Libro.fm Picks: For the Athlete

Coasting

Running Around the Coast of Britain – Life, Love and (Very) Loose Plans

By: Elise Downing
Narrated by: Elise Downing
Length: 7 hours 6 minutes

Running away from your problems doesn't solve anything – but sometimes it's more fun than dealing with them
Elise was spending a lot of time crying on buses. She had just graduated from university; had a shiny new flat, her first proper job and a budding relationship – and they were making her miserable. Sitting at work one day, she hit upon the... Read more

Canyon Dreams

A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation

By: Michael Powell
Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
Length: 7 hours 44 minutes

The moving story of a Navajo high school basketball team, its members struggling with the everyday challenges of high school, adolescence, and family, and the great and unique obstacles facing Native Americans living on reservations.
 
Deep in the heart of northern Arizona, in a small and isolated patch of the vast 17.5-million-acre Navajo... Read more

Spirit Run

A 6000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land

By: Noé Álvarez
Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
Length: 5 hours 19 minutes

“Noe Alvarez's writing has an ease to it that welcomes the reader. It draws you in to in this journey. Read more

All In

An Autobiography

By: Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard & Maryanne Vollers
Narrated by: Billie Jean King
Length: 18 hours 6 minutes

“What a gift the autobiography of Billie Jean King is for all of us! I listened to Billie Jean King tell me the history of women's tennis and sports (Title IX, equal pay), social justice movements, gay rights, women's liberation, and of her life. To use one of her words — amazing!...This is an autobiography, not a memoir, so it is comprehensive... Read more

Why We Love Baseball

A History in 50 Moments

By: Joe Posnanski
Narrated by: Joe Posnanski & Ellen Adair
Length: 11 hours 52 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES bestseller
WALL STREET JOURNAL bestseller

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Posnanski is back with a masterful ode to the game: a countdown of 50 of the most memorable moments in baseball’s history, to make you fall in love with the sport all over again.
 
Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of... Read more

Good for a Girl

A Woman Running in a Man's World

By: Lauren Fleshman
Narrated by: Lauren Fleshman
Length: 7 hours 56 minutes

* A New York Times Bestseller
* Winner of the William Hill Sports Book Of The Year Award
* A Financial Times Best Sports Book of 2023

Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female... Read more

Obie Is Man Enough

By: Schuyler Bailar
Narrated by: Schuyler Bailar
Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

A coming-of-age story about transgender tween Obie, who didn't think being himself would cause such a splash. For fans of Alex Gino's George and Lisa Bunker's Felix Yz.

Obie knew his transition would have ripple effects. He has to leave his swim coach, his pool, and his best friends. But it’s time for Obie to find where he truly belongs.
 
As Obie... Read more

One Life

By: Megan Rapinoe & Emma Brockes
Narrated by: Megan Rapinoe
Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

An instant New York Times bestseller!

“Rapinoe's 'signature pose' from the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is synonymous to the feeling we got when finishing this book: heart full, arms wide and ready to take up space in this world.”—USA Today 
 
Megan Rapinoe, Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women's World Cup champion, reveals for the first time... Read more

Life in Two Worlds

A Coach's Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back

By: Ted Nolan
Narrated by: James Malloch
Length: 11 hours 37 minutes

#1 BESTSELLER

In 1997 Ted Nolan won the Jack Adams Award for best coach in the NHL. But he wouldn’t work in pro hockey again for almost a decade. What happened?

Growing up on a First Nation reserve, young Ted Nolan built his own backyard hockey rink and wore skates many sizes too big. But poverty wasn’t his biggest challenge. Playing the game... Read more

Born to Run

A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

By: Christopher McDougall
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Length: 11 hours 6 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run. An epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?

“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run.” —Outside... Read more

Brothers on Three

A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana

By: Abe Streep
Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

"A heart-stomping, heart-stopping read. Unsentimental. Unforgettable. Astonishing. Brothers on Three captures the roar of a community spirit powered by blood history, loyalty, and ferocious love."
—Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red

From journalist Abe Streep, the story of coming of age on a reservation in the American West and a team... Read more

Over It

How to Face Life’s Hurdles with Grit, Hustle, and Grace

By: Lolo Jones
Narrated by: Lolo Jones
Length: 5 hours 58 minutes

Read by the author.Three-time Olympian Lolo Jones delivers a tough yet inspiring look into the strategies she has used to overcome immense obstacles on her way to becoming the number-one women's hurdler in the world.Lolo Jones's path to becoming a world champion and an Olympian began in childhood with a single mother who worked multiple jobs to... Read more

Path Lit By Lightning

By: David Maraniss
Narrated by: David Maraniss
Length: 23 hours 26 minutes

A biography of America’s greatest all-around athlete that “goes beyond the myth and into the guts of Thorpe’s life, using extensive research, historical nuance, and bittersweet honesty” (Los Angeles Times), by the bestselling author of the classic biography When Pride Still Mattered.

Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled... Read more

Becoming Kareem

Growing Up On and Off the Court

By: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld
Narrated by: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

The first memoir for young readers by sports legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

At one time, Lew Alcindor was just another kid from New York City with all the usual problems: He struggled with fitting in, with pleasing a strict father, and with overcoming shyness that made him feel socially awkward. But with a talent for basketball, and an unmatched... Read more

What I Talk about When I Talk about Running

A Memoir

By: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: Ray Porter
Length: 4 hours 23 minutes

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore comes this rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running and the integral impact both have made on his life. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers Murakami’s four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Settings range from... Read more

Powder Days

Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow

By: Heather Hansman
Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya
Length: 7 hours 57 minutes

*An Outside Magazine Book Club Pick*

"A sparkling account."—Wall Street Journal

An electrifying adventure into the rich history of skiing and the modern heart of ski-bum culture, from one of America's most preeminent ski journalists

The story of skiing is, in many ways, the story of America itself. Blossoming from the Tenth Mountain Division... Read more

The Wind at My Back

Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts from My Mentor Raven Wilkinson

By: Misty Copeland
Narrated by: Misty Copeland
Length: 5 hours 13 minutes

From celebrated ballerina and New York Times bestselling author Misty Copeland, a heartfelt memoir about her friendship with trailblazer Raven Wilkinson which captures the importance of mentorship, shared history, and honoring the past to ensure a stronger future.

Misty Copeland made history as the first African-American principal ballerina at... Read more

Yoke

My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

By: Jessamyn Stanley
Narrated by: Jessamyn Stanley
Length: 4 hours 29 minutes

Finding self-acceptance both on and off the mat.
In Sanskrit, yoga means to “yoke.” To yoke mind and body, movement and breath, light and dark, the good and the bad. This larger idea of “yoke” is what Jessamyn Stanley calls the yoga of the everyday—a yoga that is not just about perfecting your downward dog but about applying the hard lessons... Read more

Hail Mary

The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League

By: Britni De La Cretaz & Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
Narrated by: Kimberly Austin
Length: 9 hours 37 minutes

In 1967, a Cleveland businessman had a brilliant idea: why not start a women's football team? It was conceived as a gimmick and a publicity stunt in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters. He recruited women to compete as a traveling football troupe; much to his surprise, he learned that women really wanted to play—and play hard. Hail Mary is the... Read more

Why We Swim

By: Bonnie Tsui
Narrated by: Angie Kane
Length: 6 hours 35 minutes

Humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now in the twenty-first century, we swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. Swimming is an introspective and silent sport in a chaotic and noisy age; it’s... Read more