--
BOOKS I READ: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (2013). While Adolf Hitler prepared the mirage that was his Berlin, scrubbed clean of the Nazi anti-Semitism for the Olympic Games, the University of Washington eight-oar crew team battled self-doubt on the cold and windy Lake Washington during their run up to the national championships and the Olympic Trials. Their quest to earn the right to represent the United States at the 1936 Olympiad faced stiff competition from the University of California, the 1932 Olympic champions, and the powerful Eastern college shells.
Joe Rantz, like many of the boys trying out for the crew team, is scrappy and resourceful. He’s been fending for himself from a young age, never losing the sting of being abandoned by his father when he remarries after his mother’s death. He seeks redemption at the university, where rowing success comes to his crews, starting with his first year that culminates with a freshman national championship in 1934. Coach Al Ulbrickson quickly recognizes the rough gems he has among the boys in his boats. He shuffles the lineups trying to find the right combination of smarts and strength, eventually settling on one, led by the sharp and spunky coxswain, Bobby Moch, that meets all his expectations.
See my complete reading log; or open the previous entry in the log:
