Sum It Up by Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt: Amazing Coach
Remarkable Woman

Thanks goes to Lisa Hailey for recommending this memoire.

I was not familiar with Pat Summitt. I don't watch NBA basketball, nor do I watch college ball. Truth be known, I don't really know the difference between a basketball and a beachball. So coming to this book, I was entirely unfamiliar with the notoriety of this woman and her incredible dominance in the field of women's college basketball.


Here's a summary thanks to GoodReads.com:

Pat Summitt was only 21 when she became head coach of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. For 38 years, she has broken records, winning more games than any NCAA team in basketball history. She has coached an undefeated season, co-captained the first women's Olympic team, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and has been named Sports Illustrated 'Sportswoman of the Year'. 

She owes her coaching success to her personal struggles and triumphs. She learned to be tough from her strict, demanding father. Motherhood taught her to balance that rigidity with communication and kindness. She is a role model for the many women she's coached; 74 of her players have become coaches. 

Pat's life took a shocking turn in 2011, when she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible brain condition that affects 5 million Americans. Despite her devastating diagnosis, she led the Vols to win their sixteenth SEC championship in March 2012. Pat continues to be a fighter, facing this new challenge the way she's faced every other--with hard work, perseverance, and a sense of humor. 

Her accomplishments are too many to list, but here are a few highlights;

Pat Summitt is the most winning coach in the history of NCAA Division 1 college basketball, boasting 1098 victories from 1974 until 2012. Olympic Gold Medalist in 1976 games. Eight-time NCAA Championships, Seven-time NCAA Coach of the Year,  Named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century, Awarded the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

Pat Summitt is a gritty, uncompromising coach. She admits that she would push her athletes beyond their personal limitations and bring out new levels of performance--the true role of a coach. She described how she would brake the individual players down, then rebuilt them to be better team players and stronger athletes. From the players perspectives (that pepper the memoire), in coaching them on the court, Pat Summitt taught them life skills, and help the players to do better in so many aspects of their lives. A true testament to Summitt's contribution to each player: 100% of her players graduated from University of Tennessee and 78 of her players went on to become teachers and coaches.

The autobiography itself was co-authored with Sally Jenkins, and is well written. Summitt admits that she has difficulty remembering day to day details, as a result of her suffering from early onset Alzheimer's which was diagnosed in 2011. However, she says that she remembers all of the people that have played a role in her life as a coach, and her memoire demonstrates this.

As a critique of the work, I would say that it's heavily laden with a litany of people and players, and because I don't know anyone from the sport, I found the endless list of people hard to track and somewhat confusing. With player turn over every year, I lost track of most of the players. Maybe if I was more familiar with the stars of NCAA, I would have tracked them more easily.

I would have liked more personal details on Pat's ongoing relationship with her family members, but perhaps this was covered in her previous work.

I commend the University of Tennessee for supporting and accommodating Summitt despite her health condition, and I wish that more employers were so generous to those employees who have been loyal contributors before diagnoses. Perhaps their treatment of Summitt and their willingness to provide ongoing support will serve as a bench mark for other institutions and private companies.

The most beautiful passage of the book was its final 3 lines.  Regardless of whether you believe in God, these words are beautiful. I wish Pat Summitt peace in her future, and when it's her time to fly, I hope she reaches her chosen destination. If anyone can, it would be Pat Summitt.

What a Book: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Seldom am I engaged with a book so much that it troubles me after I've put it down. Such is the case with Celest Ng's novel, Everything I Never Told You.

Thanks to my book club friend Mary Anne, I was lent this novel after our last book club meeting. With my ongoing resolution to not purchase books, a lent book is such a wonderful gift! This novel was no exception...In fact it was a treat because it was such an engaging story.

Here's a quick synopsis from iTunes Preview:

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia’s older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it’s the youngest of the family—Hannah—who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.

This story is so much more than a "Who Dunn It?" mystery. As iTunes says, it is a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another. I would also add that it explores relationships among siblings, and how each one's experiences interpreted so differently for the others in the family.

I found this novel very unsettling; incredibly well written and Ng manages to painted such a foreboding atmosphere within this family. Here's a little chat with the author:

I think this novel could make a great movie also. Enjoy and Thank You Mary Anne!

The Girl on the Train

Read it in November.

Enjoyed it...

Will write more about it soon...

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Just what the doctor ordered: Easy and soothing. Garth Stein has created a fictional novel that is written from the perspective of the family dog, Enzo.

Recommended and lent to me by my friend Anna D.B., she said it was an enjoyable easy read. After the struggle presented by Infidel, I welcomed the break.

Here's a quick summary from Wikipedia:

The novel follows the story of Denny Swift, a race car driver and customer representative in a high-end Seattle auto dealership, and his dog Enzo, who believes in the Mongolian legend that a dog who is prepared will be reincarnated in his next life as a human.^[2] Enzo sets out to prepare, with The Seattle Times calling his journey "a struggle to hone his humanness, to make sense of the good, the bad and the unthinkable."^[3]

Enzo spends most of his days watching and learning from television, gleaning what he can about his owner's greatest passion, race car driving — and relating it to life. Enzo eventually plays a key role in Denny's child-custody battle with his in-laws, and distills his observations of the human condition in the mantra "that which you manifest is before you." Enzo helps Denny throughout his life, through his ups and downs.

Garth Stein in his racing garb.

 This is a great picture of the author who was a champion race car driver until he crashed his car racing in the rain.

I really enjoyed this novel. It's well written and makes for smooth reading. It pulls at the heart strings without being too sentimental.

After reading this book, I found myself paying closer attention to my own dog, and wondering if he's trying to tell me things. Enzo the narrator of this novel spends a lot of time listening, understanding and trying to help his owner navigate the challenges of his life.