The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy (Harper, Oct. 16)

The baseball superstar, whose outsize body and spirit turned him into one of the first true American celebrities, is no stranger to biographies. But Leavy always entertains, injecting necessary context about a sport that was just beginning to become a major advertising and marketing vehicle. She also evokes sympathy for the Babe — a wild boy from the age of seven, when he was sent off to a home for delinquents — without excusing his sins and excesses. Leavy brings the larger-than-life slugger down to the size of a real human being.