Four for the Month

Still trying to figure out how to spend those holiday gift cards from Uncle Edward and Aunt Irene? The Acorn sports department suggests picking up one of these fine books.

"Kelly Slater: For the Love"

Authors: Kelly Slater and Phil Jarratt

Amazon.com price: $23.06

Is there any doubt that Kelly Slater's life is better than yours?

Probably not, and now you can read all about it, again— Slater's first book was "Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey," published in 2004.

The guy is a nine-time world champion, a well-compensated international celebrity with a history of dating beautiful women and has immediate respect in just about any surf lineup on the planet.

His friends are famous, too—there's a nice forward by guitar hero Jack Johnson and a really cool story about traveling with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder at King Island, Australia.

The best part of the book, though, has to be when Slater describes how he became completely hooked on golf in the mid1990s and how golf allowed him to reinvent his surfing technique.

":07 Seconds or Less"

Author: Jack McCallum

Amazon.com price: $5.99

Jack McCallum spent the 200506 NBA season as an "assistant coach" with the Phoenix Suns.

At the time, the Suns were all the rage in the sports world. Phoenix ran its electrifying nonstop offense—think of a hummingbird on a Red Bull diet— to near perfection.

McCallum brings the reader along for the wild ride with one of the most entertaining teams in the history of the sport.

The team is now a shell of its former self.

Key cogs Raja Bell and Boris Diaw were traded earlier this season. The spry Shawn Marion was swapped for the cumbersome Shaquille O'Neal in a blockbuster move last year. Steve Nash is starting to slow down.

With an opportunity to look back, this book provides a worthy salute to the team's nottoodistant golden age.

There is evidence here about how well former head coach Mike D'Antoni (now leading the New York Knicks' resurgence) helped forge the Suns' identity.

":07 Seconds or Less" isn't really about players. It's about coaches and how important they are to a team's success or failure.

"Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World"

Author: David Maraniss

Amazon.com price: $17.79

The best book to come out in 2008 may have been David Maraniss' "Rome 1960."

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author does a stellar job describing every event during the span of 18 days in the summer of 1960.

Included in the book are chapters dedicated to United States athletes such as sprinter Wilma Rudolph, decathlete Rafer Johnson and a young, confident boxer from Kentucky named Cassius Clay, who would go on to greater fame and success by another name—Muhammad Ali.

With the Olympics taking place in the middle of the Cold War, the Games were rife with tension.

Also included are chapters on Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen, who collapsed during a race and died shortly after.

Later on, it was proven Jensen had taken eight pills of phenylisopropylamine, causing the first doping scandal in Olympics history.

Maraniss also describes in full detail the controversial swimming race between Lance Larson of the U.S. and John Devitt of Australia.

It's a can'tmiss book for history buffs and sports fans.

"War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest."

Author: Michael Rosenberg

Amazon.com price: $17.81

With the college football bowl season well underway, why not read about one of the sport's biggest rivalries—Ohio State vs. Michigan.

Michael Rosenberg, a writer for the Detroit Free Press, does an excellent job describing in detail the 10-Year War, from 1969 to 1979, between the two powerhouse programs and their historic coaches, Ohio State's Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler of Michigan.

Rosenberg describes how Schembechler went from being Hayes' assistant coach at Ohio State to the head coach of Michigan, or as Hayes would call it, "That school up north."

During the late 1960s and early '70s, one team from the Big Ten would qualify for the Rose Bowl, while the remaining teams in the conference wouldn't compete in any bowl game.

As such, matchups between the Buckeyes and Wolverines each November would often help determine the national championship.