A book about Irish boxing giants has recently been released. "Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey" by Jack Cavanaugh outlines Gene Tunney's two famous victories over fellow Irish pugilist Jack Dempsey in the 1920s. Tunney's second victory was the famous "long count," which some felt gave Tunney an unfair advantage, and even turned boxing fans against this brainy champ, who loved to quote Shakespeare. Cavanaugh is excellent on the broader sports world of the 1920s, and is also strong on Tunney's rough-and-tumble youth as the son of Irish immigrants living in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Tunney's dad was a longshoreman from Mayo who grew up idolizing John L. Sullivan, the bare-knuckled and blustering heavyweight champion from Boston. It turns out Tunney's dad hated violence, but he knew the value of being a good fighter. In a poor neighborhood populated primarily by Irish immigrants of limited means, such as the one in which the Tunney family lived, flexing one's muscle was, if not a way out, then possibly a way up. ($27.95 / 471 pages / Random House)