Sports book series in reading order

by Fredrik Backman

by Elle Kennedy

Contemporary and LGBT romance novels by Sarina Bowen have reached the USA Today bestseller list 20 times. Bowen once traded derivatives on Wall Street, holds a BA in economics from Yale University and lives in New Hampshire. The catalogue lists 61 books from 2014, when Coming in from the Cold and The Year We Fell Down appeared, to My Kind of Guy (2026), and Bad Girls Make Good Liars is due in 2027. Series include Ivy Years, True North, Brooklyn Bruisers, Gravity and Hello Goodbye, and sports romance and new adult are among the subjects.

Mike Lupica, born May 11, 1952, is an American author and former newspaper columnist known for sports commentary in the New York Daily News and for appearances on ESPN. The catalogue lists 64 books, from Reggie (1985) to Framed (2026). Children's fiction about basketball, football and baseball fills much of the subject list, along with twins, friendship and fathers and sons. Series include Zach & Zoe Mysteries, Comeback Kids, Home Team, Peter Finley and Danny Walker/Travel Team.

Golf and football supplied Dan Jenkins with most of his material, handled as sports humour and sportswriting. Saturday's America (1970) opens the catalogue, Semi-Tough (1972) and Life its Ownself (1984) take up football, and Dead Solid Perfect (1974) and Fairways and Greens (1980) take up golf. The Bobby Joe Grooves series sits inside the run. Twenty-five books date from 1970 to 2018, at a median 272 pages, mixing novels with anecdote collections and sports history.

Contemporary romance and romantic suspense are the two fields Canadian author Elle Kennedy works in. Born on 19 January 1982, Kennedy has won a RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America. The catalogue credits 78 books to Kennedy, starting with Bad Moon Rising (Short Story) in 2007 and reaching Bad Idea, due in 2027. Kennedy's series include Killer Instincts, Off-Campus, Briar U, Campus Diaries, Avalon Bay, Outlaws, Prep and Small Town Scandals. Subjects tagged on the books include hockey and sports romance.

Fredrik Backman

13 books• 5 series

Swedish author Fredrik Backman, born in 1981, also works as a blogger and columnist. A Man Called Ove (2012) opens his catalogue of 13 books, which runs to My Friends (2025). Other titles include My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, Anxious People and The Winners. His books were number one bestsellers in Sweden and have been published in more than twenty-five languages. Subjects include hockey teams, neighbours, friendship, and fathers and sons.

Sport is Tim Green's subject on both sides of his catalogue: football and baseball novels for young readers, and suspense novels for adults. Ruffians (1993) opens the list, followed by Titans, Outlaws and The Red Zone, with the non-fiction The Dark Side of the Game alongside. Football Genius, Baseball Great and Baseball Genius are the children's series, and Casey Jordan heads a legal one. Forty-five titles run to Rocket Arm in 2025.

John Feinstein (1955-2025) was an American sportswriter and commentator, for many years a reporter at the Washington Post. A Season on the Brink (1986) is his best known book, an account of a season inside Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers basketball programme, and it opens a catalogue of 51 titles reaching The Ancient Eight (2024). Basketball, golf, football and college sport run through the nonfiction, and the Sports Beat, Benchwarmers and Bobby Kelleher series were written for younger readers.

James Patterson

510 books• 73 series

James Patterson, born on March 22, 1947, is an American writer whose catalogue here holds 514 books published from 1976 to 2027. The run opens with The Thomas Berryman Number (1976), and Along Came a Spider (1992) and Kiss the Girls (1995) follow later. Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Maximum Ride, Daniel X, Witch & Wizard, NYPD Red, Private, Middle School and the Women's Murder Club are among the Patterson series, alongside standalone thrillers, non-fiction and romance. Marshall Karp shares the credit on 5 of the books. Patterson's sales exceed 425 million copies, and Patterson was the first person to sell one million e-books. Forbes ranked Patterson the highest-paid author in 2016, for a third year running, and the National Book Foundation gave Patterson the Literarian Award in November 2015. 27 Stars is scheduled for 2027.

John Grisham

65 books• 11 series

Legal thrillers are the core of John Grisham's work. Grisham is an American writer, lawyer and former politician, born in 1955, who studied at Mississippi State University and took a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1981. The catalogue holds 65 books, running from A Time to Kill (1989) through The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client to Shaken (2026). Series include Jake Brigance, Mitch McDeere, Camino Island, Rogue Lawyer and Theodore Boone. The American Academy of Achievement credits Grisham with 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers and 300 million copies sold.

Mitch Albom

21 books• 1 series

Sports journalism came first for Mitch Albom, born Mitchell David Albom on May 23, 1958; inspirational storytelling followed, with Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) an early landmark. Albom is also an American talk show host and philanthropist, and reported sales of Albom's books stood at 40 million copies in 2021. The catalogue lists 21 titles, opening with Live Albom (1988), which was followed by Live Albom II, III and IV. Later entries include The Fab Five (1993), The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003), For One More Day (2006) and Twice (2025). Heaven is the one series listed.

Shantel Tessier writes dark romance, and the subjects attached to the catalogue also list new adult, suspense, mafia, sports and dual point of view. The 37 books on file run from Undescribable and Unbearable (both 2013) to Chaotic (2026). Tessier's series are Undescribable, Lords, Dark Kingdom, Dare, Selfish and Dash, and the catalogue marks the author as still publishing.

P.G. Wodehouse

145 books• 13 series

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (15 October 1881 to 14 February 1975) was an English humorist, one of the most widely read of the 20th century. Wodehouse created Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves, the talkative Psmith, Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle circle, the Oldest Member with golf stories, and Mr. Mulliner with tall tales. Born in Guildford, Wodehouse attended Dulwich College. The catalogue records 145 books from The Pothunters (1902) through 2019, including school stories, the Jeeves, Psmith, Ukridge and Uncle Fred series, short stories and non-fiction.

Matthew Reilly is an Australian action thriller writer, born 2 July 1974, whose books sell internationally. The catalogue lists 41 titles, from Contest (1996) and Ice Station (1998) to The Detective (2025). Reilly's series are Jack West Jr., Shane Schofield, Hover Car Racer, Troll Mountain and Tournament, plus a set of short stories. Subject tags include antiquities, automobile racing, action and adventure, and children's fiction.

Robert E. Howard

158 books• 14 series

Robert E. Howard (January 22, 1906 to June 11, 1936) was an American pulp fiction writer across many genres. Howard created Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of sword and sorcery. Born and raised in Texas, Howard lived mostly in Cross Plains, with some time in nearby Brownwood. A bookish child and a boxing fan, Howard boxed as an amateur and took up bodybuilding in the late teens. Howard wanted to write adventure fiction from the age of nine but found real success only at 23. Early catalogued titles include Spear and Fang (1925), Skull-Face (1929) and Kings of the Night (1930). Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, Cormac Mac Art and James Allison are other series on the author page.

Thomas McGuane (Thomas Francis McGuane III, born December 11, 1939) is an American writer of ten novels, short fiction, screenplays and three essay collections about life outdoors. McGuane belongs to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the NCHA Members Hall of Fame and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. The Sporting Club (1968) opens the catalogue of 23 books, followed by The Bushwhacked Piano (1971) and Ninety-two in the Shade (1973), and A Wooded Shore: And Other Stories (2025) is the newest. Subjects include Montana, ranch life and Key West.

Karen Kingsbury is an American Christian novelist, born in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 8, 1963. Kingsbury worked as a sports writer for the Los Angeles Times and later wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News. Missy's Murder (1991), Kingsbury's first book, grew out of a murder story covered as a reporter in Los Angeles. Kingsbury is a #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. The catalogue holds 115 titles, running to The Christmas Ring (2025), and the series include Firstborn, Sunrise, Above the Line, Bailey Flanigan, Red Gloves and Forever Faithful. Christian fiction and family life recur among the subjects.

Chloe Walsh writes New Adult and Adult contemporary romance for mature readers and is best known for The Boys of Tommen series, a New York Times and USA Today bestseller that gained a wide following on TikTok and has been translated into several languages. Walsh's stories give weight to the mental health of the characters. The catalogue holds 34 books from 2014 to 2025, starting with Break My Fall and Fall On Me (both 2014). Other series include Carter Kids, Pocket, Ocean Bay, Faking It, DiMarco Dynasty and Crellids.

Gordon Korman

119 books• 22 series

Gordon Korman is a Canadian writer of children's and young adult fiction whose books have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. The catalogue holds 119 titles, from This Can't Be Happening at MacDonald Hall! (1977) to Sleepless (2026). Subject tags cover schools, friendship, humorous stories, adventure, mystery and detective stories, and shipwrecks. Series headings include Swindle Mysteries, Masterminds, Everest, Dive, Titanic, Ungifted and the Monday Night Football Club. Gordon Korman remains actively publishing.

Sports romance is Hannah Grace's line: hockey, figure skating and college athletics, with enemies-to-lovers and second-chance plots. Icebreaker (2022) opens the catalogue, followed by Wildfire (2023), Daydream (2024) and Holiday Ever After (2025). Five books stand across the UCMH and In the Paddock series, and Champagne Problems is scheduled for 2027.

Lucy Burdette builds her mysteries around a profession: a food critic in Key West, a golfer named Cassie Burdette and an advice columnist each head a series, and murder investigation carries all three. The catalogue holds 28 titles, from Six Strokes Under (2002) through Deadly Advice (2007) to A Delicious Deception in 2026, with short fiction published under the name Roberta Isleib.

Brian Kilmeade

9 books• 1 series

Brian Kilmeade writes American history and sports non-fiction. Nine catalogued books run from The Games Do Count (2004) to Uniting the States (2026), taking in George Washington's Secret Six (2013), Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates (2015), Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans (2017) and Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers (2019). Biography, athletes and American history are the recurring subjects.

Dan Gutman

198 books• 23 series

Dan Gutman is an American writer of mainly children's fiction, born in 1955. The best-known lines are the My Weird School books, The Genius Files and the Baseball Card Adventures, which began with Honus & Me. The catalogue holds 198 books from It Ain't Cheating If You Don't Get Caught (1990) to Mrs. Towne Is a Clown! (2026), including early baseball titles such as Baseball Babylon (1992). Subjects include schools, teachers, baseball, time travel and humorous stories.

Daisy Meadows is the name on the Rainbow Magic children's books, a fantasy line whose subjects include fairies, goblins, Jack Frost and two girls, Kirsty Tate and Rachel Walker. The catalogue opens in 2003 with colour-fairy titles such as Ruby the Red Fairy, Amber the Orange Fairy and Fern the Green Fairy, and runs to Nur the Vlogger Fairy (2023). Sub-series include the Weather, Jewel, Party, Pet Keeper, Dance, Ocean and Showtime Fairies. Magic Animal Friends appears under the same name.

Lincoln Peirce

77 books• 6 series

Lincoln Peirce created the Big Nate comic strip and writes and illustrates the Big Nate novels for young readers. Born in 1963, Peirce is an American cartoonist and animator who has written animated shorts for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and created the animated Big Nate series that premiered on Paramount+. Eighty-two titles are catalogued from 2001 to Code Red! (2026), covering the graphic novels, activity books and the Max and the Midknights series. Middle school, friendship and humour are the recurring subjects.