Friends want to see you succeed, just never more than them.

Sadie and Willa have competed against each other on slalom courses in sunny Florida since they were kids. They were the two best skiers then, and they're the two best skiers now. The only thing that's changed is instead of playing Barbies in between runs, they now plot ways to beat the other. Turns out, there's a fine line between friends and frenemies. Now twenty-eight, at the height of their careers and shining an international spotlight on water skiing, the media-and Sadie's legendary family with strong ties to a sketchy mega church-have written the narrative of a rivalry more cutthroat than the sport has ever seen.

It would all be straightforward-who's the better skier?-if only the women didn't carry dark secrets from their pasts, both of which have the potential to thwart everything they've worked for. Add in the fact that Willa has long been in love with Sadie's husband-the third member of their childhood trio-and they're left with a combative season ahead. What no one knows, however, is that it will be far from a typical ski season, because at the end, someone will be dead and their lives will be changed forever.

THE SKIERS explores how far people are willing to go to reach the top, the complexity of female friendships, and the search for self amid incredible outside pressure.

From New York Times best-selling author of Lilac Girls Martha Hall Kelly and coauthor Kathy Murray comes a novella based on Murray's true underdog story, following her time coaching a German cheerleading squad and ultimately inspiring a group of young women to reach new heights in their sport.

It's 1997, and Kathy Murray, desperate to leave her medical sales job and pursue her passion, accepts an offer to teach aerobics in Germany - as a former elite athlete, she's confident she can handle whatever comes her way. She quickly realizes, though, that her leap of faith may be more challenging than she thought, struggling with the German language and the overt racism she constantly faces as one of the only Black people in her new community. But that doesn't stop her from taking on her biggest challenge yet: coaching a cheerleading squad of disengaged teenagers with only weeks to prepare for their championship competition.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old Annika Jensen is a gifted gymnast, but when she arrives in Munich, she's still haunted by the troubling memories of her previous cheer squad and has no interest in revisiting the sport. Can the Munich Cowboys Cheerleaders and their fearless new coach reignite Annika's passion and rebuild her confidence?

Told from Kathy and Annika's perspectives, The Munich Cowboys Cheerleaders: Leaving Corporate Life for An Extraordinary Coaching Journey Abroad is an uplifting story of friendship and conviction in the face of adversity.

Welcome to Coors State University, a cash-strapped college that sold naming rights, academic programs, and, ultimately, its soul to a beer company just to keep the lights on. At Coors, the engineering professors are expanding the stadium, criminal justice faculty are the campus cops, and the history profs sell popcorn at concession stands. It's the world turned upside down--yet not very far from the truth at today's big state schools. Big Time is--ruefully and hilariously--a novel for Our Time.

Named one of the year's best books by the New York Times, NPR, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, Kansas City Star, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Time Out New York. At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended.
Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment -- to oneself and to others.

First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom. --Jonathan Franzen

This classic captures the endearing relationship between a man and his grandson as they fish and hunt the lakes and woods of North Carolina. All the while the Old Man acts as teacher and guide, passing on his wisdom and life experiences to the boy, who listens in rapt fascination.

Fat City is a vivid novel of allegiance and defeat, of the potent promise of the good life and the desperation and drink that waylay those whom it eludes. Stockton, California, is the setting: the Lido Gym, the Hotel Coma, Main Street lunchrooms and dingy bars, days like long twilights in houses obscured by untrimmed shrubs and black walnut trees. When two men meet in the ring--the retired boxer Billy Tully and the newcomer Ernie Munger--their brief bout sets into motion their hidden fates, initiating young Munger into the company of men and luring Tully back into training. In a dispassionate and composed voice, Leonard Gardner narrates their swings of fortune, and the stubborn optimism of their manager, Ruben Luna, as he watches the most promising boys one by one succumb to some undefined weakness; still, There was always someone who wanted to fight.

This is the first running book I've read that I think, wow this is like peeking into my brain and my way of thinking. I will be reading it again and again.

CHRIS SOLINSKY, Former American Record Holder - 10,000 m (26:59.60)

Nobody wants him here anyway, but he can't quit.

Quitting isn't in his DNA.

In 2083, Benjamin Brandt is among the millions of slummers who are relegated to poverty and struggle on the outskirts of society. As a minority growing up in the gritty underbelly of Cleveland's Industrial Valley, Ben sees the way genetically designed elites live only from a distance: from the shadows of public spaces people like him are forbidden to use, and on TV, where he watches the enhanced athletes compete at an extraordinary level. For years, a national track championship has inspired Ben to ferociously cultivate his own talent as a runner.

As Ben logs miles through the potholed, darkened streets of his community, an idea takes hold of him that could turn his highly stratified society upside down. He isn't prepared to lead a revolution; however, he is prepared to run like a slummer with nothing to lose.

Against enormous odds, Rick lands a job--as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers ... of Parma, Italy.

The Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player--any former NFL player--at their helm. And now they've got Rick, who knows nothing about Parma (not even where it is) and doesn't speak a word of Italian. To say that Italy--the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano--holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.

Now, as Coach Rake's boys sit in the bleachers waiting for the dimming field lights to signal his passing, they replay the old games, relive the old glories, and try to decide once and for all whether they love Eddie Rake - or hate him. For Neely Crenshaw, a man who must finally forgive his coach - and himself - before he can get on with his life, the stakes are especially high.

Don't miss John Grisham's new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

The inspiration for the beloved film Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella is the story about the beauty and history of baseball, and the power and endurance of a dream.

A moonlit novel about baseball, dreams, family, the land, and literature.--Sports Illustrated

If you build it, he will come. These mysterious words, spoken by an Iowa baseball announcer, inspire Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is both a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding your way home.

A moving story of family, loss, love, and hope.

Noah Nicholson has a gift. He is blessed with extraordinary hand-eye coordination. This gift has helped him build a successful career as a minor-league hockey player. But Noah is damaged. His parents died in a car accident when he was twelve, and he has dealt with mental health issues ever since. It's only after Noah loses his gift in a career-ending injury that he is able to begin the healing process.

Readers will meet indelible characters: Noah's mother, cerebral and mentally tough; his good-natured, even-keeled father; his crusty grandmother, who has a soft spot for Boston's sports teams; his effervescent, talented, Russian-born teammate, who becomes Noah's mentee; an orange cat whose meow doesn't have an 'm'; an eleven-year-old girl who looks like Pippi Longstocking; and the pediatric dentist with a sense of humor and a crooked smile who makes her way past Noah's defenses and captures his heart. Then, of course, there is Noah himself. Smart, selfless, and silently struggling. We cheer for Noah, but unlike the fans who come to watch him play, it is not in appreciation of his singular, one-of-a-kind gift. Instead, we cheer for Noah because he is

plainly, ordinarily human.

Now, as Coach Rake's boys sit in the bleachers waiting for the dimming field lights to signal his passing, they replay the old games, relive the old glories, and try to decide once and for all whether they love Eddie Rake - or hate him. For Neely Crenshaw, a man who must finally forgive his coach - and himself - before he can get on with his life, the stakes are especially high.

Don't miss John Grisham's new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

The classical novel (and basis for the acclaimed film starring Robert Redford) now in a new edition

Introduction by Kevin Baker

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first--and some would say still the best--novel ever written about baseball.

In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material--the story of a superbly gifted natural at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era--and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: Malamud has done something which--now that he has done it!--looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology.

Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy's bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy--save him from his circumstances, and save his soul.

Then Billy's abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs.