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writesdave's Reviews (363)
As Good as Gold: 1 Woman, 9 Sports, 10 Countries and a a 2-Year Quest to Make the Summer Olympics
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Breezy, quick read about an intrepid writer-athlete (athlete-writer?) tasked with qualifying for the Olympics in... something... on an impossible two-year timeline. Bertine is the only one who would have done this, owing to her past lives as a figure skater, runner and a rower, then into a career as a struggling pro triathlete.
The narrative pulls back the curtain on just how hard it is to make it to that level as well as the inequities that exist in women's sports, especially off the beaten path. Bertine's quest did not in the least cheapen the achievement of making the Olympics, contrary to what some have said, but any athlete aspiring to that level would do well to read it, taking with a grain of salt the frequent references to the author's crumbling personal life; just one more sacrifice on that winding and difficult road, honestly.
Also, clearly ESPN doesn't do much with books, because it needed another edit. The copy editor never sleeps.
The narrative pulls back the curtain on just how hard it is to make it to that level as well as the inequities that exist in women's sports, especially off the beaten path. Bertine's quest did not in the least cheapen the achievement of making the Olympics, contrary to what some have said, but any athlete aspiring to that level would do well to read it, taking with a grain of salt the frequent references to the author's crumbling personal life; just one more sacrifice on that winding and difficult road, honestly.
Also, clearly ESPN doesn't do much with books, because it needed another edit. The copy editor never sleeps.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ree Dolly has ascended to the pinnacle of American literary heroines as she tracks down her deadbeat addict dad to save her family's house. It's an amazing odyssey in a forgotten part of America, one I would not have even considered were it not for Woodrell's firsthand experience in that rural hellscape. The prose is beautiful, at times over-the-top, and the plot moves quickly. In essence, a uniquely American novel about hardscrabble Americans struggling in a world threatening to leave them behind, but somehow finding a way.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Fast-moving debut thriller with a complex web of deceptions. Lots of drugs, good bit of sex and violence — not your average police procedural. I got lost in the plot a couple of times and the outcome surprised me a little, but then I'm not that bright so you'll probably suss it out early on.
Mostly, I read it for the setting. I spent a week in Manchester some years ago — matter of fact, this book had just come out and adverts for it were everywhere, so it went on my TBR list in short order. Depending on what Knox has done since, he could challenge Mandasue Heller as the chronicler-in-chief of Manchester's underground.
Mostly, I read it for the setting. I spent a week in Manchester some years ago — matter of fact, this book had just come out and adverts for it were everywhere, so it went on my TBR list in short order. Depending on what Knox has done since, he could challenge Mandasue Heller as the chronicler-in-chief of Manchester's underground.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Yeah, I missed this the first time around, but I enjoyed the escape to a remote island with an intrepid guide. Wonderful story, excellent setting.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories
Langston Hughes, John Cheever, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Washington Irving, Joyce Carol Oates, Willa Cather, Henry James, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Updike, Saul Bellow, Eudora Welty, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Raymond Carver, Edith Wharton, Bernard Malamud, Katherine Anne Porter, William Carlos Williams, Flannery O'Connor, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Stephen Crane, Kate Chopin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
slow-paced
Call it a 4.75, the meh stories overcome by the brilliant ones.
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
This book sufficiently angered me over the shenanigans by the right practically from the day after the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, up through SCOTUS ruling for Shelby County in 2013. An important read for anyone who gives a shit about democracy.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Devastating crime novel with... an ending. Read over most of a weekend. Say this for Lehane, he keeps it moving. I got familiar with his work based on episodes of "The Wire," and I saw a couple of familiar patterns (including a character named Cheese).
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Fully acknowledging the explorers that might or might not have actually explored and the ones that were awful people, along with the ones you know and love and the ones you meet for the first time, I’d call this book a good place to start, a spark for your curiosity to learn more about the ones that count.