John Branch

Breathtaking tales of climbers and hunters, runners and racers, winners and losers by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter.

Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports

Sidecountry

Shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites. Steve Almond, New York Times Book Review"

The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

Boy on Ice

A gripping portrait of one family's gamble that rodeo and ranching are the future of the West--and not just its past.

A Pioneer Family in the New West

The Last Cowboys

Eldad Sotnick-Yogev

We live in the digital age. There are more than 3 billion people connected to the internet. For every 100 people on the planet, there are 96 mobile telephone subscriptions. And more and more of our everyday objects--cuddly toys, cars, even kettles--have created an "internet of things." Marketers, in particular, hope that so-called digital marketing will allow them to gain new customer insights, refine customer segmentation, and communicate to customers more efficiently and effectively. They anticipate that the digital age will offer possibilities for new product innovation, advanced methods for engaging customers and original vehicles for creating brand communities. Despite the pervasiveness of digital technologies, however, digital marketing is seemingly still in its infancy. Contributions from both academics and practitioners who are experts in the field explore the realities of digital marketing.

New Paradigms, Perspectives, and Practices

Contemporary Issues in Digital Marketing

“Shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites.”—Steve Almond, New York Times Book Review The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at twenty-eight was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death. Boy on Ice is the richly told story of a mountain of a man who made it to the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Widely regarded as the toughest man in the NHL, Boogaard was a gentle man off the ice but a merciless fighter on it. With great narrative drive, Branch recounts Boogaard's unlikely journey from lumbering kid playing pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan, so big his skates would routinely break beneath his feet; to his teenaged junior hockey days, when one brutal outburst of violence brought Boogaard to the attention of professional scouts; to his days and nights as a star enforcer with the Minnesota Wild and the storied New York Rangers, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But, as Branch reveals, behind the scenes Boogaard's injuries and concussions were mounting and his mental state was deteriorating, culminating in his early death from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Based on months of investigation and hundreds of interviews with Boogaard's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, Boy on Ice is a brilliant work for fans of Michael Lewis's The Blind Side or Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. This is a book that raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports—from peewees to professionals—and the damage that reaches far beyond the game.

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

"A can't-put-it-down modern Western." —Kirk Siegler, NPR Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The Last Cowboys is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Branch’s epic tale of one American family struggling to hold on to the fading vestiges of the Old West. For generations, the Wrights of southern Utah have raised cattle and world-champion saddle-bronc riders—many call them the most successful rodeo family in history. Now they find themselves fighting to save their land and livelihood as the West is transformed by urbanization, battered by drought, and rearranged by public-land disputes. Could rodeo, of all things, be the answer? Written with great lyricism and filled with vivid scenes of heartache and broken bones, The Last Cowboys is a powerful testament to the grit and integrity that fuel the American Dream.

John Branch

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