Listen to Latest Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, Sports

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/495568 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: How to be an Ex-Footballer

Author: Peter Crouch

Narrator: Peter Crouch, Simon Darwen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 54 minutes

Release date: October 27, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. The funniest man in British sport - Metro Peter Crouch is a comedy genius - Daily Mail Often recruited before they've worn long trousers, today's footballers become superstars who earn huge amounts without ever learning much about the world beyond the training ground. Coddled by their support teams, everything is done for them. They live their lives in the glaring media spotlight, yet only really develop one life skill - how to kick a ball better. Then inevitably, when age catches up with them or injury strikes, these man-children are thrown out into the real world, utterly defenceless apart from their multi-million-pound bank accounts. So what do these Peter Pans, whose careers end just as most people's are getting going, do with the rest of their lives? Crouch speaks from his own experience and discusses with fellow former professionals too - just how do you safely release a near seven-foot striker back into the wild? Peter goes in search of the answer to what his second career might be and encounters stories far more bizarre than anything you'll find on the pitch. From the pleasure and pain of management to the lessons we can learn from Jamie Carragher and Joe Cole on not going to seed. From those staying in the sport - the diehard veterans, coaches, managers, owners and of course the legion of pundits, to those moving on to pastures new. Peter talks to entrepreneurs, men of the cloth, eco warriors, artists, private detectives and budding actors, as well as those who've lost their way in addiction, crime and NFTs. When the final whistle blows, it's still all to play for. © 2022 Peter Crouch (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551447 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Save of My Life: My Journey Out of the Dark

Author: Sean Patrick Conboy, Corey Hirsch

Narrator: Rex Anderson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 5 hours 41 minutes

Release date: October 11, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

A riveting look behind the mask of an NHL goalie, The Save of My Life offers understanding and hope to anyone living with mental illness By the time he was twenty-two years old, goaltender Corey Hirsch had realized his childhood dream of playing in the NHL, won an Olympic medal and drunk from the Stanley Cup. While he excelled on the ice, out of the net Hirsch was plagued by persistent dark thoughts and ceaseless anxiety. On days when he could barely get out of bed, he was able to push aside the endless loop of dark thoughts running inside his brain long enough to win a game. But as soon as he got back home, the agonizing cycle started all over again. And it continued, until finally he was able to confide in a team trainer who helped him get the professional treatment he needed. Diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Hirsch was able to embark on the rocky road to recovery. As one of the first professional athletes to talk openly about mental health, Hirsch wrote about his OCD for the Players’ Tribune. His piece remains one of their most-read articles ever. As Hirsch says, “I am not insane. I am not a bad person. I am not weak. I have an illness, and there is a treatment.”

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/520890 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Father's Son: Family, football and forgiveness

Author: Mat Rogers

Narrator: Mat Rogers

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

Release date: October 4, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

'A book about humanity as much as sport. It’s like sitting at the kitchen table with your best mate and he’s pouring his heart out – about his life, his loss, his triumphs and his faults … and the love that got him through. Honest, generous, and most of all, courageous.' Markus Zusak, bestselling author of The Book Thief   Mat Rogers is an Aussie footy legend and TV star who has triumphed over hardship, loss and heartache. He is finally ready to share his powerful life story. He is one of the most talented footballers of the modern era and a dual international in rugby league and rugby union. But for a long time, Mat Rogers lived in both the shadow and the thrall of his famous father, and their complex relationship shaped him in ways he couldn’t fathom. Craving paternal acceptance while determined to carve out his own identity and, later, to avoid repeating the sins of the father, he veered between periods of jubilation and depression, fulfilment and despair. Now, in his majestic, evocative autobiography, Rogers tells the story of a life framed by triumph and tragedy, a life in which, ultimately, he finds purpose and contentment in a harsh world. With its cracking pace and unvarnished frankness, A Father’s Son will be widely read and difficult to forget. Though by and about a celebrated footballer, it is so much more than another athlete’s memoirs. In spare, vivid prose, Rogers reveals how his teenage years were marked by periods of rebellion and self-destructive behaviour. Then, at age 20, he became a father to son Jack before he had finished his own journey into adulthood. By 22, he was married to first wife Michelle with another child, daughter Skyla, following shortly after. As well as discussing the experience of having a family while still a young man, Rogers also recounts the challenges that have defined his life off the sports field – the impact of losing both his parents in tragic circumstances and the experimental neck surgery he underwent in 2007, ending years of debilitating pain. Rogers’ story is one of a man who rises to the difficulties life sends his way. The discovery that his son Max is autistic prompted him and second wife Chloe to co-found charity 4 ASD Kids – and he talks passionately about the work he has done to raise awareness of a subject so close to home. That fighting spirit introduced Rogers to an even greater number of Australians who watched the sporting legend thrive on Australian Survivor. Across two memorable appearances on the reality TV series, he impressed viewers with his ability to combine his competitive spirit with his desire to play with heart. That duality, which defines Rogers' life, shines through in A Father’s Son. 'I couldn’t put this down. Mat shares his story with so much honesty and openness. I was overcome with emotion and such deep respect for Mat and the person, father and role model that he is.' Sally Obermeder, author and presenter

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/551384 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

Author: Buzz Bissinger

Narrator: George Newbern

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 58 minutes

Release date: September 13, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.3 of Total 10

Ratings of Narrator: 4.17 of Total 6

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

“Buzz Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights is an American classic. With The Mosquito Bowl, he is back with a true story even more colorful and profound. This book too is destined to become a classic. I devoured it.” — John Grisham An extraordinary, untold story of the Second World War in the vein of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat, from the author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity.  As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war – the invasion of Okinawa—their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled: Former All Americans, captains from Wisconsin and Brown and Notre Dame, and nearly twenty men who were either drafted or would ultimately play in the NFL.    When the trash-talking between the 4th and 29th over who had the better football team reached a fever pitch, it was decided: The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal.  The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.”  Within a matter of months, 15 of the 65 players in “The Mosquito Bowl” would be killed at Okinawa, by far the largest number of American athletes ever to die in a single battle. The Mosquito Bowl is the story of these brave and beautiful young men, those who survived and those who did not.  It is the story of the families and the landscape that shaped them. It is a story of a far more innocent time in both college athletics and the life of the country, and of the loss of that innocence.   Writing with the style and rigor that won him a Pulitzer Prize and have made several of his books modern classics, Buzz Bissinger takes us from the playing fields of America’s campuses where boys played at being Marines, to the final time they were allowed to still be boys on that field of dirt and coral, to the darkest and deadliest days that followed at Okinawa.  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/552871 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Path Lit By Lightning

Author: David Maraniss

Narrator: David Maraniss

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 23 hours 27 minutes

Release date: August 9, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.17 of Total 12

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

A biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), 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. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind. But despite his awesome talent, Thorpe’s life was a struggle against the odds. At Carlisle, he faced the racist assimilationist philosophy “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” His gold medals were unfairly rescinded because he had played minor league baseball, and his supposed allies turned away from him when their own reputations were at risk. His later life was troubled by alcohol, broken marriages, and financial distress. He roamed from state to state and took bit parts in Hollywood, but even the film of his own life failed to improve his fortunes. But for all his travails, Thorpe survived, determined to shape his own destiny, his perseverance becoming another mark of his mythic stature. Path Lit by Lightning “[reveals] Thorpe as a man in full, whose life was characterized by both soaring triumph and grievous loss” (The Wall Street Journal).

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/556444 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Adrenaline: My Untold Stories

Author: Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Narrator: James Hillier

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

Release date: July 28, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 3

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. Football's most prolific and controversial goalscorer has nothing left to prove on the pitch. There is only one Zlatan. In the decade since his megaselling memoir I am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he has played at Paris Saint-Germain (2012-2016), Manchester United (2016-2018), LA Galaxy (2018-2019) and Milan (2020-). This outrageous and hilarious follow-up is bursting with personal confessions and revealing anecdotes about the world's best players and managers. Packed with revelations, in Adrenaline we hear for the first time what Zlatan really thinks about his time in the Premier League and what it was like to score that glorious bicycle kick against England. We hear about the club he very nearly signed for, and see his hilarious run-ins with the French media - and the French in general, really. Plus so much more. Zlatan transports you into the world of top-flight football like no one else. Filled with revelations - including Zlatan's life lessons on happiness, friendship and love - you'll be talking about this book a long time after finishing it. 'He is an amazing talent, one of the best around' Pep Guardiola © Zlatan Ibrahimovic 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/544738 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: First of the Summer Wine: George Hirst, Schofield Haigh, Wilfred Rhodes and the Gentle Heart of Yorkshire Cricket

Author: Harry Pearson

Narrator: Simon Slater

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 41 minutes

Release date: July 7, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

The remarkable story of three Yorkshire cricketers from the Golden Age - George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes and Schofield Haigh - who transformed their county's fortunes, inspired a generation of cricketers and left a unique legacy on the game. Between them, Hirst, Rhodes and Haigh scored over 77,000 runs and took almost 9000 wickets in a combined 2500 appearances, helping Yorkshire to seven County Championship triumphs. The records they set will never be beaten, yet the three men - known throughout England as The Triumvirate - were born in two small villages just outside Huddersfield, in Last of the Summer Wine country. Hirst pioneered and perfected the art of swing and seam bowling, Rhodes took more first-class wickets than anyone else in history, while the genial Haigh's achievements as a bowler at Yorkshire have been surpassed only by his two close friends; their influence would extend far beyond England, as they all went to India to coach, laying the foundations of cricket in the subcontinent.  Pearson, whose biography of Learie Constantine, Connie, won the MCC Book of the Year Award, brings the characters and the age vividly to life, showing how these cricketing stars came to symbolise the essence of Yorkshire. This was a time when the gritty northern professionals from the White Rose county took on some of the most glittering amateurs of the age, including W.G.Grace, C.B.Fry, Prince Ranji and Gilbert Jessop, and when writers such as Neville Cardus and J.M.Kilburn were on hand to bring their achievements to a wider audience.  The First of the Summer Wine is a celebration of a vanished age, but also reveals how the efforts of Hirst, Rhodes and Haigh helped create the modern era, too.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/538398 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Johan Cruyff: Always on the Attack

Author: Auke Kok

Narrator: Chris Harper

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 16 hours 48 minutes

Release date: June 14, 2022

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

'This terrific biography...well-researched, well written' David Winner 'Deeply researched...nicely written, and manages to get inside Cruyff's very bizarre head' Simon Kuper Argumentative, brilliant, arrogant, visionary. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, a worldwide phenomenon and arguably the most famous Dutchman of the twentieth century. Both on the pitch and from the sidelines as a coach, with his brand of Total Football he changed how the game was played and left a lasting legacy. Although Cruyff led a large part of his illustrious career and life in the spotlight, in many ways Cruyff the man and sportsman is still a complete mystery. Based on years of extensive research, this biography the first to cover all aspects of Cruyff’s life and work, from his key influence in the great Ajax and Netherlands sides of the 1970s to his role in creating the modern footballing phenomenon that is Barcelona.   Drawing on hundreds of interviews with friends from his childhood and school, coaches, teammates, on-pitch opponents, business associates and family members, Auke Kok has written the definitive biography of the skinny impish street footballer that became the genius player, inspirational manager, football philosopher and commercial pioneer that was Johan Cruyff.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/556488 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was

Author: Daniel Friebe

Narrator: Mark Meadows

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 18 hours 39 minutes

Release date: June 9, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

Jan Ullrich: The Best There Never Was is the first biography of Jan Ullrich, arguably the most naturally talented cyclist of his generation, and also one of the most controversial champions of the Tour de France. In 1997, Jan Ullrich announced himself to the world by obliterating his rivals in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. So awesome was his display that it sent shockwaves throughout the world of cycling and invited headlines such as L’Équipe’s ‘The New Giant’. He went on to become Germany’s first ever Tour winner, storming to victory in that edition by almost ten minutes, a result that was greeted as an era-defining changing of the guard. Everyone agreed: Jan Ullrich was the future of cycling. He was soon also voted Germany’s most popular sportsperson of all time, and his rivalry with Lance Armstrong defined the most controversial years of the Tour de France. Now, Daniel Friebe – who has covered twenty-one editions of the Tour de France – has gone in search of the man who was said in 1997 would go on to dominate his sport for a generation, but never quite managed it. Just what did happen to the best who never was? This is a gripping account of how unbearable expectation, mental and physical fragility, the effects of a complicated childhood, a morally corrupt sport and one individual – Lance Armstrong – can conspire to reroute destiny. Daniel Friebe takes us from the legacy of East Germany’s drugs programme to the pinnacle of pro cycling and asks: what price can you give sporting immortality?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/548820 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Watermen: The Birth of American Swimming and One Young Man's Fight to Capture Olympic Gold

Author: Michael Loynd

Narrator: Will Damron

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 36 minutes

Release date: June 7, 2022

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 1

Genres: Sports

Publisher's Summary:

The feel-good underdog story of the first American swimmer to win Olympic gold, set against the turbulent rebirth of the modern Games, that “bring[s] to life an inspiring figure and illuminate[s] an overlooked chapter in America’s sports history” (The Wall Street Journal) “Once or twice in a decade, one of these stories . . . like Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken [or] Daniel Brown’s The Boys in the Boat . . . captures the imagination of the public. . . . Add The Watermen by Michael Loynd to this illustrious list.”—Swimming World Winner of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s Paragon Award and the Buck Dawson Authors Award In the early twentieth century, few Americans knew how to swim, and swimming as a competitive sport was almost unheard of. That is, until Charles Daniels took to the water. On the surface, young Charles had it all: high-society parents, a place at an exclusive New York City prep school, summer vacations in the Adirondacks. But the scrawny teenager suffered from extreme anxiety thanks to a sadistic father who mired the family in bankruptcy and scandal before abandoning Charles and his mother altogether. Charles’s only source of joy was swimming. But with no one to teach him, he struggled with technique—until he caught the eye of two immigrant coaches hell-bent on building a U.S. swim program that could rival the British Empire’s seventy-year domination of the sport. Interwoven with the story of Charles’s efforts to overcome his family’s disgrace is the compelling history of the struggle to establish the modern Olympics in an era when competitive sports were still in their infancy. When the powerful British Empire finally legitimized the Games by hosting the fourth Olympiad in 1908, Charles’s hard-fought rise climaxed in a gold-medal race where British judges prepared a trap to ensure the American upstart’s defeat. Set in the early days of a rapidly changing twentieth century, The Watermen—a term used at the time to describe men skilled in water sports—tells an engrossing story of grit, of the growth of a major new sport in which Americans would prevail, and of a young man’s determination to excel.