Sports & Recreation

• a description of each location, including the type of swim, water depth, level of difficulty, and distance to the swim, as well as the features and amenities found there
• directions via car, public transport, bike, and/or foot
• trail maps to the harder-to-locate spots and photos of each swim to whet (ahem!) your appetite
• information on swimming safety and socially and environmentally responsible swimming
• facts about the social, cultural, and natural history of each swim area

• 40 overnight hiking trails: discover the many different routes that BC has to offer
• Packing tips: take only the most essential items with you (plus a few comforts)
• Permitting: find out what permits you’ll need, and where to get them
• Camp set-up: tips for where to pitch your tent and how to find water
• Environmental impact: learn how to Leave No Trace behind in the wilderness

• Trail maps and route descriptions
• Elevation, distance and time information
• Points of cultural and natural history
• Pre-planning hints about fees, permits, and reservations
• Suggested side trips and points of particular interest

From the wisdom of fishing legend Mo Bradley, an essential guide to fly fishing for trout in the Thompson-Okanagan.

Among fly fishers, the Kamloops region in British Columbia’s Thompson-Okanagan is known as one of the best places in the world for catching trout. It owes its reputation in part to Mo Bradley, a man of humble origins now known as a pioneer of fly-fishing culture.

In Trout School, award-winning author and journalist Mark Hume passes on what he’s learned from his countless hours on—and off—the lake with the master. Drawing from more than twenty years of fishing and friendship, Hume distills the best of Mo’s essential knowledge, including tips and tricks for catching Kamloops trout year-round, detailed instructions for tying thirteen signature flies, and advice for a more respectful and ecologically conscious approach to fishing. But Trout School is more than just a guidebook. Hume illustrates these lessons with beautifully descriptive stories about his own times on the water—with Mo, by himself, or teaching his own young daughters to fish. Illustrated with stunning paintings by BC artist Nana Cook, the result is both a thoughtful tribute to a fly-fishing legend and an invaluable resource for experienced anglers and novices alike.

• 36 new hikes, including jaunts on the South Powell Divide (northern Sunshine Coast) and Owl-Tenquille Traverse (Líl̓wat Nation territory), in Tetrahedron Park (southern Sunshine Coast) and Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Park (near Victoria)
• All-new four-color photos throughout as well as 43 new topographic maps
• A foreword by Stó:lō Elder and cultural advisor Sonny McHalsie
• Tips on staying healthy and safe in the backcountry by North Shore Search and Rescue members Kayla Brolly and Douglas Pope
• Tips on taking care of nature and preserving biodiversity by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s landscape conservationist Tori Ball
• Lists of best hikes on rainy days, with dogs and for overnight trips

From bestselling hiking guidebook author (and dad) Stephen Hui comes a collection of fun-filled hikes field-tested by parents and kids.

The best thing about hiking with kids is appreciating nature as a whole family. But hiking with kids can be challenging when little ones get tired, cold, or hungry. This book carefully chooses trails for kids of a variety of ages and skill levels, ranging in distance from 2km/1.2 miles (great for toddlers) to 12km/7.5 miles (for older or energetic kids). All are easy to get to so kids have more time to explore stops at suspension bridges, hollow trees, ghost towns, beaches, lakes, and vistas. Each route features a clear reference map and full-colour photos, plus:

• a description of trail highlights
• detailed directions to the trailhead
• a snapshot of the best season, difficulty, length, high point, and elevation gain
• a fun fact related to the plants, animals, or history of the trail

The author will donate a portion of royalties to Take a Hike Foundation.

The story of black professional baseball provides a remarkable perspective on several major themes in modern African American history: the initial black response to segregation, the subsequent struggle to establish successful separate enterprises, and the later movement toward integration. Baseball functioned as a critical component in the separate economy catering to black consumers in the urban centers of the North and South. While most black businesses struggled to survive from year to year, professional baseball teams and leagues operated for decades, representing a major achievement in black enterprise and institution building.

Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution presents the extraordinary history of a great African American achievement, from its lowest ebb during the Depression, through its golden age and World War II, until its gradual disappearance during the early years of the civil rights era. Faced with only a limited amount of correspondence and documents, Lanctot consulted virtually every sports page of every black newspaper located in a league city. He then conducted interviews with former players and scrutinized existing financial, court, and federal records. Through his efforts, Lanctot has painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of black professional baseball, locating the players, teams, owners, and fans in the wider context of the league's administration. In addition, he provides valuable insight into the changing attitudes of African Americans toward the need for separate institutions.

2024 TAFWA Book Award Winner

The first comprehensive biography of the preeminent voice of New York sports

For close to half a century after World War II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and especially on the radio, garnered for him legions of fans who would not miss his play-by-play accounts. From the 1940s through the 1990s, he was as iconic a sports figure in town as the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle, the Knicks’ Walt Frazier, or the Jets’ Joe Namath. His vocabulary and method of broadcasting left an indelible mark on the industry, and many of today’s most famous sportscasters were Glickman disciples. To this very day, many fans who grew up listening to his coverage of Knicks basketball and Giants football games, among the myriad of events that Glickman covered, recall fondly, and can still recite, his descriptions of actions in arenas and stadiums. In Marty Glickman, Jeffrey S. Gurock showcases the life of this important contributor to American popular culture.

In addition to the stories of how he became a master of American sports airwaves, Marty Glickman has also been remembered as a Jewish athlete who, a decade before he sat in front of a microphone, was cynically barred from running in a signature track event in the 1936 Olympics by anti-Semitic American Olympic officials. This lively biography details this traumatic event and explores not only how he coped for decades with that painful rejection but also examines how he dealt with other anti-Semitic and cultural obstacles that threatened to stymie his career. Glickman’s story underscores the complexities that faced his generation of American Jews as these children of immigrants emerged from their ethnic cocoons and strove to succeed in America amid challenges to their professional and social advancement. Marty Glickman is a story of adversity and triumph, of sports and minority group struggles, told within the context of the prejudicial barriers that were common to thousands, if not millions, of fellow Jews of his generation as they aimed to make it in America.

From the legendary Ebbets Field in the heart of Brooklyn to the amenity-packed Houston Astrodome to the "retro" Oriole Park at Camden Yards, stadiums have taken many shapes and served different purposes throughout the history of American sports culture. In the early twentieth century, a new generation of stadiums arrived, located in the city center, easily accessible to the public, and offering affordable tickets that drew mixed crowds of men and women from different backgrounds. But in the successive decades, planners and architects turned sharply away from this approach.

In Modern Coliseum, Benjamin D. Lisle tracks changes in stadium design and culture since World War II. These engineered marvels channeled postwar national ambitions while replacing aging ballparks typically embedded in dense urban settings. They were stadiums designed for the "affluent society"—brightly colored, technologically expressive, and geared to the car-driving, consumerist suburbanite. The modern stadium thus redefined one of the city's more rambunctious and diverse public spaces.

Modern Coliseum offers a cultural history of this iconic but overlooked architectural form. Lisle grounds his analysis in extensive research among the archives of teams, owners, architects, and cities, examining how design, construction, and operational choices were made. Through this approach, we see modernism on the ground, as it was imagined, designed, built, and experienced as both an architectural and a social phenomenon. With Lisle's compelling analysis supplemented by over seventy-five images documenting the transformation of the American stadium over time, Modern Coliseum will be of interest to a variety of readers, from urban and architectural historians to sports fans.

How does your opponent put that tricky spin on the ball? Why are some serves easier to return than others? The mysteries behind the winning strokes, equipment, and surfaces of the game of tennis are accessibly explained by Howard Brody through the laws of physics. And he gives practical pointers to ways players can use this understanding to advantage in the game.

Through extensive laboratory testing and computer modeling, Brody has investigated the physics behind the shape of the tennis racket, the string pattern, the bounce of the tennis ball, the ways a particular court surface can determine the speed of the game, and the many other physical factors involved in tennis.

When Rube Foster was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, his rightful place alongside baseball's greatest black heroes was at last firmly established. A world-class pitcher, a formidable manager, and a brilliant administrator, Rube Foster was arguably more influential in breaking down the color barrier in major league baseball than the venerable Jackie Robinson.
Born in 1879, Rube Foster pitched for the legendary black baseball teamsthe Cuban X-Giants and the Philadelphia Giants before becoming player-manager of the Leland Giants and the Chicago American Giants. Long a central figure in black baseball, he founded baseball's first black leaguethe Negro National League in 1920. From its inception, the Negro League served as a vehicle through which many of the finest black players could showcase their considerable talents. Challenging racial discrimination and stereotypes, it ultimately set the stage for future efforts to contest Jim Crow.
Despite the long-standing success of the Negro National League as an influential black institution, Rube Foster was deeply embittered by organized baseball's unmitigated refusal to lift the color barrier. He died a broken man in 1930.
The Best Pitcher in Baseball is the story of a man of unparalleled vision and organizational acumen whose passion for justice changed the face of baseball forever. It is a moving tribute to a man and his dream.

A lingering, long-haul collection of writing about sailing for readers of Julietta Singh and Kyo Maclear.

In Relative to Wind, Phoebe Wang delivers a poetic rendering of her decade-long journey of learning to sail and a deep dive into what it means to be a newcomer to an old tradition. From working along­side crewmates in tempestuous conditions to becoming an avid racer and organizer to drafting a wistful love letter to a Wayfarer dinghy—while examining the loose tether between sailing and a creative life—Wang delivers a book for sailors and would-be sailors that is thoughtful and surprising at every tack.

"A thoughtful, illuminating look at life away from land."—Kirkus

Roger Angell meets Hanif Abdurraqib meets Bull Durham in this sharp new collection of baseball writing by Andrew Forbes

Baseball is a sport, a pastime, an obsession, a dream—and for some, it’s also a day job. A poetic survey of baseball’s rich history, Field Work shines a light on the people who make the game happen, from major-league stars and little-league coaches to gamblers, ballpark operators, and minor leaguers forging lives outside the dugout.

With sharp-eyed observations and beautiful digressions, these essays portray the complex relationship between work and play—both on and off the field—to demonstrate how baseball is more than just a game.

From the front office to the family room, sabermetrics has dramatically changed the way baseball players are assessed and valued by fans and managers alike. Rocketed to popularity by the 2003 bestseller Moneyball and the film of the same name, the use of sabermetrics to analyze player performance has appeared to be a David to the Goliath of systemically advantaged richer teams that could be toppled only by creative statistical analysis. The story has been so compelling that, over the past decade, team after team has integrated statistical analysis into its front office. But how accurately can crunching numbers quantify a player's ability? Do sabermetrics truly level the playing field for financially disadvantaged teams? How much of the baseball analytic trend is fad and how much fact?

The Sabermetric Revolution sets the record straight on the role of analytics in baseball. Former Mets sabermetrician Benjamin Baumer and leading sports economist Andrew Zimbalist correct common misinterpretations and develop new methods to assess the effectiveness of sabermetrics on team performance. Tracing the growth of front office dependence on sabermetrics and the breadth of its use today, they explore how Major League Baseball and the field of sports analytics have changed since the 2002 season. Their conclusion is optimistic, but the authors also caution that sabermetric insights will be more difficult to come by in the future. The Sabermetric Revolution offers more than a fascinating case study of the use of statistics by general managers and front office executives: for fans and fantasy leagues, this book will provide an accessible primer on the real math behind moneyball as well as new insight into the changing business of baseball.