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From HarperCollins:
#4 on the New York Times Bestseller list

If
you're interested in understanding the American character, there are plenty of
texts to consult— including, of course, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration
of Independence and Alexis de Tocqueville's meditations on this country. Here's
another work to add to the mix: John Brenkus's "The Perfection Point,"
about the absolute limits of human athletic performance.
—Wall
Street Journal
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“Beyond
fascinating. An imagined scenario...accompanies each chapter. They aren't just
hypothetical vignettes but truly moving accounts that move beyond sports
journalism and approach literature."
—BBC
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"Hugely
entertaining. A deft hand for imparting suspense...enjoyable fictional
mini-scenarios. The chapter on competitive breath-holding is a winner."
—Sunday
Times of London
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"Fascinating
reading!"
—The
Independent (London)
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“Sure
to spark debate in sporting and scientific circles,
the book is engagingly written, well argued, and —even when
the conclusions seem almost science-fictiony— entirely plausible.”
—Booklist
(*starred review)
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New York Times Bestseller List: #4
Barnes & Noble: #1 top seller
Amazon.com: #3 top
seller
Wall Street Journal: #7
Publisher's Weekly: #5
I ghost-wrote The Perfection Point with my friend
John Brenkus, the host and executive producer of "Sport Science" on
ESPN. It's one of the most exciting book projects I've ever been involved in.
The following from the book jacket describes it well:
Until 1954, common wisdom and
scientific knowledge considered a sub-four minute mile impossible for human
physiology. And then Roger Bannister broke the mark, followed quickly by a
host of other athletes. Today, the world record stands at 3 minutes 43
seconds. But even that number doesn't tell the full story of how fast humans
can run a mile. While world records are a mark of how well people have done,
they don't explain how well people can do - or what the absolute limits of
human performance are. Now, in "The Perfection Point", John
Brenkus, the host, creator, and executive producer of ESPN's "Sport
Science", provides an in-depth look at the outer edge of what's
possible for a variety of sports. In breezy, highly readable style and
easy-to-comprehend language, Brenkus applies statistics, physics, and
physiology to explore such questions as: What's the highest someone can dunk
a basketball? What's the most weight someone can bench press? What's the
farthest we can hit a baseball or drive a golf ball? What's the fastest a
human can run 100 meters? Beginning with current world records, Brenkus
seeks to find the limits of human ability to pinpoint the perfection point -
a speed, a height, a distance that humans can get closer and closer to but
never exceed. For years coaches, pundits and fans have speculated about the
extremes of human performance. "The Perfection Point" finally
provides the answers.
The Perfection Point is available
(at a nice discount) at Amazon.com and
Barnes &
Noble. I hope you have as
much fun reading it as John and I did writing it.
-lee gruenfeld

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Publisher:HarperCollins
Hardcover:
256 pages
ISBN-10:
0061845450
ISBN-13:
978-0061845451
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Check it out in Wired
Magazine
Full Wall Street Journal
review |