The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics in Reading with Style

Jul 17, 2017 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sports, nazi-germany, non-fiction, 2017

I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, especially since I know almost* nothing about rowing or crew. I don't always enjoy watching sports, but I do tend to get caught up in the emotions of sports writing even if I don't seek it out. Boys in the Boat didn't grip me at first, but Joe Rantz's childhood did--it reminded me of my favorite parts of Unbroken--and soon enough the exciting visuals of boats skimming through my mind became as vivid as a movie. (This needs to be a movie, by the way. ...more

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Jul 09, 2017 Chinook rated it it was amazing

Shelves: america, ww2

I'd heard this was good, but to be honest I still pressed play on the audiobook with some doubt. I'm not much of a sports person, after all.

But it was great. I had no idea that crew was so incredibly popular in the US once, so I'd never heard of any of these rivalries or regattas. And the book taught me almost as much about the Great Depression and the lead up to WWII.

I got a bit teary-eyed at the end. What a great story. ...more

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Jan 17, 2022 Juniper rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, in-person-book-club, library-borrow, dnf, audiobook, 2022-books

edward herrmann narrates this story - and he's divine, of course! but the story itself didn't do much for me; i found my attention wandering all over the place, appreciating herrmann's voice in my ear while simultaneously having no idea about what was going on at any given point in my listening. is this a reflection of the book, or just another side-effect of COVID chaos, and the challenges of focus and concentration amidst [flails arms about] all THIS. i'm approximately 1/2 through, but DNF'ing ...more

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