The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It’s the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman’s glove. In THE GRANDEST STAGE, New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner delivers an indelible portrait of baseball’s signature event. He digs deep for essential tales dating back to the beginning in 1903, adding insights from Hall of Famers like Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Dennis Eckersley and many others who have thrived --- and failed --- when it mattered most.

From the start, David Milch’s life seems destined to echo that of his father, a successful if drug-addicted surgeon. Almost every achievement is accompanied by an act of self-immolation, but the deepest sadnesses also contain moments of grace. Betting on racehorses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at 21, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out streetlights with a shotgun. He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to manufacture acid in Cuernavaca. He created and wrote some of the most lauded television series of all time, made a family and pursued sobriety, then lost his fortune betting horses just as his father had taught him.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his colossal skills, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. For all his travails, though, Thorpe did not succumb. The man survived, complications and all, and so did the myth.

Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director, and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball --- especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. But something miraculous happened, and THE CHURCH OF BASEBALL attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie.

What makes puzzles --- jigsaws, mazes, riddles, sudokus --- so satisfying? A.J. Jacobs --- New York Times bestselling author, master of immersion journalism and nightly crossworder ---- set out to determine their myriad benefits. And maybe, in the process, solve the puzzle of our very existence. Well, almost. In THE PUZZLER, Jacobs meets the most zealous devotees, enters (sometimes with his family in tow) any puzzle competition that will have him, unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw.

In 1960, Carl Bernstein was just a 16-year-old at considerable risk of failing to graduate high school. Inquisitive, self-taught --- and, yes, truant --- Bernstein landed a job as a copyboy at the Evening Star, the afternoon paper in Washington. By 19, he was a reporter there. In CHASING HISTORY: A Kid in the Newsroom, Bernstein recalls the origins of his storied journalistic career as he chronicles the Kennedy era, the swelling civil rights movement, and a slew of grisly crimes. He spins a buoyant, frenetic account of educating himself in what Bob Woodward describes as “the genius of perpetual engagement.”

From Hannibal Lecktor in Manhunter to media magnate Logan Roy in HBO's “Succession,” Brian Cox has made his name as an actor of unparalleled distinction and versatility. We are familiar with him on screen, but few know of his extraordinary life story. Growing up in Dundee, Scotland, Cox lost his father when he was just eight years old and was brought up by his three elder sisters in the aftermath of his mother's nervous breakdowns and ultimate hospitalization. After joining the Dundee Repertory Theatre at the age of 15, you could say the rest is history --- but that is to overlook the enormous effort that has gone into the making of the legend we know today.

From his first year in Rookie ball, when Tommy Lasorda ordered him to send a letter to the Dodgers’ starting shortstop informing him that he should retire early to make way for the young phenom, to appearing in disguise in the Mets’ dugout following an ejection, Bobby Valentine was a lightning rod for mischievous controversy, grabbing headlines wherever he went. Mavericks are seldom welcomed to upset the status quo, and Major League Baseball was no exception. In astonishing detail, Bobby Valentine reflects on the many remarkable moments that comprised his playing and managerial careers.

October 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of the 86 Mets’ World Series win. ESPN recently aired a multi-part "30 for 30" documentary series on the subject, which was produced by ESPN Films, Jimmy Kimmel, Cousin Sal Iacono and Major League Baseball and directed by Nick Davis. The show features never-before-seen footage, as well as remembrances from almost all of the key players. This tie-in book is an oral history with new contributions from Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra and many others. Also included are unique photographs of the team and the era. A foreword by Kimmel, discussing what the Mets and their triumph means to him, rounds out this fantastic package.

The New York Yankees are unprecedented. With more than twice as many World Series titles as their closest competitor, the most MVPs and the most Hall of Fame inductees, there's never been anything quite like the franchise's storied history. Then the 2020 season took place, and the greatest team in American sports found out what "unprecedented" really means. THE BRONX ZOOM provides an intimate and engaging look behind the scenes of a year unlike any other. Veteran reporter Bryan Hoch guides readers through dizzying twists and turns as the Yankees navigate a season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, historic movements for equality and social justice, and a bitterly contested presidential election.