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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
There's something special about Texas football . . . I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a Texas sunset only to see a goalpost cut through the yellow and red splashed across the sky.
3/5 stars
Plot: 4/5 stars - The concept of this book, for me, is a strong one. This novel is a fictionalized vignette of the life of Tylene Wilson, a Texan woman who, "when the men were gone" fighting in WWII, took over coaching of the local high school football team. While I'm not generally a sports person, I do enjoy an uplifting tale of unlikely comradery through sports (a la Remember the Titans). I think the premise of this book is a strong one, and I liked the story that was told, I just don't feel it was fully fleshed out due to issues in pacing, especially given that it's such a short read. Though I loved the plotline that focused on Tylene's relationship with her team, I think there needed to be more resolution to the earlier conflicts of the novel.
Characters: 3/5 stars - I enjoyed the characters but wish they had been more fleshed out, which is strange to say because overall this story did feel more character-driven than plot-driven. Our main character Tylene was certainly my favorite. I enjoyed her determination and compassion, and enjoyed seeing different facets of her personality play against different side characters. I wish we had seen more of her tough side, like in the instance where she yelled at the ref and then got reprimanded for not acting "ladylike". Similarly, I wish she would have been more vocal about the double standards placed on her as a female coach.
All of the side characters were good but not great. I enjoyed knowing about Tylene's past but in the end the subplots with her mother's illness etc didn't really add anything to the story.
Spoiler
The best part imo was learning about how she had rickets as a child and that's way her father began to teach her to play football... it was so sweet.Pacing: 2/5 stars - Pacing was truly the main issue with this book. It was short as is- only around 250 pages (not even six hours as an audiobook!), and halfway in Tylene hadn't even become coach yet. By the end of the story the team plays one (1!!!!) actual football game. I expected to go through the season and watch them grow together but nope. There needed to be much more of an emphasis on the relationships and dynamics of the coach and team instead of actual plays and drama coming from outside of the team, in my opinion.
Writing: 3/5 stars - Herrera Lewis' writing is totally passable for a first novel. You can definitely see her background in sports writing come into play- not in a bad way, though there definitely is a lot of football jargon. I read another review that described the dialogue as "like a made-for-tv movie" and that's not entirely wrong but... I also didn't hate it. In this kind of story, I think the cheese factor works in it's favor.
Enjoyment: 3/5 stars - There were elements of this book that I really enjoyed- namely the premise and main character- but I definitely would have gotten more out of it had it been longer and more focused on the forward action of the plot rather than the past of the characters. It's such a short read that I don't feel like I wasted my time, but I wish it had packed a bit more of a punch.
I have been to Brownwood, Texas several times to enjoy The Lake Brownwood Christian Camp but I knew nothing about their Lion football team. Also having grown up and completing High School in The Calumet Region f Northwest Indiana (and not participating in any sports) I am more familiar with Basketball and only migrated to Texas in the latter part of the 20th Century I am not really too much of a football fan.
I certainly related to the WWII rationing mentioned as I was a child during that war but remember many of the austere circumstances and scrap metal, etc. drives of that period.
I more appreciated the the book about the Fort Worth Masonic Home football team more!
I certainly related to the WWII rationing mentioned as I was a child during that war but remember many of the austere circumstances and scrap metal, etc. drives of that period.
I more appreciated the the book about the Fort Worth Masonic Home football team more!
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Inspired by a real story. The way the dialogue is written isn’t believable.
I really wanted to like this one based on the subject but the writing just didn’t work for me. Read much more like a magazine article without enough depth. Personally think it would have worked better for the book to take place over a few months instead of a week.
“You have to do things when you have the chance, Jimmy, and not everyone gets a chance. When you do, you can’t throw it away.”
“You have to do things when you have the chance, Jimmy, and not everyone gets a chance. When you do, you can’t throw it away.”
My memories of high school football games and all the emotions they invoke are great. And I love underdog stories, especially when it comes to women and World War II. So when I heard of "When the Men Were Gone," I knew it was something I want to read (hear), and in fact I bought it right away, then I allowed it to sit in my audio queue.
I shouldn't have waited and I'd like to save you from making that mistake, too. Because sportswriter Majorie Herrera Lewis's new little book is a gem and a real touchdown.
Based on a true story, the book drops you right into a bad situation for Tylene Wilson, a vice principal at the high school in Brownwood. Due to the war, the football team is in need of a coach and if she fails to find one Tylene knows her senior boys may be tempted to quit school and enlist. While Tylene is as patriotic as any American, she knows that war is no place for a high school aged boy.
The fact is, football is something that Tylene has always shared with her father. And not just the game itself, but the intricacies of it. So it's a wonder that Tylene doesn't realize from the beginning that she could be the coach. Of course, when her husband points that out to her, Tylene is the first to balk. She's a woman! She'd never be accepted as a coach on the field. And we all know what will happen if/when she dares step into those shoes.
What ensues is a great book, a great Texas football story, a great women/leadership story. So far this is the book this year I want to hand out to all my friends and say: read this. Also, Marjoie Herrera Lewis has such a deft touch with football she made me want to learn a little bit more about the intricacies of the game. (Ya'll please don't tell my husband that. Maybe I'll just memorize me some of Tylene's quotes and impress the socks off of him.)
So don't do what I did. Go ahead and buy the book and read it, right now. Can't wait for this author's next book.
I shouldn't have waited and I'd like to save you from making that mistake, too. Because sportswriter Majorie Herrera Lewis's new little book is a gem and a real touchdown.
Based on a true story, the book drops you right into a bad situation for Tylene Wilson, a vice principal at the high school in Brownwood. Due to the war, the football team is in need of a coach and if she fails to find one Tylene knows her senior boys may be tempted to quit school and enlist. While Tylene is as patriotic as any American, she knows that war is no place for a high school aged boy.
The fact is, football is something that Tylene has always shared with her father. And not just the game itself, but the intricacies of it. So it's a wonder that Tylene doesn't realize from the beginning that she could be the coach. Of course, when her husband points that out to her, Tylene is the first to balk. She's a woman! She'd never be accepted as a coach on the field. And we all know what will happen if/when she dares step into those shoes.
What ensues is a great book, a great Texas football story, a great women/leadership story. So far this is the book this year I want to hand out to all my friends and say: read this. Also, Marjoie Herrera Lewis has such a deft touch with football she made me want to learn a little bit more about the intricacies of the game. (Ya'll please don't tell my husband that. Maybe I'll just memorize me some of Tylene's quotes and impress the socks off of him.)
So don't do what I did. Go ahead and buy the book and read it, right now. Can't wait for this author's next book.
This book is based on an actual person and situation, which is interesting in itself. The writing was ok, the story was good, but I would have liked it to go deeper. While reading it, I was continually reminded of "the place" that women have held in society for so many years and how we have always been the one to take care of the multiple plates that need to keep spinning in life without an extra thought of it. The story also shows the strength of women and the ways that they had to deal with how men expressed fear and outrage if women 'moved out of their lane' throughout life.
If the Hallmark Channel wrote a love note to Texas women and football, it would be this book.
TX, WWII. Brownwood needs a football coach; the last 2 went to war and one came back dead. If the boys don’t have football, they’ll also go to war and they’ll also die. So it’s up to the super-capable, ridiculously perfect Tylene Wilson, born 1900 and indoctrinated to her love of football in 1905, to step in.
I was disappointed in how saccharine this story is. Tylene is far too perfect, the town is far too perfect, the mens' outrage at the idea of a lady coach is painfully trite, it’s all so fake. I feel like this is the America some people are trying to make Great Again, like this is what they may think we're going back to - a time when women worked a woman's job, got home and made dinner, then coached football in 1-inch heels and pearls but only out of necessity and pure altruism. Bonus: Racism didn't exist, at least not in this town, and sexism was rampant but ignorable.
Our hero, Tylene, who battles against the tide of unpopular opinion in order to keep the high school seniors safe from enlisting for one more year, likes to tell stories. She hearkens back to times past on the regular so the reader can get a constant supply of backstory. Sometimes, she does this to explain why she loves football, other times she does this to explain to people suffering from PTSD that everyone has known trauma so WW2 vets really ought to put their pain into perspective.
I don't know how factual this story about a person who really lived and coached in Brownwood, TX, was. I mean, I assume her records were searched and the facts of her life (parents, rickets, tornadoes, the football team and who they played and the coaches who went to war, etc) were accurate but I question that because Tylene calls her parents "Mom" and "Dad." I do not know a single grownass proud born-n-bred Texan woman who calls her parents Mom and Dad. They all use Mama/Mother and Daddy. If they have been relocated to other places, they may refer to their parents as Mom and Dad to fit in but when they're on the phone to home, they use Mama/Mother and Daddy. With that in mind, who even knows how accurate this is. I mean, I could find out but I don't really want to spend that much time researching a woman who was made so painfully boring in this story.
1.5 stars
TX, WWII. Brownwood needs a football coach; the last 2 went to war and one came back dead. If the boys don’t have football, they’ll also go to war and they’ll also die. So it’s up to the super-capable, ridiculously perfect Tylene Wilson, born 1900 and indoctrinated to her love of football in 1905, to step in.
I was disappointed in how saccharine this story is. Tylene is far too perfect, the town is far too perfect, the mens' outrage at the idea of a lady coach is painfully trite, it’s all so fake. I feel like this is the America some people are trying to make Great Again, like this is what they may think we're going back to - a time when women worked a woman's job, got home and made dinner, then coached football in 1-inch heels and pearls but only out of necessity and pure altruism. Bonus: Racism didn't exist, at least not in this town, and sexism was rampant but ignorable.
Our hero, Tylene, who battles against the tide of unpopular opinion in order to keep the high school seniors safe from enlisting for one more year, likes to tell stories. She hearkens back to times past on the regular so the reader can get a constant supply of backstory. Sometimes, she does this to explain why she loves football, other times she does this to explain to people suffering from PTSD that everyone has known trauma so WW2 vets really ought to put their pain into perspective.
I don't know how factual this story about a person who really lived and coached in Brownwood, TX, was. I mean, I assume her records were searched and the facts of her life (parents, rickets, tornadoes, the football team and who they played and the coaches who went to war, etc) were accurate but I question that because Tylene calls her parents "Mom" and "Dad." I do not know a single grownass proud born-n-bred Texan woman who calls her parents Mom and Dad. They all use Mama/Mother and Daddy. If they have been relocated to other places, they may refer to their parents as Mom and Dad to fit in but when they're on the phone to home, they use Mama/Mother and Daddy. With that in mind, who even knows how accurate this is. I mean, I could find out but I don't really want to spend that much time researching a woman who was made so painfully boring in this story.
1.5 stars
