Name: 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.
Brand: Paul Haddad
Price: 19.95 USD
Availability: InStock

Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion

$27.95

The Thrilling and Emotional Memoir from Endurance Horse Racing Legend Sanoma Blakeley

Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion is the incredible, action-packed memoir of Sanoma Blakeley’s 2019 Tevis Cup championship, won while riding her beloved horse Goober, and the tale of how she became the youngest woman to ever become a Tevis Cup champion. Beginning her endurance riding career at the age of seven, Blakeley writes about the years of training and teamwork required to win the most challenging and famous 100-mile horse race in the world aboard a horse she had originally acquired for free off of Craigslist.

Blakeley places readers on the ride with her so that they can experience the thrill of the most exciting horse endurance race in existence. Blakeley and Goober survive narrow mountain trails winding through the Sierra-Nevadas, containing over 19,000 feet of elevation gain; three steep, grueling canyons; crossing the shoulder-high American River; riding at night with only the light of the moon to guide them; temperatures that soared over 115 degrees; and, most excitingly, the final neck-and-neck sprint to the finish against a four-time Tevis Cup champion and world class competitor after 100 miles of some of the most rugged mountain trails in the world.

When Blakeley and Goober cross the finish line just a few feet ahead of their competition and Blakeley becomes the youngest woman in history to win the Tevis Cup, a lifetime of hard work that began when the author started training as a small child and who had long dreamed of winning the Tevis Cup was finally rewarded. Chasing Dreams contains action, heartwarming twists, and an epic ending that will leave readers in tears.

Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion

10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.

$19.95

LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER

Updated and Expanded Second Edition Features Six New Walking Adventures!

10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. is for urban adventurers with a passion for healthy living who are also eager to explore Los Angeles—from its most legendary locations to its more hidden, unsung, and quirky sites.

In this first-ever book to explore the 10,000-steps lifestyle in Los Angeles, author Paul Haddad takes readers on a journey through the city’s streets, beaches, mountains, rivers, reservoirs, and parks. He includes 10,000-step walks from throughout the Southland, from Simi Valley to the South Bay, and Pasadena to Pacific Palisades.

Tread the grounds of a defunct Disney attraction called Dwarfland. Trace the extinct canals of Venice Beach. Stroll the shortest Main Street in America. Discover hidden streams, secret murals, lost cities, Hollywood haunts, houses made of stone, and parks that time forgot!

The second edition of 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. features:

• 57 walks containing 10,000 steps

• Detailed maps and directions

• Descriptions of the terrain, walking surface, and dog-friendliness of each walk

• Ideal picnic spots

• Parking suggestions

• Sidebars with colorful trivia and anecdotes

Most importantly, 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A. offers a sense of fun and discovery about Los Angeles that makes the goal of 10,000 steps easy to attain. Readers need only bring their feet—pedometers are optional!

Secret Stairs

$16.95

Revised and Updated in September 2020!

Containing walks and detailed maps from throughout the city, Secret Stairs highlights the charms and quirks of a unique feature of the Los Angeles landscape, and chronicles the geographical, architectural, and historical aspects of the city’s staircases, as well as of the neighborhoods in which the steps are located.

From strolling through the classic La Loma neighborhood in Pasadena to walking the Sunset Junction Loop in Silver Lake, to taking the Beachwood Canyon hike through Hollywoodland” to enjoying the magnificent ocean views from the Castellammare district in Pacific Palisades, Secret Stairs takes you on a tour of the staircases all across the City of Angels.

The circular walks, rated for duration and difficulty, deliver tales of historic homes and their fascinating inhabitants, bits of unusual local trivia, and stories of the neighborhoods surrounding the stairs. That’s where William Faulkner was living when he wrote the screenplay for To Have and Have Not; that house was designed by Neutra; over there is a Schindler; that’s where Woody Guthrie lived, where Anais Nin died, and where Thelma Todd was murdered . . .

Despite the fact that one of these staircases starred in an Oscar-winning short filmLaurel and Hardy’s The Music Box, from 1932these civic treasures have been virtually unknown to most of the city’s residents and visitors. Now, Secret Stairs puts these hidden stairways back on the map, while introducing urban hikers to exciting new trails” all around the city of Los Angeles.

High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania

$16.95

For Dodger fans, the years 1977 to 1981 mark the team’s glory days, and High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomaniachronicles the highlights and disappointments that marked those four tumultuous seasons.

Told from lifelong fan Paul Haddad’s perspective, the story of the Dodgers during this time period is enhanced by transcripts of radio and TV calls that are woven into his personal recollections, capturing famed Dodgers sportscaster Vin Scully at the top of his game.

From Jerry Ruess’s no-hitter and Rick Monday’s epic homer against Montreal to the magical rookie year of Fernando Valenzuela and the 1981 World Series, all of the famous Dodger moments are commemorated in great detail.

In addition to the chronological narrative, each chapter contains lists, trivia, sidebars, and interesting statistics that make the exciting culture and fan frenzy that surrounded the Dodgers’ last great dynasty come to life.

The Steamer

$31.95

For nearly sixty years, Bud Furillo wrote and talked about sports in Southern California. For fifteen of those years, he authored a popular column for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner called The Steam Room, which gave him the nickname that lasted him for the rest of his life: the Steamer.”

As a reporter, columnist, editor, and pioneer of sports talk radio, the Steamer dished out insight and understanding to Southern California sports fans while Los Angeles grew into a sports empire. On his watch, L.A. acquired the Rams from Cleveland, the Dodgers from Brooklyn, and the Lakers from Minneapolis. He covered them all while they won championships for the city.

In The Steamer: Bud Furillo and the Golden Age of L.A. Sports, Furillo’s son, Andy, himself a longtime newspaperman, uses his father’s lens to give focus to the city’s rise as a sports empire. The Steamer is a history of a great sports town at its most dynamic, told from the point of view of a legendary reporter who used his phenomenal access to reveal the inside story of the greatest athletes and teams to ever play in Los Angeles.

Cover image for The Steamer, isbn: 9781595801517

Making Waves

$24.95

In her extraordinary swimming career, Shirley Babashoff set thirty-nine national records and eleven world records. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer in the world.

Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Babashoff was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and followed closely by the media. Hopes were high that she would become the female Mark Spitz.”

All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the swimmers on the East German women’s team. Once celebrated as America’s golden girl, Babashoff was accused of poor sportsmanship and vilified by the press with a new nickname: Surly Shirley.”

Making Waves displays the remarkable strength and resilience that made Babashoff such a dynamic champion. From her difficult childhood and beginnings as a determined young athlete growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, through her triumphs as the greatest female amateur swimmer in the world, Babashoff tells her story in the same unflinching manner that made her both the most dominant female swimmer of her time and one of the most controversial athletes in Olympic history.

Cover image for Making Waves, isbn: 9781595801487

Secret Stairs: East Bay

$17.95

Revised and Updated in September 2020!

The hills of the East Bay contain one of the finest and densest urban hiking environments in the state of Californiamore than 400 paved pathways and public staircases lattice up and down the slopes of Berkeley and Oakland alone. Rising high above the city centers, with towering views of the San Francisco Bay, the Bay Bridge, and San Francisco itself, these elegant civic walking trailsmany of them shaded in oaks and redwoods, and many unknown even to local residentspresent a unique landscape for both the casual walker and dedicated hiker.

Charles Fleming, the Southern California author whose bestselling 2010 walking guide Secret Stairs turned the hidden public staircases of Los Angeles into popular hiking trails, now turns his eyes northward. For Secret Stairs: East Bay, Fleming has designed more than 30 individual hiking loops. Linking multiple staircases into one-to two-hour self-guided strolls, these urban treks will delight the tourist, newly arrived Berkeley undergraduate, and veteran Bay Area resident alike.

The circular walks, each calibrated by length, difficulty, and durationand each accompanied by a detailed, easy-to-follow mapare sprinkled with fascinating facts about the historic staircases, the historic homes around them, and the famous Bay Area characters who gave them their names. Walk the walks of Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Muir! Climb Berkeley’s massive Fred Herbert and Tamalpais Paths, hike Easter Way, and summit Sunset Trail! Mount Oakland’s Oakmore stairs, then tackle the hills of Upper Rockridge and Crocker Highlands via the public staircases. And do it all within easy walking distance from BART or bus stops, free parking, and excellent Bay Area cafés.

Pop Surf Culture

$39.95

From original beachcomber personalities like the Waikiki Beachboys to the rise of Venice Beach as a creative center for music, art, and film, Pop Surf Culture traces the roots of the surf boom and explores its connection to the Beat Generation and 1960s pop culture. Through accounts of key figures both obscure and popular, the book illustrates why surf culture is a vital art movement of the 20th century.

Pop Surf Culture includes essays about the popular beach” movies of the 1950s and ’60s, which featured such stars as Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon and the music of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, Brian Wilson, the Pyramids, Gary Usher, James Brown, and Little Stevie Wonder.

Sixties art figures Michael Dormer and Rick Griffinas well as the surf magazines which promoted their artare featured alongside the progenitors of surf music,” from the little known (the Centurians) to the wildly popular (the Beach Boys). Duke Kahanamoku, the Gas House, Gidget, surfing on television, the bohemian surf aesthetic, surf music hot spots, Mickey Da Cat” Dora . . . the entire spectrum of pop surf culture is covered within these colorfully illustrated pages.

Can a Dead Man Strike Out?

$11.95

Fascinating vignettes that provide the true accounts behind baseball’s most unbelievable circumstances fill Can a Dead Man Strike Out?, an engaging collection of questions and narratives from every period in the history of America’s favorite pastime. Unlike standard trivia books, it is the stories behind the answersand not the answers themselvesthat provide the entertaining surprises.

For example, the answer to the question, Who was the first outfielder to throw out three batters at home plate in one game?” tells the story of Dummy” Hoy, a deaf mute who had a distinguished 14-year career, and whose disability may have led umpires to use hand and arm gestures when calling balls and strikes.

Baseball historians, statisticians, trivia buffs, die-hard fans, and anyone intrigued by the subtleties of the game will find hours of pleasure in this unique look at our national pastime.

Roadside Baseball: The Locations of America's Baseball Landmarks

$19.95

Capturing such quintessentially American pastimes as baseball and road trips in one fascinating work, the updated and expanded third edition of Chris Epting’s Roadside Baseball chronicles more than 500 important events in baseball history, with detailed descriptions of the event and information on each location. Packed with historical data, trivia, photographs, and baseball lore, entries include the birthplaces of baseball legends, ballparks, museums and halls of fame, final resting places, and many locations that are no longer standing. From out-of-the-way spots to the most popular stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, no site is too small or insignificant to be included in this comprehensive guide. The third edition of Roadside Baseball includes hundreds of newly discovered landmarks, including the former locations of stadiums that have been torn down since the last edition of the book (Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Tiger Stadium, etc.), information on the Negro Leagues Baseball Marker project which has placed headstones around the country to honor forgotten African American ballplayers, new exhibits at existing MLB parks, and suggested daytrip itineraries located near your favorite stadiums. Other new entries include the actual diamond used for the classic film, The Sandlot; the exact location where Mickey Mantle’s legendary 565-foot blast landed; the baseball field in Orange County, California, where many believe Babe Ruth hit the longest home run of his career against the great Walter Johnson (along with extremely rare photos of Ruth both batting and pitching during that very game); the newly marked location in Kekionga, Indiana where the first major league game was played in 1871; all 29 markers along the new “Hot Springs Baseball Trail” celebrating baseball history in Arkansas; and Heckscher Fields in Central Park, New York, where Larry David’s softball team played in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Entries from the previous edition include the Buckminster Hotel in Boston, where the Black Sox planned their fix of the 1919 World Series; the original Little League field and museum in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; the birthplace of Jackie Robinson; the place where Mickey Mantle was discovered by a scout from the New York Yankees; and the site of the original Wrigley Field, erected in Los Angeles in 1925. The third edition of Roadside Baseball is the most comprehensive book ever written on the locations of baseball landmarks, and the perfect gift for baseball fans of all ages!

Roadside Baseball: The Locations of America's Baseball Landmarks

Making Waves

$24.95

In her extraordinary swimming career, Shirley Babashoff set thirty-nine national records and eleven world records. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer in the world.

Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Babashoff was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and followed closely by the media. Hopes were high that she would become the female Mark Spitz.”

All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the swimmers on the East German women’s team. Once celebrated as America’s golden girl, Babashoff was accused of poor sportsmanship and vilified by the press with a new nickname: Surly Shirley.”

Making Waves displays the remarkable strength and resilience that made Babashoff such a dynamic champion. From her difficult childhood and beginnings as a determined young athlete growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, through her triumphs as the greatest female amateur swimmer in the world, Babashoff tells her story in the same unflinching manner that made her both the most dominant female swimmer of her time and one of the most controversial athletes in Olympic history.

Cover image for Making Waves, isbn: 9781595800879

The Steamer

$27.95

For nearly sixty years, Bud Furillo wrote and talked about sports in Southern California. For fifteen of those years, he authored a popular column for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner called The Steam Room, which gave him the nickname that lasted him for the rest of his life: the Steamer.”

As a reporter, columnist, editor, and pioneer of sports talk radio, the Steamer dished out insight and understanding to Southern California sports fans while Los Angeles grew into a sports empire. On his watch, L.A. acquired the Rams from Cleveland, the Dodgers from Brooklyn, and the Lakers from Minneapolis. He covered them all while they won championships for the city.

In The Steamer: Bud Furillo and the Golden Age of L.A. Sports, Furillo’s son, Andy, himself a longtime newspaperman, uses his father’s lens to give focus to the city’s rise as a sports empire. The Steamer is a history of a great sports town at its most dynamic, told from the point of view of a legendary reporter who used his phenomenal access to reveal the inside story of the greatest athletes and teams to ever play in Los Angeles.

Cover image for The Steamer, isbn: 9781595800886

Secret Walks

$16.95

Revised and Updated in September 2020!

Secret Walks: A Walking Guide to the Hidden Trails of Los Angeles is a sequel to the popular Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, and features another collection of exciting urban walks through parks, canyons, and neighborhoods unknown and unseen by most Angelinos. Each walk is rated for duration, distance, and difficulty, and is accompanied by a map.

The walks, like those in Secret Stairs, are filled with fascinating factoids about historical landmarksthe original Bat Cave from Batman, the lake where Opie learned to fish on The Andy Griffith Show, or the storage barn for one of L.A.’s oldest wineries. The book also highlights the people who made the landmarks famous: the infamous water engineer William Mulholland; the convicted murderer and philanthropist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith; Charles Lummis, who walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles to take a job on the L.A. Times; and tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney, who dug canals to drain the marshes south of Santa Monica and create his American Venice.”

Written in the entertainingly informed style that has made Secret Stairs a Los Angeles Times best-seller, Secret Walks is the perfect book for the walker eager to explore but tired of the crowds at Runyon Canyon or Temescal Park.