When Newcastle United crashed out of the FA Cup in Cardiff in April 2005, it was official: the second best-supported club in England and the eleventh richest in the world had completed 50 years without winning a domestic trophy. Since their last success - an FA Cup win in 1955 - no less than thirty-two clubs have won one of the three major prizes in the English game, but not the Magpies. In that half century, they've employed some of the biggest names in world football, yet most of their fanatical supporters have never seen them win a pot. In 2004, Sir Bobby Robson paid the price for failing to bring the holy grail to the Geordie faithful. And in 2006, Graeme Souness was next to go, the 17th manager to try - and fail - to win one of English football's glittering prizes for the longest suffering fans in the land. In Newcastle United: Fifty Years of Hurt, Ged Clarke examines this extraordinary football phenomenon with all the humour you would expect from a disappointed but dedicated United fan. He chronicles the decades of disaster and talks to Newcastle legends such as Peter Beardsley, Les Ferdinand, Jack Charlton, Bob Moncur and Malcolm Macdonald in a bid to discover an explanation for the longest losing streak in top-class football.

It has been 50 years since Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup trophy at Wembley, and in this groundbreaking book, Henry Winter will address the state England are in on the golden anniversary of their greatest moment. Part lament, part anatomy of an obsession, both personal and collective, it analyses the truth behind the endless excuses, apportions the blame for the crimes against English football, but is also a search for hope and solutions

The concept album is one of popular music's most celebrated-and misunderstood-achievements. This book examines the untold history of the rock concept album, from The Beatles to Beyoncé. The roots of the concept album are nearly as old as the long-playing record itself, as recording artists began using the format to transcend a mere collection of songs into a listening experience that takes the listener on a journey through its unifying mood, theme, narrative, or underlying idea. Along the way, artists as varied as the Moody Blues, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, Parliament, Donna Summer, Iron Maiden, Radiohead, The Notorious B.I.G., Green Day, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar created albums that form an extended conversation of art and music. Limits were pushed as the format grew over the subsequent eras. Seminal albums like the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Who's Tommy, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, stand alongside modern classics like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, Kendrick Lamar's good kid, "m.A.A.d city," and Beyoncé's Lemonade. Mixing iconic albums with some newer and lesser-known works makes for a book that ventures into the many sides of a history that has yet to be told-until now.

A couple years back, I was at the Phoenix airport bar. It was empty except for one heavy-set, gray bearded, grizzled guy who looked like he just rode his donkey into town after a long day of panning for silver in them thar hills. He ordered a Jack Daniels straight up, and that's when I overheard the young guy with the earring behind the bar asking him if he had ID. At first the old sea captain just laughed. But the guy with the twinkle in his ear asked again. At this point it became apparent that he was serious. Dan Haggerty's dad fired back, "You've got to be kidding me, son." The bartender replied, "New policy. Everyone has to show their ID." Then I watched Burl Ives reluctantly reach into his dungarees and pull out his military identification card from World War II. It's a sad and eerie harbinger of our times that the Oprah-watching, crystal-rubbing, Whole Foods-shopping moms and their whipped attorney husbands have taken the ability to reason away from the poor schlub who makes the Bloody Marys. What we used to settle with common sense or a fist, we now settle with hand sanitizer and lawyers. Adam Carolla has had enough of this insanity and he's here to help us get our collective balls back. In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks is Adam's comedic gospel of modern America. He rips into the absurdity of the culture that demonized the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, turned the nation's bathrooms into a lawless free-for-all of urine and fecal matter, and put its citizens at the mercy of a bunch of minimum wagers with axes to grind. Peppered between complaints Carolla shares candid anecdotes from his day to day life as well as his past—Sunday football at Jimmy Kimmel's house, his attempts to raise his kids in a society that he mostly disagrees with, his big showbiz break, and much, much more. Brilliantly showcasing Adam's spot-on sense of humor, this book cements his status as a cultural commentator/comedian/complainer extraordinaire.

Bring Me that Horizon is a fascinating quest into the heart and soul of Portuguese football. Journeying across its landscape, from old and forgotten bastions of invincibility to new, muscled industrial areas where dreams come true, the book uncovers the multiple identities of Portugal as a nation. Whether visiting historical clubs that were miraculously brought back to life or getting to grips with the complexity of Portugal's 'Game of Thrones' fight for supremacy, the book traces a route north to south, island to island, without forgetting the profound connection with Africa and Brazil. From Eusébio's glorious career to Cândido de Oliveira's adventures as a British intelligence agent, the book reveals a nation that already had fantastic tales to tell before it became the flavour of the month for football hipsters at the turn of the millennium. There's much more to Portugal's football heritage than Ronaldo and Mourinho.