Final Season

**INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** From New York Times bestselling author and former NFL player Tim Green comes a gripping, deeply personal standalone football novel about a star middle school quarterback faced with a life-changing decision after his dad is diagnosed with ALS. Perfect for fans of Mike Lupica! With two all-star college football players for brothers and a former Atlanta Falcons defensive lineman for a father, it is only natural for sixth-grade quarterback Benjamin Redd to follow in their footsteps. However, after his dad receives a heartbreaking ALS diagnosis—connected to all those hard hits and tackles he took on the field—Ben’s mom becomes more determined than ever to get Ben to quit football. Ben isn’t playing just for himself though. This might be his dad’s last chance to coach. And his teammates need a quarterback that can lead them to the championships. But as Ben watches the heavy toll ALS takes on his dad’s body, he begins to question if this should be his final season after all.

Maybe your dad took you to ball games at Fenway, Wrigley, or Ebbets. Maybe the two of you watched broadcasts from Yankee Stadium or Candlestick Park, or listened as Red Barber or Vin Scully called the plays on radio. Or maybe he coached your team or just played catch with you in the yard. Chances are good that if you're a baseball fan, your dad had something to do with it--and your thoughts of the sport evoke thoughts of him. If so, you will treasure The Final Season, a poignant true story about baseball and heroes, family and forgiveness, doubts and dreams, and a place that brings them all together. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Tom Stanton lived for his Detroit Tigers. When Tiger Stadium began its 88th and final season, he vowed to attend all 81 home games in order to explore his attachment to the place where four generations of his family have shared baseball. Join him as he encounters idols, conjures decades past, and discovers the mysteries of a park where Cobb and Ruth played. Come along and sit beside Al Kaline on the dugout bench, eat popcorn with Elmore Leonard, hear Alice Cooper's confessions, soak up the warmth of Ernie Harwell, see McGwire and Ripken up close, and meet Chicken Legs Rau, Bleacher Pete, Al the Usher, and a parade of fans who are anything but ordinary. By the autumn of his odyssey, Stanton comes to realize that his anguish isn't just about the loss of a beloved ballpark but about his dad's mortality, for at the heart of this story is the love between fathers and sons--a theme that resonates with baseball fans of all ages.

This is it-senior season and a good chance to compete for state! Player dad Steve Pelham isn't about to miss a second of the excitement he's sure will be provided by his son, Woody, and the other ten seniors of the high school team. Not even the specter of cancer's return is going to keep Steve from a minute of this, "The Final Season." Even non-baseball fans will delight in this front-row viewing of emotional wins and losses, pivotal personal choices, and trying tests of faith as the Sandy Pines Panthers claw their way toward the state championship series. The book culminates in a climactic surprise ending that will leave readers both stunned and impressed.

With 1,098 wins and eight national championships, Lady Vol Coach Pat Summitt has left a remarkable legacy of perseverance, leadership, and passion for the game—but her victories on the court aren’t the only legacy she has left in her wake. Since the beginning of her career as Lady Vol head coach at twenty-two years old, Pat Head Summitt effectively established the University of Tennessee Lady Vols as the top women’s athletics program in the nation. The winningest coach in the history of NCAA basketball, Summitt overcame one obstacle after another on the road to every victory, but it is the lives she has impacted along the way that tell the story of her true legacy. Forever a role model for young women, expecting nothing but the best from her players and from those around her, her legacy has never faltered—not even during her final season as head coach, when she faced her fiercest adversary yet: the diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. In The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt, Maria M. Cornelius tells the story of her final coaching season through the eyes of those who know her best, from players to support staff to Summitt’s closest friends and advisors. Beginning with the diagnosis that shook the Tennessee community in the summer of 2011 and continuing through to the final game of the 2011–12 season, The Final Season presents readers with a behind-the-scenes look at the conclusion of Summitt’s coaching career, detailing from the perspective of a sports writer how her diagnosis impacted her players and her staff as well as her fans. With forewords by former Lady Vol Candace Parker and Swish Appeal editor Mike Robinson, The Final Season reveals how Summitt’s remarkable story of perseverance not only united a team of young women but also brought an entire sports following together, revealing an incredible support system that spanned far beyond Summitt’s Tennessee community. The coach’s determined spirit, selfless love, and sense of humor shine through the pages of Cornelius’s book, painting for readers the picture of a beloved leader and detailing the personal moments of defeat and triumph that make Summitt a true champion.

A moving narrative history of the professional footballers who fought and died in World War I, with a foreword by Gary Lineker. In 1914, as today, successful footballers were heroes and role models. They were the sporting superstars of their time; symbols of youth, health and vigour. Naturally enough, when war broke out they felt it was their duty to join up and fight. Between 1914 and 1918, 213 professional players fell in action. Some teams lost half their players, either killed or else so badly injured in mind and body that they were never to play again. The Final Season is the powerfully moving account of these young men who swapped the turf of the pitch and the cheers of the fans for the freezing mud of the battlefield and the terrible scream of shell fire. It follows them as they leave their fans and families behind, undergo training and then travel on to the bloody arenas of war: Ypres, Gallipoli, the Somme, Passchendaele. Nigel McCrery paints these men in vivid detail. From their achievements on the football pitch to their heroic conduct on the battlefield, we will learn of the selfless courage and determination they displayed in the face of adversity. For far too many, we will also learn when, and how, they made the ultimate sacrifice.

Three years ago, Kate rejected Edmund, Lord Shuttleworth's impassioned marriage proposal in no uncertain terms. Now he's back, and it's Kate's final season. She needs a straightforward, paper-only marriage, yet her feelings for Edmund are anything but straightforward! Shocked by Edmund's reappearance at a lavish house party, Kate flees to the private study to compose herself. But her self-control doesn't last for long…. Caught in a compromising situation, the man she can't possibly marry is suddenly announcing their betrothal to the ton!

Freedoms Final Season by Lorraine Louise Webb is a spell binding, fast moving account of the life of her main character, Lisa, as she travels through childhood, marriages, divorces, loss of children, life events that leave her battered, alcoholism and recovery, only to discover that life in recovery, although difficult at times is full of quality and events that continue to help her learn and grow into a strong, successful woman. This story shares detailed events about the life of a woman destined for heartache and failure only to find that while recovery for her continues to be difficult, sobriety allows her to manage even the toughest challenges in ways she had not foreseen. Lisa is a fighter; a woman who takes years to learn her own value and the important lesson here is the value of forgiveness, which eventually helps her to heal. Her recovery begins with a twelve step program and continues as her faith grows with the help of others who have preceded her in recovery. Each season unfolds with powerful poetry inserted to further enhance the intimate emotion of the forthcoming events and allows the reader further insight into the emotions felt and conveyed by the storyteller. The readers interest is captured in the beginning as she reveals more and more truths about her main character whose life is relatable to so many as she continues to learn everything she can to become that valued member of her own family that she has always longed to be. Its a story that will help mothers and daughters learn more about the intricate balance of those delicate relationships; what might destroy them and what is needed to help make them stronger. A powerful read about hope, recovery and relationships.

For fans of Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, and PG Wodehouse. It’s one thing to know that the End is coming, quite another to know the exact date and time right down to the nanosecond. Such is the unhappy fate of the inhabitants of Rexos-4, a once-thriving planet that has lived under the doom of an inevitable apocalypse for millenia. Their entire philosophy of life may be summed up by the phrase “Mxtlpicam’ bnak ooligapn,” which in most languages translates to something along the lines of “What’s the bloody point?” Unbeknownst to the poor Rexans, their predicament has also been the subject of the longest-running and most successful reality television series in galactic history, now translated into over 200 million languages, with closed captioning. With the end of the world just around the corner, the show is entering its all-important final season. Everyone knows how difficult it is to pull off a satisfying finale–such stakes fill even the most hard-boiled Gallywood executives with fear and trembling. Join Gumpilos Tfliximop, Elvie Renfro, Rufus Camford and a cast of colorful characters as they battle the notorious showrunner (and subverter of expectations) Betty Neezquaff, all while tackling the big questions of life’s meaning and purpose with wit, warmth, and–dare I say–optimism. The Final Season is The Truman Show meets the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with just a dash of PG Wodehouse.