Sports & Recreation bestsellers

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female athletes

“Women’s sports have needed a manifesto for a very long time, and with Lauren Fleshman’s Good for a Girl... Read more »

A New York Times Bestseller

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020

Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR
 
“A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love

No matter what you... Read more »

The Well-Gardened Mind

“I listened to this on audio (from libro.fm/avidbookshop) and really loved it. I'm a longtime lover of being outdoors, but it wasn't until the pandemic hit that I started growing potted plants on my own in earnest. This book highlights the ways in which gardening, in all its forms, has a demonstrably positive impact on your mind, your body, your relationships, and the world. Just a lovely tome no matter if you're never planning to take care of plants or if you're a master gardener. ”

Janet, Avid Bookshop

Featuring both the story of an historic, unforgettable win and insight into the life of an indelible champion, Choosing to Run is a truly inspirational memoir from Boston Marathon winner and Olympian Des Linden, sharing her personal story and what motivates her to keep showing up.

When Des woke up on April 16, 2018, the morning of the Boston... Read more »

No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. . In this collection of thirteen of his finest essays and reporting – including the essay, “Is Yosemite Going To The Dogs” – Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo... Read more »

Former Olympic figure skater and self-professed America's Sweetheart Adam Rippon shares his underdog journey from beautiful mess to outrageous success in this hilarious, big-hearted memoir that the Washington Post calls "comedic gold."
Your mom probably told you it's what on the inside that counts. Well, then she was never a competitive figure... Read more »

The Olympic runner, actress, filmmaker and writer Alexi Pappas shares what she’s learned about confidence, self-reliance, mental health, embracing pain, and achieving your dreams.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE • “Heartbreaking and hilarious.”—Mindy Kaling • “A beautiful read.”—Ruth Reichl • “Essential guidance to anyone... Read more »

Unrivalled gardening wisdom from Monty Don, including essential tips, knowledge and musings from his 50 years of gardening experience.

This is Monty Don right beside you in the garden, challenging norms and sharing advice.

Discover Monty's thoughts and garden ideas around nature, seasons, color, design, pests, flowering shrubs, containers and... Read more »

The Boys in the Boat

“Determined to beat the odds, nine working-class boys from the University of Washington's rowing team overcome a depressive beginning to defeat the world at Hitler's 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Underdogs from day one, fighting poverty and privilege along the way, this crew shocks all with their unbelievable come-from-behind effort to become gold medalists. Filled with details of a post-Depression and a pre-WWII era, this is the inspiring tale of a team winning the hearts of a nation while achieving their lifelong dream. Read by Edward Herrman, "The Boys in the Boat" is a must-listen for all non-fiction fans.”

Kristin, McLean & Eakin Booksellers

This audiobook is read by the author.

Dan Saladino's Eating to Extinction is the prominent broadcaster’s pathbreaking tour of the world’s vanishing foods and his argument for why they matter now more than ever

Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and done so ruthlessly. The numbers are stark: Of the roughly six...

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's... Read more »

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “An imperative call to action” (Nick Offerman) to get children off their screens and into nature, with tips for bonding activities that teach the importance of outside time and build tough, curious, competent kids—from the New York Times bestselling author and host of the TV series and podcast MeatEater

“A revelation... Read more »

Finding Ultra is Rich Roll’s incredible but true account of achieving one of the most awe-inspiring midlife physical transformations ever.

One cool evening in October 2006, the night before he was to turn forty, Rich experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight at the time and unable to climb the stairs without...

What is the secret of talent? How do we unlock it? This groundbreaking work provides readers with tools they can use to maximize potential in themselves and others.

Whether you’re coaching soccer or teaching a child to play the piano, writing a novel or trying to improve your golf swing, this revolutionary book shows you how to grow talent by...

We know that plants are important. They maintain the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. They nourish other living organisms and supply psychological benefits to humans as well, improving our moods and beautifying the landscape around us. But plants don’t just passively provide. They also take action. Beronda L.... Read more »

For listeners who enjoyed Finding the Mother Tree and The Hidden Life of Trees comes the first-ever book about a movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by transforming empty lots, backyards, and degraded land into mini-forests. Author Hannah Lewis is the forest maker turning asphalt into ecosystems to save the planet, and she... Read more »

He's been called the best in the world at the mental game of tennis. Brad Gilbert's strokes may not be pretty, but looks aren't everything. He has beaten the Tour's biggest names—all by playing his "ugly" game.

Now, in Winning Ugly, Gilbert teaches recreational players how to win more often without necessarily even changing their strokes. The key... Read more »

It's difficult to imagine today—when the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the country's dominant sports entity—but pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an... Read more »

Think country-club clinic meets Navy Seals training. I will pay any price, bear any burden, leave my home to follow the seasons, build my own swing studio in the basement, construct a practice green in my backyard. . . . Everything the big boys have access to, I want double.

Like most amateur golfers, Tom Coyne had often wondered whether the... Read more »

Discover the remarkable life of Roberto Clemente—one of the most accomplished—and beloved—baseball heroes of his generation from Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss.

On New Year’s Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero’s death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food... Read more »

Spotting danger before it happens is a skill that can be developed and may even save your life.

A mother dropping her teenager off at the mall, a young man leaving home for college, a family about to head out on their first trip overseas. What do all of these people...

The body’s innate capacity for feeling, intuition, and compassion can enable us to heal our physical and emotional wounds. In The Anatomy of Change, Richard Heckler draws on Aikido and Lomi Body Work to demonstrate how a set of practices can bring new awareness and choice into our daily life. Read more »

The reporter who broke the Houston Astros' cheating scandal reveals how a baseball team could so dramatically descend into corruption, with never-before-told details of a broken management culture, the once-revered leaders who enabled it and the scandal itself.

Baseball, that old romantic game, has been defaced and consumed by corporate America....

Running with Sherman

“You will fall in love with this determined donkey and cheer for Sherman all along the way.”

Mollie, HearthFire Books and Treats

A searing exposé on the whiteness of running, a supposedly egalitarian sport, and a call to reimagine the industry

“Runners know that running brings us to ourselves. But for Black people, the simple act of running has never been so simple. It is a declaration of the right to move through the world. If running is claiming public space, why, then,... Read more »

"Lucid and wrenching...Forward puts [Wambach's] achievement in context with painful and beautiful candor." —NPR

"Forward is the powerful story of an athlete who has inspired girls all over the world to believe in themselves."  —Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, New York Times Bestselling author of Lean In 

“This is the best memoir I’ve read by an...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The incredible true story of survival and salvation that is the basis for two major motion pictures: 2014’s Unbroken and the upcoming Unbroken: Path to Redemption.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil,... Read more »

In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing,... Read more »

The #1 New York Times bestseller that has all America talking: as seen/heard on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Morning Joe, CBS This Morning, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Rich Roll, and more.

“The most important business—and parenting—book of the year.” —Forbes

“Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who... Read more »

“Abby is a relatable revolutionary — with WOLFPACK, she inspires the confidence, leadership and sisterhood we all so desperately need right now.” — Amy Schumer

This program is read by the author.

Based on her inspiring, viral 2018 commencement speech to Barnard College’s graduates in New York City, New York Times bestselling author, two-time...

In this unvarnished and affecting memoir, Olympian Kara Goucher reveals her experience of living through and speaking out about one of the biggest scandals in running.

Kara Goucher grew up with Olympic dreams. She excelled at running from a young age and was offered a Nike sponsorship deal when she graduated from college. Then in 2004, she was... Read more »

The Girlfriend’s Guide to Running.

In Run Like a Mother, authors Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea offer both inspirational advice and practical strategies to help multitasking women make running part of their busy lives.

McDowell and Shea understand the various external and internal forces in everyday life that can unintentionally keep a... Read more »

From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography.

Agassi’s incredibly rigorous training begins when he is just a child. By the age of thirteen, he is banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a... Read more »

A “sublime” and “radically original” exploration of the Sierra Nevadas, the best mountains on Earth for hiking and camping, from New York Times bestselling novelist Kim Stanley Robinson (—Bill McKibben, Gary Snyder).
 
Kim Stanley Robinson first ventured into the Sierra Nevada mountains during the summer of 1973. He returned from that encounter a... Read more »

An instant New York Times bestseller!

“Rapinoe's 'signature pose' from the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is synonymous to the feeling we got when finishing this book: heart full, arms wide and ready to take up space in this world.”—USA Today 
 
Megan Rapinoe, Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women's World Cup champion, reveals for the first time... Read more »

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube

“The brilliant and engaging writing in this memoir belies the author's young age. Braverman offers a taut and honest recounting of a young woman fiercely chasing down her dream and confronting myriad dangers -- both natural and man-made -- with intelligence and grit. This white-knuckle read left me in awe of Braverman's conviction, and her lyrical rendering of the landscape of Alaska took my breath away.”

Katie McGrath, Arcadia Books

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run.” —Outside... Read more »

The author of the New York Times bestseller You Are the Placebo, as well as Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and Evolve Your Brain, draws on research conducted at his advanced workshops since 2012 to explore how common people are doing the uncommon to transform themselves and their lives. Becoming Supernatural marries the some of the most... Read more »

A riveting new biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, was an All-American football player at the... Read more »

Spirit Run

“Noe Alvarez's writing has an ease to it that welcomes the reader. It draws you in to in this journey.”

Julia, The Bookloft

Adventures on the road to real-world self-sufficiency

Many of us want to increase our self-sufficiency, but few have access to the ideal 5 sunny, gently-sloping acres of rich, loamy, well-drained soil. Jenni Blackmore presents a highly entertaining, personal account of how permaculture can be practiced in adverse conditions, allowing anyone to...

“A profound, graceful, and literary work of philosophy and economics, well tempered for our times, and yet timeless. . . . It will change the way you look at the food you put into your body. Which is to say, it can change who you are.” — Boston Globe

Barbara Kingsolver's New York Times bestselling book describing her family's adventure as they...

In the Shadow of the Mountain

“In the Shadow of the Mountain intertwines the lives of sexual assault survivors with Vasquez-Lavado’s experience leading these survivors to summit Mount Everest. A collective story of perseverance, community, and healing.”

Clancey D'Isa, Seminary Co-op Bookstores

All In

“What a gift the autobiography of Billie Jean King is for all of us! I listened to Billie Jean King tell me the history of women's tennis and sports (Title IX, equal pay), social justice movements, gay rights, women's liberation, and of her life. To use one of her words — amazing!...This is an autobiography, not a memoir, so it is comprehensive and goes from childhood to the present. Billie Jean King is careful to dole out credit where credit is due. She has no axes to grind— and is mostly interested in talking about the change that still needs to happen, and her legacy. I will now forever have her voice and her laugh in my head. What a gift that is.”

Julie, Honest Dog Books

A transformative collection of essays on the power of walking to connect with ourselves, each other, and nature itself.


In 2010, Jonathon Stalls and his blue-heeler husky mix began their 242-day walk across the United States, depending upon each other and the kindness of strangers along the way. In this collection of essays, Stalls explores... Read more »

Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg offer a deeply reported account of the intertwined sagas and legacies of two of the greatest soccer players of all time—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo—examining how their rivalry has grown from a personal competition to a multi-billion-dollar industry, paralleling the stunning...

From the author of PEN/Faulkner finalist Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear and Craft in the Real World comes a searing masterwork on the ways Asian Americans navigate the thorny worlds of sports and entertainment when everything is stacked against them.

One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2022

A kaleidoscopic journey into the world of nature's most tantalizing flower, and the lives it has inspired.

The epitome of floral beauty, orchids have long fostered works of art, tales of adventure, and scientific discovery. Tenacious plant hunters have traversed continents to collect rare... Read more »

During his storied career as head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson won more championships than any coach in the history of professional sports. Even more important, he succeeded in never wavering from coaching his way, from a place of deep values. Jackson was tagged as the “Zen master” half in jest by... Read more »

Beloved bestselling author and golf aficionado Rick Reilly channels his insatiable curiosity, trademark sense of humor, and vast knowledge of the game in a treasure trove of original pieces about what the game has meant to him and to others.

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game...