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emeck's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
gj377's review against another edition
4.0
"You came away feeling that greatness wasn't a realm strictly for the superhuman, remote and unattainable, but rather something much closer, real, and reachable, something within every one of us."
The Boys of Winter is basically a book about a hockey game. A once-in-a-lifetime-Olympic-medal-hockey-game, where essentially a group of kids beat one of the greatest Soviet hockey teams to ever exist, but still just a hockey game. And yet, at the same time it's about so much more.
Coffey structures the book around the periods of the hockey game, and intersperses a full play-by-play with histories of both the players, and USA/Soviet hockey in general. It worked really well, and while reading a hockey game isn't quite the best way to enjoy one, breaking it up with narratives about the players and their careers, both before and after the 'Miracle on Ice', helped make it more accessible.
Having read 'How to Fail' before this book, I have to say I learnt a lot more about success and failure - and how to deal with both - from reading this. I have no idea if I'd recommend this to non-hockey fans, but I really enjoyed it.
The Boys of Winter is basically a book about a hockey game. A once-in-a-lifetime-Olympic-medal-hockey-game, where essentially a group of kids beat one of the greatest Soviet hockey teams to ever exist, but still just a hockey game. And yet, at the same time it's about so much more.
Coffey structures the book around the periods of the hockey game, and intersperses a full play-by-play with histories of both the players, and USA/Soviet hockey in general. It worked really well, and while reading a hockey game isn't quite the best way to enjoy one, breaking it up with narratives about the players and their careers, both before and after the 'Miracle on Ice', helped make it more accessible.
Having read 'How to Fail' before this book, I have to say I learnt a lot more about success and failure - and how to deal with both - from reading this. I have no idea if I'd recommend this to non-hockey fans, but I really enjoyed it.
jamies_shelves's review against another edition
informative
4.0
I was not alive during the 1980 Olympics, but Miracle is one of my all time favorite movies! And yes, I cried in the book when they won and said do you believe in miracles. Just like I cry every time I watch the movie, no matter how many times I've seen it. However, in the book I also cried when they won gold!
I loved the extra insight this book gave to the players on the team and their lives before and after the games.
I also really loved the glimpses we got about the Soviet players and how some of the US and USSR players were actually friends/became friends later in life.
I really enjoyed the way this book was divided into the periods of the game, though I wish it had a more distinct division about which player it was talking about. Though I did listen on audio, so it's possible the physical book did.
I loved the extra insight this book gave to the players on the team and their lives before and after the games.
I also really loved the glimpses we got about the Soviet players and how some of the US and USSR players were actually friends/became friends later in life.
I really enjoyed the way this book was divided into the periods of the game, though I wish it had a more distinct division about which player it was talking about. Though I did listen on audio, so it's possible the physical book did.
sandin954's review against another edition
3.0
This book recounts the famous hockey match between the USA and the Soviets during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. Usually I am not a fan of books that rehash entire games (especially hockey which I have a very limited knowledge of) but this was so well written and the game so exciting that I had no problem turning the pages. The author also interspersed the personal stories of the team members and Coach Herb Brooks through the narrative including where they were twenty-five years after their historic victory.