness it in your life. 

Lights Out, Full Throttle

By damon hill.

Amassing 261 Grand Prix appearances between them, Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill have experienced all the highs, lows and injury records associated with the greatest names in motorsport. In Lights Out, Full Throttle , Johnny and Damon take the reader on a tour around the high-octane world of F1 racing, from Silverstone and safety to Monaco and money, as well as looking at the future of racing in the light of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter.

Alone on the Wall

By alex honnold.

Anyone who has seen the Oscar and BAFTA-winning documentary Free Solo will be familiar with Alex Honnold’s vertigo-inducing work. As one of the world’s best ‘free solo’ climbers, Alex tackles perilous rock faces without the use of any climbing gear. Free soloists undertake one of the deadliest sports on the planet – many have died in pursuit of their sport. Alone on the Wall is a pulse-raising account of some of Alex’s greatest climbs, told with Alex ‘No Big Deal’ Honnold’s trademark calm and collected humour in the face of mortal danger. A sports autobiography for adrenaline junkies.

Dream Horse

By janet vokes.

Janet Vokes dreamed of breeding a working-class horse to take on the wealthy high-flyers. To pursue this idea she bought a mare for £350, bred it with a pedigree stallion and encouraged her Welsh mining village to band together to raise the resulting foal, Dream Alliance. Despite being raised on an allotment, Dream went on to defy the odds at Ascot, Aintree and even Cheltenham Festival. Heart-warming reading for anyone who loves a true underhorse sports book.

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All Sports Books

Year in Review - 2022 in sports books ⚾⚽🏀🏈🚴

A year of great biographies and all round brilliant sports books.

As the year comes to a close and people are shopping for Christmas presents for the sports book lovers in their lives / themselves, it’s a good time to look back at the year in sports books.

It’s been an incredibly strong year for sports books, especially biographies across a wide number of sports. Below I talk about my favourite books published this year and some recommended by you guys. Also included a list of some of those sports books I haven’t managed to read yet but have been highly recommended.

Let me know your own thoughts in the comments or on twitter. Happy reading.

⚾🏈🏅 Multi-sport icons

This year saw two fantastic biographies of iconic figures who excelled in more than one sport. Bo Jackson and Jim Thorpe came from very different eras but both achieved remarkable cultural status as a result of their unique sporting success.

🏈⚾ The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson by Jeff Pearlman. Through extensive research and interviewing hundreds of people Pearlman brings to life Bo’s various triumphs and failures as well as capturing the lingering sense of what might have been. This is such an entertaining read I cannot recommend it highly enough. Check out my review .

🏅⚾🏈 Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss. The great biographer has taken a subject who is vaguely known by most Americans and brought him to life in vivid, fascinating detail. Thorpe is presented as both a fabulous athlete and a real person grappling with fame without the financial reward modern superstars enjoy today. An immersive, readable, book on a fascinating, complex and talented sportsman. Check out my review .

🏅Gems you might have missed

Some books are less obvious and visible when not about a popular player or team. Here are two books I really loved this year that aren’t easily categorised but deserve a wide audience.

🚣‍♂️Flares Up: A Story Bigger than the Atlantic by Niamh McAnally. Flares Up is the story of two ordinary men taking on an extreme challenge to row across the Atlantic Ocean. As an account of an interesting challenge undertaken by two relatively ordinary men this is a very good book, but as an examination of life it is a special one. The honesty of the book results in it being an incredibly gripping reflection on fatherhood, on marriage, on motivation and on passion. On who we chose to spend our time with and why we chose to do so. I can’t recommend this highly enough for anyone looking for a gripping, moving, exciting read. Check out my review .

🏅Unsung: Not All Heroes Wear Kits by Alexis James. Very interesting look at some of the behind the scenes roles that allow elite sport to take place. Captures the enthusiasm, passion and professionalism of some very fascinating people. From kit designers to athletics starters and makers of artificial snow, each chapter is fascinating by itself. Together they show just how much dedication and sacrifice is required by those outside the limelight to allow great sporting moments to happen. Unsung is a really well written and enjoyable book. Highly recommend it.

Another year with plenty of great football books. My personal favourites this year were:

⚽ Scheisse! We’re Going Up! The Unexpected Rise of Berlin’s Rebel Football Club by Kit Holden. Scheisse is an absolutely brilliant book. It tells the history and uniqueness of Union Berlin through the eyes of its fans. It captures the very essence of why sport matters, the importance of recognizing that clubs are more than simply entities to be commercialized, and the often overlooked fact that change, while inevitable, does not have to mean the loss of that which was special about what already existed. Check out my full review here

⚽ 1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That by Matt Dickinson. Recounts Man Utd’s remarkable season in 1998/99 and the thrilling Champions League victory. Dickenson covered the team as a beat reporter that season and has spoken to most of the players again for the book. A really enjoyable read that gets behind-the-scenes and packed with plenty of great anecdotes.

⚽ Fit and Proper People: The Lies and Fall of OWNAFC by Martin Calladine and James Cave. OwnaFC promised to allow football fans the chance to become part owners of a club and have a genuine say in running it for a small up front cost. Sounds too good to be true, because it was. The OwnaFC fraud, and the story of how the authors tried to expose it, frame a broader reflection on the concept of owning a community institution like a football club and the failings of the powers that be, both sporting and political, to protect the interests of fans. This is a brilliant, important book on the value of clubs to their fans + community and the dangers posed by the variety of people seeking to exploit fans.

⚽ Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two Goats, and the Era That Remade the World's Game by Jonathan Clegg & Joshua Robinson. Above all this book is exceptionally readable. While many of the broad strokes will be familiar to long time football fans, there is enough insight and new reporting here to interest anybody. Highly recommended for anyone looking to relive their glory days during and after their swansong World Cup. Check out my review.

Other 2022 football books well worth checking out:

⚽How Not to Run a Football Club: Protests, Boycotts, Court Cases and the Story of How Blackpool Fans Fought to Save Their Club by Nathan Fogg

⚽USA 94: The World Cup that Changed the Game by Matthew Evans. Read my review here.

⚽How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football’s Top Managers by Chris Evans. Read my review here .

Still sad about the Phillies falling short in the World Series but no better season to remind me how gripping the game can be. Three baseball books really stood out for me this year.

⚾💉 Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever by Dan Good. A brilliant account of Caminiti's compelling, tragic life - a wonderful, heart-breaking, unputdownable book. Made me question how we should consider the lives and legacies of athletes who take PED. Full review here.

⚾ Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original by Howard Bryant . Definitive biography of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, baseball’s epic leadoff hitter and base-stealer. A simply fantastic book.

⚾ Charlie Murphy: The Iconoclastic Showman Behind the Chicago Cubs by Jason Cannon. Story of the the ebullient and mercurial owner of this historic franchise from 1905 through 1914 during which the Cubs won two World Series. A fascinating biography of Murphy and baseball in the early 1900s.

Other 2002 baseball books well worth checking out :

⚾ Sho-Time: The Inside Story of Shohei Ohtani and the Greatest Baseball Season Ever Played by Jeff Fletcher. Check out my review .

⚾ The Saga of Sudden Sam: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Sam McDowell by Sam McDowell with Martin Gitlin. Check out my full review .

🏀Basketball

It was an exceptionally strong year for basketball books this year. I’ve picked three favourites but plenty of great books that just missed the cut.

🏀 The Great Nowitzki: Basketball and the Meaning of Life by Thomas Pletzinger. Pletzinger, a German novelist and sportswriter, traveled with the Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki for seven years, seeking the secret of his success and longevity. This is a special book. A really great read that captures the uniqueness of Nowitzki, his impact on basketball & Dallas and the sacrifice & dedication required to play at the top level for so long. It works not just as biography but as a story of sporting fame and fandom. Of the symbiotic relationship between a superstar and his city, country and the broad range of people touched by his feats of sporting greatness. A masterpiece of sports biography. Check out my review.

🏀 Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring. Tells the story of the Knicks from the arrival of former Lakers coach Pat Riley in 1991 to the departure of coach Jeff Van Gundy in 2001. Herring brings the central cast of players, coaches, and executives to life in vivid detail but also builds the wider picture of a club, an organization and a wider league. The book strikes a perfect balance of insight, anecdote, game action, and narrative. Check out my review.

🏀 Barkley: A Biography by Timothy Bella. As one of the more iconic figures in basketball both during and after his career, Charles Barkley has fascinated, entertained, annoyed and informed generations of basketball fans. This book is packed full of interesting anecdotes and insight and delicately balances the dual aims of being short enough to remain entertaining while also being long enough to capture the fullness of Barkley's life. Check out my review .

Other 2022 basketball books well worth checking out:

🏀The Rise: Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality by Mike Sielski. Reviewed here.

🏀Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski by Ian O'Connor. Reviewed here .

🏀The Last Enforcer by Charles Oakley (with Frank Isola)

🏀Muggsy: Life from a Kid in the Projects to the Godfather of Small Ball by Muggsy Bogues (with Jacob Utitti)

🏈 NFL / American Football

🏈 Walking Alone: The Untold Journey of Football Pioneer Kenny Washington by Dan Taylor. Kenny Washington is most famous for breaking the unofficial colour barrier in the NFL as the first black player to play in the league in 13 years. Walking Alone is a comprehensive and excellent biography shining a light on remarkable talent and the impact Washington had. Read my full review here.

🏈 Hometown Victory: A Coach's Story of Football, Fate, and Coming Home' by Keanon Lowe with Justin Spitzman. The story of a remarkable young coach who channeled his own grief into helping an underfunded, disadvantaged, high-school football team to find hope and purpose on the playing field and in life. A very enjoyable, inspiring book. Check out my full review here .

🏈 Seventeen and Oh: Miami, 1972, and the NFL's Only Perfect Season by Marshall Jon Fisher. Fifty years on from the Miami Dolphins historic perfect season, Fisher has recounted the story of the season, the players, the coach, the city and the country. Seventeen and Oh is a very enjoyable, entertaining read - sports writing at its very finest. Highly recommend it for any NFL fan. Check out my full review here .

Other American Football books well worth checking out :

🏈 Freezing Cold Takes: NFL: Football Media’s Most Inaccurate Predictions—and the Fascinating Stories Behind Them by Fred Segal. Reviewed here.

🏈 The Rise of the Black Quarterback: What it Means for America by Jason Reid

🏈 Spies on the Sideline by Kevin Bryant.

Boxing, with its cruel, brutal, beautiful nature, lends itself to great writing. My favourite boxing books this year were:

🥊 The Duke: The Life and Lies of Tommy Morrison by Carlos Acevedo. Morrison may be best known to many as the guy who played Tommy Gunn in Rocky V. Ultimately, Morrison’s life and career would twist and turn is ways both unexpected and tragic. The Duke is above all an exceptional work of biography. Acevedo’s achievement is to tell the story in a way that is riveting but not lurid, gripping but not eulogizing. The Duke is unputdownable in a way non-fiction rarely is. It grips you and submerges you in a narrative that is riveting, comic, and ultimately tragic. Check out my review here .

🥊 Muhammad Ali: Fifteen Rounds in the Wilderness by Dave Hannigan. A brilliant look at Ali's post-boxing life. Captures both his unique fame and his charisma and courage in the face of declining health. The third of three great books on Ali by Dave Hannigan. Full review here.

🥊 Fighting for Survival: My Journey Through Boxing Fame, Abuse, Murder, and Resurrection by Christy Martin with Ron Borges. A passionate, heartbreaking and compelling autobiography from the pioneering boxer. Much like Martin’s fighting style, 'Fighting for Survival' is powerful and holds nothing back. She writes as she fought – by laying all her cards on the table and scoring a knockout success. Full review here.

🥊 Warrior: A Champion's Incredible Search for His Identity by Tris Dixon. A biography of boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad by the author of the excellent Damages. I’ve only just started this but I’m confident enough in it’s quality already to include it in the list.

Two cycling books really stood out for me this year ( and are reviewed in more detail here ).

🚴Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was by Daniel Friebe. Ullrich may be best remembered these days as the guy who kept finishing second, usually to Lance Armstrong, on the Tour de France. This is a comprehensive, gripping biography of a fascinating athlete. Friebe has gotten as close as possible to presenting a comprehensive portrait of an athlete and a man who, despite his flaws, has always been compelling and strangely likeable. The Best There Never Was is an exceptionally good biography and a very enjoyable read for any cycling fan.

🚴Le Fric: Family, Power and Money: The Business of the Tour de France by Alex Duff. An entertaining and comprehensive history of the Tour’s ownership, its business model, and the family that controls it. Le Fric is a fascinating work of history but it is also strong when reflecting on more modern changes to the Tour as a business and wider, so far largely unsuccessful, attempts to reform cycling’s structure more generally. An excellent addition to any fan’s cycling library.

⛳ ‘Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar’ by Alan Shipnuck . Packed full of anecdotes which present two contrasting sides of Mickelson - money obsessed yet incredibly generous, trash talker yet supportive of new pros, self-obsessed yet capable of great empathy. Overall ‘Phil’ is a very entertaining and enjoyable read.

Books I haven’t managed to read yet but I’ve heard are great

Sadly even I can’t read every sports book I want to in the year. Here are a bunch of books that I haven’t gotten to yet but have heard great things about. Most are on the Christmas book wish list.

⚽  Johan Cruyff: Always on the Attack by Auke Kok. The first comprehensive English language bio of the legendary Dutchman since his death.

⚽ Two Brothers by Jonathan Wilson . A dual-biography of Jack and Bobby Charlton, World Cup winning brothers in the 1966 England team.

The Game: A Journey Into the Heart of Sport by Tadhg Coakley. A reflection on the importance of sport and its' pervasive influence, good and bad, on humanity. Hugely positive reviews from readers whose taste I trust very much.

🏈 Moving the Chains: The Civil Rights Protest that Saved the Saints and Transformed New Orleans by Erin Grayson Sapp. The untold story of the backroom deal that gave rise to the New Orleans Saints.

⚽  When Two Worlds Collide: The Intercontinental Cup Years by Dan Williamson. Book on the annual match between Europe and South America's champion football teams by the author of the excellent Blue and Gold Passion.

⚽ When the Circus Leaves Town by David Proudlove. A look at the what happens when football teams move. Most recommended by my twitter followers.

🏉 Unforgettable: Rugby, Dementia and the Fight of My Life by Steve Thompson. A lot of love for this book on my twitter feed.

🚴‍♂️God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke by Andy McGrath. Story of the handsome mercurial Belgian cycling prodigy Frank Vandenbroucke who won a number of prestigious races but ultimately lived faster than he raced.

🏅 Running and Jumping: Three Olympics, Two Men, One Rivalry by Steven Kedie. Fictional account of two athletes rivalry.

Hope the list has given you some good reading suggestions / Christmas present ideas. Let me know in the comments what your favourite 2022 sports books were. Happy reading!

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The best sports books of 2022

One writer’s thoughts on the most riveting sports reads of the year.

With the new year approaching, let’s reflect and think about the things that made 2022 special.

In sports, it’s not just the amazing games and athletes that provide us daily entertainment and special moments to marvel at and celebrate. We also find exceptional storytelling in the books that will resonate far beyond their publication dates.

As we count down to the end of the year, we can think about — and maybe put on the 2023 reading list — the books that added something special and unique to our understanding, knowledge and appreciation for the games we love.

This is by no means a definitive and exhaustive list, but here are one writer’s thoughts about some of the best that 2022 had to offer.

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“THE LAST FOLK HERO: THE LIFE AND MYTH OF BO JACKSON,” by Jeff Pearlman

Pearlman, the New York Times best selling author, is required reading for anyone interested in great sports biographies.

His previous subjects include the likes of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Brett Favre and Walter Payton, along with exploring the deeper meanings and context around both the Lakers Showtime and later Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Shaq dynasties. He’s also explored the rise and demise of the USFL, the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 1990′s and the 1986 New York Mets, among others.

In “ The Last Folk Hero ”, Pearlman transports us back to the early ‘80s through the early ‘90s, when a force of nature in the form of the rarest athletic prowess captured the nation’s attention in ways that no other athlete has, before or since. Bo Jackson was not simply a Heisman Trophy winner who excelled in the National Football League and in Major League Baseball, but rather one of the greatest subjects around the vast expanse of the “What if?” discussion.

Had he not sustained a debilitating hip injury, which took him off of the trajectory of being a Hall of Famer in both football and baseball, what would his ultimate legacy have been?

If you were around at the time, you’re familiar with the popular ‘90s Nike “Bo Knows” ad campaign. But during his heyday, we never really knew Bo at all.

After reading this exhaustively detailed and researched book by one of America’s best and foremost sports writers, you certainly will now.

“PATH LIT BY LIGHTNING: THE LIFE OF JIM THORPE,” by David Maraniss

Shortly after Maraniss’ exploration into the life of the man who is considered, along with the previously mentioned Bo Jackson, to be among the greatest athletes ever to live, the Banner sat down with him to discuss this very important work.

“For serious students of the intersection of sports, culture and the larger segments of society, ground zero of that pursuit is an exploration of the life of Jim Thorpe, a Native American man considered by many to be the greatest athlete who ever lived,” I wrote.

“In “P ath Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe ,” author David Maraniss — one of the great biographers of our time — sheds light on the life and legend of Thorpe in ways that are remarkable and sobering. It’s a true treat for longtime Thorpe enthusiasts and a new generation who are learning about one of America’s most celebrated indigenous heroes for the first time.”

“Thorpe was an archetype, a gifted athlete, and a stereotype, the romanticized noble Indian,” Maraniss wrote in the book’s preface. “He was the foundation story of American sports.”

Thorpe’s story transcends his mind-boggling athletics exploits, Olympic gold medals, or his time playing Major League Baseball and professional football in the league that would later become the NFL. It’s an honest examination of America at the time, seen through the lens of a remarkable and flawed man.

“BLOOD IN THE GARDEN: THE FLAGRANT HISTORY OF THE 1990S NEW YORK KNICKS,” by Chris Herring

As a long-suffering New York Knicks fan, this one is personal for me. And if you enjoyed watching pro basketball in the ‘90s, regardless of your favorite team or geographical ties, this read will be personal for you, as well.

It was an era dominated by Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls dynasty. Hakeem Olajuwon and his title-winning Rockets teams held the flame of hoops excellence aloft during Jordan’s foray into minor league baseball before his eventual return and the resulting strangulation of the rest of the NBA.

But among the most memorable cast of characters in the league at the time were the Knicks, with head coach Pat Riley and players Patrick Ewing, Anthony Mason, Charles Oakley and John Starks.

Despite not winning a world championship in the decade where they brought a scintillating sense of hope and a rugged aura back to Madison Square Garden, the squad came tormentingly close in 1994, in addition to a surprising run to the ‘99 Finals against the San Antonio Spurs during the strike-shortened season, which gave us our first true glimpses of the man who would later assume the title of the world’s best player: Tim Duncan.

Pat Riley might have cultured his image with his Armani suits and and as the photogenic man who coached the Magic Johnson-led Showtime Lakers, but Herring delves deep into the forces that forged him as a blue collar kid who was regularly beaten up by neighborhood bullies in his hometown of Schenectedy, New York. His Lakers teams assumed the personality of Magic, but his Knicks squads personified who Riley really was at his core, a fighter who molded a team in his own image around the underappreciated underdogs who orbited around Ewing — Starks, Oakley and Mason among them.

“TRUE: THE FOUR SEASONS OF JACKIE ROBINSON,” by Kostya Kennedy

No singular figure is more important in the history of baseball than Jackie Robinson. And his impact extended way beyond the diamond.

Kennedy takes an unconventional approach in the telling of this story , which is refreshing because so much has been written and said about Robinson since he integrated Major League Baseball in 1947. The manuscript focuses on four distinct years in Robinson’s life starting in 1946. when he first began playing in the all-white minor leagues with the Montreal Royals. The story arc proceeds to 1949 when he captured the league’s Most Valuable Player award in only his third season with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From there, it jumps to his final season as a pro in 1956 and culminates in 1972, the year of his death.

We’re now 75 years removed from Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, so the timing is perfect for a fresh examination of the man, his times, his impact and what he means to us a society that his still struggling, in many ways, with racial reconciliations and equality.

“RISE OF THE BLACK QUARTERBACK: WHAT IT MEANS FOR AMERICA,” by Jason Reid

Fritz Pollard. Willie Thrower. Sandy Stephens. George Taliaferro. Marlin Briscoe. James Harris. Eldridge Dickey. Joe Gilliam. Those names might be obscure to many, but like the aforementioned Jackie Robinson, their contributions to today’s sports and societal landscape, though not well known, are monumental.

The story of the Black quarterback did not begin in 1987 with Doug Williams winning MVP accolades in Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos, where he passed for 344 yards and four touchdowns. The legacy of what we’re seeing today in the remarkable exploits of NFL players such as Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Geno Smith, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson began germinating decades prior.

“American sport has always been a window into the complexities and contradictions of race in American life ― and this is especially so with football,” wrote Eddie S. Glaude, Chair, Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. “In many ways, race haunts the sport still. Jason Reid’s magisterial book chronicles the breaking of a particularly thick glass ceiling in the sport around the position of the quarterback. You will be amazed at what was assumed about ‘the black quarterback,’ at what these men had to endure and overcome, and how all of that laid the foundation for the extraordinary success of Black quarterbacks today. If you were a fan of Doug Williams or Warren Moon or a fan today of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, you will love this book. And if you want to better understand the vexed racial history of this country through the sport you love, you will find so much between these elegantly written and powerful pages.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• “Black Market: An Insider’s Journey into the High-Stakes World of College Basketball,” by Merl Code
• “The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II,” by Buzz Bissinger
• “Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original,” by Howard Bryant
• “Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski,” by Ian O’Connor
• “Swagger: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs―A Memoir,” by Jimmy Johnson and Dave Hyde

[email protected]

Alejandro Danois

Alejandro Danois was a sports writer for The Banner. He specializes in long-form storytelling, looking at society through the prism of sports and its larger connections with the greater cultural milieu. The author of The Boys of Dunbar, A Story of Love, Hope and Basketball, he is also a film producer and cultural critic.

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33 Sports Books to Read Now That Sports Are (Mostly) Back

We missed them, too.

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Everyone loves an underdog. That’s why we’re drawn to sports movies—there’s something special about the magic depicted in Remember The Titans , Miracle , or even something silly like The Waterboy . But good sports books, and we mean good ones, go even deeper. Whether we’re learning a lot about something we already care about, diving deep into a brand new subject, or taking in an entirely fictional world in a novel set in a universe alternate to our own, there’s always going to just be more when you’re the one painting the pictures inside your own mind.

And now with so much time—there’s still a pandemic happening, last we checked—sports fans need to find alternate ways to get their fix; just flipping to ESPN doesn’t hit the same when there’s no NBA Playoffs Game 5 to catch the end of. But that’s OK, because for every epic sports moment or figure that you can think of, there’s probably a book where you can learn more.

Want to learn more about Mike Tyson? You got it. How about Michael Jordan? Sure. Maybe you want to find a great Yogi Berra quote to text your mom to make her laugh. A solid option! All of that and more can come from picking the right book. And below, we’ve got 33 of the very best that can help to make this sports-less quarantine period that much less painful.

Pocket Books The Jordan Rules: The Inside Story of One Turbulent Season with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

Brand: Riverhead Fever Pitch

You've probably heard of this one in its form as a Jimmy Fallon-led (remember when he used to act?) 2004 romantic comedy about a guy balancing his love life with his obsessive love for the Boston Red Sox. The movie, actually, is based on a memoir of obsessive devotion to English Football Club Arsenal, written by author Nick Hornby ( High Fidelity, A Long Way Down).  Funny, interesting, and still engrossing, if you're a sports fan who just can't figure out why you continue rooting for the loser , you'll find home here. 

St. Martin's Press 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid

While we're all missing baseball (and believe me, we  all  wish we were at a ballpark with a hot dog and a beer right about now), why not read a brand new book from the mind of one of the game's all-time greats? Willie Mays came together with co-author John Shea to tell the story of his incredible, lengthy career (he played from 1951-1973), which saw him play through the civil rights era as one of the game's earliest superstars. 

Back Bay Books What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen

Things might not always be as shiny as they seem. That's the main takeaway in this crushing book by Kate Fagan, expanded from her ESPN Magazine story about the tragic suicide of Madison Holleran. The story looks at a college athlete who by all accounts would've seemed to "have it all," but always had an unexplainable darkness bubbling under the surface. An absolutely crushing story, but one that deserves to be read. 

Back Bay Books Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

This nonfiction story on the past and present of ESPN is long (763 pages) but it's an oral history—so you can read through it like movie dialogue. Starting with stories of the network's very beginning in 1979, and coming up to date with many names that you'll still see on TV every day, this book is gripping, and quite cinematic. So cinematic, in fact, that a major adaptation has been in discussion for a couple years now. Read the book now and get ahead of the curve. 

Workman Publishing Company The Yogi Book

This isn't so much a book you'll sit down and read for a couple hours as much as it's something you'll pick up when sitting with family and friends and get a good laugh at. As a collection of Yogi Berra's greatest quotes and his funniest anecdotes (and with less than 200 pages) , it's hard to beat  The Yogi Book. 

Scribner Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

Did you ever wonder what goes into those cool sneakers you picked up for $120? If you have, great. If you haven't, maybe now is the time to start wondering.  Shoe Dog  is an interesting, never-before-told story from Phil Knight about founding a company you might have heard of called Nike. Where did 'Just Do It' come from? The answer is here. 

Triumph Books Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay

Todd Zolecki's brand-new book (it just came out on May 19) takes a deeper look at the late MLB star Roy Halladay. Halladay, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame last summer, and is yet another case of someone who had demons hiding beneath the surface;  Doc  tells the fascinating story behind Halladay's balancing act. He was a star on the field, and a beloved father and husband, while also dealing with the dark demons that come along with addiction. 

Plume Undisputed Truth

It can feel like there's a divide a lot of the time with celebrity memoirs. Sure, it's someone you want to read from and learn about, but the book isn't in their voice—it's some undisclosed ghostwriter's voice. Well,  Undisputed  Truth  almost certainly has its own ghostwriter, but it's a damn good one, because it reads  exactly  like a book that Mike Tyson would write. This book hops from one entertaining anecdote to the next, and never feels like you're getting your information from anywhere other than the man itself. 

Simon & Schuster Tiger Woods

When  The Last Dance  ended, a popular conversation emerged: Who else could possibly be as compelling as Michael Jordan? Who could possibly power their own 10-part documentary series? A common response was Tiger Woods, and as this biography by Jeff Benedict—published just before his incredible 2019 Masters win—proves, there's quite a lot to mine.  Tiger Woods  talks to more than 250 people in the golfer's orbit, and paints as clear a picture as you could possibly imagine. 

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster The Dynasty

OK, we'll be up front with you— The Dynasty  isn't out yet. It comes out in September. But you're going to want to pre-order this book from writer Jeff Benedict—who wrote the above  Tiger Woods . Here, he has a book of the same ilk on the way about the New England Patriots, with more than 200 interviews conducted about the team's three lightening rods: Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady .  With Brady now a Tampa Bay Buccaneer, we're guessing there might have been some last-minute edits—and we can't wait to read them. 

PublicAffairs The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty

If you liked  The Jordan Rules,  this book from NBA writer Ethan Sherwood Strauss might be the closest thing to a modern-day version of it. Focusing on the late-2010s Golden State Warriors dynasty years, this book takes inside looks at Warriors ownership and the emergence of the dynasty, and at Kevin Durant's entry and exit into the story. The mercurial Durant refused to be interviewed for the book—which, in a lot of ways, that makes it even juicier. 

The Cactus League: A Novel

Do you love baseball? Do you love good writing? Then  The Cactus League —the debut novel from  Paris Review  editor Emily Nemens—is for you. You know the baseball player stereotypes: the tobacco-chewing, steroid-using, meathead beefcakes.  The characters in  The Cactus League  are not this. Instead, it  looks at the inverse; the guys in spring training. Guys who don't know their future; who don't know if they're even going to make the team. It's fiction, but it's a baseball fan's dream—especially when games aren't currently being played. 

H. G. Bissinger Friday Night Lights

The book that launched the critically acclaimed film and television show, Bissinger’s chronicle of high school football in West Texas is a snapshot of the gridiron’s grip on small town America.

John McPhee A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton

The legendary New Yorker writer’s brilliant profile of Bill Bradley—the former U.S. senator and New York Knicks star.

Jim Bouton Ball Four: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

The ex-pitcher’s chronicle of his 1969 season with the New York Yankees is one of the greatest books about baseball not because it glorifies the sport, as so many baseball books do, but because it serves as an insider account of the seedier side of the game: the infighting, the womanizing, and Mickey Mantle’s heavy drinking. With its unblinking look at the side of locker room culture most of us will never see up close, it was critically lauded at the time and has become a non-fiction classic—even though it cost him friends on the diamond.

Andre Agassi Open: An Autobiography

Memoirs by former athletes are almost always dull, self-glorifying, and cliche. But tennis great Andre Agassi threw out the formula for his 2009 memoir, in which the Punisher peels back the curtain to show readers the price he paid for his success on the court—an unhappy childhood in which he was groomed for tennis greatness at an early age that gave way to a stressful adulthood which found him unfulfilled by his accomplishments.

Michael Lewis Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

You’d be hard-pressed to find a book that’s had more of an impact on the sport it’s about. Lewis’s insightful 2003 profile of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, which was later turned into the Brad Pitt movie of the same name, inspired front offices across the MLB and beyond to rethink their approach to assembling their teams—for better and for worse.

A. J. Liebling The Sweet Science

No list of sports books could be complete without Liebling’s collection of essays on boxing. The late author and New Yorker writer wrote about boxing the way he wrote about food, another of his favorite subjects—with insight and wit in equal parts. He was so renowned for his meditations on the sport that the Boxing Writers Association of America named a damn award after him.

Wayne Coffey The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

The former New York Daily News sportswriter’s 2005 book is perhaps the definitive account of the 1980 U.S. Men’s Hockey Team—the group of amateur Americans who took on the superb Russian squad in Lake Placid and performed a “Miracle on Ice.”

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The 35 Best Sports Books Ever Written

Fill the gaps between watching sport with the greatest writing about Muhammad Ali, Brian Clough, Diego Maradona and more

We’re not the first to observe that the thing about sport is that it comes with a built-in narrative arc. There will be heroes and there will be villains. There will be triumphs and there will be disappointments. There will be winners and there will be losers (unless it’s a sport like football which, to Ted Lasso’s continuing befuddlement, allows for a “tie”). But what happens off the pitch, or outside the field, or court-side, can often be as dramatic – if not more so – than what happens on, as it takes a certain type of person to excel at sport: gifted, driven, and sometimes, yes, a little psychotic.

A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Women's Football by Suzy Wrack (2022)

Timed to land just as the Lionesses started their tilt at winning the Euros and immortality, the Guardian's Suzy Wrack traces women's football from the mid-Great War, post-Suffragette days when huge crowds would flock to see women's teams – Dick, Kerr's Ladies drew 53,000 to Goodison Park on Boxing Day 1920 – to a backlash that saw women banned from playing on FA pitches between 1921 and 1971 on the grounds that football was "unsuitable for females". Then, the slow climb back to prominence, and a big decision to make: does women's football try to 'catch up' with the global reach of the men's game, or make the most of what makes it different and joyful? This is a thorough run through a backstory which rarely used to make the back pages.

The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football by David Goldblatt (2014)

In the men's game, however, things have rarely been more weird. At the time of writing, Manchester United may still be bought out by former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Jassim, and the season has stretched into late June thanks to a mid-winter World Cup. How did we get here? Goldblatt shows how English football as we know it was liquidated and reformed as an entertainment product to beat them all in the wake of the Thatcher years, knitting it together with the ways England itself has changed in the 21st century. A lot has changed in the last decade – Chelsea cop a lot of flak, despite the ownership now looking positively quaint next to Manchester City and Newcastle United – but to understand how we got here, start with this.

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (2015)

Finnegan’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning memoir about his lifelong obsession with surfing – starting in California as kid, then Hawaii as a teen, taking him right though to New York in the present (a lesser-known surf spot, certainly) – is a searing and startling paean to the sport. Yes it can seem pointless, and yes it can be punishing, but Finnegan is able to encapsulate the feeling of freedom and euphoria like few others, while also describing his own meandering personal history, which somehow transformed him from a twentysomething stoner surf-bum into a renowned political journalist for the New Yorker, particularly for his reporting from Apartheid-era South Africa.

Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son by John Jeremiah Sullivan (2004)

Like so many of the titles on this list, John Jeremiah Sullivan’s first book – printed in the UK for the first time in 2013 after the success of his brilliant 2012 essay collection, Pulphead – is a sports book but also something more. It began as a consideration of the life of his late father, Mike Sullivan, who had been a sportswriter for a Kentucky newspaper, and whose fascination with sport in general, and with horse racing in particular, his son had never quite managed to understand. In telling the story of the legendary racehorse Secretariat, one of whose Kentucky derby wins his father attended, he unpicks a sport that is both fascinating and mystifying in equal measure.

Land of Second Chances: The Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team by Tim Lewis (2013)

If sport can be accused of providing neat story arcs (see intro!), or clear-cut heroes and villains, Lewis’s British Sports Book Award-winning exploration of the attempt – by a group of American former professional cyclists – to set up a cycling team in Rwanda a decade after the genocide there in which 1 million people were slaughtered, is as nuanced and fascinating as they come. Lewis, a contributing editor to Esquire , spent time in Rwanda with the would-be riders, including the talented Adrien Niyonshuti, who lost six brothers in the 1994 genocide, and also the professionals who helicopter in to set up the country’s first team, but who, in the case of coach Jock Boyer, turns out to have a dark past of his own.

Football Against The Enemy by Simon Kuper (1994)

Football against the enemy.

Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote this accomplished and quirky footballing travelogue when he was still only in his early 20s. And it's remarkably good; arguably the first and even best in the now-not-so-new wave of 'literary' football tomes that have followed in ever-greater numbers. Kuper travels to 22 countries to find out how football has shaped individual national politics and culture – and vice versa – meeting players, politicians and picking up anecdotes and observations along the way. We all know football as a global obsession, but these fascinating tales – from the tragic to the bizarre – show just how far its reach extends.

Touching The Void by Joe Simpson (1988)

Simpson's harrowing account of his and Simon Yates's calamitous assault, in 1985, on Siula Grande, Peru, has rightly transcended the sport of climbing and become a legendary fable for what humans are capable of doing to survive. It centres, of course, on one of the most amazing escapes ever achieved: with Simpson hopelessly hanging off one end of a rope, Yates is faced with cutting it to prevent them both being killed. Somehow, Simpson survives the fall. But alone in a crevasse with a shattered leg, his situation is hopeless. What follows is a staggering tale of will and courage that also addresses the perennial question of what drives people to climb mountains in the first place. As Churchill said: "When you're going through hell, keep going".

A Good Walk Spoiled: Days And Nights On The PGA Tour by John Feinstein (1995)

Even if you're not a golf fan – though it certainly helps if you are – this groundbreaking account of the highs and lows of the 1993/4 season on the American pro circuit is ultimately a human drama. With unprecedented access to the stars – Greg Norman, Nick Price, John Daly and Nick Faldo to name just a few – and rookies alike, it reveals the disparate personalities and personal travails behind the TV images and how these combine with the particular demands of a sport where the margins between success and failure are so thin. A gripping and always entertaining account of what can justifiably be called the cruellest sport of all, whatever your level.

Addicted by Tony Adams (1998)

Harpercollins pub ltd addicted.

Adams was still a regular for Arsenal and England when his jaw-droppingly frank autobiography was published at the start of the 1998–99 season. His drinking problem destroyed him personally yet seemed to leave his football unaffected (wearing bin bags under training kit to sweat out the booze served him well). If any stories were left out, they must have been truly hideous. Here are remembrances of picking through jeans on the bedroom floor to find the least-piss-soaked pair to wear. Expect fights, prostitutes, broken lives, redemption.

Paper Lion by George Plimpton (1966)

To millennial sportswriters who never leave the office (or sofa) to live blog sport on TV, Plimpton’s participatory journalism (“that ugly descriptive”, in his words) must seem preposterous and grand. That Plimpton himself came across ever so slightly preposterous and grand was not lost on the man himself, who pricked that public persona with a terrifically witty, inquisitive writing style that worked best applied to sport. Of his five books about taking part in pro-level match-ups in boxing, baseball, ice hockey, golf and US football, Paper Lion , on the latter, is the finest.

Pocket Money by Gordon Burn (1986)

Burn, known for his mixing of fiction with non-fiction in the New Journalism style, spent a year documenting snooker during its mid-Eighties’ boom, and produced one of the lesser-known classics of British sportswriting. Reading it now, Burn is not the Hunter S of the green baize: his write-up is as straight as Steve Davis’s cue action, yet all the better for it. Every endorsement deal, every shit hotel room from Stoke to Guangzhou, every hour on the practice table, every string pulled by the promoter Barry Hearn: Burn recorded the lot with great skill.

Provided You Don't Kiss Me: 20 Years With Brian Clough by Duncan Hamilton (2007)

“A spurious intimacy evolves between you,” writes Hamilton, of the relationship between a football club reporter and the club’s manager. In his case, from the age of 18 for two decades in Nottingham, with Clough, “an extraordinary journey with a contradictory, Chinese box of a man — idiosyncratic, eccentric, wholly unpredictable.” Clough’s one-liners are magnificent, for example, on a time before blanket player representation: “the only agent back then was 007 — and he shagged women, not entire football clubs.” Hamilton’s poignant, revealing book is a wonder.

I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo (2013)

Sh123 andrea pirlo: i think therefore i play.

I Am Zlatan is held up as the foreign footballer’s must-read memoir, but entertaining though the Swede’s book is, time spent rubbing up against his ego isn’t so enlightening. Pirlo’s, however, has the sort of insight you’d expect from the thinking man’s Greatest Player of his Generation. "You won’t believe me, but it was right in that very moment," about to take the first penalty in the 2006 World Cup Final shoot-out, "I understood what a great thing it is to be Italian. It’s a truly priceless privilege." Also learned: he adores video-game football and always plays as Barça.

Laughing in the Hills by Bill Barich (1980)

As mid-life crises go, Barich’s, aged 35, is special. Five rejected novels, mother and mother-in-law dead of cancer five weeks apart, no money, no job, wife with suspected brain tumour. Craving structure, he found it only studying the Daily Racing Form , picking horses methodically and placing small bets. He then told his wife (tumour: false alarm), he’d be moving to a motel next to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Fields racetrack, “convinced there was something special about racing and I wanted to get to the heart of the matter.” There was. He did. His write-up of that time is spectacularly good.

Ball Four by Jim Bouton (1970)

On the face of it, a diary of the 1969 season by a second-string pitcher for the Seattle Pilots baseball team, the only year that team existed, does not leap to the top of the to-read pile. But the total frankness in terms of locker-room talk, player drug use and womanising, bad blood, gamesmanship and other off-topic matters means this is the most inside-a-team book you’ll ever read. It offended baseball so much, Bouton’s 1971 follow-up was called I’m Glad You Didn’t Take It Personally . David Simon, creator of The Wire , put Ball Four in his six all-time favourite books.

The Damned United by David Peace (2006)

Faber & faber the damned utd.

Brian Clough (see elsewhere on this list) spent 44 days as manager of Leeds United in 1974. Peace’s self-styled “fiction, based on a fact” unpacks this mistake via an unrelenting Clough inner monologue that brings the great man vividly to life. (The Clough family, and Leeds’ Johnny Giles disagreed, the latter winning an apology though the courts.) As a study of football partisanship, one of the game’s most important emotions, it is astonishing. Said Gordon Burn (see elsewhere on the list), “if the English novel needs a kick up the pants... consider it wholeheartedly kicked.”

Muhammad Ali by various

Taschen gmbh greatest of all time: a tribute to muhammad ali.

The Greatest has a whole shelf to himself in the sporting library (including, naturally, The Greatest Coloring Book of All Time ). Four books in particular stand out, together covering every angle you could wish for. Jonathan Eig’s Ali: a Life (2017) is the best cradle-to-grave account, as good on the flaws as the fabulous. King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (1999) by David Remnick focuses on the Clay-becomes-Ali era of the early Sixties. The Fight (1975) is Norman Mailer’s amazing retelling of the Rumble in the Jungle, and the giant, glossy Greatest of all Time (2003; 2010 reprint) by Taschen, is the coffee table book to top them all.

Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France by Richard Moore (2011)

The badger, or more correctly, Le Blaireau , is Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France and one of cycling’s all-time greats. Out to get him is his American teammate Greg LeMond, who finished second to Hinault in the 1985 Tour and wants the result reversed in 1986’s race. Reliving the latter contest, Moore forces the reader to pick sides — grizzled veteran versus young upstart, old ways versus new ways, USA versus France — which only heightens the drama. Journo props to Esquire contributor Moore, too, for tracking down both men more than 25 years later for illuminating postscripts.

Open by Andre Agassi (2009)

According to The New York Times : "one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete." Says Agassi: "I knew in the book I had to expose everything." So: the unceasing slog, from toddler to champ, that prevented him from loving tennis, or anything, until he met his second wife Steffi Graf. His failed first marriage to Brooke Shields, crystal meth: it’s all here. Props to Agassi and his quest for truth, and also his ghost, JR Moehringer, who got 250 hours of interview time with his subject instead of the typical 30.

All Played Out by Pete Davies (1990)

English football’s second-finest hour — Italia ’90 — led to its finest book. Having spent the year before the World Cup earning the trust of the England players and manager Bobby Robson, Davies was let into the camp during the tournament. He also observed, close-up, the press, fans and hooligans. An epic journey for the team and their chronicler, superbly told with sharp reportage, dry humour and real feeling. In 2010, the book was retitled One Night in Turin , to tie in with the documentary of the same name.

Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka (2011)

First, to get ahead of any Twitterstorm, we recognise the decision of cricket bible Wisden (the greatest annual sports book ever, of course) to stop using the term “chinaman” to describe a slow left-arm wrist-spin bowler. Such a player is one of cricket’s rare gems, and this novel is about a washed-up journalist trying to find a slow left-arm wrist-spinner who has faded from the spotlight. The author knows a lot about cricket, but he also knows a lot about myth, mystery, obsession, drinking and noble pursuits undertaken by the ignoble.

Mystery Spinner: the Story of Jack Iverson by Gideon Haigh (2002)

Hold your right hand out in front of you, palm facing you, fingers spread, then bend your middle finger at the knuckle. Now try bowling a cricket ball held between thumb and middle finger. Jack Iverson mastered it, and bamboozled batsmen so much that when he played for Australia, the captain, also Iverson’s club captain, would move players from other clubs around in the field so they couldn’t watch Iverson up close. This biography, by the writer many think is cricket’s current best (they’re correct), reveals, at times movingly, why Iverson didn't become an all-timer.

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby (1992)

Hornby could not have imagined that his book would be relevant to the football fan’s experience 26 years after it was first published. (That it is still in print, after several bestselling years, would also be a surprise to him.) It’s harder for fans to follow Hornby’s best piece of advice — be seen reading the papers’ back pages on the first days of a new job, to attract fellow supporters — but he absolutely nails the inexorable pull of football fandom. And he had to do it all with boring, boring Arsenal.

Aurum Press Ltd Levels of the Game (Sports Classics)

Levels of the Game by John McPhee (1969)

This writers’ favourite began life, as most of its author’s books do, as an article in The New Yorker . It is an account of the 1968 US Open semi-final between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, a profile of both men and their place in US society at the time. Ashe is black, Democrat, bookish, skinny; Graebner the opposite. Every sportswriter ever has played the sport-is-life-and-life-is-sport card. In this slim volume, which punches far beyond its weight, McPhee plays it best of all.

The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro by Joe McGinniss (1999)

Castel Di Sangro is a small-time football club that miraculously rose through the Italian pyramid to Serie B’s second tier for the 1996–97 season. Equally extraordinary was the presence of McGinniss, a US writer famous for a revealing Richard Nixon book and true-crime doorsteps, as the upstarts’ Boswell. He had fallen hard for soccer after the 1994 World Cup and moved to Italy to document the fairy tale. Instead: corruption, cocaine smuggling, car crashes and conspiracy to go with the calcio .

Fast Company by Jon Bradshaw (1975)

Brilliant, evocative profiles of winning gamblers including Bobby Riggs (of the 1973 'Battle of the Sexes' tennis match), pool legend Minnesota Fats and Tim Holland, backgammon’s best ever. The author, who wrote for Esquire , New York magazine and Vogue , understood these rascals because he admired and shared their qualities. In his introduction to a later edition, writer Nik Cohn remembers Bradshaw’s "conscious roguery, a Rothmans perpetually dangling from one corner of his mouth, and that lopsided shark’s grin plastering the other. He sported Turnbull & Asser silk shirts and Gucci loafers, flashed gold lighters and a Piaget watch." Touché.

Beware of the Dog by Brian Moore (2010)

England’s 64-cap hooker begins this second account of his life by effectively apologising for the less-than-candid nature of the first, then describing the sexual abuse he endured as a child, why he came to deal with it as an adult and what happened when he told his mum. It’s genuinely stunning. But this book is not on this list because of just one chapter. Everything that follows, including pissed-up rugby tales, personal and professional highs and lows, feels like it’s in the book for the same reasons as that prologue: honest, insightful and crucial to Moore’s life.

The Hand of God: the Life of Diego Maradona by Jimmy Burns (1996)

Burns was the right choice to decode Diego in the post- Fever Pitch wave of sportswriting. As the former FT man in Buenos Aires, he knew Argentina and its favourite son perhaps better than any other English-language writer. The beats of the player’s life are storyteller’s gold: shantytown upbringing, national team aged 17, FC Barcelona aged 22 (when he also had his first line of coke), World Cup winner aged 25, roaring into a camera at the World Cup, full of illegal stimulants, aged 33. Also: mafia, money, mayhem. Burns weaves it all together magnificently.

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis (2006)

The blind side: evolution of a game.

Lewis’s Moneyball , about disruptive baseball analysis, often appears on lists of this sort, but The Blind Side is more entertaining, with a you-couldn’t-make-it-up human-interest core that some felt was over-egged in the film version starring Sandra Bullock. Back in the book, two stories are told: how a black US high-school football prospect (crack addict mother, dad killed in prison) changes after adoption by a rich white family, and how the game itself has changed with respect to the “blind side”, a quirk of player growth and tactics.

A Life Too Short: the Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng (2011)

Reng and Enke were planning to write a book together; Reng wrote it alone after Enke killed himself in November 2009. Three months peviously, Enke had kept goal for Germany for the last time. Three years earlier, his two-year-old daughter died after lifelong heart problems. More than once, the pressure of top-level football had come down hard. Rene uses Enke’s diaries, interviews with the keeper’s wife and family and the material the two men generated together in a masterful, moving account of depression and its devastating consequences. Once read, never forgotten.

The Death of Ayrton Senna by Richard Williams (1995)

Williams, former editor of Melody Maker and chief sportswriter of The Guardian , is both the man you want over your shoulder when playing HQ Trivia and the sort of writer who can make you listen to, or care about, someone you had no interest in before reading his take on them. Of course, Senna is beloved; even more so since the 2010 documentary biopic. Williams even-handedly dispels the myths surrounding the Brazilian’s remarkable life, his tragic death and the afterlife of his legend, yet maintains his heroic aura through concise, insightful analysis.

The Illustrated History of Football by David Squires (2016)

Squires has just completed another season of football cartoons for The Guardian , with no sign of let-up in quality, hilarity or niche Simpsons references. His first book, a history of the game with all-new work, is the funniest football tome since Viz ’s Billy the Fish Football Yearbook , published 26 years earlier. The second volume, The Illustrated History of Football: Hall of Fame , is more of the same excellence.

Full Time: the Secret Life of Tony Cascarino by Paul Kimmage (2000)

Everything you’d think the 21st-century footballer is advised to leave out of an autobiog is here: infidelity, itemised career earnings, dialogue with the internal voice of crippling self-doubt (“you pathetic fucker, Cascarino!”), mystery injections from club physios and, most candidly, the fact you were not really qualified to play for your country. “Tony Goal”, as the Republic of Ireland (perhaps) centre-forward was known in France, teamed with Irish writer Paul Kimmage, whose cycling book Rough Ride and rugby book Engage , had a shot at being on this list.

A Lot of Hard Yakka, Triumph and Torment by Simon Hughes (1997)

A lot of hard yakka.

“There’s nothing exceptional about me; never was,” claims Hughes, in what is the only duff note in a book that proves his statement incorrect. His lid-lift on the jobbing cricketer’s lot is a celebration of shortfalls, on and off the pitch. After all, what is sport if not mostly mediocrity punctuated by rare moments of glory and despair? Hughes has neither of those. He has kit sponsors rewarding improved performance with “a couple of short-sleeved casual shirts” and that time he interrupted coitus to turn over the Donna Summer tape. Very funny stuff.

My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes by Gary Imlach (2005)

Stewart Imlach played for Scotland at the 1958 World Cup and won the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest a year later. Now you know about as much about Stewart as did his son Gary when the old man died. Holding a cigarette card of his dad at a collectors’ fair a few months after the funeral, Gary laments, “How had I managed to let him die without properly gathering together the details of his career, his life story?” Surely doubly galling for Gary, the TV sports journalist, who had likely researched thousands of other sporting lives. This book triumphantly redresses his oversight.

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11 best sports autobiographies

From dealing with pressure on the pitch to overcoming demons in their personal lives, indybest finds sports stars whose memoirs pack a punch, article bookmarked.

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Whatever sports you're into, these books, all published in the last six months, make for absorbing reads.

{1} Gareth Thomas: Proud: Ebury, £20

Since becoming Britain’s first openly-gay professional rugby player in 2009, Thomas has been something of a pin-up for the LBGT community. But it was not an easy path to contentment, as he lays bare in this accomplished, moving effort.

{2} Nicole Cooke: The Breakaway: Ebury, £20

Before the likes of Laura Trott was making headlines for women’s road racing, Cooke was battling to give the sport the recognition she felt it deserved. Her grit and determination, spanning from childhood to the London Olympics, radiates from the page in this account of achieving in a male-dominated arena.

{3} I an Poulter: No Limits: Quercus, £20

The media has seized upon snappy dresser Poulter’s “rags to riches” story. But the one-time market trader who became a Ryder Cup master’s story has impact when it comes from the horse’s mouth. His revealing tale is an absorbing one for golf aficionados.

{4} Our Life on Ice: The Autobiography: Simon & Schuster, £20

From their gold medal-winning routine in 1984 to eight years judging Dancing on Ice, Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean have come as a professional pair. This shines a light on their individual personal struggles and how their – entirely unromantic – partnership has worked for four decades in the figure skating business. Fans will love it.

{5} Roy Keane: The Second Half: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20

To use a sporting cliché, this blisteringly honest book - written in collaboration with Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle — is a tale of two halves. An account of the driven Premier League star’s career, then an insight into life as a manager. Keane’s self-deprecating wit, combined with a take-no-prisoners approach, make for an entertaining read.

{6} Jimmy White: Second Wind: Trinity Mirror sport media, £20

Snooker might not be your usual bag, but White’s searingly honest account of how drugs cost him ten world titles and nearly his life, is a gripping one. “The Whirlwind” airs his dirty laundry and leaves you to make up your own mind on his legacy.

{7} Luis Suarez: Crossing the Line : Headline, £20

When you’ve gone from the street football of Montevideo to the excellence of Ajax, married your childhood sweetheart, been banned for racism and biting, almost dragged Liverpool to the title, been thrown out of the World Cup, and joined Barcelona, you’ve got a story to tell. Suarez delivers his brilliantly and honestly.

{8} Carl Froch: Froch The Autobiography: Ebury, £20.87

Froch has never been scared to take on the hardest opponents in the boxing ring. Here, alongside his in-depth analysis of fights – including his much-hyped win against George Groves to– you see a softer side, loyal to friends, family and trainer Rob McCracken.

{9} KP: The Autobiography : Sphere, £20

Former England cricket captain Kevin Pietersen takes a no-holds-barred approach to telling the stories - and apportioning blame - for his memorable moments, including being dropped before the failed 2013/14 Ashes series. Like him or not, KP’s book is compulsive reading.

{10} Brian O’Driscoll: The Test: Penguin, £20

With Ireland a favourite to take the Six Nations, now’s an apt time to delve into the life of the national side’s former rugby captain. The likeable O’Driscoll covers his turmoil over the suicide of his best friend, along with his own surprising on-pitch struggles. Buy

11. Geoffrey Boycott: The Corridor Of Certainty: Simon & Schuster, £20

The batsman-turned-commentator is always forthright on his beloved sport but here you get a unusually candid insight into his life away from cricket, notably a harrowing account of his recent cancer treatment. You sense the impact the illness had on his family in this engaging book that reads almost as if Boycott was sat next you telling the story. Buy

Verdict For books that transcend sport and are moving and thought-provoking memoirs, try Gareth Thomas' Proud or Nicole Cooke's The Breakaway .

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20 best sports autobiographies you should grab today.

Table of Contents

A Legendary actor, Eddie Cantor once said, “It took me 20 years to make an overnight success” . And he couldn’t be more correct. When we, the fans, watch our beloved sports stars creating records and winning trophies, we only see the successful side of their lives.

But how did they get there, at the top, where millions can only imagine? Hence the sports autobiographies, which tell us all about the difficulties faced by players, their years of hard work and fight against the odds.

Usually, a good movie is the one with a fantastic storyline and a perfect ending. And although that obviously holds true for books, sports biographies/autobiographies are more than that.

Along with the difficulties faced by an athlete, those books teach us more about the game we love. A behind the scenes overview of both athletes and the sport.

Here are 20 such sports biographies/Books on athletes that you must add to your library.

These books will inspire and motivate you to come out of your comfort zone and conquer the world.

Also READ | Top 10 Best Cricket Books Ever | Dive into the World of Cricket

List of Top 20 best sports Autobiographies

The greatest: my own story – biography of muhammad ali.

It is not just the name of his autobiography, ‘The Greatest’ is also Muhammad Ali’s nickname. And why wouldn’t it be? Ali is without a doubt the greatest boxer to even enter the ring!

The Olympic Gold medallist and three-time World Heavyweight Champion fought another fight outside the ring, which is described in the book. Ali was stripped of the WBA title after joining the Nation of Islam and was completely banned from boxing for more than three years when he refused to be drafted in the armed forces. Despite facing such difficulties he came back and wrote his name in the history books as ‘The Greatest’!

This book will take you through the ups and downs of Ali’s life. Sports enthusiasts must have the book of one the most controversial and the most celebrated athlete in their collection.

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A Shot at History – Biography of Abhinav Bindra

Unlike most other athletes Abhinav might not have come from a very difficult background and did not have to face much hardship coming from a relatively privileged home. For instance, his father even built an indoor shooting range for him to practice. Despite of that there is no doubt that he reached where he is today only and only because of his talent and handwork, which is a testimony to how sports does not look at the class or background you come from but only on what you can do as a sports person.

Yes, the story of the first ever Indian individual gold medallist is as inspirational as it can get. His book, A Shot at History, explains how the hunger for success and a craving to achieve something can make you successful – regardless of how you train and who you are coached by. Bindra has also written about finishing 7 th at the 2004 Olympics, “the darkest hour” of his career. His failure in Athens forced him to work harder than ever.

The Indian shooter has also mentioned how an Olympian has to wait four years to redeem himself/herself, unlike a cricketer or golfer, who can make up for their mistakes in the next tournament. 

READ | 50 Best Motivational Books on Athletes Everyone Should Read

Best Sports autobiographies – The TB12 Method – Tom Brady

Tom Brady, arguably the best quarterbacks of all time is a legendary name in American football. He has won the NFL six times, more than anyone else in history. Brady’s latest NFL title came in February 2019, at the age of 41!

His book is unique for a number of reasons. The TB12: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance, takes readers into the mindset of the legendary footballer . The book tells us about Brady’s fitness regime, exercise , and training. It is a great book for amateur athletes, explaining the importance of focused and disciplined life. And who better than a 41-year old, still going strong to explain it.

The book became a best seller on Amazon within 48 hours of its release and also featured on New York Times’ best sellers list.

Biography of milkha singh – The Race of My Life

We have all seen the movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, but there is nothing like reading about a legend in his own words.

Milkha Singh ’s childhood was difficult, to say the least. Born in Govindpura, now a part of Pakistan, Milkha struggled a lot during the partition. A number of his family members, including his parents, were killed. Living in refugee camps and spending time robbing trains, Milkha was on the verge of entering the crime world ones and for all. But the recruitment in the Indian Army changed his life forever.

And from there, a boy who had never heard about athletics or the Olympics became one of the best Indian athletes of all time. An inspirational story in every way along with the difficult times during the partition – A treat for sports and history enthusiasts.

Unbreakable – Biography of Mary Kom

“My Years of hard work, the refusal to give up, pushing every boundary there was. The thrill, the joy of winning, the successes. The Olympic bronze, my most prized possession. And boxing, the sport I gave myself to. All of it is real. I was the David who took on the Goliaths in the boxing ring – and I won, most of the time.”

This part of the book is more than enough reason to read the book. Mary Kom , born to landless agricultural laborers in Manipur had a difficult life from the beginning. And as if that wasn’t enough, she had to carve her own path in the sport dominated by men.

But if Mary Kom can fight well inside the ring, you have no idea how exceptionally she can fight against odds outside it. She faced every adversity with gloves in her hand and landed a knockout blow to become a six-time World Champion and an Olympic bronze medallist.

Playing It My Way – Biography of Sachin Tendulkar

Who wouldn’t want to know more about the life of Sachin Tendulkar – The God of Cricket ! And given the crazy following of the Little Master, it is no surprise that this book broke all kinds of selling records, just like Sachin did with the bat.

Playing It My Way takes us on a 24-year journey of Sachin Tendulkar’s glorious cricketing career, told by the man himself. Sachin talks about his number of memorable innings, dressing room incidences and controversies. The Batting Maestro also discussed one of the most difficult times of his life, the Tennis Elbow injury.

If you are a Cricket fan, you must have this book in your collection.

Best Sports autobiographies – Soul Surfer – Bethany Hamilton

One of the most inspiring comeback stories you will ever read is of Bethany Hamilton. The American surfer lost her left arm to a shark attack back in 2003.

But she did not let that attack or a lost arm stop her from doing what she dearly loved. Bethany returned to surfing after recovering from her injury and continues to surf even today with just one hand. She has also won a number of competitions after the shark attack.

Bethany’s unbelievable story has been told in the Soul Surfer which was later made into a Hollywood movie of the same name.

The Test of My Life – Biography of Yuvraj Singh

Yuvraj Singh ’s life is nothing short of a movie itself. But for now, his story has been told by the Southpaw himself in his sports autobiography.

Yuvraj Singh’s exceptional 2011 World Cup was followed by one of the most horrible news. The all rounder was diagnosed with Cancer and his Cricket career was deemed ‘over’ by almost everyone. But Yuvraj returned to the field after just two years setting an example for everyone fighting against the life-threatening disease.

In the book, Yuvi has talked about his journey to the top of the mountain – Man of the Series at the 2011 World Cup, despite suffering from Cancer and even vomiting blood during the course of the tournament. He then discusses his treatment period in the United States during Chemotherapy and how he battled against the biggest test of his life and returned victoriously.

Best Sports autobiographies – My Turn: The Autobiography – Johan Cruyff

This is truly a treat for football (Soccer) fans around the globe. In My Turn, an autobiography named after his famous ‘Cruyff Turn’, the legendary Dutch footballer talks about the game he revolutionized with his vision and philosophy.

Johan Cruyff was one of the finest footballers of all time, with 3 Ballon d’Or to his name along with a cabinet full of trophies. But it was his managerial career which really forced people to nickname him ‘The Genius’.

Cruyff’s ‘Total Football’ is a unique philosophy where a team maintains the structure while playing a fluid passing game. It became extremely famous and was used by his pupil Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, which helped the club to ‘European Treble’. A similar style was also used by Spain in their 2010 World Cup triumph.

In this book, Cruyff has explained his philosophy in his own words. He has mentioned his favorite formation, Dream XI and much more. There is nothing better than reading about the art of football written by the artist himself.

Best Sports autobiographies – The Blind Side – Michael Oher

I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side – A little longer than a usual title for a book which is a story of one of the most unique success stories in the American Football.

Not a lot of people are aware of Michael Oher, the offensive tackler in the American Football . After all, he is currently a free agent after playing for three different teams in seven years. But it is not his career but the story which helped him reach here is absolutely incredible.

Born to a drug addict mother, Michael had a forgettable childhood with time in prison, failure in school and moving in and out of foster homes on a regular basis.  

But he finally found a home when Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy allowed Oher to live with them and eventually adopted him. Oher played football in school and college, while also trying the balance his studies. And after a successful college career, the tackler was the 23 rd pick in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

From a homeless kid to NFL Player – Michael Oher’s story is a must read for every sports fan. The movie of the same title was also made where Sandra Bullock played the role of Oher’s foster mother.

READ | Top 17 Sports Books on Indian Women That Will Inspire You

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15 Memoirs and Biographies to Read This Fall

New autobiographies from Jemele Hill, Matthew Perry and Hua Hsu are in the mix, along with books about Martha Graham, Agatha Christie and more.

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By John Williams ,  Joumana Khatib ,  Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter

• Published Sept. 8, 2022 Updated Sept. 15, 2022

Solito: A Memoir , by Javier Zamora

When he was 9, Zamora left El Salvador to join his parents in the United States — a dangerous trek in the company of strangers that lasted for more than two months, a far cry from the two-week adventure he had envisioned. Zamora, a poet, captures his childhood impressions of the journey, including his fierce, lifesaving attachments to the other people undertaking the trip with him.

Hogarth, Sept. 6

A Visible Man: A Memoir , by Edward Enninful

The first Black editor in chief of British Vogue reflects on his life, including his early years as a gay, working-class immigrant from Ghana, and his path to becoming one of the most influential tastemakers in media.

Penguin Press, Sept. 6

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman , by Lucy Worsley

Not many authors sell a billion books, but Christie’s nearly 70 mysteries helped her do just that. Born in 1890, she introduced the world to two detectives still going strong in film adaptations and elsewhere: Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her life even included its own mystery, when she vanished for 11 days in 1926 . Worsley, a historian, offers a full-dress biography.

Pegasus Crime, Sept. 8

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands , by Kate Beaton

This graphic memoir follows Beaton, a Canadian cartoonist, who joins the oil rush in Alberta after graduating from college. The book includes drawings of enormous machines built to work the oil sands against a backdrop of Albertan landscapes, boreal forests and northern lights.

Drawn and Quarterly, Sept. 13

Like a Rolling Stone: A Memoir , by Jann S. Wenner

In 2017, Joe Hagan published “Sticky Fingers,” a biography of Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine. Now Wenner recounts his life in his own words, offering an intimate look at his time running the magazine that helped to change American culture.

Little, Brown, Sept. 13

Stay True: A Memoir , by Hua Hsu

A New Yorker staff writer reflects on a life-changing college friendship cut short by tragedy. Hsu — interested in counterculture, zines and above all music — seemed to have little in common with Ken, a Dave Matthews Band-loving fraternity brother, with the exception of their Asian American heritage. In spite of their differences, they forged a close bond; this is both a memoir of their relationship but also Hsu’s journey to adulthood as he makes sense of his grief.

Doubleday, Sept. 27

Wild: The Life of Peter Beard: Photographer, Adventurer, Lover , by Graham Boynton

A biography of the photographer Peter Beard, who had a fondness for risk, drugs and beautiful women. Boynton, a journalist and author, was a friend of Beard’s for more than 30 years.

St. Martin’s, Oct. 11

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir , by Paul Newman

When Newman and his iconic blue eyes died in 2008, the actor left behind taped conversations about his life, which he had put together with hopes of writing his life story. Now, with the participation of Newman’s daughters, the transcripts have been turned into this book, which sees Newman on his early life, his troubles with drinking and his shortcomings as a husband and parent, as well as his decorated career.

Knopf. Oct. 18

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman

Rickman, the English stage and screen actor who died in 2016, was famous for his roles in “Die Hard,” the Harry Potter movies, “Love Actually” and many other films. He kept a diary for 25 years, about his work, his political activism, his friendships and other subjects, and they promise to be “anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid.”

Henry Holt, Oct. 18

README.txt: A Memoir , by Chelsea Manning

Manning, a former Army analyst, shared classified documents about the U.S. military’s operations in Iraq with WikiLeaks. In this memoir, she explores her childhood and what drew her to the armed services, her eventual disillusionment with the military and her life as a trans woman.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Oct. 18

The White Mosque: A Memoir , by Sofia Samatar

Samatar, a novelist, turns to nonfiction in this complex work combining religious and personal history. Raised in the United States, the daughter of a Swiss-Mennonite and a Somali-Muslim, Samatar recounts her life while relating a pilgrimage she undertook retracing the route of German-speaking Mennonites who founded a village in Central Asia in the 1800s.

Catapult, Oct. 25

Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern , by Neil Baldwin

The biographer Baldwin’s eclectic list of subjects has included William Carlos Williams, Man Ray, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Here he turns his attention to Martha Graham, the American choreographer who revolutionized modern dance and founded her own company, which is still going strong, in 1926.

Knopf, Oct. 25

Uphill: A Memoir , by Jemele Hill

Hill, now a contributing writer at The Atlantic, rose to fame as a TV anchor on ESPN. Her memoir covers the time in 2017 when ESPN suspended her (she had criticized the politics of the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, and had called President Trump a white supremacist). But the book offers a much broader canvas that includes her upbringing in Detroit and the trauma of generations of women in her family.

Henry Holt, Oct. 25

Friends, Lovers and the Terrible Thing: A Memoir , by Matthew Perry

Perry, who played Chandler Bing on “Friends,” has been candid about his substance abuse and sobriety. In this memoir, he returns again to discussions of fame and addiction, but also reaches back to his childhood.

Flatiron, Nov. 1

I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki: A Memoir , by Baek Sehee. Translated by Anton Hur.

A best seller in South Korea, Baek’s memoir recounts her struggles with depression and anxiety, told through discussions with her therapist, which she recorded over a 12-week period. The therapy sessions are interspersed with short essays that explore her self-doubt and how feelings of worthlessness were reinforced by sexism.

Bloomsbury, Nov. 1

Elizabeth A. Harris writes about books and publishing for The Times.  More about Elizabeth A. Harris

Alexandra Alter writes about publishing and the literary world. Before joining The Times in 2014, she covered books and culture for The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, she reported on religion, and the occasional hurricane, for The Miami Herald. More about Alexandra Alter

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The Best Biographies of 2022

Summer Loomis

Summer Loomis has been writing for Book Riot since 2019. She obsessively curates her library holds and somehow still manages to borrow too many books at once. She appreciates a good deadline and likes knowing if 164 other people are waiting for the same title. It's good peer pressure! She doesn't have a podcast but if she did, she hopes it would sound like Buddhability . The world could always use more people creating value with their lives everyday.

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The following are the best biographies 2022 had to offer, according to my brain and my tastes. And I know it might sound like something everyone says, but it was really hard to pick them this year. Like many people, I love “best of” lists for the year, even when I disagree with the titles that make the cut. There is something about narrowing the field to “the best” that makes me excited to read the list and see what I’ve read already and which gems I’ve missed that year. If you want to look back at some of the titles Book Riot chose in 2021, try this best books of 2021 by genre or best books for 2020 . Both will probably quadruple your TBR, but they’re super fun to read anyway.

For 2022 in particular, there were a ton of excellent titles to choose from, in both biographies and memoirs. I am not being polite here but let me just say that it was genuinely hard to choose. To make it easier on myself, I have included some memoirs to pair with the best biographies of 2022 below. If you don’t see your absolute favorite, it’s either because I didn’t like it (I don’t believe in spending time on books I don’t like) or because I ran out of space. And it was most likely the latter!

His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Samuels and Olorunnipa are two Washington Post journalists who meticulously researched Floyd’s personal history in order to better understand not only his life and experiences before his death, but also the systemic forces that eventually contributed to his murder. While very interesting, this is also a harder read and very frustrating at times as there is so much loss wrapped up into this story. Definitely one of the best biographies of 2022 and one that I think will be read for years to come.

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird by Gene Andrew Jarrett

This is one of those classic biographies that I think readers will just love diving into. Rich in detail and nuance, it drops readers into Dunbar’s life and times, offering a fascinating look at both the literary and personal life of this great American poet. If you are able to read on audio, you may want to check out actor Mirron E. Willis’s excellent narration.

Didn’t We Almost Have it All: In Defense of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy

Maybe you’re a huge fan or maybe you don’t know who Whitney Houston was, but either way, you can still read this and enjoy it. Kennedy is very clear that he didn’t set out to write a traditional biography. He wasn’t trying to dig up new “dirt” about the singer or to ask people in her life to reflect back on her now that she has been gone for 10 years. Instead, Kennedy tackles something deeper and possibly harder: to see and appreciate Houston as the fully-formed and talented human being that she was and to understand in full her influence over popular culture and music.

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Finding Me by Viola Davis

If you are also interested in reading a memoir from 2022, you could pair Whitney Houston’s biography with Viola Davis’s book. It was a title I saw everywhere in 2022, but didn’t pick up until the end of the year. My only two cents to add to this strong choice is that I was also just about the last person on earth who hadn’t heard about Davis’s childhood. Please don’t go into this without knowing at least something about what she had to overcome. However, despite all that, I still think it is an excellent and ultimately uplifting read. Content warnings include domestic violence, child endangerment, physical and sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, drug addiction, and animal death. And also the unrelentingly grinding nature of poverty.

Like Water: A Cultural History of Bruce Lee by Daryl Joji Maeda 

This is a much more academic presentation of Bruce Lee and the myriad of ways he can be “read” in his connections and contributions to American pop culture. If you or someone you know is itching to read an extremely detailed and deeply considered look at Lee’s life, then this is the book for you. If you read on audio, be sure to check out David Lee Huynh’s narration.

We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story by Simu Liu

If you want to read something much lighter but still connected to Asian representation in Western movies, you could do worse than Liu’s 2022 memoir. In comparison to other books on this list, this felt like a much lighter read to me, but it is not without some heavier moments. While I am not a superfan of Liu (because I’m not really a superfan of anyone), I did enjoy learning about Liu’s childhood and especially hearing little details like that his grandparents called him a nickname that basically translated to “little furry caterpillar” as a child. I mean, is there anything more adorable for a kid?

The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann by Ananyo Bhattacharya

This is another meaty biography that readers will just adore. Complex and fascinating, von Neumann’s curiosity was legendary and his contributions are so far-reaching that it is hard to imagine any one person undertaking them all. This is a good choice for readers who are fascinated by mathematics, big personalities, and intellectual puzzles.

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

This is another best biography of 2022 that many, many readers will want to sink into. The audio is also by the author so you may want to read it that way. Whether someone reads it with eyes or ears (or both!), this book is sure to interest many curious Christie fans. And if Worsley’s biography isn’t enough for you, you may also enjoy this breakdown of why Christie is one of the best-selling novelists of all time or these 8 audiobooks for Agatha Christie fans .

The School that Escaped the Nazis: The True Story of the Schoolteacher Who Defied Hitler by Deborah Cadbury

Cadbury writes a fascinating biography of Anna Essinger, a schoolteacher who managed to smuggle her students out of a Germany succumbing to Hitler’s rise to power and all the horror that was to follow. Essinger’s bravery and clear-eyed understanding of what was happening around her is amazing. This is a thrilling and fascinating biography readers will no doubt find inspirational.

The Escape Artist: The Man who Broke out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland

Freedland is a British journalist who has written this thoroughly engrossing book about Rudolf Vrba, a man who managed to escape from Auschwitz. It’s no surprise that this is a very important but difficult read. For those who can manage it, I highly recommend immersing oneself in this historical nonfiction biography about a man who survived some of the darkest events of human history.

That is my list of the best biographies of 2022, with a few memoirs for those who are interested. And now of course, I need to mention several titles I have yet to get to from 2022: Hua Hsu’s Stay True , Zain Asher’s Where the Children Take Us , Fatima Ali’s Savor: A Chef’s Hunger for More , and Dan Charnas and Jeff Peretz’s Dilla Time , to name a few!

Also Bernardine Evaristo published Manifesto: On Never Giving Up in 2022 and somehow it slipped through the cracks of my TBR. I will have to make time for that one soon.

If you still need more titles to explore, try these 50 best biographies or 20 biographies for kids . And to that latter list, I might add that a children’s biography came out about Octavia Butler in 2022 called Star Child by Haitian American author Ibi Zoboi, so you might want to check that out too!

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2024 Valero Texas Open odds, picks: Proven model reveals projected leaderboard, surprising PGA golf predictions

The 2024 Valero Texas Open will feature a star-studded field when play tees off on Thursday, April 4, from TPC San Antonio. According to the latest 2024 Valero Texas Open odds, Rory McIlroy is the 15-2 favorite. He's followed by Ludvig Aberg (12-1), Hideki Matsuyama (18-1), Max Homa (18-1) and Jordan Spieth (18-1) on the PGA odds board. 

We simulated the 2024 Valero Texas Open 10,000 times, and there are some MAJOR surprises. Join SportsLine here to see the model's shocking projected leaderboard .

Our proprietary model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, has been red-hot since the PGA Tour resumed in June of 2020. In fact,  the model is up nearly $9,500 on its best bets since the restart, nailing tournament after tournament.

McClure's model predicted Scottie Scheffler would finish on top of the leaderboard at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship this season. McClure also included Hideki Matsuyama in his best bets to win the 2024 Genesis Invitational. That bet hit at +9000, and for the entire tournament, McClure's best bets returned nearly $1,000!

The model also predicted Jon Rahm would be victorious at the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions and The American Express. At the 2023 Masters, the model was all over Rahm's second career major victory heading into the weekend. Rahm was two strokes off the lead heading into the third round, but the model still projected him as the winner. It was the second straight Masters win for the model, which also nailed Scottie Scheffler winning in 2022.

In addition, McClure's best bets included Nick Taylor (70-1) winning the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, Jason Day (17-1) winning outright at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson, and Rickie Fowler (14-1) finishing on top of the leaderboard at the 2023 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

This same model has also nailed a whopping 10 majors entering the weekend!  Anyone who has followed it has seen MASSIVE returns! Join SportsLine now to see the model's shocking Valero Texas Open picks from 10,000 simulations !

One major surprise the model is calling for at the Valero Texas Open 2024: Ludvig Aberg, a rising star and one of the top favorites, struggles this week and doesn't even crack the top five. Another surprise: Tommy Fleetwood, a 30-1 longshot, makes a strong run at the title. He has a much better chance to win it all than his odds imply, so he's a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. 

Also, the model is targeting THREE other golfers with odds of 25-1 or longer   who will make surprising runs at the title !   Anyone who backs these golfers could hit it BIG. You ABSOLUTELY need to see who they are before locking in any picks!  

So who wins the Valero Texas Open 2024, and which HUGE longshots make a serious run at the title? ...  Join SportsLine right now to see who you can bank on to win, and see which longshots make a run at the title, all from the model that's nailed 10 majors, including last year's Masters and Open Championship ! 

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Diamondbacks' final rally falls short, Yankees prevail in 11 innings

The Diamondbacks, searching for a series win over the Yankees on Wednesday afternoon, did many of the things they often do so well. They got an excellent outing from Merrill Kelly. They had contributions throughout their lineup. They were tenacious, fighting out of a hole in the 10th inning and nearly doing so again in the 11th.

And yet, as Torey Lovullo sat down for his postgame press conference, he offered a brand of frustration that does not usually accompany early April losses.

“So,” Lovullo began, letting out a word that doubled as a sigh, “there’s a lot to unpack here.”

For Lovullo, the regrets from the Diamondbacks’ 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Yankees begin with a decision he made in the top of the last frame. Leading 5-4, Yankees had a runner on second base with one out for perhaps the most feared hitter in baseball, Aaron Judge. Since the start of 2022, Judge has a 1.058 OPS, easily the best mark in the sport. The two men hitting behind him — Anthony Rizzo and Anthony Volpe — have both been below average offensively over the past two seasons.

And yet, Lovullo elected to pitch carefully to Judge, rather than to not pitch to him at all. “We were gonna expand the zone on him,” Lovullo said. “Force him to swing at balls.” The problem with that plan is it leaves room for error. And in an 0-1 count to the Yankees slugger, Scott McGough misfired a fastball.

“I was trying to go up and in on him,” McGough said. “Just didn't get it up and in enough.”

Judge punished him, lining the pitch into right-center field for a double.

“I could've taken everything out of the entire equation and just put (Judge) on,” Lovullo said. “And yeah, I'm kicking myself for not doing that right now.”

The insurance run proved crucial. In the bottom of the 11th, the Diamondbacks got one run back on a Jorge Barrosa single. But rather than tying the game, that only produced the cruelest twist of fate: McGough, in his first at-bat since 2019, standing in the batters’ box, attempting to atone for his own mistake. Instead, with two outs and the bases loaded, he struck out looking on a questionable pitch off the plate.

That the Diamondbacks ended up with McGough batting leads back to another difficult decision of Lovullo’s. With one out and nobody on in the ninth inning, Lovullo opted for a pinch hitter, replacing Blaze Alexander — who is 5 for 12 on the young season — with Jace Peterson. Since arriving in Arizona at the trade deadline last summer, Peterson is hitting just .179, but Lovullo wanted the left-on-right matchup against Jonathan Loaisiga.

“Based on the information that I have, right-on-right was a real big challenge,” Lovullo said. “A left-handed hitter was the play there.”

In his career, right-handed batters have hit just .225 against Loaisiga, compared to .263 for lefties. Another left-handed option could have been Joc Pederson, but Lovullo was saving him for an at-bat with runners on base. That never materialized, in large part because Peterson meekly bounced out to first.

For Lovullo, the move turned from bad to worse an inning later, when Geraldo Perdomo had to exit the game with a right knee injury. The knock-on effects from Lovullo removing Alexander eventually necessitated McGough’s at-bat.

“If I had known that (Perdomo) would've gotten hurt, I would've not done it,” Lovullo said.

Of course, having that prescience would have been impossible. What was imminently possible, though, was a smarter day on the bases.

Since the arrival of baserunning coach Dave McKay a decade ago, the Diamondbacks have been baseball’s best team in that regard, according to Fangraphs’ all-encompassing baserunning metric. As they returned to contention last season, they built their identity not just around aggressive play on the bases, but smart play. In October, they wooed the sport with that approach.

Through seven games, this year has been a marked departure. Since Sunday’s series finale against the Rockies, the Diamondbacks have had four plays on which they took off for a stolen base attempt too early and were picked off. The first time it happened, on Sunday, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was able to avoid an out anyway. The three other occasions haven’t proven so fortunate.

“It's been below average and it needs to get better,” Lovullo said, seemingly staying concise to prevent his frustration from boiling over.

The worst moment Wednesday came with two outs in the fifth inning. The Diamondbacks had runners on first and second for Christian Walker, one of their better hitters. But both baserunners, Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll, took off early on a double steal attempt. Carroll was out comfortably at third base.

From his perch on the top step of the dugout, Lovullo had to disappear into a tunnel towards the clubhouse to compose himself.

“I went into blackout stage when that happened,” Lovullo said. “So I'm still coming out of that. I was so mad, I don't know what happened.”

It only took one inning for Arizona’s next miscue on the bases to arrive. With one out in the sixth, Eugenio Suarez strayed too far off second base, unable to return on a sharp lineout that turned into a double play. “You get back,” Lovullo said. “You don't freeze on a line drive, you get back on a line drive.”

Eighteen hours earlier, even in the afterglow of a win, Lovullo made it a point to call out this aspect of his team’s performances.

“I want to enjoy the win but there was a few things that we need to really tighten up,” Lovullo said at the time. “The baserunning portion of it is definitely one of them. We're giving up way too many outs on the bases.”

On Wednesday, it cost them.

Thursday:  Off.

Friday:  At Atlanta, 4:20 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Tommy Henry (0-1, 11.25) vs. Braves RHP Spencer Strider (0-0, 3.60).

Saturday:  At Atlanta, 4:20 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (1-0, 1.80) vs. Braves LHP Max Fried (0-0, 40.50).

Sunday: At Atlanta, 10:35 a.m., Diamondbacks RHP Ryne Nelson (0-1, 13.50) vs. Braves LHP Chris Sale (0-0, 3.38).

Monday: at Colorado, 5:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (2-0, 0.82) vs. Rockies TBA.

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Clippers vs. Nuggets prediction: NBA odds, picks, best bets for Thursday

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With 10 days left in the NBA’s regular season, there’s a terrific three-way race brewing at the top of the Western Conference standings among the Nuggets, Timberwolves and Thunder.

The three Northwest Division rivals are separated by less than a game heading into Wednesday’s action, putting extra emphasis on Denver’s late-night matchup in Los Angeles with the conference’s fourth-place Clippers.

Depending on the seedings, the Nuggets and Clippers could meet in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

There’s still a lot to be settled before then, but Denver (53-23) has put itself in a position to own the top seed in the West for a second straight season.

The Nuggets need to finish at least one game ahead of Minnesota and Oklahoma City because those teams have already clinched head-to-head tiebreakers over Denver.

How badly do the Nuggets want it?

Under normal circumstances, Thursday would be a natural rest day for Nikola Jokic, but the former MVP said he’s planning to play in all of the Nuggets’ remaining games in order to secure the top seed. 

Meanwhile, the Clippers could be without Kawhi Leonard on Thursday.

Leonard sat out L.A.’s loss to the Kings on Tuesday with knee soreness, and the Clippers — who have little hope of moving up from their current No. 4 seed — are unlikely to push their star player into service the rest of the regular season unless he’s 100 percent.

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Thursday’s combatants have met three times this season but not since early December when the Clippers got their first win in the series after two losses in Denver.

In fact, the December win snapped an eight-game slide against the Nuggets dating to the 2021-22 season.

With more urgency for the Nuggets and with the Clippers’ health situation, look for Denver — which has won six of its last seven road games — to cover.

The play: Nuggets -4 (-108, FanDuel Sportsbook ).

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