Book Reviews

Back in April, at the suggestion of one of my many bosses, I started an internal newspaper at work. The goal was to inform my colleagues about any and all relevant news regarding our department and to do so in an engaging manner. A half serious/half mocking approach is kind of my thing, so I wrote a handful of upbeat articles (some of which included made up quotes), polled everyone with the same title on a series of questions, and created quick blurbs to fill in the remaining white space (my favorite was a list of "Buzzwords to use in conversations with your manager").

A few weeks back the manager who originally suggested the newsletter, my editor- if you will, told me to start ramping things up for the second edition. In an effort to mix things up I've written two reviews for books with a sports connection. The first of which was written by ESPN Radio's own Mike Greenberg. The second was written by legendary coach, and former NBA player, Phil Jackson.

all you could ask for by Mike Greenberg

The fact that a sports talk radio host penned this novel is almost unfathomable. That is, of course, if you don’t know who Mike Greenberg is.

If you listen to just one segment of Mike and Mike you learn two things. 1.) The Twitter handle of Greeny’s wife and 2.) That each host’s characteristics are exaggerated to fit a certain role. Greeny is the skinny, smoothie drinking, metrosexual geek and Golic is the overweight, dumb ex-jock.  This difference between the two Mikes is even spelled out in the show’s new logo (one “Mike” is in skinny type while the other is in a larger, more round font).

Greenberg clearly has some feminine qualities (going all lower case in the title among them), but none that would suggest that he’d be able to write a novel that features three distinct female protagonists. Writing from the point of view of the opposite sex is a daunting task. In fact, there may not be a bigger challenge for an author. Jack Nicholson’s character in As Good As it Gets (1999) made it sound easy when he, a famous author, was asked how he writes women so well and said, “I think of a man…and take away reason and accountability,”, but it’s incredibly difficult.

Somehow, someway Greenberg, with the help of his wife and their yoga teacher, pulled it off. That is the real victory of this novel.  Only once did I find myself saying, “A woman would not act/say that,” but then again, I’m not a woman, so what do I know?

all you could ask for is a story about three woman from different paths of life (even though they all have ties to the ritzy town of Greenwich, CT) that connect through their battles with breast cancer. As you might expect, there are a plethora of references to running, hiking, protein shakes, smoothies, fresh fruit, and wine. There are also a handful of scenes that feature nudity and a number of usages of the word “ass” (including in the first sentence), which I certainly did not expect.

The words fly off the page as quickly as Greenberg’s opinions do every weekday morning. His urgent cadence drives the plot from page to page and chapter to chapter. Greeny’s skills as a talk show host very clearly carry over into his writing. His unique ability to hook listeners into sticking through a commercial break shows at the end of each chapter. At times it’s hard to put the book down because you feel the need to find out what happens next.

That said, the second half of the novel falls flat. As the woman deal with their breast cancer treatments they "bond" quickly and forge unrealistically deep friendships, despite a series of ridiculous exchanges between two of them. The ending is confusing, far-fetched, and unsatisfactory. I would definitely not recommend this book to another male and would have some reservations about telling a female to give it a shot.

 
Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson

Not many of us want our careers to define our life. We believe that our families, thoughts and ideals, and true passions are more important. The same holds true for the most decorated head coach in the history of the NBA.

Phil Jackson’s latest book Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success is part spiritual journey and part how Jackson implemented his constantly changing philosophy on life and leadership throughout his career in the NBA as both a player and a head coach. That’s something that most people too often forget. Phil Jackson was a solid player in the NBA. He won two NBA titles in the 70s with the New York Knicks (it should be noted that he was injured for the first title).

Jackson grew up in Montana, a place he’s never really left mentally, as the son of two ministers. Growing up he was bombarded with religion. He went to mass twice on Sundays. Once to hear his father’s sermon. Then again to hear his mother’s. Obviously this led to his natural inclination in divinity, but as he grew up he needed to find a respite from his religious obligations. That, in part, is why he turned to basketball (the other part being his God gifted height and ability).

In the book Jackson provides a season by season synopsis of his career as a coach in the NBA. Interestingly he gets to the playoffs very quickly in his descriptions and references the boredom many of his teams dealt with in the regular season. Within the text we learn a great deal about his thought process. He was averse to calling early timeouts because he wanted his players to learn how to play through adversity. It also seems as if he was petrified of Game 7s because of their uncertainty. 

In many ways this book is exactly what you would think that it would be. Jackson provides a detailed breakdown of the famous triangle offense, that he learned from assistant coach Tex Winter. He tells stories about how he handled the eccentricities of Dennis Rodman. He explains the disdain he felt toward Kobe Bryant during the ’03-’04 season and how they mended their relationship. There are plenty of passages about his dealings with Michael Jordan (including their conversation before MJ decided to play baseball) and their great respect for one another.

Throughout it all there are quotes from Zen leaders and Buddhist monks, references to Lakota Warriors, mentions of motorcycle rides through the Rockies to clear his mind, stories about how he used meditation to relax his players, and examples of how he implemented the fundamentals found in psychological theories like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Reunion Weekend

Last year around this time I wrote about how the first four years out of college go even faster than the four years as an undergrad. It’s a scary, yet accurate premise. Continuing that thought, the more you get out away from college the more serious life becomes. So just imagine the thoughts going through my mind as I drove down to Fairfield for my five year college reunion this past weekend.

I had heard from kids older than me that the five year reunion is an absolute blast, so my expectations were sky high. Even with the high standards set in my mind I had a great time. If I have more fun over the course of a weekend the rest of the year I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

It’s hard to describe the feeling that reunion weekend dug up for many of my former classmates. It was a blend of nostalgia, happiness on the verge of giddiness, and a return to a previous state of normalcy that’s never really left the synapses of our minds. We were all transfixed in a way where our experience within the confines of Fairfield felt almost separate and disconnected from the outside world. The communal sense that we had established during our tenure as college students was rebuilt, even if only for 48 hours.

Obviously whenever a large contingent of your college classmates gets together there’s going to be some awkwardness. This can’t be avoided. Within the first sixty seconds of showing up I saw an acquaintance that I liked well enough to say hello to. The only problem was that he was with a kid I didn’t know at all. After the kid that I knew and I shared a bro hug I felt obligated to also extend a bro hug to his buddy. It was clearly forced and awkward, but I felt as if consistency was the best policy. Later on if I saw a group of girls and hugged the first one, the rest of the group was getting the same greeting.

As great as it was to see so many familiar faces, and it was, I felt like most people there had an agenda, whether intentionally or not. I don’t feel like people went out of their way to brag about life events (The number of people that were married or engaged was staggering. Facebook has kept me apprised of most of these events, but I was still slightly overwhelmed), but there was a lot of self pride going on (and most of it rightfully so). Others seemed to be making statements that ranged from “Check out my new figure” to “I’m successful and no longer have a coke problem.” Again, no one was ostentatious in a way that was off putting, but it was almost like the five year reunion was a stage for everyone with something to prove (whether it be to themselves or otherwise).

That said, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how good looking most of the females were. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’ve been living in the middle of nowhere Connecticut for the past five years, but the female members of the Class of ’08 were bringing the heat this weekend. As one friend said, “Say what you will about Fairfield girls, but they crush evening/formal wear.” I also assume that the people that really ballooned opted not to show up.

Fairfield put our class up in the dorms and I swear it was like we never left. For the life of me I can’t figure out how we all packed our entire lives into such a confined space during our Freshman and Sophomore years, but that didn’t seem to matter this weekend. The entire scene was pulled from a calendar in April of 2005. People were playing Frisbee (and Kan Jam) in the quad, mini-refrigerators were stocked with beer, toilet paper laced the hallways after a few rounds of late night bowling, and the Domino’s delivery guy was knocking on the door every five minutes from 1-4am.

It was exhilarating to fall into the same patterns and routines that we were all accustomed to in years past. We went to the same establishments for breakfast and to familiar places on campus to re-connect with our former selves. At a beer garden right outside the campus center a group of us that worked in the rec plex as intramural supervisors ran into our old boss and chatted him up for a bit. Afterwards we felt compelled to return to our old workspace where we enjoyed a game of P-I (not enough time for a full game of P-I-G) and sweet talked our way into getting free t-shirts. The area where I most noticed everyone returning to the way we acted in college was in conversations.

The people I talked to the most this weekend were the people that I talked to the most in college. This makes sense on the surface level because most of these people are my closest friends that I’m still in touch with, but things picked right back up with others (namely former romantic interests) that I no longer see or speak to. For whatever reason this led to a series of deep conversations/”heart-to-hearts” about the past. I felt as if both parties in these talks were much more free and uninhibited than in the past (in most cases a female I was speaking to was married/engaged, so the sexual tension that was once there was gone). It was easier to talk about past transgressions and how they made us feel in the moment. These open and free discussions about the past made me wonder about how things may have played out differently . What if I had done this or not done that, etc. It’s pretty fascinating how fickle the paths are that we take.

Not surprisingly, the prevailing thought that I had about our reunion weekend is how fast everything went. Time flew by just like college did. There were 10-15 people that I feel like I only spoke to for thirty seconds. After a quick hello I assumed that I would see them later on and just didn’t. The goodbyes on Saturday night and Sunday morning were drawn out and only slightly less difficult than they were five years ago. We had quickly re-established connections and then severed them just as quickly. As I drove away from my second home I wished for four more years of weekends like the one I just had.

As challenging as it was to leave I found comfort in knowing that there’s a bond among us that’s greater than any of us even know. I may not see or speak to people that I considered friends in college until the next reunion five years from now, but no matter where we go and what we do we’ll always have this collection of shared memories to fall back on. That’s something that we can all be proud of.