Just the thing for any fan of fly-tying and artful casting.
The dean of fly-fishing turns in another celebration of the free, unfettered life spent working a quiet stream.
Though Gierach confesses to enjoying a good practical joke, he allows that sometimes—as with the case of an errant rubber snake—they go a bit too far. Moreover, they can lead to a bad-karma jinx. “At a certain age,” he writes sagely, “you’ve made so many dumb mistakes that you’re able to identify the kind of faulty thinking that leads up to them.” Snake stowed away, his fishing game immediately improved, and he notes that “although fishing is no longer really about success, catching fish is still somehow right at the heart of the game.” The author catches fish with the best of them, and in this collection of sketches, he takes us to some fine waters—perhaps the most inviting of them in Alaska, where he found gigantic rainbow trout and the little-known sheefish. “They’re good to eat, but they don’t freeze well for shipping, so few outside Alaska have ever tasted one,” he writes. The more remote the stream, the better, and the more knowledgeable the angler, the better as well. On that note, Gierach opines on the best flies for different occasions, such as the Turle knot that he whipped up on a New Brunswick salmon river only to have his Mi’kmaq guide study it “from every angle,” then retie it “with a Turle knot that, I thought, looked exactly like mine” but that yielded success in the form of two fish. The author also describes bespoke fishing rods and the excellence that underlies their making as well as the need for an angler to know how to read weather and avoid unnecessary danger. On that note, Gierach, ever self-effacing and pleasantly conversational, confesses to good luck, dodging both fires and deadly floods through both caution and dumb luck.
Just the thing for any fan of fly-tying and artful casting.Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9781501168659
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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IN THE NEWS
Infectiously enthusiastic appraisals of NBA and WNBA stars.
Revering roundball royalty.
Fervor fuels this impressionistic celebration of basketball’s greatest performers. Serrano, the author of bestsellers about sports and pop culture, sticks with what’s made him successful, peppering this collection of essays about LeBron James, A’ja Wilson, and others with go-for-broke adjectives and references to rappers and action movies. You might not agree that Kobe Bryant’s final game was “monumental” or that the Golden State Warriors’ record 73 wins was a “godly” achievement, but Serrano is irresistibly passionate, a fan-writer who greets each game as a chance to be awed. Its title notwithstanding, this effervescent book isn’t about player contracts or billion-dollar revenue streams. To the author, “expensive” is synonymous with virtuosity. Ray Allen’s textbook jump shot was expensive. Though Serrano quotes William Carlos Williams in a chapter about WNBA all-timer Sue Bird, he’s more apt to cite blockbuster films, prestige TV, and hip-hop. Often, this works nicely. His inspired paean to Giannis Antetokounmpo is probably the first time that a streaky free-throw shooter has been likened to “cool-as-fuck” Helen Mirren’s unlikely appearance in The Fate of the Furious. Conversely, Serrano’s long list of memorable rap lyrics adds little to his Stephen Curry chapter. The author is appealingly self-effacing—a footnote calls attention to his “dorkiest” sentence—and watchful for manifestations of unbridled athletic joy, like the gleeful “little jump-skip thing” Dwyane Wade did after tossing an alley-oop pass. His support of the WNBA is just as strong as his love of the men’s game. DeWanna Bonner, Brittney Griner, and Diana Taurasi “are sledgehammers covered in scorpions.” Wilson “is a goddamn basketball obliteration monster.” Serrano is great at exploring how fans’ memories of their favorite players intermingle with important events from their lives. That’s the subject of his affable chapter about former San Antonio Spur Tim Duncan.
Infectiously enthusiastic appraisals of NBA and WNBA stars.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781538755228
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
“Protect your passion,” writes an NBA star in this winning exploration of how we can succeed in life.
A future basketball Hall of Famer’s rosy outlook.
Curry is that rare athlete who looks like he gets joy from what he does. There’s no doubt that the Golden State Warriors point guard is a competitor—he’s led his team to four championships—but he plays the game with nonchalance and exuberance. That ease, he says, “only comes from discipline.” He practices hard enough—he’s altered the sport by mastering the three-point shot—so that he achieves a “kind of freedom.” In that “flow state,” he says, “I can let joy and creativity take over. I block out all distractions, even the person guarding me. He can wave his arms and call me every name in the book, but I just smile and wait as the solution to the problem—how to get the ball into the basket—presents itself.” Curry shares this approach to his craft in a stylish collection that mixes life lessons with sharp photographs and archival images. His dad, Dell, played in the NBA for 16 years, and Curry learned much from his father and mother: “My parents were extremely strict about me and my little brother Seth not going to my pops’s games on school nights.” Curry’s mother, Sonya, who founded the Montessori elementary school that Curry attended in North Carolina, emphasized the importance not just of learning but of playing. Her influence helped Curry and his wife, Ayesha, create a nonprofit foundation: Eat. Learn. Play. He writes that “making reading fun is the key to unlocking a kid’s ability to be successful in their academic journeys.” The book also has valuable pointers for ballers—and those hoping to hit the court. “Plant those arches—knees bent behind those 10 toes pointing at the hoop, hips squared with your shoulders—and draw your power up so you explode off the ground and rise into your shot.” Sounds easy, right?
“Protect your passion,” writes an NBA star in this winning exploration of how we can succeed in life.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9780593597293
Page Count: 432
Publisher: One World/Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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