Showing titles in Sociology of Sports

Long-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, 2016. This audio edition is read by the author, Anna Kessel. For too long society has led us to believe that women and sport don't mix. While perspiration and 'fitspiration' have never been so hot, sport continues to be stubbornly...

An All Black's memoir of rugby, dementia, and the hidden cost of success 'The best sports book I have read in decades' - Kevin Norquay, Stuff 'Startlingly honest' - Phil Gifford 'A brilliant read. Bold, brave and honest' - Mike Hosking, Newstalk ZB Carl Hayman, All Black #1000, once the most...

An Outside Magazine 2021 Science book pick One of Smithsonian's 10 Best Science Books of 2021 A taboo-busting romp through the shame, stink, and strange science of sweating. Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In...

This is the story of baseball’s rich magical history and the centuries-old culture of superstition in the sport. It is a love letter to the jinxes, curses, rituals and myths of baseball’s past and present―and to the innate mysticism of the game.

On the west bank of the Mississippi lies the New Orleans neighborhood of Algiers. Short on hope but big on dreams, its mostly poor and marginalized residents find joy on Friday nights when the Cougars of Edna Karr High School take the field. For years, this football program has brought glory to...

The Competitive Buddha is about mastery, leadership, and spirituality. Learn what you need to keep, what you need to discard, and what you need to add to your mental, emotional, and spiritual skill set as an athlete, coach, leader, parent, CEO, or any other performer in life. Understand how Buddhism can help you to be better prepared for sports and life, and how sports and life can teach you about Buddhism. Lynch sheds light on the positive aspects of competition, adding Eastern thought and spirituality to sport, while elevating competitors and the game. 

What does a young footballer do to cut loose? At night, some play what they think of as pranks or games: night games with women. Sometimes these involve consensual sex, sometimes not, and often the lines are blurred. In Night Games, Anna Krien follows the rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer. She also takes a balanced and fearless look at the dark side of footy culture - the world of Sam Newman, Ricky Nixon, Matty Johns and the Croa Sharks.

When James Montague first began covering football in the Middle East two decades ago, people asked him what future there could possibly be for the beautiful game in one of the most volatile regions in the world. In the years that followed, it would become one of the biggest stories in global sport, from the from revolutionary ultras of the Arab Spring and the takeover of some of the world's biggest clubs by the Emirati super rich, to Qatar's controversial journey towards hosting the 2022 World Cup finals.

Alejandro Valverde - the 'Green Bullet' - was a symbol of Spanish sport. Supremely talented, hard-working beyond belief, he was ranked no.1 in the world four times before retiring in 2022. He is a champion of undeniable charisma and immense achievement - and yet also a convicted doping cheat. Appearing in a list of encoded names, Valverde was one of many at the heart of a doping ring for elite sportsmen. Discovered by Spanish police in the infamous Operacion Puerto, the revelations contained in the operation threatened to rip cycling apart.

For football fans who hungrily feed on gossip and rumour, Christmas comes twice a year - once in August and again in January. These are the months when the transfer window dominates thoughts, when the prospect of a new signing or two reinvigorates the hopes and dreams of the hopelessly devoted. Nige Tassell goes behind the scenes to observe the workings of the transfer window and to examine why it continues to hold such fascination for a nation of football lovers.

A captivating chronicle of the pivotal decade in American sports, when the games invaded prime time, and sports moved from the margins to the mainstream of American culture. “Indispensable history.” —Sally Jenkins, bestselling author of The Right Call Every decade brings change, but as...

The definitive, devastating account of the largest sex abuse scandal in American sports history-with new details and insights into the institutional failures, as well as the bravery that brought it to light. For decades, osteopathic physician Larry Nassar built a sterling reputation as the go-to...

Rugby For Dummies, Fourth Edition teaches you the essential elements of the fast-growing sport of rugby, so you can follow all the action—and get ready for the US-hosted 2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cups. This helpful Dummies guide also gives you the information that you need to start playing or coaching rugby.

By winning the 2019 Tour de France, Egan Bernal became the race's youngest champion in 110 years, and the first from the South American nation of Colombia. His victory brought decades of national yearning to fruition. Colombia has long been the only developing nation contending at cycling's...

Bloomsbury presents Sibling Rivalry: How Mexico and the US Built the Most Contentious, Co-Dependent Feud in World Soccer by Hal Phillips, read by Christopher Ragland. A captivating examination of the competitive history, drama, and politics behind the storied rivalry between the United States...

Writer Harry Pearson takes a warm and witty journey around Britain in pursuit of the lost folk sports that somehow still linger on in the glitzy era of the Premier League and Sky Sports to find out how and why they have survived and to meet the characters who keep them going. When Victorian...

Professional wrestling is both a cultural phenomenon and a multibillion-dollar industry that has launched some of the biggest names in entertainment. But what does it take for a wrestler to break through? In Rough House, journalist Alison Lyn Miller introduces Hunter James, an aspiring star born into a family of wrestlers in Georgia. Hunter lifts, runs, and pounds protein, sculpting himself into a human action figure with the goal of being signed by a major promotion and finishing what his father started.

Professional wrestling has always been wrapped in mystery. After a century of masquerading as legitimate sport, at last pro-wrestling has begun to show the potential of its form. At its core, it is live combat theatre, and no one has done more to codify and analyze this mesmerizing art form than Mike Quackenbush. To aid a generation of evolving performers to meet the demands of modern audiences, here is Toolbox - Building Better Pro-Wrestling.

If you want relations that bring joy, fulfilment, and peace into your life. Then you’re looking at the right book. Most people have a hard time nurturing long-term, meaningful relationships. You’re exposed to new people daily at work, at the gym, or even at the supermarket. Despite this, less than one in ten interactions end up flourishing into a friendship.

For 140 years, women’s soccer has been a powerful global force and a vehicle for sparking change. That power has shone through 140 years of obstacles and setbacks, bans and ridicule, dismissal and devaluation. Today, investors and audiences recognize the value of women’s soccer not because it can raise money for charity or inspire young girls (although it can) but simply because it is good business. This sport and the women who play it have captured the world’s attention and will continue to advance the game—and the culture around it.