Access Top-Rated Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, Sports

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/583289 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Making Decisions: Putting the Human Back in the Machine

Author: Ed Smith

Narrator: David Thorpe

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

Release date: September 15, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Winning takes many forms. For fans of Matthew Syed, this is a great sports book about leadership, judgement and decision-making – rooted in the theory that helped Ed Smith lead England cricket to sustained success. And to help us all win more. ‘An absolutely fascinating book’ THE GAME, The Times football pod - How do you spot the opportunities that others miss? - How do you turn a team’s performance around? - How do you make good decisions amid a tidal wave of information? And how can you improve? As chief selector for the England cricket team, Ed Smith pioneered new methods for building successful teams and watched his decisions tested in real time on the pitch. During his three-year tenure, England averaged 7 wins in every 10 completed matches, better than they have performed before or since. Making Decisions reveals Smith’s unique approach to finding success in a fast-changing and increasingly data-reliant world. The best decisions, Smith argues, rely on a combination of differing kinds of intelligence: from algorithms to intuition. This is a truth that the most successful people know: data cannot account for everything, it must be harnessed with human insight. Whatever the power of data, humans aren’t finished yet. Sharing for the first time the tools he introduced as England selector, Smith’s book captures the immediacy of life at the sharp end, while also exploring frameworks from the top levels of sports, business and the arts. Decision-making is revealed as a creative enterprise, not a reductive system. Making Decisions offers an invaluable guide for those who want a better framework for developing, explaining and implementing new ideas.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/563825 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Very Tall Story

Author: Martin Bayfield

Narrator: Martin Bayfield

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Release date: September 15, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

A hilarious and, at times, moving and soul-searching account of rugby union’s rollercoaster days in the 1990s, told through the eyes of a player who saw it all as the sport lurched shambolically from the crazy final days of amateurism into the professional era. Martin Bayfield has a story to tell. Indeed, some might describe it as a very tall story. Standing at 6ft 10ins, the former England and British and Irish Lions second row remains one of the tallest players ever to have played international rugby, and his immense physical stature made him one of the most destructive forwards in the world game. He played for England during one of the most successful eras in English rugby, winning two Grand Slams alongside legendary players such as Will Carling, Jeremy Guscott, Brian Moore and Rory Underwood.  His international heyday came at a seminal moment for rugby union when, almost overnight, it was transformed from a noble minority sport to a celebrity event, with stories appearing on the front pages of the British tabloids. Now Bayfield is ready to reveal the inside story of that rip-roaring decade that changed forever the face of English rugby. The book provides an emotional link between the generations, so that today’s fans can reconnect with rugby's soul. Renowned as one of rugby's best and most entertaining storytellers, the former policeman and Hagrid's body double has written a brilliant and very funny love letter to a sport that continues to inspire and entertain millions.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/620430 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [Spanish] - El circo de los pueblos: Cómo dictadores, narcos, políticos y empresarios consiguieron poder a través del fútbol

Author: José Ignacio Lladós

Narrator: Juan Balvin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 22 minutes

Release date: September 12, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Desde la primera mitad del siglo XX el poder busca utilizar el fútbol a su favor: Mussolini, Hitler, la dictadura argentina con el Mundial 78, jeques árabes, Pablo Escobar, la Camorra napolitana, Berlusconi, Macri o George Weah, el primer jugador en convertirse en presidente. Pero también hay víctimas como Maradona, tal vez la persona que más amó y sufrió el fútbol. El fútbol es el entretenimiento más grande del planeta. Absolutamente nada concentra tanta atención como un Mundial. No existe elección política, ni discurso, ni concierto, ni manifestación que puedan acercarse en interés global. La prueba es que el campeonato de Rusia 2018 fue visto por 3500 millones de personas. Casi la mitad del mundo. Desde principios del siglo XX el poder buscó y busca utilizar este deporte a su favor: Mussolini, Hitler, la dictadura argentina con el Mundial 78, jeques árabes, Pablo Escobar, Pelé, la Camorra napolitana, Silvio Berlusconi, Mauricio Macri o George Weah, el primer jugador en convertirse en presidente. Pero también hay víctimas como Diego Maradona, tal vez la persona que más amó y sufrió el fútbol. Con rigor histórico, sagacidad periodística y entrevistas exclusivas, José Ignacio Lladós analiza y cuenta cómo el fútbol pasó de entretenimiento deportivo a ser un negocio global que mueve millones de dólares alrededor del mundo y una plataforma de lanzamiento para todo aquel que quiera llegar a lo más alto del poder.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/616884 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Shawn Thornton: Fighting My Way to the Top

Author: Shawn Thornton

Narrator: Dale Arnold

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 5 hours 49 minutes

Release date: September 6, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

A refreshing memoir of battles and self-belief from one of the NHL's most revered enforcers Shawn Thornton was an unlikely NHL success, to say the least. The Oshawa, Ontario, native was picked late in the OHL and later thought he was being pranked when the Toronto Maple Leafs called him to say he'd been selected in the seventh round of the 1997 NHL draft. After years spent working and maturing in the AHL, Thornton would go on to play fourteen seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins, and Florida Panthers, winning two Stanley Cups along the way. For the first time, in this candid memoir, Thornton opens up about his life in hockey and beyond, from his early days as an unrated prospect to the leadership lessons he learned in the minors, from the most difficult on-ice brawls to the ecstasy of reaching the sport's most celestial heights. Fans will not want to miss this story of perseverance and finding one's own path.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/573432 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Pickleball For All: Everything but the ''Kitchen'' Sink

Author: Rachel Simon

Narrator: Allyson Ryan

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 4 hours 4 minutes

Release date: August 30, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

An entertaining and comprehensive look at the America’s fastest growing sport, Pickleball for All is the ultimate primer for any level of player interested in the wacky history, unique rules, and exciting future of pickleball.  Bainbridge Island, Washington State. On a sleepy summer vacation, three dads with bored kids started a game with handmade equipment and rules that were even more hastily constructed. Pickleball—an accessible and engaging combination of sports like ping-pong and tennis—was born, and a rich history began to take shape. Fifty years later, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world to quarantine and hunt for new activities, Americans of all ages and athletic ability discovered pickleball, turning to the rapidly growing phenomenon as a way to stay active, safe, and entertained. With its unique rules, wacky terminology, and inclusive gameplay, pickleball caught the attention of the likes of the Kardashians, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Leonardo DiCaprio, and quickly became the world’s fastest growing sport with Olympic games potential.Few have followed pickleball’s ascent in American life as closely as New York Times writer and pickleball enthusiast Rachel Simon. Now Simon shares her fascination with the world in this lively, energetic primer for anyone wondering what in the world a dink is or why their neighbors have had a net up in their driveway since May 2020. From the history of the game to the basic rules (hint: you do not want to be caught in the “kitchen” during a volley), Simon offers a complete overview for casual and expert players alike. With easy-to-follow steps and expert advice, readers will learn everything they need to know, including information like:  Where and how to set up a court Scoring, gameplay, and equipment Strategies to win at any skill level The difference between a dink, a drive, and a drop shot In addition, Simon weaves in inspiring stories from the world’s top players during their most exciting pickleball moments. An immersive look at a global phenomenon that’s only gaining momentum, Pickleball for All paints a vivid portrait of a new American pastime.  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/562405 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: We Are the Troopers: The Women of the Winningest Team in Pro Football History

Author: Stephen Guinan

Narrator: Stephen Guinan, Amy Landon

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 43 minutes

Release date: August 30, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Discover the unlikely story of the Toledo Troopers, the winningest team in the National Women's Football League, who won seven league championships in the 1970s—and gain full access to the players and key figures in the organization. Amid a national backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women’s Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, the league’s star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, and would-be drill sergeants. Black, white, Latina. Mothers and daughters and aunts and sisters. But most of all, they were athletes who had been denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play.   Before the protests and the lobbyists, before the debates and the amendments, before the marches and the mandates, there was only an obscure advertisement in a local Midwestern paper and those who answered it, women such as Lee Hollar, the only woman working the line at the Libbey glass factory; Gloria Jimenez, who grew up playing sports with her six brothers; and Linda Jefferson, one the greatest, most accomplished athletes in sports history. Stephen Guinan grew up in Toledo pulling for his hometown football team, and—in the innocence of youth—did not realize at the time what a barrier-breaking lost piece of history he was witnessing. We Are the Troopers shines light on forgotten champions who came together for the love of the game.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/590300 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson

Author: Kostya Kennedy

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 0 minutes

Release date: August 23, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.67 of Total 3

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

True is a probing, richly-detailed, unique biography of Jackie Robinson, one of baseball’s―and America’s―most significant figures. For players, fans, managers, and executives, Jackie Robinson remains baseball’s singular figure, the person who most profoundly extended, and continues to extend, the reach of the game. Beyond Ruth. Beyond Clemente. Beyond Aaron. Beyond the heroes of today. Now, a half-century since Robinson’s death, letters come to his widow, Rachel, by the score. But Robinson’s impact extended far beyond baseball: he opened the door for Black Americans to participate in other sports, and was a national figure who spoke and wrote eloquently about inequality. This book is an unconventional biography, focusing on four transformative years in Robinson’s athletic and public life: 1946, his first year playing in the essentially all-white minor leagues for the Montreal Royals; 1949, when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in his third season as a Brooklyn Dodger; 1956, his final season in major league baseball, when he played valiantly despite his increasing health struggles; and 1972, the year of his untimely death. Through it all, Robinson remained true to the effort and the mission, true to his convictions and contradictions. Kennedy examines each of these years through details not reported in previous biographies, bringing them to life in vivid prose and through interviews with fans and players who witnessed his impact, as well as with Robinson’s surviving family. These four crucial years offer a unique vision of Robinson as a player, a father and husband, and a civil rights hero―a new window on a complex man.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/616838 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [Spanish] - Trotamundos del deporte: Hazañas y aventuras de un periodista deportivo

Author: John Sutcliffe

Narrator: Heriberto Murrieta, John Sutcliffe

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 4 hours 9 minutes

Release date: August 18, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Experto en futbol soccer y americano, golf, tenis, basquetbol, John Sutcliffe es un apasionado de los deportes y uno de los reporteros que más conoce la intimidad de sus protagonistas. Implacable en sus investigaciones, asertivo en sus comentarios, ingenioso en el relato, el autor de estas páginas tiene las mejores fuentes del mundo deportivo y comparte sin censura los hechos que han marcado su vida y la de incontables competidores célebres. En este libro nos cuenta anécdotas inolvidables sobre Tiger Woods, “El niño” Sergio García, Jon Rahm, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Rodgers, Najee Harris, “El Piojo” Herrera, Rafael Márquez, Memo Ochoa,Juan Carlos Osorio, Renato Ibarra, “El Chicharito” Hernández, Nico Castillo y muchos otros atletas mundialmente reconocidos. Además, revela sus experiencias en diversos eventos internacionales de golf, la fiebre de los Super Bowls en los que trabajó y sus experiencias delirantes en los mundiales de futbol de Alemania, Sudáfrica, Brasil y Rusia, cubriendo a la Selección Mexicana: sus luchas internas, quiénes son sus líderes, sus escándalos extradeportivos y el detrás de cámaras de periodistas y jugadores célebres, así como múltiples detalles sobre el crecimiento de la liga de soccer en Estados Unidos. Sin duda, Trotamundos del deporte es un libro inspirador para todo aquel que desee integrarse al desafiante, audaz y encendido mundo de los más osados reporteros de cancha.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/600677 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Everything Reminds Me of Something: Advice, Answers...But No Apologies

Author: Adam Carolla

Narrator: Adam Carolla

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Release date: August 2, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.33 of Total 6

Ratings of Narrator: 4.67 of Total 3

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

The bestselling comedian returns to respond and rant on real questions about life and love, careers and cars, and everything else from fans and famous friends.Ever wonder what you would say or do if you didn’t give a f**k? Adam Carolla can tell you. In his sixth book, the comedian, podcaster, and provocateur does what he does best—doles out advice and opinions with utter disregard for our politically correct, self-righteous, virtue signaling, woke times.Thanks to decades of hosting MTV and radio’s Loveline, his Guinness World Record–breaking podcast and touring the stand-up circuit, no one in comedy is as gifted at thinking on their feet. Taking actual questions from his fans—and even some celebrity friends, including Ray Romano, Maria Menounos, and Judd Apatow—Adam dishes out hilarious rants, unpredictable tangents, brilliant inventions, sage advice, and controversial opinions in a way only a self-proclaimed asshole can.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/612571 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: [Spanish] - Alta negra: Fuerza, perseverancia y liderazgo

Author: Evelina Cabrera

Narrator: Eliana Gamba

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 4 hours 50 minutes

Release date: July 30, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

La historia de Evelina Cabrera, la entrenadora y ex jugadora de fútbol que pasó de vivir en la calle y cuidar coches a ser la presidenta de la Asociación Femenina de Fútbol Argentino y disertar en la ONU. Si cuento mi vida es porque tiene algunos hechos extraordinarios que la convirtieron en una existencia más visible que otras. Pero también porque tiene gran parte en común con la de muchas niñas y jóvenes que pueden sentirse identificadas y acompañadas y eso, creo, le da más valor a esta historia. La historia de Evelina Cabrera es una entre millones. Tiene, como ella dice, 70 años comprimidos en sus 33. Pasó de una infancia vulnerable a ser una referente del fútbol femenino, crear la Asociación Femenina de Fútbol Argentino y dar una conferencia en la ONU sobre su trabajo social con las mujeres, a quienes brinda herramientas para empoderarse y cambiar su vida. Hoy es un ejemplo de superación, de búsqueda y de una activa militancia contra toda forma de discriminación. Evelina forma parte de una época en que las mujeres marcan un rumbo diferente, alejado de roles estereotipados, liberadas de mandatos restrictivos, y en este mundo nuevo alza su voz. Una historia que es, y puede ser también, la historia de todas nosotras.