Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

2 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative tense slow-paced

3.0

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Its my favorite kind of story: American underdogs beating the odds to show the world what America can do. Unfortunately both the formatting and pacing makes this a super slow and difficult read. The interesting and relevant tales of the actual boys in the boat are sprinkled in with side plots varying between Nazi Germany setting up for the Olympics to the Dust Bowl. This made it hard to read as a lot of information could not only be condensed but also wasn't necessarily relevant to the story. The last three chapters really pulled it together for me though as it was what we all came for: the 1936 Olympics. In short, would I read this again? No. Would I recommend it? Maybe. If you like historical sports novels definitely! Otherwise maybe just watch the movie? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Homophobia, Abandonment, Cancer, Mass/school shootings, Vomit, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Murder, Addiction, War, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Slavery

rochelleisreading's review against another edition

challenging inspiring medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Pregnancy, Hate crime, and Classism

Moderate: Genocide, Bullying, and War

Minor: Alcohol