Will no doubt raise a few hackles, but Pitino's tale of doings on and off the court will be the most discussed basketball...
Star basketball-coach Pitino's candid and emotional account of the Kentucky Wildcats' revival from sanctions and probation in 1989 to the dramatic at-the-buzzer loss to Duke in the NCAA semifinals earlier this year.
The former New York Knicks coach, with the aid of Weiss (coauthor, Time Out, Baby!, 1991), tells how he took a disgraced 14-14 team to the Final 8 in just two seasons. The ``year'' he refers to (1991-92) does not begin until after Pitino ramblingly describes his unhappy tenure with the Knicks; discusses Kentucky's recruiting violations; writes of Adolph Rupp and the school's proud basketball heritage; and settles a few scores with rival coaches and the New York media. But once he begins to write about players such as up-and-coming sophomore forward Jamal Mashburn and gritty seniors Sean Woods, Richie Farmer, John Pelphrey, and Deron Feldhaus, Pitino offers an engaging game-by-game account and an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at big-time college basketball. The coach makes no excuses when describing bitter defeats such as the 107-85 drubbing by Tennessee on ESPN, or the upsetting 79-62 loss to lowly ranked Florida. The emotional ``Senior Day'' revenge victory over Tennessee, beating rival Louisville, and Jamal ``Monster Mash's'' 30 points against UMass in the semifinals are but a few of the high points in the 29-7 campaign. The season ends in style with a great seesaw, overtime battle as Christian Leattner, star center of eventual champion Duke, hits a jumper at the buzzer.
Will no doubt raise a few hackles, but Pitino's tale of doings on and off the court will be the most discussed basketball book of the season. (B&w photos—eight pages—not seen.)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 1992
ISBN: 1-56282-931-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1992
A gifted storyteller and nature observer shares a rare adventure in letters and illustration. Science author/illustrator Dewey (Rattlesnake Dance, 2000, etc.) spent four months in Antarctica as part of a National Science Foundation grant. The journal entries, letters, sketches, and photographs she sent to her family and friends have been gathered here in a lively, humorous, true-life science adventure that will capture the imagination of would-be scientists and armchair travelers alike. There are appealing colored-pencil sketches of Antarctic animals on every page, along with photographs and maps. Letters describe both humorous events (like the curious penguins of Litchfield Island coming to snatch her typewriter paper) as well as dangerous ones (she fell into a crevasse of a glacier up to her shoulders, and “stared below into a blue-green hole cut with facets like a diamond”). Beauty, danger, and awe are evident throughout. Not to be confused with Meredith Hooper’s Antarctic Journal (2000). (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028586-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
Proves without a doubt that even masters of the universe sometimes lose their heads, and then their shirts.
Knowing inside account of the major media conglomerates’ efforts to embrace and profit from the ’90s dot.com boom.
As the New York Post’s first computer/Internet columnist, Motavalli had a ringside seat while Disney, Time Warner, News Corp., and others tripped over themselves to get on board the emerging Internet phenomenon. With little certainty about what the successful and manageable applications of the World Wide Web would be, media corporations and their leaders nonetheless rushed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars so as not to get left behind. They helped create the dot.com bubble of inflated salaries and unlimited expectations that burst so mercilessly in 2000–01. Motavalli, who admits being swept up like everyone else in the initial euphoria, narrates with an intimate feel for the year-by-year developments: the promises and glorious optimism of a dawning technological age, the maneuvering moguls and CEOs, the media executives who doubled their income by switching to the dot.com start-ups, and the chilling reality bath that awaited all. AOL’s Steve Case, Time Warner’s Bob Pittman and Gerald Levin, John F. Kennedy Jr. of George, Time magazine’s Walter Isaacson, and iVillage’s Candace Carpenter are among the many prime movers whose trajectories are analyzed here. Some big winners emerge (AOL, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo), but more common is the fate of one Internet-related stock that fell from $150 to just $3 per share. Motavalli sees this not solely as a tale of greed and ambition run wild, but a telling parable of the herd mentality; when it appears the wheel has been reinvented, everyone wants to go along for the ride, even though the ultimate destination is unknown. Well-researched and dense with names, dates, meetings, and numbers, the author’s recollections may provide more information than most will be willing to download, but he convincingly captures the boardroom machinations of this extraordinary era.
Proves without a doubt that even masters of the universe sometimes lose their heads, and then their shirts.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2002
ISBN: 0-670-89980-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
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