Why would a successful college basketball coach walk away from a lucrative job in America's most glamorous sport? The burned out Rus Bradburd, enamored with Ireland and its music, took a job coaching in the lowly Irish Super League, but was unprepared for what he found. Perplexed by the small town Tralee's Frosties Tigers--a cast of misfits and underachievers more concerned with their day jobs, Gaelic Football, and Guinness--he turned to traditional Irish music for wisdom and solace. Paddy on the Hardwood is partly Rus Bradburd's story of his struggle to transform Tralee's Tigers. But it is also the tale of a man making peace with his own life and career. "No reader will come away from this irresistible, honest, and deeply human account without a profound appreciation for Ireland and the beguiling power of its people and culture. Paddy on the Hardwood is a basketball book, to be sure, but also one about questing and, ultimately, finding. And it's all the richer for how it engages things that seem distant from sports, but in the end aren't so unrelated at all."--Alexander Wolff, Sports Illustrated senior writer and author of Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure "Paddy on the Hardwood is hilarious, heartbreaking, and touching--I couldn't put it down. I'm an avid reader, and it's the best sports book I've read in a long while."--Jerry West

“Nolan Richardson’s extraordinary life and success as the University of Arkansas’ coach are an important chapter in the history of our country’s struggle for racial equality, with all the excitement of the Final Four. What an incredible journey!” —President Bill Clinton Forty Minutes of Hell by Rus Bradburd is an intricate exploration of the politics of race and sports, from the Jim Crow era until today, witnessed through the life of legendary African-American basketball coach and NCAA Title winner Nolan Richardson. A remarkable story of pride, courage, and accomplishment in the face of discrimination, Forty Minutes of Hell is also a fascinating window into the world of elite collegiate sports. NBA legend Charles Barkley calls this inspiring and important biography, “A great story about America and its hidden histories….Every American should thank [Richardson] for showing us it was possible.”

Shawn Harrington returned to Marshall High School as an assistant coach years after appearing as a player in the iconic basketball documentary film Hoop Dreams. In January of 2014, Marshall's struggling team was about to improve after the addition of a charismatic but troubled player. Everything changed, however, when two young men opened fire on Harrington's car as he drove his daughter to school. Using his body to shield her, Harrington was struck and paralyzed. The mistaken-identity shooting was followed by a series of events that had a devastating impact on Harrington and Marshall's basketball family. Over the next three years it became obvious that the dream of the game providing a better life had nearly dissolved. Author Rus Bradburd tells Shawn's story with empathy and care, exploring the intertwined tragedies of gun violence, health care failure, racial assumptions, struggling educational systems, corruption in athletics—and the hope that can survive them all.

As an assistant coach and recruiter for a university basketball program, Steve Pytel is more concerned with winning and keeping his star players in line than maintaining his marriage and being an honest guy.

This book offers a comprehensive review of the latest developments in medicinal mushroom biochemical engineering and biotechnology, and it also analyses the circular economy of mushroom bioproduction. Divided into 13 chapters, the book begins with a historical perspective of medicinal mushrooms, followed by authoritative chapters that explore the farming of medicinal mushrooms and bioeconomy, as well as the limitations of using medicinal mushrooms to produce metabolites. Subsequent chapters cover topics such as solid-state and submerged cultivation of medicinal mushroom mycelia in bioreactors, pilot and industrial bioreactor cultivation experiences, downstream processing of medicinal mushroom products, and biochemistry of medicinal mushroom bioactive compounds. Particular attention is given to the recent genetic engineering techniques applied in mushroom cultivation. The book closes with a chapter devoted to the health and clinical benefits of medicinal fungi, where readers will find expert insights into the therapeutic implications of medicinal fungi. In this book, readers will find an authoritative perspective on the past, present and future of medicinal mushrooms, and will also learn about some recent clinical studies with isolates from these natural products. Given its breadth, this book will appeal to biotechnologists working in mushroom cultivation, as well as to professionals interested in traditional pharmacy and medicine.

Mushroom farming has become very popular worldwide owing to the fact that mushroom farming is relatively easy and requires less space and less investment. Economic returns on investment are also high in mushroom farming. Mushroom farming is an attractive low-cost entrepreneurial option because mushrooms can successfully be grown by using even primitive farming technologies. This low technology approach to mushroom farming may be one of the reasons behind its popularity as a small scale farm enterprise.

In the past few years, there has been a growing appreciation by Western scholars of the vast scale, great achievements, and methodological originality of Japanese archaeologists. However, an understanding of the results of their work has been hampered in the West by a lack of up-to-date and authoritative texts in English. This book provides Western readers for the first time with a uniquely East Asian perspective of Japanese archaeology. Prehistoric Japan is organized into 16 chapters covering the environment, the history of the Japanese investigations of their past, the peculiarities of Japanese scholars' interests and methodologies, the organization and material culture of previous Japanese societies, economic trade and the question of immigration, the political unification of Japan, and the relationships between the core islands of Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu to Hokkaido in the north and the Ryukyu Islands to the south.