In the 1980s, the world of sports was undergoing phenomenal change. No longer confined to the back pages of newspapers, sports were turning into a mega-business, an industry as much as a past-time that soon came to dominate American culture.

Award-winning author and Providence Journal columnist, Bill Reynolds, saw it all.

Story Days, a collection of Bill's columns spanning the last 40 years, documents this evolution in sports. With an eye for the offbeat, unusual access to some of the biggest names in sports and a willingness to travel to out-of-the-way places to get his story, Bill captured the changing times with depth, humor and verve.

No topic was off-limits for Bill, who wrote about the tragedies and social issues that arose under the umbrella of sports, as well as its successes and joy.

Story Days includes famous sports figures, but the less well known also appear, either because their stories were so poignant or because they reveal a side of sports seldom seen. This is the side where athletes don't always win, they don't always get rich and they don't always achieve their dreams.

What happens when the dream dies or is thwarted? What happens to the athlete then? These were the sort of questions that drove Bill's singular outlook on the people he talked to over the years, people justly remembered in Story Days.

On a fateful day in 1957, the country saw the Boston Celtics and the St. Louis Hawks face off in one of the most dramatic NBA games in history. But the score at the final buzzer told only part of the story. Celtics rookie Bill Russell, traded by the Hawks because of his race, emerged as a new sports hero. Boston's coach Red Auerbach went on to become the ultimate winner and builder of championship teams. And the city of Boston and its beloved Celtics had their first NBA championship-and the makings of a dynasty.

Fall River Dreams is the story of one season's quest-a classic book about sports, youth, time, hope, and memory in America today.

In this deeply felt, unforgettable book, Bill Reynolds journeys with a high school basketball team through the past and present of an American town. Fall River, Massachusetts, is a once-prosperous industrial center haunted by its history. The Durfee High School basketball team begins its annual drive for a state championship: a quest that inspires and sometimes consumes kids, coaches, families, teachers, and all of Fall River.

The Isshin-Ryu system of karate, or the One Heart Way, was established in 1956 by Master Shimabuku Tatsuo in Okinawa. US Marines stationed there trained with Master Shimabuku and brought it back to the United States. This book is to serve as a resource to help Isshin-Ryu students to better personalize their understanding of this martial art system and to be better able to train others. Not only basics, kata, and sparring are covered, but also the history, philosophy, and culture underlying Isshin-Ryu are addressed.

Winner of the American Horse Publication's Best Equine Book Award of the Year (2004)Finalist for the 2005 Ben Franklin Award
Spanning time and technique, THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE is a celebration and visual feast of the graceful artistry of the western saddler and his craft. Filled with detailed photographs and illustrations, this book celebrates the saddle as a decorative hallmark of subtle beauty while fulfilling the utility of its principal purpose. The ability for early man to domesticate and ride the horse created the rapid advancement of man's capability to travel and explore. The saddle-the epitome of form following function-evolved to meet the utilitarian needs of the rider and his tasks, be they work or pleasure.

Illustrated with historic and contemporary examples of saddle style and decoration, THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE highlights the work of makers such as Visalia Stock Saddle Company, Meana, Miles City Saddlery, Porter, Hamley, Edward H. Bohlin, McCabes, and Keyston Bros., along with contemporary makers such as Chas Weldon, Dale Harwood, Chuck Stormes, Don Butler, Chuck Treon, Jeremiah Watt, and many others. Many saddles of the stars are featured from the golden age of the Hollywood Western; these include outfits belonging to the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Barbara Stanwyck, Ken Maynard, and Buck Jones.

THE ART OF THE WESTERN SADDLE also provides a look at the many exquisite and unpublished examples of the finest in silver and gold overlay and filigree saddle silver created by the West's preeminent metalsmiths. Featuring 300 photographs, this volume is an absolute must for all equestrians, as well as for collectors and admirers of this unique and totally American craft.

It was an era when the game was played for the love of it, and a fledgling NBA struggled for mainstream attention. Bob Cousy was at the heart of basketball's emergence as premier entertainment, a dynamo whose talent and ingenuity dazzled fans and players. The MVP of the 1957 season and veteran of six NBA championships with the Boston Celtics, his trademark behind-the-back dribble and no-look pass gave us basketball as no one had seen it before -- a one-man revolution that set the stage for Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Bill Russell, and others. Here is the fascinating, in-depth story of Cousy's life -- his tenement childhood, his drives and motivations, his little-known personal life, and his record-breaking career -- set against one of the most exciting generations in sports history.

In the 1980s, the world of sports was undergoing phenomenal change. No longer confined to the back pages of newspapers, sports were turning into a mega-business, an industry as much as a past-time that soon came to dominate American culture.

Award-winning author and Providence Journal columnist, Bill Reynolds, saw it all.

Story Days, a collection of Bill's columns spanning the last 40 years, documents this evolution in sports. With an eye for the offbeat, unusual access to some of the biggest names in sports and a willingness to travel to out-of-the-way places to get his story, Bill captured the changing times with depth, humor and verve.

No topic was off-limits for Bill, who wrote about the tragedies and social issues that arose under the umbrella of sports, as well as its successes and joys.

Story Days includes famous sports figures, but the less well known also appear, either because their stories were so poignant or because they reveal a side of sports seldom seen. This is the side where athletes don't always win, they don't always get rich and they don't always achieve their dreams.

What happens when the dream dies or is thwarted? What happens to the athlete then? These were the sort of questions that drove Bill's singular outlook on the people he talked to over the years, people justly remembered in Story Days.

Part memoir, part inquiry Glory Days asks why can't grown men give up those long-cherished images of gym-class glory and high school heroism?

Bill Reynolds built his youth around sports. As a boy in a blue-collar Rhode Island town, he spend his hours shooting hoops and dreaming of stardom. From his adolescence to high school fame to a scholarship at Brown University, Reynolds enjoyed the perks of athletic glory. But those days soon ended and the onetime star drifted between his past and an uncertain future. Glory Days is a warm, touching, and funny book about what happens when jocks grow older--about getting a life without losing touch with your dreams.

The inspirational true story about the trials and victories of the Hope High School basketball team in inner-city Providence, Rhode Island.

Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island was once a model city school, graduating a wide range of students from different backgrounds. But the tumult of the 1960s and the drug wars of the 70s changed both Providence and Hope. Today, the aging school is primarily Hispanic and African-American, with kids traveling for miles by bus and foot each day.

Hope was known for its state championship basketball teams in the 1960s, but its 2012 team is much different. Disobedient, distracted, and overwhelmed by family troubles, with mismatched sneakers and a penchant for profanity and anger, these boys represent Coach Dave Nyblom's dream of a championship, however unlikely that might seem. Nyblom's mostly black players, including several who emigrated to Providence from war-torn Liberia, face gang violence, domestic uncertainty, drug problems, and a host of other issues. But with the unfailing support and guidance of Nyblom and other Hope coaches, their ragtag team gradually pulls together, overcoming every obstacle to find the faith and trust in themselves that Nyblom never stops teaching.

A look at a hidden world that just a few hundred yards from Brown University, Bill Reynolds's Hope is the inspiring true story of young men and their mentors pursuing one goal--a championship--but achieving so much more.

Bill Reynolds writes poems for people to understand - real world stuff (from his point of view).

In this collection, his poems look at nature (human and animal), the poet's experiences with the human condition, imperfection (including his own), and his love for his family. In poems about art, music, and entertainment, Reynolds salutes the artists, their (and his) art in all forms, and he shakes his head at the critics.

A fan of Texas native cowboy writer, novelist, script writer, and essayist Larry McMurtry, Bill provides a bit of respectful humor vis-à-vis Texas and its cowboys, past and present. He sees poetry everywhere in his adopted State that is both southern and western, as he vividly describes the vastness and diversity found within its 268,597 square miles north of the Rio Grande.

As with any poet, life, love, romance, death, and danger, along with cats, dogs, bugs, and ranch animals (and their excrement) find room as subjects and themes to roam in his poetry.

Now in paperback: the inside story behind a crucial chapter in Red Sox lore-and a turbulent time in a troubled city.

George Steinbrenner called it the greatest game in the history of American sports. On a bright October day in 1978, the Boston Red Sox met the New York Yankees for an epic playoff game that would send one team to the World Series-and render the other cursed for almost a quarter of a century.

Award-winning sports columnist Bill Reynolds masterfully tells the dramatic story of the rival teams and players at this pivotal moment, and explores the social issues that divided Boston that summer and their influence on one game beyond the realm of sports.

At age 50, when some people start planning for retirement, John Lefebvre hit the digital motherlode. Neteller, a tiny Canadian internet start-up that processed payments between players and online gambling arenas, rocketed into the stock market. In its early years, Neteller had been a cowboy operation, narrowly averting disaster in creative ways. Co-founder Lefebvre, a gregarious hippie lawyer from Calgary, Alberta, had toked his way through his practice for decades, aspiring all the while to be a professional musician.

With the profit from Neteller and his stock holdings, he became a multi-millionaire. He started buying Malibu beach houses, limited edition cars, complete wardrobes, and a jet to fly to rock shows with pals. When that got boring he shipped his fine suits to charity, donned his beloved t-shirt and jeans, and started giving away millions to the Dalai Lama, David Suzuki and other eco-conscious people, as well as anyone else who might need a pick-me-up.

And then the FBI came knocking on his Malibu door . . .

Old Newt likes to tell stories about the creatures who live in the wood. One such is the story of Willy Woodchuck, who wants to do something that woodchucks don''t instinctively do, climb trees. Discouraged by his mother and most of the woods' creatures that he meets during his travels, nonetheless is determined to accomplish his dream for he wishes to see the New World that Squirrel sees every time he scampers up a tree. Only Little Ladybug offers affirmation: Mister Woodchuck is determined to climb a tree and there is nothing wrong with having determination. The others, including his mother, think that he is foolhardy. With the help of a firemen''s ladder, Willy is able to climb his perfect tree. However, reaching this goal is not what the didactic story is really about, for Bill Reynolds has written a refreshingly simple and charming story about the value of friendship and the importance of community. In addition to increasing their vocabulary, children reading the story will learn, as did Willy, that sometimes you need help doing what you want to do and ...before you can have friends, you must be a friend. and finally, A friend is a good thing to be. Illustrations by Gaynor Aarabi enhance the delightful story. Here Comes Willy is a fun story for parents to read to their young children and for children (7-9) to read themselves. Review by: Dr. Dottie McEntyre, Ed.D.