Book cover of Giant Steps: The Autobiography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Book description

The renowned basketball player shares his professional and private life and discusses his struggle to achieve a balance between the demands of being a celebrity and his own needs

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Why read it?

1 author picked Giant Steps as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I have been reading reams of material about and by Jabbar as part of the research for my next book, and this, among his several memoirs, is my favorite.

It is raw and honest and insightful, putting the reader inside the mind and heart of one of the 20th century’s greatest and most consequential athletes. Best of all, Jabbar wrote Giant Steps in the early 1980s, when he was still an elite player for the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers.

It’s difficult to imagine an athlete of his status doing something similar today, in this age of social-media image-burnishing.

From Mike's list on going beyond the final score.

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These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

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