An enjoyable read, even for readers who never plan to hit the links.
Emmy Award–winning sports producer Rota crafts a golfing how-to that aims to make life on and off the course a whole lot more enjoyable.
It might not seem possible to seamlessly amalgamate the stoic philosophy of Marcus Aurelius with the easy wisdom of an amiable golf pro, but Rota appealingly manages to do so. Virtually every other line of his concise, energetic prose in these pages contains a memorable aphorism. However, no matter how lofty the observations get, they always land firmly on the green: “Who gives a crap what your final score is? Remember what you did well and build on it for next time” is just one example out of many. Getting a tiny, dimpled ball to sink into a cup hundreds of yards away is one of the most challenging feats in all of sports, and countless instruction manuals have been written to school developing players in the proper way to do it. Rota’s particular genius, though, lies in his ability to deliver real-world golf instruction without the slightest hint of technical jargon. He also points out that understanding fundamental golfing etiquette will not only help one better navigate a golf course but navigate life, as well. Rota’s work is an undeniable pleasure to read and absorb, no matter which way one slices it—golf pun intended. Indeed, many readers will no doubt approach Rota’s golf instruction simply as a vehicle to absorb its low-key wisdom; still others will simply enjoy teeing up the easy, free-flowing prose: “Finish with a few drives on the range,” Rota writes, “release your hands, and turn through the ball. Swing with swagger. Find your tee shot tempo and walk to that tee box with a confident glide in your stride.”
An enjoyable read, even for readers who never plan to hit the links.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798891380653
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An overstuffed, enjoyable jaunt through the NFL’s recent past.
Four decades of football, as chronicled by a well-known sportswriter.
Longtime Sports Illustrated gridiron reporter King takes a maximalist approach, devoting one chapter to each year from 1984, when he started writing about the NFL, to 2023, the last season he covered the league full-time. This lengthy professional memoir features anecdotes and commentary, an argument-starting list of names for his “Mount Rushmore of Pro Football,” a crossword puzzle, and informative tidbits on tactics and playcalling, as well as profiles of singular players and warranted criticism of league bosses’ handling of player health and sports gambling. King skillfully charts the NFL’s inexorable growth. When he started, snail-mail newsletters were must-reads. In today’s media landscape, streaming networks have spent $4.3 billion to broadcast 58 games. As the author illustrates, Paul Tagliabue, a relatively unheralded league commissioner, engineered the year-round fan experience, with “tentpole events like a draft with more fanfare, free agency, and a new TV channel.” Polls showed that baseball and football were equally popular in the ’80s, but, by 2024, football had four times as many fans. Yet King’s kitchen-sink approach results in some bloat. Nobody yearns for a minute-by-minute rehash of the Cowboys’ 1991 draft or a rundown of the “quotes of 2002.” But amid the overabundance, there’s ample charm. In his best chapters, King catches up with guys he wrote about years ago. An 80-something Hall of Fame coach sketches Xs and Os on a notepad. A retired player known for his creative trash-talking shares tricks of the trade. In a powerful chapter, King visits a lab and looks at the damaged brain of a player he voted for in Hall of Fame balloting. This dovetails with King’s number-crunching on per-game hits sustained by players, important analysis as the league considers expanding its schedule.
An overstuffed, enjoyable jaunt through the NFL’s recent past.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9781324123637
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.
The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some.
Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN documentary about Michael Jordan and the Bulls, The Last Dance. Given that Jordan emerges as someone not quite friend enough to qualify as a frenemy, even though teammates for many years, the maltreatment is understandable. This book, Pippen allows, is his retort to a man who “was determined to prove to the current generation of fans that he was larger-than-life during his day—and still larger than LeBron James, the player many consider his equal, if not superior.” Coming from a hardscrabble little town in Arkansas and playing for a small college, Pippen enjoyed an unlikely rise to NBA stardom. He played alongside and against some of the greats, of whom he writes appreciatively (even Jordan). Readers will gain insight into the lives of characters such as Dennis Rodman, who “possessed an unbelievable basketball IQ,” and into the behind-the-scenes work that led to the Bulls dynasty, which ended only because, Pippen charges, the team’s management was so inept. Looking back on his early years, Pippen advocates paying college athletes. “Don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou student-athlete nonsense,” he writes. “These young men—and women—are athletes first, not students, and make up the labor that generates fortunes for their schools. They are, for lack of a better term, slaves.” The author also writes evenhandedly of the world outside basketball: “No matter how many championships I have won, and millions I have earned, I never forget the color of my skin and that some people in this world hate me just because of that.” Overall, the memoir is closely observed and uncommonly modest, given Pippen’s many successes, and it moves as swiftly as a playoff game.
Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982165-19-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
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