Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly

Sports fans and regular readers of Sports Illustrated will already know to snap up this book when they see it's a collection of pieces by award-winning SI columnist Rick Reilly. Others should follow their lead, as this superb, wide-ranging collection isn't so much about sports as about "people who happen to be in sports." Some columns are tearjerkers, such as the story of a blind man who finally gets to "see" a match played by his beloved New York Islanders, but most are laugh-out-loud funny, like the one detailing the season Reilly coached his daughter's middle school basketball team ("I learned something about seventh-grade girls: They're usually in the bathroom"). A few are scathing, as in his acid-laced response to Barry Bonds denying he used steroids ("Bonds's records should stay in the books. With a little syringe next to every one"). And though it may not be surprising how many columns aim for inspiring-like the story of spirited Ben Comen, a high school cross-country runner with cerebral palsy-it's a shock how many hit the mark. Reilly's columns are short but pack a punch; a collection best savored, readers should resist as best they can the urge to consume this book in a single sitting.