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jbarr5's review
1.0
won this via crown publishing but they never sent me the book to goodreads giveaway.
seifknits's review
2.0
My two-start rating is because this really wasn't the book for me. I think plenty of people would find it engaging. It wasn't badly written, although I thought there was too much football jargon and too many characters. SLJ review to come.
moogen's review
3.0
Reasonably engaging but this is not Friday Night Lights. There are too many characters and only a couple of them are sufficiently well drawn to be memorable. And a warning - you need a good working knowledge of American football to make sense of what is happening.
blevins's review
2.0
I recently read another high school centered book set in Georgia called Must Win. This one, set in rough south Florida environs, is not quite as good as Must Win. Where Must Win excelled--delivering player and coach stories to make me care about their future and their games--Muck City did not. I didn't form a connection with coaches, players, the town or school officials. For these kinds of books, a writer can tell the history of the place, but you have to have some kind of connection to really make the reader feel a part of the action and team's results. Muck City didn't do that for me. Between these two very similar books--Must Win gets the victory!
resslesa's review
Interesting but goes on a bit. Good for football kids in poverty or who need to see grittiness of game. Amazing narration by Dion Graham.
rebeccafromflorida's review
3.0
Go ahead, and don’t believe me when I say I actually ended up ENJOYING a book about football! Okay, the main story line was about the stories behind the football team and games, but still!
I went to a huge football college (Go Florida State Seminoles!), but I enjoyed the tailgating and school spirit more than watching the football games. If a game is on TV (unless it’s against FSU’s rival, the Gators), I would rather eat the chips and dip and receive occasional updates on the score than watch what’s going on.
So, yes, I was actually surprised myself when I realized that I enjoyed reading “Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town” by Bryan Mealer. This book is very much outside my comfort zone and usual genre, but I was drawn to the side stories of the players and the city where they reside.
This nonfiction read tells the story of the city of Belle Glade and the Glades Central Raiders, focusing much more on the town and individuals than football iteself. I grew up in a town called Wellington, which is just west of West Palm Beach and east of Belle Glade by about 40 minutes. In between Wellington and Belle Glade is a long stretch of highway, along which you might see an alligator on the side of the road, and pretty much nothing else.
Before reading “Muck City,” I knew what most people from Wellington know about Belle Glade: At one point, the city had the highest percentage of AIDS, the town is extremely poor, there is a high rate of crime, drug use, and gang affiliation, and the classic “you just don’t go to Belle Glade.”
In between freshman and sophomore year of college, I took a community college course which was only offered at the Belle Glade campus, and I distinctly remember having to convince my parents to let me take the class there. I was a minority in the class for sure, but I made two friends from the class (although I think it was partly because I was an anomaly: white, Jewish, and from the stereotypically preppy town of Wellington). The students in the class worked hard, harder than most college students I knew, because these students were working towards their only escape from poverty. I gained a high level of respect for them.
“Muck City” provided more than just the stereotypical Belle Glade information. I found out about a devestating flood that destroyed most of the town and is ranked the “second most deadly natural disaster in American history” (p. 17). I also learned that Belle Glade and neighboring Pahokee provide college teams and the NFL with a disproportionately high number of football players.
The Belle Glade history was what drew me to the book “Muck City,” and what kept my interest. About 25% of the book focused on specific football games and plays, which went way over my head and I had to force myself to read through. But the other 75% told the story of Belle Glade’s history and the individual stories of the students there, mainly football players but also including their families, cheerleaders, and coaches.
I wish that Mealer would have provided dates more often in the text. His story sometimes skips back and forth among years and decades, which keeps the book interesting, but I found that I lost track of when certain events occurred due to the lack of dates in some sections.
Bryan Mealer is a great writer, who described the surroundings of Belle Glade football in a way that kept me interested throughout the book (minus the descriptive football game plays) because of his conversational tone and valid information.
“Muck City” is less about football itself and more about the city and lives of those that football in Belle Glade touches.
Thank you Goodreads and Crown Publishing for allowing me to read this book before it is officially released. Although I received this book from the publisher, that fact did not sway my review.
What book have you read that was outside your normal set of genres, that you ended up enjoying?
Thanks for reading,
Rebecca @ Love at First Book
I went to a huge football college (Go Florida State Seminoles!), but I enjoyed the tailgating and school spirit more than watching the football games. If a game is on TV (unless it’s against FSU’s rival, the Gators), I would rather eat the chips and dip and receive occasional updates on the score than watch what’s going on.
So, yes, I was actually surprised myself when I realized that I enjoyed reading “Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football’s Forgotten Town” by Bryan Mealer. This book is very much outside my comfort zone and usual genre, but I was drawn to the side stories of the players and the city where they reside.
This nonfiction read tells the story of the city of Belle Glade and the Glades Central Raiders, focusing much more on the town and individuals than football iteself. I grew up in a town called Wellington, which is just west of West Palm Beach and east of Belle Glade by about 40 minutes. In between Wellington and Belle Glade is a long stretch of highway, along which you might see an alligator on the side of the road, and pretty much nothing else.
Before reading “Muck City,” I knew what most people from Wellington know about Belle Glade: At one point, the city had the highest percentage of AIDS, the town is extremely poor, there is a high rate of crime, drug use, and gang affiliation, and the classic “you just don’t go to Belle Glade.”
In between freshman and sophomore year of college, I took a community college course which was only offered at the Belle Glade campus, and I distinctly remember having to convince my parents to let me take the class there. I was a minority in the class for sure, but I made two friends from the class (although I think it was partly because I was an anomaly: white, Jewish, and from the stereotypically preppy town of Wellington). The students in the class worked hard, harder than most college students I knew, because these students were working towards their only escape from poverty. I gained a high level of respect for them.
“Muck City” provided more than just the stereotypical Belle Glade information. I found out about a devestating flood that destroyed most of the town and is ranked the “second most deadly natural disaster in American history” (p. 17). I also learned that Belle Glade and neighboring Pahokee provide college teams and the NFL with a disproportionately high number of football players.
The Belle Glade history was what drew me to the book “Muck City,” and what kept my interest. About 25% of the book focused on specific football games and plays, which went way over my head and I had to force myself to read through. But the other 75% told the story of Belle Glade’s history and the individual stories of the students there, mainly football players but also including their families, cheerleaders, and coaches.
I wish that Mealer would have provided dates more often in the text. His story sometimes skips back and forth among years and decades, which keeps the book interesting, but I found that I lost track of when certain events occurred due to the lack of dates in some sections.
Bryan Mealer is a great writer, who described the surroundings of Belle Glade football in a way that kept me interested throughout the book (minus the descriptive football game plays) because of his conversational tone and valid information.
“Muck City” is less about football itself and more about the city and lives of those that football in Belle Glade touches.
Thank you Goodreads and Crown Publishing for allowing me to read this book before it is officially released. Although I received this book from the publisher, that fact did not sway my review.
What book have you read that was outside your normal set of genres, that you ended up enjoying?
Thanks for reading,
Rebecca @ Love at First Book
adventures22's review against another edition
4.0
First let me thank The Crown Publishing Group for this book, I won it as one of the giveaways and this is not my normal genre, but since I am a football fanatic as well as my son played football,and I knew of Muck City, I really wanted to read this. This was well written and you can tell Bryan Mealer spent time in Belle Glade with the players/students and the people from the town. He captured how it is to live in Muck City. You really stop and think and process what these players have gone through and going through to be the best, I mean really 28 NFL players from the high school, takes drive and dedication. They are not given everything they want, they earn it and this makes you think about those who have nothing compared to those who have everything. Great book and what a wonderful movie/TV series this would make, the next Friday Night Lights. Thank you again for the wonderful opportunity to read about Muck City, I truly enjoyed it.
yulelogue's review
2.0
Almost identical to “Friday Night Lights.” Sub out oil for sugar cane, it’s the same story of the kids desperate to change their lives. There’s even a kid named “Boobie.”
Some flaws though. For being such a touted reporter, the author makes several mistakes in regards to the team playing two Texas teams messing up a score, misidentifying Abilene’s mascot and painting Denison as some sort of powerhouse when they weren’t and aren’t very good. If he messed up those things, no telling what else he missed or misrepresented.
Also, when the narrative switches to years passed, it’s often not clear nor is it obvious what year he’s talking about.
Finally, and this is a mistake often with stories about high school sports, it’s underreported how much these premier football schools depend on really talented kids moving into their district. That may be outright recruitment or kids looking for exposure. Often the author makes it seem like these kids are born into the “muck” when actually they’re signing up for the muck in exchange for a future.
Some flaws though. For being such a touted reporter, the author makes several mistakes in regards to the team playing two Texas teams messing up a score, misidentifying Abilene’s mascot and painting Denison as some sort of powerhouse when they weren’t and aren’t very good. If he messed up those things, no telling what else he missed or misrepresented.
Also, when the narrative switches to years passed, it’s often not clear nor is it obvious what year he’s talking about.
Finally, and this is a mistake often with stories about high school sports, it’s underreported how much these premier football schools depend on really talented kids moving into their district. That may be outright recruitment or kids looking for exposure. Often the author makes it seem like these kids are born into the “muck” when actually they’re signing up for the muck in exchange for a future.
heatherliz's review
4.0
A true story of a town where football is almost literally life and death. It was heartbreaking and inspiring.