Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s only family is his seventeen-yearold brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation, they will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba. Together,... (more)

Moneyball

The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

by Michael Lewis

"One of the best baseball—and management—books out....Deserves a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame."—Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. Following the low-budget Oakland Athletics, their larger-than-life general manger, Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts, Michael Lewis has written not only "the single most influential baseball book ever"... (more)

The Big Field

by Mike Lupica

Playing shortstop is a way of life for Hutch—not only is his hero, Derek Jeter, a shortstop, but so was his father, a former local legend turned pro. Which is why having to play second base feels like demotion to second team. Yet that’s where Hutch ends up after Darryl “D-Will” Williams, the best shortstop prospect since A-Rod, joins the team. But Hutch is nothing if not a team player, and he’s cool with playing... (more)

Summerland

by Michael Chabon

'Summerland adapts Norse mythology, Native American folklore, American fables, Homeric myth, Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, to teach the enduring lessons about finding strength within yourself.'-Time 'A rollicking and fine tale.'-Washington Post Book World H 'Chabon hits a high-flying home run, creating a vivid fantasy where baseball is king.'-Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'A home-run of a kid's story.'-The Today... (more)

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

by Stephen King

On a six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, nine-year-old Trisha McFarland quickly tires of the constant bickering between her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. But when she wanders off by herself, and then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut, she becomes lost in a wilderness maze full of peril and terror. As night falls, Trisha has only her... (more)

We Are the Ship

The Story of Negro League Baseball

by Kadir Nelson

"We are the ship; all else the sea."--Rube Foster, founder of the Negro National League The story of Negro League baseball is the story of gifted athletes and determined owners; of racial discrimination and international sportsmanship; of fortunes won and lost; of triumphs and defeats on and off the field. It is a perfect mirror for the social and political history of black America in the first half of the... (more)

Shoeless Joe

by W. A. Kinsella, Ray Kinsella, W. Kinsella

"If you build it, he will come." Them mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. This is a book "not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American," said the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin's touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball. She re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans. We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin's early life: her mother, who taught her the... (more)

Ball Four: The Final Pitch

by Leonard Shecter, Jim Bouton

A book deep in the American vein, so deep in fact it is by no means a sports book" —David Halberstam " Ball Four is a people book, not just a baseball book." —Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times When Ball Four was first published in 1970, it hit the sports world like a lightning bolt. Commissioners, executives, players and sportswriters were thrown into a state of shock. Stunned.... (more)

Al Capone Does My Shirts

by Gennifer Choldenko

Murderers, mob bosses, and convicts . . . these guys are not your average neighbors. Unless you live on Alcatraz. It’s 1935 and twelve-year-old Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved to the infamous island that’s home to criminals like notorious escapee Roy Gardner, Machine Gun Kelly, and of course, Al Capone. Now Moose has to try to fit in at his new school, avoid getting caught up in one of the... (more)

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park

by Steve Kluger

Dear Anthony: I appreciate your recent interest, but I’m not accepting applications at this time. Your letter will be kept in our files and someone will get back to you if there is an opening. Thank you for thinking of me. Respectfully, Alejandra Perez P.S. It’s not “Allie.” It’s “Ale.” Meet T.C., who is valiantly attempting to get Alejandra to fall in love with him; Alejandra, who is playing hard to get and... (more)

Penny from Heaven (Newbery Honor Book)

by Jennifer L. Holm

It’s1953 and 11-year-old Penny dreams of a summer of butter pecan ice cream, swimming, and baseball. But nothing’s that easy in Penny’s family. For starters, she can’t go swimming because her mother’s afraid she’ll catch polio at the pool. To make matters worse, her favorite uncle is living in a car. Her Nonny cries every time her father’s name is mentioned. And the two sides of her family aren’t speaking to each... (more)

The Brothers K

by David James Duncan

Finally in trade paperback, complementing Bantam's new release of River Teeth and our consistently bestselling edition of The River Why , here is The Brothers K , a lyrical and lovely novel of family.

Last Days of Summer

by Steve Kluger

Through letters, notes, report cards, matchbook covers, and telegrams, a novel set in the 1940s follows the sometimes underhanded efforts of Joey Margolis, a fatherless twelve year old, to persuade New York Giants third baseman Charlie Banks to be his role model. Reprint.

The Boys of Summer

by Roger Kahn

This is a book about young men who learned to play baseball during the 1930s and 1940s, and then went on to play for one of the most exciting major-league ball clubs ever fielded, the team that broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson. It is a book by and about a sportswriter who grew up near Ebbets Field, and who had the good fortune in the 1950s to cover the Dodgers for the Herald Tribune . This is a book... (more)

For One More Day

by Mitch Albom

This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is always forced to choose between his mother and his father. He grows into a man and starts a family of his own. But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to secretly be with his father - and she dies while he is gone. This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness. One night, he decides to take his... (more)

The Boy Who Saved Baseball

by John H. Ritter

Tom Gallagher is in a tight spot. The fate of the Dillontown team rests on the outcome of one baseball game, winner take all. If Tom's team loses, they lose their field too. But how can they possibly win? Just when everything seems hopeless, a mysterious boy named Cruz de la Cruz rides into town and claims to know the secret of hitting. Not to mention the secrets of Dante Del Gato, Dillontown's greatest... (more)

A Painted House

by John Grisham

The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with two weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist high to my father, almost over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop." Thus begins the... (more)

Underworld: A Novel

by Don Delillo

Our lives, our half-century. Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life, haunted by the hard logic of loss and by the echo of a gunshot in a basement room. She is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence. Don DeLillo's mesmerizing novel opens with a legendary baseball game... (more)

The Yankee Years

by Joe Torre

Twelve straight playoff appearances. Six American League pennants. Four World Series titles. This is the definitive story of a dynasty: the Yankee years When Joe Torre took over as manager of the New York Yankees in 1996, the most storied franchise in sports had not won a World Series title in eighteen years. The famously tough and mercurial owner, George Steinbrenner, had fired seventeen managers during that... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: baseball

by Mike Lupica

The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

by Michael Lewis

by Mike Lupica

by Michael Chabon

by Stephen King

The Story of Negro League Baseball

by Kadir Nelson

by W. A. Kinsella, Ray Kinsella, W. Kinsella

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

by Leonard Shecter, Jim Bouton

by Gennifer Choldenko

by Steve Kluger

by Jennifer L. Holm

by David James Duncan

by Steve Kluger

by Roger Kahn

by Mitch Albom

by John H. Ritter

by John Grisham

by Don Delillo

by Joe Torre