Thrive

Named one of The New Yorker's Best Books of 2023<BR><BR>"Cook's striking history connects the standoff to political violence today."<BR>-The New York Times<BR><BR>A news-making account of the war between David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the FBI, and how their standoff launched today's militias<BR><BR>In 1993, David Koresh and a band of heavily armed evangelical Christians took on the might of the US government. A two-month siege of their compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a firefight that killed seventy-six, including twenty-five children. America is still picking up the pieces, and we still haven't heard the full story.<BR><BR>Kevin Cook, who revealed the truth behind a mythic, misunderstood murder in his 2014 Kitty Genovese, finally provides the full story of what happened at Waco. He gives readers a taste of Koresh's deadly charisma and takes us behind the scenes at the Branch Davidians' compound, where "the new Christ" turned his followers into servants and sired seventeen children by a dozen "wives." In vivid accounts packed with human drama, Cook harnesses never-reported material to reconstruct the FBI's fifty-one-day siege of the Waco compound in minute-to-minute detail. He sheds new light on the Clinton administration's approval of a lethal governmental assault in a new, definitive account of the firefight that ended so many lives and triggered the rise of today's militia movement. Waco drew the battle lines for American extremists-in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's words, "Waco started this war." With help from sources as diverse as Branch Davidian survivors and the FBI's lead negotiator during the siege, Cook draws a straight line from Waco's ashes to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and insurrections yet to come.<BR><BR>Unmissable reading for anyone interested in the truth of what happened in Texas three decades ago, Waco Rising is chillingly relevant today. Here is the spark that ignited today's antigovernment militias.

Twenty-five years ago, Tiger Woods achieved the greatest feat in golf history: the 'Tiger Slam'. Now, for the first time, the award-winning author of Tommy's Honor delivers a riveting account of Tiger at his most brilliant - dominating the game in a way we will never see again.In 1997 Tiger Woods wins the Masters by the largest margin in history, becoming the first Black player to win a major championship. Four years later, the world watches with breathless anticipation as he returns to Augusta National, aiming for a milestone no other golfer has ever achieved: four professional Grand Slam triumphs in a row.In The Tiger Slam, Kevin Cook delivers a gripping, inside-the-ropes account of an astonishing streak of victories. Readers will hear from many of golf's biggest names-Tiger's caddie, his coach, his opponents, his idols and others, all offering fresh insight into the electrifying highs of his triumphs and the obstacles on and off the course that threatened his relentless pursuit of perfection.The Tiger Slam is the epitome of greatness in sport, a feat as exhilarating today as it was twenty-five years ago. Kevin Cook invites us to close our eyes and see a young champion at the peak of his powers: unmatched raw strength, single-minded focus, strategic genius, and utter fearlessness. The Tiger Slam takes readers behind the scenes in the thrilling months when Tiger Woods took an ancient game to new heights.

The 1947 World Series was “the most exciting ever” in the words of Joe DiMaggio, with a decade’s worth of drama packed into seven games between the mighty New York Yankees and the underdog Brooklyn Dodgers. It was Jackie Robinson’s first Series, a postwar spectacle featuring Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, and President Harry Truman in supporting roles. It was also the first televised World Series-sportswriters called it “Electric October.”<BR><BR> But for all the star power on display, the outcome hinged on role players: Bill Bevens, a journeyman who knocked on the door of pitching immortality; Al Gionfriddo and Cookie Lavagetto, bench players at the center of the Series’ iconic moments; Snuffy Stirnweiss, a wartime batting champion who never got any respect; and managers Bucky Harris and Burt Shotton, each an unlikely choice to run his team. Six men found themselves plucked from obscurity to shine on the sport’s greatest stage. But their fame was fleeting; three would never play another big-league game, and all six would be forgotten.<BR><BR> Kevin Cook brings the ’47 Series back to life, introducing us to men whose past offered no hint they were destined for extraordinary things. For some the Series was a memory to hold onto. For others it would haunt them to the end of their days. And for us Cook offers new insights-some heartbreaking, some uplifting-into what fame and glory truly mean.<BR><BR>  

Baseball honors legacies from cheering the home team to breaking in an old glove handed down from father to son. In "The Dad Report," award-winning sportswriter Kevin Cook weaves a tapestry of uplifting stories in which fathers and sons from the sport s superstars to Cook and his own ball-playing father share the game."