The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

Between the new Hosseini book and this book by Daniel Brown, it is shaping up to be a phenomenal summer of reading.  As soon as I read the review of The Boys in the Boat, I thought of my husband, a UW alumna who bleeds purple, gets cranky on game day if the football team loses (tho that has been rather frequent the last few years), and spent a few years in the Greek system going to the Opening Day crew races.  The birth of this book began when author Daniel Brown was called over to the home of a neighbor, whose father Joe Rantz, was dying and wanted to meet the author of some of the books he had enjoyed.  Unbeknownst to Brown, Rantz was a gold-medal winner of the 8-man crew boat produced by the University of Washington in 1936.  Unbeknownst to me, crew-racing was one of the most watched and most followed sports in the first half of the 20th century.  As Brown listened to Joe, and his daughter Judy's stories, he realized...there's a book in here.  And boy, was he right.  From the second paragraph of the book, you know the boys win the gold.  However, Brown writes in such a gripping, emotional manner, I found myself on the edge of the couch, almost cheering aloud to pick up the pace, to beat the Germans, to WIN.  Obsessively reading over just three days, this is my favorite non-fiction I have read since Unbroken.  It is a story of poor young men, who have nothing but their heart, their muscles, and their will to pull them across the finish line.  Brown does a masterful job of not only relating the story of the boat races, but also of the background of Joe Rantz and the others - the poverty during the Great Depression, the conditions of Seattle and the UW in the 1930's, even the digging of the Coulee Dam.  Knowing less than nothing about the art of rowing, I am humbled and in awe of what oar men and women do.  And next April, when Opening Day at the UW begins on the Montlake Cut, I plan on being there, to honor the Boys in the Boat.  Inspirational, emotional, and unbelievable in parts, DO NOT miss this book and give
it to a member of your family who loves not only the University of Washington, but who loves the art of sport and the heart of competition.