John Feinstein

Feinstein's books generally follow a similar formula: go through a sports season or year in roughly chronological order, while taking the time to delve deeper into the experiences and personalities of individual players and coaches. As such, his books are about sports, but also about people and often human psychology. Feinstein has an uncanny ability to let the reader "get into the head" of people and feel like you actually know them and sympathize with them.

Perhaps his most famous book was his 1986 "A Season on the Brink" which followed Bobby Knight and his Indiana basketball team through the 1985-1986 season. The book's a great look into the complex character that is Bobby Knight, and into how he runs a basketball team.

Some other books by Feinstein (*** = books I've read):

• ***"A Season Inside" (1988): follows the 1986-1987(?) college basketball season
• "Forever's Team" (1989): looks at the Duke basketball team of the late 1970s
• "Hard Courts" (1991): a look inside the 1990 world of tennis
• "Running Mates" (1992): a political murder novel (non-sports related)
• ***"Play Ball" (1993): chronicles the 1992 Major League Baseball season, looking at potential problems on the horizon
• "Winter Games" (1995): fiction work about the darkside of college basketball recruiting, combined with a murder mystery
• "A Good Walk Spoiled" (1995): about the 1994 PGA (golf) Tour.
• "A Civil War" (1996): details the Army vs. Navy college football rivalry, focusing on 1995
• ***"A March To Madness" (1998): follows the ACC through the 1996-1997 college basketball season
• "The First Coming" (1998): short book analyzing Tiger Woods
• "The Majors" (1999): chronicles the four major tournaments of the 1998 golf season
• "The Last Amateurs" (2000): examines the 1999-2000 Patriot League basketball season