Inspirational life lessons are offered from three sports luminaries: an MLB coach and team manager, a popular sports media personality, and an endurance athlete with an unbroken military record. Newsmax’s Rising Bestsellers also include a non-fiction offering recounts a little-known story about the most massive beach landing in military history: the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy. Our novel of the week is actually three stories in one: each co-written by New York Times bestselling tale-teller, James Patterson.
“The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life,” by Joe Maddon and Tom Verducci (Twelve)
In this book, three-time MLB Manager of the Yea Joe Maddon offers his take on leading a successful life, or in his words, “trying not to suck.” He was born and brought up in the “shot and beer” working-class town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and clawed his way through 15 years in the minor leagues before becoming one of the most successful, colorful, and oft quoted managers in MLB history. Over the years, Maddon has developed mantras for success that can be applied to any endeavor. They include:
- “Do simple better.”
- “Try not to suck.”
- “Don’t ever permit the pressure to exceed the pleasure.”
- “See it with first-time eyes.”
- “Tell me what you think, not what you’ve heard.”
The results are all in the record books for anyone to see, including two of the most amazing team reversals in the last 25 years. He took the Tampa Bay Rays from the worst record in baseball to the World Series within one year, and he led the Chicago Cubs to its first World Series title in 108 years. (Nonfiction)
“The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy: A Story of Resistance, Courage, and Solidarity in a French Village,” by Stephen G. Rabe (Cambridge University Press)
Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-held Western Europe, was once of the most successful campaigns of World War II. But no undertaking as massive as the allied invasion of Normandy is capable of going off without a hitch. Historian Stephen G. Rabe, who has taught at the college level in more than 20 different countries, describes his book as the story of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” in which both the soldiers and the villagers “committed themselves to the ideals of freedom and liberty.”
“The Lost Paratroopers” tells the story of the invasion from a unique perspective — the villagers of Graignes, predominately women, who saved, cared for, and hid those paratroopers who were dropped off-target in an effort to free their own homeland from the Third Reich. They gave them food and shelter, gathered intelligence, and collected the paratroopers' equipment at tremendous risk to themselves. (Nonfiction)
“Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within,” by David Goggins (Lioncrest Publishing)
A brief biography of the author may tell you all you need to know about this book. Goggins is an American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, and retired U.S. Navy SEAL. He’s the only person in history to have completed SEAL training, plus Army Ranger School, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. How does he do it? How can you do it? “I ask myself one question: can you take another step?” he says. “And the answer is always, ‘yes.’” And from that simple truth Goggins offers the reader a blueprint to succeed to heights beyond which he may have never thought attainable. Nonetheless, it’s described as more of a wake-up call than a self-help book. (Nonfiction)
“Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes,” by Stephen A. Smith (Gallery/13A)
Here’s the story of how a kid growing up as the son of Caribbean immigrants in a poor household in the New York City borough of Queens, rose to become one of America’s most popular sports media figures. Smith revealed that his mother, whom he describes as the ultimate “straight shooter,” told him, “do not write this book until I’m dead and gone.” Early on, when he was held back a grade in elementary school, he vowed to turn his own life around after overhearing his father tell his mother, “the boy just ain’t smart.”
He explained, “As devastating as that was to hear him say that to my mother, … my mother never entertained the thought that I was going to be a failure, and hearing my father say that heightened my level of motivation, and that motivation has never waned.” (Nonfiction)
“3 Days to Live,” by James Patterson (Grand Central Publishing)
This is actually a collection of three heart-pounding novellas contained within a single volume, written by the undisputed master of suspense, in concert with up-and-coming novelists. They’re connected by a common theme: the people closest to you can be your most dangerous enemies. In “3 Days to Live” (with Duane Swierczynski), a bride and her CIA-agent husband are poisoned on their European honeymoon — and she has 72 hours to take revenge. In “Women and Children First” (with Bill Schweigart), a Washington, D.C., tech executive turns a business deal gone south and an order to kill his family into a chance to relive his glory days in the military. In “The Housekeepers” (with Julie Margaret Hogben), a Los Angeles physician is murdered in a botched attempt to steal drugs. Despite the trust the doctor placed in her two housekeepers, they turn out to be a pair of grifters who try to control their former employer’s estate. (Fiction)
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.