**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERSmithsonian • 10 Best History Books of 2025Bookpage • Best Books of 2025"A work of spectral beauty destined to be a classic. Readers of Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, Erik Larsen’s Dead Wake, and Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea will love this deeply reported tale." —Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of The Wide Wide Sea and In the...

The series you thought you knew: the first book written with the complete co-operation of the whole team“They’d stolen our beer and our steaks, and then to make it worse . . . they give us this Russian beer—the warm, skunky sh*t, and not the good, cold Labatts our sponsor sent. I remember thinking, ‘These pricks will never beat us again! They are not going to win another f*cking game.’”—Rod GilbertWhen the Summit Series began on September 2, 1972, Cold War ...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * by the author ofThe Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund FitzgeraldThe "riveting" (National Post) tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes“Enthralling. ... Gripping. ... A captivating and emotionally investing journey.” —Pittsbur...

For the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters and ABC's college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation's most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir, Saunders discusses his troubled childhood, the traumatic brain injury he suffered in 2011, and the severe depression that...

From New York Times bestselling author and Michigan football expert John Back, an analysis of the state of college football: Why we love the game, what is at risk, and the fight to save it.In search of the sport’s old ideals amid the roaring flood of hypocrisy and greed, bestselling author John U. Bacon embedded himself in four college football programs—Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Northwestern—and captured the oldest, biggest, most stori...

"An insider's look at Michigan's closely guarded football secrets but does so from the lens of the behind-the-scenes personalities." — ForbesIn December 2014, the University of Michigan's storied football program was in shambles. Over the previous eight years, the perennial Big Ten powerhouse had barely risen above the .500 mark. But on December thirty, a savior was proclaimed in new head coach Jim Harbaugh, a former NFL Coach of the Year,...

Creativity and innovation are widely recognized as essential to success in business and so many aspects of our lives. For over two decades, Cirque du Soleil has been a world-renowned laboratory of creativity, enthralling audiences by fusing dazzling acrobatics, staging, choreography, and music, along with beautiful costumes and technical effects, to inspire and create magical, almost otherworldly theatrical experiences. In The Spark, Cirque’s former President of Creative Content, ...

The New York Times–bestselling sportswriter helps a high school hockey team go from losers to legends in this inspiring memoir and leadership guide.When John U. Bacon played for the Ann Arbor Huron High School River Rats, he never scored a goal. Yet somehow, years later he found himself leading his alma mater's downtrodden program. How bad? The team hadn't won a game in over a year, making them the nation's worst squad—a fact they celebrated.With al...

The New York Times bestseller Endzone tells the story of how one of college football's most successful, richest and respected programs, the University of Michigan, almost lost it all in less than a decade--and entirely of its own doing.It is a story of hubris, greed, and betrayal--a tale more suited to Wall Street than the world's top public university.Author John U. Bacon takes you inside the offices, the board rooms and the locker rooms o...

"Like the Moneyball of college football, Three and Out blows the lid off one of the sports world's most perplexing mysteries."— Entertainment WeeklyThree and Out tells the story of how college football's most influential coach took over the nation's most successful program, only to produce three of the worst seasons in the histories of both Rich Rodriguez and the University of Michigan. Shortly after his controversial move from W...

From the Preface:“I wrote these stories between 1992 and 2018. They cover a dozen different sports for a dozen different media outlets, from the Ann Arbor News to National Public Radio, and they stretch from a couple pages to a dozen. But they have one thing in common: they all meant a lot to me when I wrote them, and they still do today.”The Best of Bacon presents both new and familiar stories by best-selling author John U. Bacon, all centered on sports in...

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald**’s sinking, the bestselling author of** The Great Halifax Explosion tells the definitive story of the “Mighty Fitz.”For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley do...