Summer Surf

~*~

Barbarian Days:
A Surfing Life
by William Finnegan
Memoir, Travel | Published: 2015 | Goodreads | my rating: 5
Barbarian Days is William Finnegan’s memoir of an obsession, a complex enchantment. Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a distinguished writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses—off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves.

Finnegan shares stories of life in a whites-only gang in a tough school in Honolulu even while his closest friend was a Hawaiian surfer. He shows us a world turned upside down for kids and adults alike by the social upheavals of the 1960s. He details the intricacies of famous waves and his own apprenticeships to them. Youthful folly—he drops LSD while riding huge Honolua Bay, on Maui—is served up with rueful humor. He and a buddy, their knapsacks crammed with reef charts, bushwhack through Polynesia. They discover, while camping on an uninhabited island in Fiji, one of the world’s greatest waves. As Finnegan’s travels take him ever farther afield, he becomes an improbable anthropologist: unpicking the picturesque simplicity of a Samoan fishing village, dissecting the sexual politics of Tongan interactions with Americans and Japanese, navigating the Indonesian black market while nearly succumbing to malaria. Throughout, he surfs, carrying readers with him on rides of harrowing, unprecedented lucidity.

Tapping the Source
by Kem Nunn
Mystery, Noir | Published: 2005 | Goodreads
People go to Huntington Beach in search of the endless parties, the ultimate highs and the perfect waves. Ike Tucker has come to look for his missing sister and for the three men who may have murdered her. In that place of gilded surfers and sun-bleached blondes, Ike's search takes him on a journey through a twisted world of crazed Vietnam vets, sadistic surfers, drug dealers, and mysterious seducers. Ike looks into the shadows and finds parties that drift towards pointless violence, joyless vacations and highs you might never come down from ... and a sea of old hatreds and dreams gone bad. And if he's not careful, his is a journey from which he will never return.

Endless Summer (1965)
Director: Bruce Brown
Stars: Michael Hynson, Robert August
Documentary, Sport | imdb
The crown jewel to ten years of Bruce Brown surfing documentaries. Brown follows two young surfers around the world in search of the perfect wave, and ends up finding quite a few in addition to some colorful local characters.

Gidget
by Frederick Kohner
Classics, YA | Published: 2001 (first 1957) | Goodreads
My English comp teacher Mr. Glicksberg says if you want to be a writer you have to, quote, sit on a window sill and get all pensive and stuff and jot down descriptions. Unquote Glicksberg! I don't know what kind of things he writes but I found my inspiration in Malibu with a radio, my best girlfriends, and absolutely zillions of boys for miles. I absolutely had to write everything down because I heard that when you get older you forget things, and I'd be the most miserable woman in the world if I forgot all about Moondoggie and what happened this summer. I absolutely owe the world my story. (And every word is true. I swear.)

This is Franzie, part Holden Caulfield, part Lolita. The guys call her Gidget--short for "girl midget”--and she’s a girl coming of age in the summer of 1957. Based on the experiences of his own daughter, Frederick Kohner's trend-setting novel became an international sensation and turned its irrepressible heroine into an American pop culture icon whose voice still echoes every thrill, every fear, and every hope that every teenager ever had about growing up.

Gidget (1959)
Director: Paul Wendkos
Screenplay: Gabrielle Upton
Based on book by: Frederick Kohner
Stars: Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff Robertson
Comedy, Music, Romance, Coming of Age | imdb
A young girl discovers surfing and love (in that order) during one transitive summer.

Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)
Director: Paul Wendkos
Screenplay: Ruth Brooks Flippen
Based on characters by: Frederick Kohner
Stars: Deborah Walley, James Darren
Comedy, Music, Romance | imdb
Francine (Gidget) is desperate: her parents want to force her to come with them on vacation to Hawaii - just during the two weeks when her beloved "Moondoggie" is home from College. When he suggests she go for it, she's even more in panic - doesn't he care to be with her? So she sets out for Hawaii in the worst mood. On the plane she meets the sociable Abby, who gives her the advice to forget about Jeff - and regrets it shortly after, when Francine follows the advice and steals her boyfriend Eddie, a famous dancer. But then Jeff discovers he's missing Francine...

~*~
* image source: San Diego Surfer by Gray Malin

* part of Summertime time (schedule)

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez

Furia
by Yamile Saied Méndez
narrated by Sol Madariaga

Published: 2020
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Hardback: 368
Rating: 5
YA, Sports, Soccer, South America, Argentina | Goodreads | Website

First sentence(s):
Lies have short legs.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.

At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.

On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.

But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

Filled with authentic details and the textures of day-to-day life in Argentina, heart-soaring romance, and breathless action on the pitch, Furia is the story of a girl’s journey to make her life her own.

My two-bits:

Empowering. Loved the passion this protagonist has to motivate towards her dreams and desires. Wonderful "Go Girl!" story.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.
* part of Armchair Autumn Travel (here)
* part of Reese's Book Club 2020 (here)

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
translated by Neil Smith
narrated by Marin Ireland

Published:2017
Publisher: Atria Books
Hardback: 432
Rating: 4
Contemporary, Sports, Sweden | Goodreads
Travel destination: Sweden

Beartown series:
Beartown
Up Against You
Those Who Run Towards Fire - release date: 2021

First sentence(s):
Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else's forehead, and pulled the trigger.

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

My two-bits:

Captures the world of small town culture and hockey as major characters in the story. And these characters have such influence on happenings.

~*~

* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Armchair Autumn Travel (here)

* part of Scandinavian Reading Challenge 2020 (here)

Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey

Fix Her Up
by Tessa Bailey
narrated by Charlotte North

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Published: June 2019
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Sports
Paperback: 400
Rating: 5

Hot & Hammered series:
Fix Her Up
book 2 -tba

First sentence(s):
No freaking way.

Zombie sighting:
Georgie slicked paste onto the final cut out for her zombie birthday party vision board.
-chapter 16

Georgette Castle’s family runs the best home renovation business in town, but she picked balloons instead of blueprints and they haven’t taken her seriously since. Frankly, she’s over it. Georgie loves planning children’s birthday parties and making people laugh, just not at her own expense. She’s determined to fix herself up into a Woman of the World... whatever that means.

Phase one: new framework for her business (a website from this decade, perhaps?)

Phase two: a gut-reno on her wardrobe (fyi, leggings are pants.)

Phase three: updates to her exterior (do people still wax?)

Phase four: put herself on the market (and stop crushing on Travis Ford!)

Living her best life means facing the truth: Georgie hasn’t been on a date since, well, ever. Nobody’s asking the town clown out for a night of hot sex, that’s for sure. Maybe if people think she’s having a steamy love affair, they’ll acknowledge she’s not just the “little sister” who paints faces for a living. And who better to help demolish that image than the resident sports star and tabloid favorite?

Travis Ford was major league baseball’s hottest rookie when an injury ended his career. Now he’s flipping houses to keep busy and trying to forget his glory days. But he can’t even cross the street without someone recapping his greatest hits. Or making a joke about his… bat. And then there's Georgie, his best friend’s sister, who is not a kid anymore. When she proposes a wild scheme—that they pretend to date, to shock her family and help him land a new job—he agrees. What’s the harm? It’s not like it’s real. But the girl Travis used to tease is now a funny, full-of-life woman and there’s nothing fake about how much he wants her...

My two-bits:

Fun story with a couple who are reinventing themselves and discovering each other along the way.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

Shred Girls: Lindsay's Joyride by Molly Hurford

Shred Girls:
Lindsay's Joyride
by Molly Hurford
illustrated by Violet Lemay

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Release date: May 7, 2019
Publisher: Rodale Kids
Genre: Sports, Bicycle Moto-Cross (BMX), Middle Grade
Hardback: 256
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
For as long as I can remember, I've lived in a world that's full of superheroes.

An empowering new series from the cyclist who runs Shred-Girls.com is guaranteed to give readers an adrenaline rush--and the confidence girls gain from participating in sports!

It's time to ride and save the day!

Lindsay can't wait to spend her summer break reading comics and watching superhero movies--until she finds out she'll be moving in with her weird older cousin Phoebe instead. And Phoebe has big plans for Lindsay: a BMX class at her bike park with cool-girl Jen and perfectionist Ali.

Lindsay's summer of learning awesome BMX tricks with new friends and a new bike turns out to be more epic than any comic book--and it's all leading up to a jumping competition.

But some of the biker boys don't think girls should be allowed to compete in BMX. Now it's up to Lindsay, Jen, and Ali to win the competition and prove that anyone can be great at BMX.

My two-bits:

I liked this inspiring positive girl power book in a sports setting. The superhero tie-in worked for the growth moment for the protagonist.

With budding friendships and a touch of romance, the element of fun and hard work also prevail.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

Happy Release: Shred Girls by Molly Hurford

Shred Girls:
Lindsay's Joyride
by Molly Hurford
illustrated by Violet Lemay
-Sports, Middle Grade | Goodreads
Release date: May 7, 2019
An empowering new series from the cyclist who runs Shred-Girls.com is guaranteed to give readers an adrenaline rush--and the confidence girls gain from participating in sports!

It's time to ride and save the day!

Lindsay can't wait to spend her summer break reading comics and watching superhero movies--until she finds out she'll be moving in with her weird older cousin Phoebe instead. And Phoebe has big plans for Lindsay: a BMX class at her bike park with cool-girl Jen and perfectionist Ali.

Lindsay's summer of learning awesome BMX tricks with new friends and a new bike turns out to be more epic than any comic book--and it's all leading up to a jumping competition.

But some of the biker boys don't think girls should be allowed to compete in BMX. Now it's up to Lindsay, Jen, and Ali to win the competition and prove that anyone can be great at BMX.

Amateur by Thomas Page McBee

Amateur
by Thomas Page McBee

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Published: 2018
Publisher: Scribner
Genre: Memoir, Sports, LGBTQ
Hardback: 224
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
According to the laws of physics and USA Boxing, this wasn't a fair fight.

In this groundbreaking new book, the author, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience boxing—learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body—McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes, and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a new way forward, a new kind of masculinity, inside the ring and outside of it.

In this graceful, stunning, and uncompromising exploration of living, fighting, and healing, we gain insight into the stereotypes and shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.

My two-bits:

Perspectives of masculinity and the boxing world are handled and explored with care. Lots of food for thought.

Until Friday Night by Abbi Glines

Until Friday Night
narrated by Olivia Song and Sebastian York

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Published: 2015
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Sports, YA
Hardback: 336
Rating: 5

The Field Party series:
Until Friday Night
Under the Lights
After the Game
Losing the Field

First sentence(s):
This wasn't home. Nothing ever would be again.

The first novel in a brand-new series—from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Abbi Glines—about a small Southern town filled with cute boys in pickup trucks, Friday night football games, and crazy parties that stir up some major drama.

To everyone who knows him, West Ashby has always been that guy: the cocky, popular, way-too-handsome-for-his-own-good football god who led Lawton High to the state championships. But while West may be Big Man on Campus on the outside, on the inside he’s battling the grief that comes with watching his father slowly die of cancer.

Two years ago, Maggie Carleton’s life fell apart when her father murdered her mother. And after she told the police what happened, she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since. Even the move to Lawton, Alabama, couldn’t draw Maggie back out. So she stayed quiet, keeping her sorrow and her fractured heart hidden away.

As West’s pain becomes too much to handle, he knows he needs to talk to someone about his father—so in the dark shadows of a post-game party, he opens up to the one girl who he knows won’t tell anyone else.

West expected that talking about his dad would bring some relief, or at least a flood of emotions he couldn’t control. But he never expected the quiet new girl to reply, to reveal a pain even deeper than his own—or for them to form a connection so strong that he couldn’t ever let her go…


My two-bits:

This couple's individual stories tug at the heart. But the support they have for each other is a beautiful thing.

Fell in love with this crowd of kids and look forward to reading the rest in this series.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of the Blog All About It Challenge: Spirit (here)

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash

Stephen Florida
by Gabe Habash

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Published: 2017
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Genre: Literary, Coming of Age, Sports (wrestling)
Hardback: 304
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
My mother had two placentas and I was living off both of them.

Foxcatcher meets The Art of Fielding, Stephen Florida follows a college wrestler in his senior season, when every practice, every match, is a step closer to greatness and a step further from sanity. Profane, manic, and tipping into the uncanny, it's a story of loneliness, obsession, and the drive to leave a mark.

My two-bits:

This coming of age story flavored with a college wrestling angle is raw and ugly. An unlikable character moves this story on the path of his obsession to reach his wrestling stardom. His quirks and choices drives us along the way to the very end. And then, what does it all mean?

~*~
* part of Tournament of Books 2018 which started yesterday! Unfortunately, Stephen Florida did not win the pre-game round. BUT, it may come into play again during the zombie round. (details)

Take Me On by Katie McGarry

Take Me On
by Katie McGarry
narrated by Graham Halstead, Saskia Maarleveld

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Published: 2014
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Romance, Sports (kickboxing), YA
Hardback: 544
Rating: 5

Pushing the Limits series:
Pushing the Limits
Dare You To
Crash Into You
Take Me On
Chasing Impossible

First sentence(s):
A door squeaks open at the far end of the barren hallway and the clicking of high heels echoes off the row of metal post-office boxes.

Acclaimed author Katie McGarry returns with the knockout new story of two high school seniors who are about to learn what winning really means.

Champion kickboxer Haley swore she'd never set foot in the ring again after one tragic night. But then the guy she can't stop thinking about accepts a mixed martial arts fight in her honor. Suddenly, Haley has to train West Young. All attitude, West is everything Haley promised herself she'd stay away from. Yet he won't last five seconds in the ring without her help.

West is keeping a big secret from Haley. About who he really is. But helping her-fighting for her-is a shot at redemption. Especially since it's his fault his family is falling apart. He can't change the past, but maybe he can change Haley's future.

Hayley and West have agreed to keep their relationship strictly in the ring. But as an unexpected bond forms between them and attraction mocks their best intentions, they'll face their darkest fears and discover love is worth fighting for.

My two-bits:

I like how this romance comes about despite the hardships the couple endure in regards to family and future.

Got a dose of the kickboxing world and its athletes.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck

A Short History of the Girl Next Door
by Jared Reck

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Just released: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genre: Romance, Sports, YA
Hardback: 272
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
I know it’s over when Liam Branson’s black Accord pulls in front of Tabby’s house before school.

Matt Wainwright is constantly sabotaged by the overdramatic movie director in his head. He can’t tell his best friend, Tabby, how he really feels about her, he implodes on the JV basketball team, and the only place he feels normal is in Mr. Ellis’s English class, discussing the greatest fart scenes in literature and writing poems about pissed-off candy-cane lumberjacks.

If this were a movie, everything would work out perfectly. Tabby would discover that Matt’s madly in love with her, be overcome with emotion, and would fall into his arms. Maybe in the rain.

But that’s not how it works. Matt watches Tabby get swept away by senior basketball star and all-around great guy Liam Branson. Losing Tabby to Branson is bad enough, but screwing up and losing her as a friend is even worse.

After a tragic accident, Matt finds himself left on the sidelines, on the verge of spiraling out of control and losing everything that matters to him. From debut author Jared Reck comes a fiercely funny and heart-wrenching novel about love, longing, and what happens when life as you know it changes in an instant.

My two-bits:

A story of friendship and unrequited love (of a different sort) which left me with a sad sigh.

With the backdrop of high school, basketball and poetry also play parts in this story that shapes the main character.

Wisdom imparted from caring grownups help with the character's growth in a positive way.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of tour

Perfectly Oblivious by Robin Daniels

Perfectly Oblivious
by Robin Daniels

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Just released: June 30, 2017
Publisher: Bluefields Publishing
Genre: YA, Humor, Sports
Paperback: 310
Rating: 5

The Perfect Series series:
Perfectly Oblivious
Perfectly You

First sentence(s):
A New Family was moving in across the street. The house next door to the Perkins's had been vacant for over six months. The couple that lived there before had had no kids, were hardly ever home, and kept to themselves. So, when the house went up for sale, my heart wasn't exactly broken.

Cameron Bates (Cam) could have almost any girl at Franklin High School... except for the one he wants. Unfortunately Bebe seems to be immune to his flirty charm and good looks, which means one of two things: a) she’s completely oblivious to how he feels, or b) she’s just not into him. If that’s the case, declaring his love would be disastrous for their friendship.

Bianca Barnes (Bebe) has a huge problem: the universe hates her. Every time she admits feelings for a boy, he ends up falling for her sweet, popular, and beautiful sister Beth. To avoid a broken heart, Bebe has sworn herself to secrecy. Nobody can know how she feels about Cam... Ever!

Neither person wants to confess their feelings, but the universe has its own plan. Out of the blue, Bebe is courted by a secret admirer. Cam has to step up his game and Bebe has to make a choice. Play it safe and accept the affections of her mystery man or challenge fate and take a chance on the boy she loves.

Content Description: This is a stand-alone YA contemporary romance with companion novels to follow. It contains minor language, innuendo, crude humor and steamy tension but is generally very clean. No sex. Recommended for ages 14 and up.

My two-bits:

Loved the banter between the two main characters as well as the individual perspectives of each.

And, loved the romantic shenanigans involved in pairing this couple.

Some fun one-on-one basketball scenes are cause for giggles in this YA romance.

Makes me want to check out the film, Love and Basketball.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author

That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza

That Crazy Perfect Someday
by Michael Mazza

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Just released: June 20, 2017
Publisher: Turtle Point Press
Genre: New Adult, Sports - surfing, California, Australia
Paperback: 318
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
My Charger clocks eighty-three miles an hour up North Harbor Drive, past the airport, headlights blazing, tachometer redlining, the V-8 roaring as if it's heading into war.

Zombie sighting:
Weakened by the prospect, I recline the seat all the way back, close may eyes, and numb as a voodoo zombie, let the car loop around the city into the dark, decaying hours of the night.
-page 217, chapter 38 (ARC)

The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world's wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she's intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri's personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.

My two-bits:

I found this to be a fun way to get into the surf world with a female perspective.

This story also gets into tackling the hardships in life that come with sports, fame, relationships (family and friends).

Admired the protagonist's courage and perseverance.

Had me watching some YouTube GoPro footage by surfers on Australian waves.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of publisher

Happy Release: That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza

That Crazy Perfect Someday
by Michael Mazza
-Women's Fiction, Sports
Amazon | Goodreads
The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world's wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she's intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow. Conflicts compound as Mafuri's personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.

EXCERPT:

Google “Mafuri Long.”

Click video.

And voila!

That’s me, surfing the monster of all waves—an eighty-foot beast. I’m like a tiny knife slicing through a gigantic wall of blue that’s rearing up behind me, a total H2O Everest. Scale? Picture me standing next to an eight-story building. In 2023, I became the first “chick” to win the Nike XX Big Wave Classic: one of the few women in history to surf a wave that big, the only one to do it officially. I followed Daddy’s advice before we left the dock for the open sea. “Don’t ride that horse with half your ass,” he said, sending me off with a fist bump. “Go after it, cowgirl.”

The freaky part is that the wave is a hundred miles off the San Diego coast in the middle of nowhere. The surf spot’s called the Cortes Bank, where the fish around you are the size of Volkswagens and very big things can swallow you whole. The only way out there is in a decent-size boat, and the only way to be saved after a serious wipeout is to be rescued by that decent-size boat or plucked up by a Coast Guard helicopter, which one big-wave legend experienced firsthand after a three-wave hold-down. The bank sits just under the water and can kick up epic hundred-footers. It’s one of the biggest, scariest waves in the world, and I mastered it: little five foot three sandy-haired me.

You’d usually have to wait until winter for a wave like that, but weather patterns are so crazy with the globe heating up the last few decades, it’s monumental—like, who can predict? I had no clue how ginormous the wave was. I mean, nobody anticipated it—not my surf coach, the safety team, the other surfers, or the pilots in the choppers circling above—but a tiny voice inside and the never-ending elevator ride up confirmed it was going to be borderline cataclysmic. When the wave hit its peak, I was staring down a seventy-five-foot vertical drop, fear shrieking inside me. Ride or die, that’s what I thought. Like, seriously, flinch on a wave like that and it’s bye-bye girly-girl. I went supersonic after that, faster than I had ever gone before, my legs feeling the board’s feedback full force, completely in the zone, focused, the entire ocean an angry fist beneath me . . . Then I pulled out of the wave.

When the video hit social, it ping-ponged around the world, out into space, and back again, sending up a collective girl-power supercheer, pretty much locking up a ton of cash in surf-sponsorships and placing me on every news feed from here to Alice Springs. Jax—that's what people call my dad—says I have a gift. He says he noticed it the first time I stood up on a wave in Sendai, Japan, back when I was five and we were surfing together, years before that tsunami leveled the place.

The sponsorship money let me set my marine biology degree aside for a while. I couldn't find a job in the field anyway. Let me restate that: I was offered one at SeaLand San Diego straight out of UCSD, basically to put on a carnival show with a thirteenth-generation orca after her act was reintroduced, but I passed because that isn't science, and a creature like that should be ambushing seals out in the ocean and not squeaking for mackerel treats in a man-made swimming pool for some spoiled kids' amusement. So the money lets me spend my days training, and my eyes are on the big prize when the Olympics begin on August 4.

© 2017 Michael Mazza, with permission from Turtle Point Press

Block & Tackle by Elise Faber, Stephanie Fournet, Kristin Vayden

Block & Tackle
by Elise Faber, Stephanie Fournet & Kristin Vayden

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Just released: March 12, 2017
Publisher: Blue Tulip Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Sports Romance
ebook
Rating (overall): 4

Football, hockey, and everything in between! Things are about to heat up on the ice and between the sheets. Each book is a fully fledged, standalone novel about forbidden love. What happens when you get your dream job and temptation is your ex-hockey-star boss? Or when the league’s top wide receiver has his eyes on you and he’s supposed to be just a client? Perhaps you find yourself in enemy territory because the woman you love is your best friend’s sister? Find out all the dirt in Block & Tackle, from Elise Faber, Kristin Vayden, and Stephanie Fournet.

Offsides by Elise Faber

Job title:
Executive Assistant for CEO of Prestige Media Group

Job description:
(1) Deal with a massive amount of emails.
(2) Schedule conference calls and meetings with top athletes and other hugely important people.
(3) Pick up dry cleaning and food, consult on tie selection, make dinner reservations, and book flights . . . basically act as a wife-on-steroids.
(4) THE IMPORTANT ONE: Do not, under any circumstances, fall in love with Devon Scott—demanding boss, former NHL player, and all-around gorgeous specimen of the male persuasion.

Job performance:
Failing.
Absolutely failing at number four.

Off Guard by Stephanie Fournet

Life couldn’t be better for Charlie Woodruff.

After a year of holding out, she’s finally landed the job she’s always wanted in the city of her dreams. An apartment she can afford and new friends at work make the transition easy.
When she meets a gorgeous stranger who makes her laugh and steals her breath, it seems like the icing on the cake...

Until Charlie discovers he’s a client.

Hutch Barlow — newly drafted wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders — looks like an avenging angel, hangs on her every word, and is completely off-limits. The trouble is he also refuses to take “no” for an answer.

And if she’s being honest, Charlie doesn’t want him to.

But seeing him means she could lose everything — including her heart.

Off Limits by Kristin Vayden

Everything about Ava screams off limits.
To want her is to invite disaster.
To pursue her is to risk my job.
To kiss her might cost me my best friend.
But all those risks seem small in light of the first problem.
She hates me.

To her I’m a sell out, choosing to advance my career rather than protect my biggest client.
Her brother.
And my best friend.
She hasn’t spoken to me in over a year, but that ends now.
Because I’m done with holding back.
To hell with the consequences.
Wish me luck . . .

My two-bits: (overall)

Lovely set of light shorty story romances with hot couples. Like the title suggests, the theme of block and tackle carry out and played with throughout each story in different ways.

The start of the couple interactions experience blocks mostly in regards to sports theme careers. Then the couples eventually tackle the problems... and each other ;-)


~*~
* review copy courtesy of tour

The Throwback Special by Chris Bachelder

The Throwback Special
by Chris Bachelder
narrated by R.C. Bray

Find out more about this book and author:
Powells
Amazon
Goodreads

Published: 2016
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Genre: Sports, Literary Fiction
Hardback: 224 pages
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
November 18, 1985 - Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, 36, suffers a career-ending compound fracture of the right leg on a sack by New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor during a telecast of ABC's Monday Night Football.

2016 National Book Award Finalist in Fiction
Winner of the Paris Review's 2016 Terry Southern Prize for Humor

A slyly profound and startlingly original novel about the psyche of the American male, The Throwback Special marks the return of one of the most acclaimed literary voices of his generation.

Here is the absorbing story of twenty-two men who gather every fall to painstakingly reenact what ESPN called “the most shocking play in NFL history” and the Washington Redskins dubbed the “Throwback Special”: the November 1985 play in which the Redskins’ Joe Theismann had his leg horribly broken by Lawrence Taylor of the New York Giants live on Monday Night Football.

With wit and great empathy, Chris Bachelder introduces us to Charles, a psychologist whose expertise is in high demand; George, a garrulous public librarian; Fat Michael, envied and despised by the others for being exquisitely fit; Jeff, a recently divorced man who has become a theorist of marriage; and many more. Over the course of a weekend, the men reveal their secret hopes, fears, and passions as they choose roles, spend a long night of the soul preparing for the play, and finally enact their bizarre ritual for what may be the last time. Along the way, mishaps, misunderstandings, and grievances pile up, and the comforting traditions holding the group together threaten to give way.

The Throwback Special is a moving and comic tale filled with pitch-perfect observations about manhood, marriage, middle age, and the rituals we all enact as part of being alive.

My two-bits:

Not normally my cup of tea, which is why I like to read the Tournament of Books selection. Gets me reading good stuff that I would not come across on my own.

This story gave me a sense of a football fandom that gets into reenactments, specifically an NFL play that involves a horrible injury. Being a part of a couple fandoms myself, I get it. Get how one can totally immerse themselves into that world to derive pleasure.

I found this to be a very male oriented story that presents male bonding in the context of football.

Got me thinking of the annual office fantasy football ritual that comes around.

~*~
* Listened to audiobook version.

* part of Tournament of Books 2017 (here)

Olympics Book Tag

Olympic Book Tag
sponsored by It Starts at Midnight (details)

Found this fun tag as a way to indirectly participate in the Summer Olympics.

TAG you are it - feel free to join in or comment with your book picks ;-)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Fantasy, YA | Amazon | Goodreads=====> Plan to pick up the newly released, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child this weekend!

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Road Trip, YA | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Loved how the references to the different sites and food references.

Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Fantasy | Amazon | Goodreads=====> You never know who is next on the hit list with this series.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Mystery, Thriller | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Wha? What? HUH?

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Contemporary Fiction | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> This chunkster had my attention for a good part of a year as I could only take small doses at a time, but worth it.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Chick-lit | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Still have to see the movie version.

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn
Romance, Travel, Africa | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Loved how this one transported me to 1920s Africa.

The Boys in the Boat:
Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Non-fiction, Sports | Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Loved learning about the world of rowing.

~*~
I am looking forward to watching the Gymnastics. How about you?

FYI: I am going to read this one for the gymnastics theme - it is a dark one...

You Will Know Me
by Megan Abbott
-Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Goodreads | my review

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The Boys in the Boat:
Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
by Daniel James Brown

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
BookExcerpt
Website
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Twitter @DJamesBrown
Currently on tour: see if he will be in your town (here)

Published: 2013
Publisher: Viking
Genre: History, Sports
Hardback: 416 pages
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
This book was born on a cold, drizzly, late spring day when I clambered over the split-rail cedar fence that surrounds my pasture and made my way through wet woods to the modest frame house where Joe Rantz lay dying.

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys’ own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant.

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

Absolutely inspiring!

This is one of those reads where the underdog prevails despite all the odds. The journey up to the moment of the win had nail-biting moments.

Loved the coaches and mentors who brought out the best in the individuals.

And, loved how this book encompassed all aspects of the time period from across the sea as well as at the boy's university.

About the author:

Daniel James Brown fell in love with the written word when he was five and his mother first read Danny and the Dinosaur to him. Since then he has earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in English from UCLA. He has taught writing at San Jose State University and Stanford University and now lives in the country east of Redmond, Washington, where he writes nonfiction books about compelling historical events.

~*~
* listened to the audio version - definitely recommend

* per imdb the film for this book is currently in development stage

* added this to my Books On The Nightstand Bingo challenge (details) - square: Currently on the Bestseller List

* added to my COYER challenge/scavenger hunt (details)

The One and Only by Emily Giffin

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The One and Only
by Emily Giffin

Visit Emily:
Amazon
BookExcerpt
Website
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter @emilygiffin
Current on tour see if she will be in your town here

Just released: May 20, 2014
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Romance
Hardback: 432 pages
Rating: 5

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave.

Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.

But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her.

As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.



Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.

PeekAbook:



My two-bits:

LOVED how this contemporary romance story dealt with transformation of kinds of love - specifically the classic friendship to romantic.

It incorporated football culture and media which was interesting and enjoyable to read even though I am not much of a football fan.

This was my first Emily Giffin book, so I can't compare it to her other works. However, I am now curious to read her other novels.

~*~

About the author:
Emily Giffin is the author of six New York Times bestselling novels: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You’re With, Heart of the Matter, and Where We Belong.

A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law, she now lives in Atlanta lives with her husband and three young children.

--~ Book Giveaway ~--
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* added this to my Bookish Bingo challenge

* review copy and giveaway courtesy of Summer Reading Challenge 2014. It's not too late, join the reading challenge here. @booksparks #SRC2014!

Ponga Boy by Phil Lebherz and Philip Reed

Ponga Boy
by Phil Lebherz and Philip Reed

Published: 2009
Genre: Coming of Age, Sports, YA
Hardback: 180 pages

Description from the amazon:
Ponga Boy is the story of a young Mexican boy s journey from small town fisherman to college soccer megastar. Pichu Castillian, alias Ponga Boy, grew up in an impoverished fishing village at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula. Pichu is the heart and soul of the dock, a local legend who works the bait fishing boats, or pongas, with his father, and amazes locals and tourists alike with his feats of athleticism. One day he attracts the attention of two American collegiate soccer coaches. After witnessing Pichu s abilities, they offer him the opportunity of a lifetime a tryout with the University of San Francisco soccer team and a full scholarship. Pichu embarks on a journey that goes beyond soccer as he enters a world that challenges everything he s ever known and leads him to confront who he is and what he really wants in life.

Hubby's review:
I read Ponga Boy by Phil Lebherz and Philip Reed as a football fan and as a favor to my wife who asked me to review it. When I refer to football, I am referring to what we call soccer in the United States, but what is known throughout the rest of the world as football. Ponga Boy is directed at a teen age and young adult audience. It is about football. It is about environmentalism. It is about the pressures of modern civilization versus a simpler life. It is about a boy, Pichu -- nicknamed Ponga Boy at a later point in the book -- coming of age.

Ponga Boy is a very readable book. It was not boring and it flowed along well. As a football fan I found it fantastic in the negative sense of the word -- pure fantasy. The authors use the football jargon well enough to describe the footballing. The referees of Ponga Boy are blind or are calling games for Las Vegas. The opposing players get away with flagrant red-card offenses on the ball that no referee could miss. The skills of Pichu are also pure fantasy. At one point, Pichu runs up on one of his own players, jumps onto his shoulder with his cleats, and uses him as a gymnastics springboard to turn a flip and kick a Pele-meets-Nadia Komenich goal. I suppose the player-cum-springboard could be an iron shoulder kung-fu master to be able to withstand having cleats dug into his shoulder, but the utter lack of realism was a detraction for me.

I did say that Ponga Boy is readable however. Ponga Boy is not all, or even mostly about soccer. It is about a boy growing up in a reletively simple lifestyle where a lofty aspiration is for a man to own his own ponga boat. A ponga boat is a small open fishing boat with an outboard motor. Pichu's prodigious football talent is the means by which he is removed from this life and sent to university. At the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit university, he plays football on a scholarship. We spend a good deal of time following his adjustment to life at the university and to his place on the team. He has to figure out how to gain acceptance on the team. This process involves sex, drugs, alcohol, physical competition and a Yoda-like grounds keeper. He also has to figure out his priorities. Through letters and calls he hears that the lifestyle of his village is being threatened by modern fishing practices. Pichu developes an interest in conservation and marine biology and is pulled in two directions. His destiny seems to be to become a football super-megastar who will make us forget Diego Maradona. But the simple lifestyle of his boyhood is calling him and he wants to preserrve it. What will his choice be?

Ponga Boy exults and patronizes the simple life of Pichu's village and derides our lifestyle here in the United States. I'm not going to fault it too much for that since we do lead a very energy-intensive, materialistic and wasteful lifestyle here. But I will fault it because it makes Pichu's choice inevitable. That really doesn't matter though. We always knew that Achilles would kill Hector. For all its readability, and despite its inevitability, Ponga Boy is worth the time if you want to be entertained, but not be intellectually taxed too much. It is a good read for it's intended audience.

* guest post review by hubby - kvb (thanks)

*review copy
Thanks to Monk Media and Atlas Books