Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and Their Triumph in the Time of Katrina
by Neal Thompson
published by Free Press

On Saturday, August 27, 2005, the John Curtis Patriots met for a grueling practice in the late summer New Orleans sun, the air a visible fog of humidity. They had pulled off a 19-0 shutout in their preseason game the night before, but it was a game full of dumb mistakes. Head coach J. T. Curtis was determined to drill those mistakes out of them before their highly anticipated next game, which sportswriters had dubbed "the Battle of the Bayou," against a big team coming in all the way from Utah.

Golden Girl: How Natalie Coughlin Fought Back, Challenged Conventional Wisdom, and Became America's Olympic Champion
by Michael Silver with Natalie Coughlin
published by Rodale

When Natalie Coughlin burst into the world's living rooms in the summer of 2004, twice striking gold in Athens in the midst of the most prolific performance in a single Olympics by any American woman, she looked like the quintessential champion.

License to Deal: A Season on the Run with a Maverick Baseball Agent
by Jerry Crasnick
published by Rodale

In License to Deal: A Season on the Run with a Maverick Baseball Agent, ESPN's Jerry Crasnick pierces the myths by focusing on Matt Sosnick, a born dealmaker who left his job as CEO of a San Francisco high-tech company in 1997 to pursue his dream of representing ballplayers for a living.

The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the High Stakes Business of High School Ball
by Ian O'Connor
published by Rodale

The Jump chronicles the rags-to-riches path of New York sensation Sebastian Telfair, perhaps the greatest point guard that the city famous for point guards has ever produced. Sebastian exemplifies the new face of basketball -- young, talented, mediagenic teenagers who skip college on the way to NBA fortune and fame.