Players Books

A great, gritty, compelling look at what it really takes to play tennis. We're not just talking technique, we're talking about what it takes to be a winner -- before, during and after matches. Filled with great anecdotes and insights into the game's great players (and near-greats), Fox has crafted a book guaranteed to improve your appreciation and talent at this exceptionally mental game. Joel Drucker

I read this as a fifteen year-old. More than 20 years later, it remains one of the best books I have read.

Don't think it's only about tennis or sport. It's about winning. I use the techniques in business, sport, and generally in life.

Written in the '70s, the examples are obviously very outdated, but the essense and content remain epiphanic.

Amazon unfortunately, doesn't carry it anymore. I suggest buying it from one of the other sport-media stores.

Wee Free Men is a children's book, but in the great tradition of British children's novels: it can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. For my money, it is Pratchett's finest children's book. In the precocious, ferociously intelligent young witch Tiffany Aching he has created one of the great child protagonists in the genre. In the drinking, thieving, fighting and cussing Nac Mac Feegles, the Pictsies, the wee free men of the title, he has one of the comic forces of nature. The combination will make you laugh out loud. Repeatedly.

This 2008 edition brings Stephen Player's illustrations to Pratchett's 2003 novel. In some ways, some of the illustrations are a little too sweet. Tiffany Aching probably isn't that pretty, and I'm completely certain that Nac Mac Feegles are not nearly that clean or cute. But in other ways the illustrations are masterful. Tiffany's "unsuitable boots" are perfect. There are four delightful fold-out pages, the flashbacks are styled as diary pages, and the text of signs are set out as signs. The monsters are monsters, just short of terrifying, especially the dromes and the nightmares. And there's even a bit of new material for those of us who have read (and re-read) the book already.

The cameos by the Discworld's most famous witches at the end are spot-on. And Player's copy of "The Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke" is inspired, even if the Feegle is being vulgar.

Too often, illustrations added later simply float over the story. Stephen Player's drawings, to a very considerable extent, add to the pleasure of the book. When Tiffany finds the way into Faerie, the fold-out drawing hides and reveals, just as Tiffany struggles to see with First Sight.

Player has brought new and additional delight to a delightful book. Very highly recommended.

Terry Pratchett's "Wee Free Men" in its original form has already been a wonderful appendix to the main Discworld book series, "Wee Free Men" being the first of the books written about Tiffany Aching, a young witch in-training and friend to the pictsies (think of drunken, thieving, fighting pixies with Scots accents; but never never never refer to them as "pixies" -- it would be safer to call the Librarian a "monkey"). As with all the best books written for a "young people" audience, the book is immensely enjoyable by an intelligent adult. Even in its original, text-only version it was a great pleasure, and now that enjoyment is enhanced thanks to the vivid, evocative illustrations in this new edition. I suppose it is impossible for an illustrator to exactly match the visual impressions already held by a reader, but Stephen Player does a good job at capturing the spirit of the thing. In several cases, the illustrations are cleverly integrated into the text, not presented merely as decorations.

If a reader is new to Discworld, this would be a good introduction (some of the later Discworld novels in the main series benefit from a previous familiariy with that peculiar world, although it does not delve into elephants on the back of a giant, space-swimming turtles; but a couple of popular characters from the main Discworld novels are on hand). And for long-time Discworld fans, it is simply a delight.

Wow! Imagine finally got made into a mass produced game! I am one of the original players of Imagine from back when it was just a small group of us gathered around Mike's dining table with the flimsy photocopied books on friday night. If this final version of Imagine is half as good as the version we played back then, then this is a must have book! I'm just surprised it took me this long to find out about it.

Congratulations, Mike! I mean that, I am happy to see one of your dreams come true.

From all the other Role Play Games, this one is one of the most accurate as far as reality. There is a factual account for all things that do not exist in the real world. This includes Magic, Magical Creatures, and World Design. I would recommend it to players ages 10 and up. It is a grand way for a family to get together and improve basic schooling skills such as: mathematics, reading, and mental creativity.

Though published through the regional University of Akron Press, the autobiography of Wayne Embry is essential reading for basketball fans, sports historians and those intrigued on how sports reflects the games played by the power brokers in society.

Embry was a professional player and climbed the corporate ladder in the NBA during eras when the racial divide was felt in locker rooms and in neighborhoods throughout the nation.

Perhaps mostly known nationally as the executive who traded Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Los Angeles Lakers - Embry drew the ire of Cleveland Cavalier fans for the trading of Ron Harper, which is covered in depth.

But it's within the inside game on the hardwood floor of life - that needed the finesse of a swift ball-handling point guard and the sharp elbows of a tough power forward - where Embry ultimately excelled. He did not close the doors of opportunity when he maneuvered into a position to take advantage of a small opening, but has been a trailblazer by leading the way for many others into successful careers in pro basketball and the corporate world.

I just finished this book tonight, and it's one of the best sports autobiographies I've read in ages, and I read most of them. Wayne Embry is a pioneer, and a man that overcame a tremendous amount of racism and adversity in his life to become a power player (GM) of 2 NBA ballclubs.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Embry in passing at camps, and he was a kind gentleman. I always admired him but never knew all that he went through. To be fair in my review, I must say that in reading the book, he seems at times overly-sensitive in his analysis of some situations, especially those with Cavs ownership, and that he often seems to have felt slighted, when he may have just been a casualty of an underachieving ballclub, and NOT the victim of racism.
Either way, the man is an intellect, and also found success in business as a big-time McDonald's franchisee and sat on the BOD of several Fortune 500 companies, as well as a trustee of his alma mater, Miami of Ohio. A man who has been married to the same woman for almost 50 years. A man of conviction.
I say this for Embry, whether or not you agree or disagree with his views, he pulls no punches. He tells it like it is, and does not sugar coat things in this book. There's nothing worse than shelling out $20 or $30 for a book, and then you get nothing but cliche nonsense, or the same old fuzzy stories you already knew from the sports pages or internet.
This book is a must for old-time/vintage NBA fans or those who wonder what it's like to be a GM of a team. Wayne Embry was not only a physical specimen, but a cerebral giant of a man, and this is one helluva read. Kudos, Big Wayne. Regards, James R. Acho, Esq. www.cmda-law.com

This has a lot of great tips and I needed this book before I even took my iphone out of the box! It guides you step-by-step and I really love the visual reference ( a necessity for me!) Enjoy-you really can't go wrong with this handy guide.

This is a great book that shows you how to use all the bells and whistles of the iPhone. Easy to follow steps and full color images make it fun to look at and read.

Professor Joram Warmund is my Professor is my professor in History here @ LIU (NYC). This book shows and explains how important Jackie Robinson was and how his impact left a legacy on America. It also shows that Brooklyn was the epicenter of new change for the race issue in America. I never realized how important Jackie Robinson was until Prof. Warmund taught this book.

This is a great book if you want to know more about Jackie. It has rare pictures inside of Jackie posing with fans. I originally bought this book for my Sports History class.

This book tells all about Jason Kidd, you know legendery Dallas Maverick now a Sun that player, well the book tells all about his life and carreer goals (achieved)

The pictures are awesome and so are the stories. Like him running into a mailbox, and all kinds of other interesting and amusing stories. I give it a nine because maybe it could have been more informative. But it was definitly worth the nine!

I was a student a Berklee when this first was published.
After I had bought it, I was talking to my piano teacher. He commented that this book encapsulates everything that they were trying to teach in the piano program.
Hyperbole? Perhaps, but it's still a ringing endorsement.

This is a great book written by a great jazz player. It is easy to understand for the beginner, yet at a high enough level for the more advanced player. An excellent reference for scales, modes, or any other jazz techniques. I found that if I studied this book, it helped me out memorizing and remembering QUICKLY how to apply them to the piano. A must buy!

John Elway: Armed and Dangerous, by Clay Latimer, is a must for the John Elway and Denver Bronco fans. It is an easy to read book on Elway's career and personal life filled with quotes from players and unknown stories about other football greats. It sometimes drags a little as it gets off the subject quite a bit.

This book is a great read for Bronco and Elway fans of any age. It chronicles the life of John Elway from the time he was a child, through college and his joining of the Broncos, to his victory against the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII. Black and white pictures are included with each chapter, and the center section 14 pages of color photos, as well. The author (Clay Lattimer) is a sports writer for the Rocky Mountain News, and he also draws on Sports Illustrated, Becket Football Monthly, and even Newsweek, as well as several other sports sources, so he packs a lot of information, dates, and statistics into each chapter. He also packs a lot of superfluous detail, too -- the writing meanders a bit and doesn't always stay on focus. But hey -- if you're an Elway fan (like me), who cares? The book is fun to read even in the places where it goes off topic. If there was such a thing as a "definitive" biography of an Elway, this would probably be it. If you're an Elway fan, get this book and enjoy it!

The book, Kareem!: Basketball Great is a wonderful book. The book provides a look into his childhood, where he struggled to fit in because of his height, Also, it tells of how he envisioned California as a great place but upon arrival at UCLA he hated it. His struggles with the national attention he recieves and the immaturity of his dormmates. The book gives a view of the beginning of his pro career with the Milwaukee Bucks. I give the book 5-Stars and recommend it to all sports fans.

The book, Kareem!: Basketball Great is a wonderful book. The book provides a look into his childhood, where he struggled to fit in because of his height, Also, it tells of how he envisioned California as a great place but upon arrival at UCLA he hated it. His struggles with the national attention he recieves and the immaturity of his dormmates. The book gives a view of the beginning of his pro career with the Milwaukee Bucks. I give the book 5-Stars and recommend it to all sports fans.