An enjoyable read, even for readers who never plan to hit the links.
Emmy Award–winning sports producer Rota crafts a golfing how-to that aims to make life on and off the course a whole lot more enjoyable.
It might not seem possible to seamlessly amalgamate the stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius with the easy wisdom of an amiable golf pro, but Rota appealingly manages to do so. Virtually every other line of his concise, energetic prose in these pages contains a memorable aphorism. However, no matter how lofty the observations get, they always land firmly on the green: “Who gives a crap what your final score is? Remember what you did well and build on it for next time” is just one example out of many. Getting a tiny, dimpled ball to sink into a cup hundreds of yards away is one of the most challenging feats in all of sports, and countless instruction manuals have been written to school developing players in the proper way to do it. Rota’s particular genius, though, lies in his ability to deliver real-world golf instruction without the slightest hint of technical jargon. He also points out that understanding fundamental golfing etiquette will not only help one better navigate a golf course but navigate life, as well. Rota’s work is an undeniable pleasure to read and absorb, no matter which way one slices it—golf pun intended. Indeed, many readers will no doubt approach Rota’s golf instruction simply as a vehicle to absorb its low-key wisdom; still others will simply enjoy teeing up the easy, free-flowing prose: “Finish with a few drives on the range,” Rota writes, “release your hands, and turn through the ball. Swing with swagger. Find your tee shot tempo and walk to that tee box with a confident glide in your stride.”
An enjoyable read, even for readers who never plan to hit the links.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798891380653
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.
Prolific writer Benedict has long blended two interests—sports and business—and the Patriots are emblematic of both. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, the team built a strategic home field between that city and Providence. When original owner Billy Sullivan sold the flailing team in 1988, it was $126 million in the hole, a condition so dire that “Sullivan had to beg the NFL to release emergency funds so he could pay his players.” Victor Kiam, the razor magnate, bought the long since renamed New England Patriots, but rival Robert Kraft bought first the parking lots and then the stadium—and “it rankled Kiam that he bore all the risk as the owner of the team but virtually all of the revenue that the team generated went to Kraft.” Check and mate. Kraft finally took over the team in 1994. Kraft inherited coach Bill Parcells, who in turn brought in star quarterback Drew Bledsoe, “the Patriots’ most prized player.” However, as the book’s nimbly constructed opening recounts, in 2001, Bledsoe got smeared in a hit “so violent that players along the Patriots sideline compared the sound of the collision to a car crash.” After that, it was backup Tom Brady’s team. Gridiron nerds will debate whether Brady is the greatest QB and Bill Belichick the greatest coach the game has ever known, but certainly they’ve had their share of controversy. The infamous “Deflategate” incident of 2015 takes up plenty of space in the late pages of the narrative, and depending on how you read between the lines, Brady was either an accomplice or an unwitting beneficiary. Still, as the author writes, by that point Brady “had started in 223 straight regular-season games,” an enviable record on a team that itself has racked up impressive stats.
Smart, engaging sportswriting—good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982134-10-5
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
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