Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly Book

Each week, when Sports Illustrated’s 21 million readers open up their magazine, many turn right to the last page because that’s where to find SI’s most popular feature: the “Life of Reilly” column written by bestselling author Rick Reilly. A 21-year veteran of the magazine and 10-time Sportswriter of the Year, Reilly took over SI’s back page in 1998, and his column immediately attracted a devoted audience who helped make his 1990 book, The Life of Reilly, a New York Times bestseller.

This new collection includes 100 of Reilly’s favorite columns from the last six years, along with an Introduction by Lance Armstrong. The title of the book signifies the strong reader response his columns typically generate (he wrote a column saying that cheerleading isn’t a sport and there was a light-hearted backlash). Alternately side-splitting and heart-warming, but always opinionated and provocative, this book brings together the best work by the best columnist in the business.

Publishers Weekly

Sports fans and regular readers of Sports Illustratedwill already know to snap up this book when they see it's a collection of pieces by award-winning SIcolumnist Rick Reilly. Others should follow their lead, as this superb, wide-ranging collection isn't so much about sports as about "people who happen to be insports." Some columns are tearjerkers, such as the story of a blind man who finally gets to "see" a match played by his beloved New York Islanders, but most are laugh-out-loud funny, like the one detailing the season Reilly coached his daughter's middle school basketball team ("I learned something about seventh-grade girls: They're usually in the bathroom"). A few are scathing, as in his acid-laced response to Barry Bonds denying he used steroids ("Bonds's records should stay in the books. With a little syringe next to every one"). And though it may not be surprising how many columns aim to be inspiring-like the story of spirited Ben Comen, a high school cross-country runner with cerebral palsy-it's a shock how many hit the mark. Reilly's columns are short but pack a punch; a collection best savored, readers should resist as best they can the urge to consume this book in a single sitting. (May)