Deep - James Nestor

I have a great best friend with varied interests and she has led me to topics I never would have discovered on my own.  This book, about deep water freediving, is her most recent share.

I was fascinated from the first chapter where the author described his first encounter with competitive freediving.  The physical limits of the human body are tested and pushed to the limit to achieve a condition that hearkens back to our ancient sea roots.

I enjoyed learning how practitioners learn to hold their breath for several minutes while diving and the physical changes that happen that allow them to go deeper and longer underwater.  Great read.

Published:  2015  Read: December 2015  Genre: Science, non-fiction

978-0-544-48407-8

Miracle at Augusta - James Patterson & Peter de Jonge

I picked this slim novel up at the library on the new releases shelf.  I got it because it was about golf at the Masters Course in August, Georgia and my DH is an avid golfer who always watches the tourney.  It wasn't until I started reading it that I noticed the author was the prolific JP, who has been writing books with the help of other authors, who trade off of his popularity. It was a fun read and gave me a little bit of understanding of golf terms and strategies.  I even got DH to read it, though he thought it was a little, "touchy, feeley".  It's the story of a young teen who is being picked on in high school.  The harassing is observed by a golfer who is on the decline and has made some poor choices and consequently is suspended for a time from playing professionally.  The golfer takes the teen under his wing and they sneak onto the Augusta course to play a round of golf.

It was fun to read and I might try some other "golf" stories.


Published: 2015  Read: August 2015  Genre: Fiction

ISBN: 9 780316 410977

The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown

This is the story of the young college men from Washington State who won the 1936 Olympic rowing championship held in Germany during Hitler's rise to power.  But only the last 25 or so pages is about that triumphant race near Berlin.  The rest of the book is about the boys themselves; their early lives and exhaustive detail of their rowing training during college.  Their are brief interludes that keep us up to date on what is going on in Germany while they prepare for the race back home in Washington.

I felt the story was way too drawn out with repetitive portrayals of the main rowers.  The book could have easily been half the length.  I appreciate that the author did lots of research but he didn't have to cram every piece of it into the story.

Published:   Read: May 2015  Genre: biography

ISBN: 10-1-59413-775-X