Legendary, award-winning sportswriter Leigh Montville—former Boston Globe columnist, Sports Illustrated senior writer, and New York Times bestselling author of biographies covering the lives of athletes like Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, and Dale Earnhardt—has entertained sports fans and readers for five decades with his wry voice and razor-sharp insights.

But even after his six critically acclaimed, bestselling biographies, Sports Illustrated cover stories, and decades of Globe columns, Montville has never written an autobiographical word. That changes with TALL MEN, SHORT SHORTS: The 1969 NBA Finals: Wilt, Russ, Lakers, Celtics, and A Very Young Sports Reporter (Doubleday).

Already poised to be a new classic, TALL MEN, SHORT SHORTS weaves a fine thread of Montville’s own coming-of-age as a celebrated journalist into an absolutely riveting sports story: the 1969 NBA Finals. Considered one of the best championship series in sports history—seven games, West Coast vs. East Coast, ending with a massive upset—it was a classic battle between the Los Angeles Lakers (the first iteration of the Dream Team so familiar to us today) and Boston Celtics (widely regarded as the underdogs, past their prime after an unbelievable 12-season, 10-championship run), with two of the most legendary stars of the game in Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell who, even today, rank alongside Michael Jordan and LeBron James as two of the greatest players of all time.

But beyond the breathtaking sports writing, Montville also steeps us in the nostalgia of 1969—the good and the ugly—when most professional sports teams were racially integrated but not always smoothly (see: Bill Russell’s comments about being a Black man in 1960s Boston) and sports fans didn’t quite know how to feel about it, all against the backdrop of Vietnam and an America in political, cultural, and racial turmoil, through the eyes of a very young, very green New England sportswriter.

With lively and colorful coverage of the classic series, an epic cast of characters, Montville’s own charming narrative thread, and real contemporary resonance to our current political and racial tensions—exploding on and off the court, field, and pitch—TALL MEN, SHORT SHORTS will delight basketball fans old and new.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Three-time New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville is a former columnist at The Boston Globe and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is the author of Sting Like A Bee, Evel, The Mysterious Montague, The Big Bam, Ted Williams, At the Altar of Speed, Manute, and Why Not Us? He lives in Boston.

Michelle Seiler Tucker and Sharon Lechter, authors of EXIT RICH share how to build sustainable, scalable and when you are ready- sellable business and everything they learned along the way.

Michelle is the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated, an M&A firm that has sold over a thousand businesses. Sharon is the CEO of Pay Your Family First and she co-authored the international bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad. Steve Forbes calls EXIT RICH a "goldmine for entrepreneurs."

Sharon Lechter is an entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, international speaker, and Chartered Global Management Accountant. With a 35 year career as a licensed CPA and a life-long education advocate, she is the founder and CEO of Pay Your Family First, a financial education organization. Regarded as a global expert on financial literacy, Sharon has served as a national spokeswoman and Presidential Adviser on the topic for two US Presidents.

Sharon co-authored the international bestseller Rich Dad Poor Dad and has released 14 other books in the Rich Dad series. Over 10 years as co-Founder and CEO, she led the Rich Dad Company and brand into an international powerhouse.

Michelle Seiler Tucker is the author of EXIT RICH: The 6 P Method to Sell Your Business for Huge Profit and the Founder and CEO of Seiler Tucker Incorporated. She has sold hundreds of businesses to date and currently owns and operates several successful businesses. She is a leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses, as well as increasing business revenue streams. She often posts about these topics on the company’s business blog.

A formidable force in her industry, Michelle closes 98% of all offers she writes and, on average, obtains a 20 to 40% higher selling price for her clients. Her remarkable track record proves her persistence and dedication to creating win-win situations for both her buyers and sellers. Michelle is also the bestselling author of Think & Grow Rich Today and Sell Your Business for More Than it’s Worth, has appeared in Forbes, Inc., CNBC, and Fox Business and even started her own podcast called Exit Rich. She has also been a “celebrity judge” on “Pitch Tank” alongside Steve Forbes and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. She lives in New Orleans.

Sandra Brown has written masterful romantic suspense novels for decades—72 New York Times bestsellers with more than 80 million copies in print worldwide in 34 languages. In BLIND TIGER (2021), Sandra returns to historical fiction with one of her best books ever. The year 1920 comes in with a roar in this rousing story where Prohibition is the new law of the land, but murder, mayhem, lust, and greed are already institutions in the Moonshine Capitol of Texas. And it just so happens that “blind tiger” is another name for a speakeasy.

The social and cultural landscape of the 1920s was strikingly similar to today: Americans were trying to recover from the Spanish Flu, a global pandemic that claimed the lives of millions, and a coordinated women’s movement resulted in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, finally granting women the right to vote. These parallels between the past and present have inspired Sandra Brown to write an unforgettable romance between a young widow and an enigmatic drifter, a mystery spawned from a shocking disappearance and a murder that sets the whole town on edge.

Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier on the way back to his cowboy life, jumps from a moving freight train to avoid trouble, but lands in more than he bargained for. On the day he arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners, and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will.

What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal. As violence erupts, Laurel and—now deputy—Thatcher find themselves on opposite sides of a moonshine war, where blood flows as freely as whiskey.

In 1949, Hadassah Lieberman and her family immigrated from the Czech Republic to the United States. She went on to earn a BA from Boston University in government and dramatics and an MA in international relations and American government from Northeastern University. She built a career devoted largely to public health that has included positions at Lehman Brothers, Pfizer, and the National Research Council. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she married Joe Lieberman, a US senator from Connecticut who was the Democratic nominee for vice president with Al Gore and would go on to run for president.

In Hadassah, Lieberman shares the story of her extraordinary life: from her family’s experience in Eastern Europe to their move to Gardner, Massachusetts; forging her career; experiencing divorce; and, following her remarriage, her life on the national political stage. By offering insight into her identity as an immigrant, an American Jew, and a working mother, Lieberman’s memoir speaks to many of the major issues of our time, from immigration to anti-Semitism to gender politics. With an introduction by Joe Lieberman and an afterword by Megan McCain, it’s a true American story.

Hadassah Lieberman has had a rewarding career dedicated to health care issues, assisting nonprofit organizations, improving educational standards, and promoting international understanding, with a particular focus on global women’s health.

Do you ever feel like you’re doing more than your fair share of chores at home, that no one else sees the dishes piling up or remembers the school bake sale? That kind of “mom rage” is the fuel for Chandler Baker’s sharply observed, darkly funny, and deeply suspenseful follow-up to her New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon book club pick Whisper Network: THE HUSBANDS, “[a] delightful and furious take on Stepford Wives” (CrimeReads).

Just ahead of publication, MGM announced the acquisition of the film rights, with Kristen Wiig attached to star. The novel has also been hotly anticipated by Newsweek, The New York Post, LitHub, and author Riley Sager (Survive the Night), who named THE HUSBANDS one of his Most Anticipated summer thrillers over at Parade.

Baker was inspired to write the story, in part, by the statistic that women still do on average almost twice as much unpaid labor as men. It follows Nora Spangler, stressed-out mom of one with another on the way, a woman who is vying to make partner at the law firm where she works and not getting nearly enough help from her husband to truly have it all. When the couple tours a potential new home at suburban housing development Dynasty Ranch, Nora begins to notice that the neighbors all have husbands who are willing to do more than their fair share, and a secret that might just be worth killing for.

Chandler Baker lives in Austin with her husband and two small children where she works as a full-time writer and occasionally dabbles in her previous career of corporate law. She is the author of several young adult novels and her adult debut, Whisper Network, was a New York Timesbestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick.

Nelle and Evan Pereira were thrilled to close on their “forever home,” a spacious paradise nestled against a state forest in Massachusetts. Three months later, on a brisk Saturday morning, their peace is destroyed when an intruder captures Nelle home by herself. Quickly overpowered by the aggressive stranger, she’s forced down to the cold, musty basement where he ties her to a chair. The intruder has a singular, if unusual, demand: he wants her to make a phone call. One that Nelle isn’t confident she can make, even though her life depends on it. Desperate to see herself and her husband to safety, Nelle doesn’t yet realize this was no chance encounter—it was a carefully planned attack. With no one to hear them scream, their secluded home feels horrifyingly isolated. And before this long day is through, Nelle and Evan, who share a dangerous secret, will bring a violent reckoning down upon all of them. 

BRACKEN MACLEOD is the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of the novels Mountain Home, Come to Dust, and Stranded and two collections of short fiction, 13 Views of the Suicide Woods and White Knight and Other Pawns. He has worked as a trial attorney, philosophy instructor, and martial arts teacher. He lives in New England with his wife and son.

About BATH HAUS:

P.J. Vernon’s BATH HAUS (Doubleday) opens with Oliver as he tentatively gathers the courage to enter a gay DC Bath Haus while his partner is out of town. A recovering addict, Oliver has now settled into a much more subdued way of life with Nathan, a wealthy surgeon with even wealthier parents. But while Nathan is away on business, Oliver finds himself pulled towards this exciting escape. However, his Bath Haus visit becomes more thrilling than he intended when he enters a private room with a stranger and ends up fleeing for his life.

This is only the beginning of the lies and a roller coaster of OMG moments to come in this one-of-a-kind ride. Vernon has combined all the best features of a typical psychological thriller and added a ridiculously endearing gay couple at the forefront. Oliver and Nathan, are the charming couple that seem to have it all behind the doors of their glamorous Washington, DC abode. BATH HAUS will have readers questioning every engaging character they come across, only to be shocked by the final page.

About the Author:

P. J. VERNON was born in South Carolina. His first book, When You Find Me, was published in 2018. He lives in Calgary with his partner and two wily dogs.

Rachel Klein is sacked from her job at the White House after she sends an email criticizing Donald Trump. As she is escorted off the premises, she is hit by a speeding car, driven by what the press will discreetly call “a personal friend of the President.” Does that explain the flowers, the get-well wishes at a press briefing, the hush money offered by a lawyer at her hospital bedside? Rachel’s recovery is soothed by comically doting parents, matchmaking roommates, a new job as aide to a journalist whose books aim to defame the President, and unexpected love at the local wine store. But secrets leak, and Rachel’s newfound happiness has to make room for more than a little chaos. Will she bring down the President? Or will he manage to do that all by himself? Rachel to the Rescue is a mischievous political satire, with a delightful cast of characters, from one of America’s funniest novelists. ELINOR LIPMAN was born in Massachusetts and is the author of more than a dozen novels. Her first one, Then She Found Me, was published in 1990 and was adapted into a film starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, and Colin Firth. She won the New England Book Award in 2001, and her novel My Latest Grievance won the Paterson Fiction Prize. She lives in Manhattan, as well as in upstate New York.

ELINOR LIPMAN is the award-winning author of over a dozen novels, including The View from Penthouse B and The Inn at Lake Devine; one essay collection, I Can't Complain; and Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. She lives in New York City.

About THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN:

In THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, Belle da Costa Greene is given the opportunity of a lifetime, to be the personal librarian to prominent financier and banker John Pierpont Morgan. The newly built Pierpont Morgan Library is hers to curate, and she soon becomes a fixture in the art world and J.P. Morgan’s personal confidant. With impeccable taste, shrewd negotiation skills, and an unparalleled fashion sense, Belle takes New York City by storm and helps Morgan build a world-class collection.

All the while, Belle is hiding a secret that has the power to destroy the reputation she worked so hard to forge—a secret that would bar her from the very institution she ran. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener, daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. In order to protect herself from post-Civil War society, which was still gripped by rampant racism, she abandons her name and fabricates a white identity that will allow her to access the opportunities she deserves.

But as she gets closer to J.P. Morgan, experiences her first romance with a fellow curator, and builds the Morgan Library to international prominence, Belle finds herself torn between her desire for success and her yearning to be herself. Surrounded by the expectations of others and the harsh realities of American society, Belle must decide, once and for all, who she will be.

www.authormariebenedict.com

www.victoriachristophermurray.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years' experience as a litigator. A graduate of Boston College and the Boston University School of Law, she is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, Carnegie's Maid, The Other Einstein, and Lady Clementine. All have been translated into multiple languages. She lives in Pittsburgh with her family.

Victoria Christopher Murray is an acclaimed author with more than one million books in print. She has written more than twenty novels, including Stand Your Ground, an NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Fiction and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. She holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Harry M. Rosenfeld died this week at his home in Slingerlands, NY. He was a child refugee from Nazi Germany. Harry was a key figure in the Washington Post's coverage of The Watergate break in and scandal as managing editor. He even hired Bob Woodward. He had a 50 year career in the newspaper business including working at The New York Herald Tribune, and being the top editor of two Albany NY newspapers. His philosophy on journalism from his 2013 memoir was "holding to account the accountable, the more powerful the better.” 

I interviewed Harry shortly after he released his book "Battling Editor: The Albany Years" in 2019.