A celebration of the possibilities for those who are made to feel like outsiders in sports.
A memoir from a woman pioneer of big wave surfing.
As a young teen, Gabeira, who grew up in Rio de Janeiro, was introduced to surfing at a beach party she attended with a friend from dance school—and she instantly fell in love. Headstrong and independent, she convinced her divorced parents to let her dedicate herself to learning to surf, kicking off a lifelong obsession that even her severe asthma couldn’t dampen. As she trained in Brazil and locales as far-flung as Australia, Hawaii, and Indonesia, Gabeira struggled to find her place in this male-dominated sport. She had a chance meeting with Eraldo Gueiros, a big wave surfer—someone who rides waves measuring 20 feet and higher (the term isn’t defined in the book)—and his enthusiasm inspired her to strive to become the world’s best big wave surfer. As one of the first women to attempt to conquer such massive waves, Gabeira faced misogyny, double standards, isolation, and harsh critiques from men who surrounded her. Injuries, anxiety, heartbreak, and self-doubt all plagued her as she pushed herself to break the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, which she succeeded in doing in Nazaré, Portugal. Although the minimal dialogue and relatively few descriptions of scenes make the narration feel dense at times, Gabeira’s journey will captivate young athletes and inspire them to break barriers.
A celebration of the possibilities for those who are made to feel like outsiders in sports. (Memoir. 14-18)Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781419760020
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishing human being.
Full-immersion journalist Kidder (Home Town, 1999, etc.) tries valiantly to keep up with a front-line, muddy-and-bloody general in the war against infectious disease in Haiti and elsewhere.
The author occasionally confesses to weariness in this gripping account—and why not? Paul Farmer, who has an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Harvard, appears to be almost preternaturally intelligent, productive, energetic, and devoted to his causes. So trotting alongside him up Haitian hills, through international airports and Siberian prisons and Cuban clinics, may be beyond the capacity of a mere mortal. Kidder begins with a swift account of his first meeting with Farmer in Haiti while working on a story about American soldiers, then describes his initial visit to the doctor’s clinic, where the journalist felt he’d “encountered a miracle.” Employing guile, grit, grins, and gifts from generous donors (especially Boston contractor Tom White), Farmer has created an oasis in Haiti where TB and AIDS meet their Waterloos. The doctor has an astonishing rapport with his patients and often travels by foot for hours over difficult terrain to treat them in their dwellings (“houses” would be far too grand a word). Kidder pauses to fill in Farmer’s amazing biography: his childhood in an eccentric family sounds like something from The Mosquito Coast; a love affair with Roald Dahl’s daughter ended amicably; his marriage to a Haitian anthropologist produced a daughter whom he sees infrequently thanks to his frenetic schedule. While studying at Duke and Harvard, Kidder writes, Farmer became obsessed with public health issues; even before he’d finished his degrees he was spending much of his time in Haiti establishing the clinic that would give him both immense personal satisfaction and unsurpassed credibility in the medical worlds he hopes to influence.
Skilled and graceful exploration of the soul of an astonishing human being.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-50616-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2003
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