Forsyth County Public Library: Sports: December 2025

Rack 'em Up - Everything Billiards

Picture Yourself Shooting Pool
by Matt Sherman

This book provides practical and accessible pool theory and instruction to everyone from beginners up to skilled players. Strategy and tips on how to read the table, as well as basic rules for different pool games, table etiquette, and information on how to purchase and maintain a personal cue stick and table are also covered.

Pool & Billiards: Everything You Need to Know to Improve Your Game
by Bruce Barthelette

This book covers all aspects of the sport, from choosing equipment, keeping score, and dissecting a variety of games (Snooker, Eight Ball, and Cut Throat among them). It also offers helpful tips on holding the cue and getting the proper angles.

Pool Techniques and Tricks
by Pierre Morin

A guide to playing pool including advice from players, vocabulary, rules, equipment, basic techniques and various strategies, clear diagrams, and more than 100 professional trick shots.

The Black Widow: A Memoir
by Jeanette Lee

A candid and moving autobiography by the 'Black Widow' of billiards. Jeanette Lee was 18 years old when she walked into a New York City pool hall and became enamored by the elegant geometry of the game. Before long, she was an unmistakable figure on the international competition circuit, dressed head-to-toe in black, stalking the billiards table and gazing down her cue as if tracking her prey. In this new memoir, the woman nicknamed 'The Black Widow' opens up about her legendary career and the rich, unpredictable life she's woven around it.

The Hustler & the Champ: Willie Mosconi, Minnesota Fats, and the Rivalry That Defined Pool
by R. A. Dyer

It was Valentine's Day, 1978, and Howard Cosell was hosting the long-awaited show-down between the best-ever tournament player, Willie Mosconi, and the game's most famous hustler, Minnesota Fats. This was The Great Pool Shoot-Out, one of the most highly rated televised sporting events of the year, exceeding even World Series games and basketball championships. Fats and Mosconi are without a doubt the two most important players ever to hold a cue. This is the ultimate tale of American sportsmanship.

The Hustler

A pool shark's travels from one seedy playing room to another lead him to a potentially life-changing showdown with the legendary Minnesota Fats. Set in the shady world of smoke-filled pool halls, this is a portrait of a damaged character who fears winning as much as losing.

New Sports Books

Misunderstood: A Memoir
by Allen Iverson

A memoir from Allen Iverson, the NBA's most misunderstood Hall of Famer, detailing his tough childhood in Virginia, his entry into the league as the number one overall pick, and his controversial, culture-changing pro basketball career.

Shot Ready
by Stephen Curry

Shot Ready is a distillation of Stephen Curry's transformative philosophy of success--centered on preparation, constant improvement, creativity, connection, mindfulness, and joy.

Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It
by Jane Leavy

When sportswriter Jane Leavy was searching for new biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl, often at the expense of thrills, skills, and surprise. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: how much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions, talking with luminaries like Joe Torre, Dave Roberts, Jim Palmer, Dusty Baker, and more. What Leavy uncovers is not only what's wrong with baseball--and how to fix it--but also what's right with baseball, and how it illuminates characters, tells stories, and fires up the imagination of those who love it and everyone who could discover it anew.

Never Stop: Life, Leadership, and What It Takes to Be Great
by Dan Hurley

Dan Hurley is one of the most famous head coaches in America today--in any sport. He returned the UConn Huskies men's basketball team to their rightful place among the nation's elite, winning back-to-back NCAA Championships, and he did it with uncommon passion. His on-court eruptions, his face-offs with refs and even fans, are legendary. But behind all the winning and swagger is a story of intense, harrowing struggle. As the son of a revered high school coach and the younger brother of a college basketball icon, Hurley spent years fearing that he'd just never measure up. He suffered through several bouts of anxiety and deep depressions. As a young player he was ridiculed, as a young coach he came up short. Many people would have given up. But through relentless will, and Jersey City grit, he reached the summit.

In the Name of Freedom: A Political Dissident's Fight for Human Rights in the NBA and Around the World
by Enes Kanter Freedom

A riveting story of personal hardship, the cost of political dissent, and the quest for justice that recounts how NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom became a leading activist for human rights around the world. Freedom was born to play basketball, but he risked it all when he realized that his voice could be a force for change. In the Name of Freedom tells the story of how a boy with a dream in Turkey became an American citizen, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and a fierce advocate for human rights--and the price he paid for speaking out.