Read this as part of the 'One Maryland, One Book' program sponsored by MD libraries. Wasn't sure when I started it whether I would like it. But it picked up and I totally enjoyed it. Details the crew of the 1936 Olympic 8-man rowing crew from Washington (State) University. Absolutely amazing the struggles each went through during the Depression. Covers a lot of info re: rowing, etc. Spotlight on one of the crew members, Joe Rantz, and his life. Being abandoned by his family and left to fend for himself, how he put himself through college, the struggles with self-image, and their amazing win at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Berlin. Some background into the Nazi state in Germany at the time ties in beautifully, but not the major focus. Great read!

Share/Like this Review?

Books like this are the reason I'm so thankful for book groups! I never would have picked up a nonfiction sports story for myself, but it was the book of the month for our group and I loved it! It's as much about the character of those in the American west as it is about crew, and the history of Nazi propaganda related to the Olympics is disturbing and fascinating.

Share/Like this Review?

If someone told me that I would rave about a non-fiction book on the topic of rowing, I would have totally dismissed their comment. At least that is the case before I read "The Boys in the Boat". Daniel Brown's book is a masterpiece of story telling that brings the history of the Great Depression and the life of an abandoned child, Joe Rantz, into exacting focus. By the book's end, it was as if Joe, his fellow oarsmen, his coach, and his boat-maker mentor were family. I felt, too, that I swallowed the topsoil that choked families during those dust bowl years and that I swung from ropes holding a jackhammer to build the Great Coulee Dam. It was fascinating, too, to gain insight into the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the role it played as a propaganda tool for Hitler. One of the great lessons of history is that we should carefully guard against authoritarians who foster a cult of personality. This was true then and now. I could not put this book down. It is one of those rare books that I know will always be a part of me.

Share/Like this Review?

I know nothing about the sport of rowing, but this book had a narrative that kept me excited about the people and the races.

It also went into a few of the sneaky tricks that the Nazi's pulled to try and ensure their win. Too Bad!!

I absolutely loved this book and would give it 10 start!

Share/Like this Review?

Great story about how a bunch of blue collar boys from Washington State come to win the gold medal in 1936 during Hitlers Olympic event. A story of the America we used to be.

Share/Like this Review?

Boys in the Boat is full of history and brings a very personal touch to it. Since I am from the Northwest, it was very interesting to read about many familiar places in my life. I enjoyed getting to know the rowing team like they were family!

Share/Like this Review?

There is a lot of technical information especially early on, but this is a fascinating book. It was recommended to me, and I highly recommend it to others.

Share/Like this Review?

This was a really good read. I loved the descriptions of the work on the Grand Coulee Dam and the "nail biting" race at the end - even though you know how it ends!

Share/Like this Review?

I was hesitant at first whether I would enjoy a novel about rowing, but it was fantastic.

Share/Like this Review?

Well documented and peppered with interesting photos, this is the tale of 9 young Americans who challenge the elite of Britain and Hitler's rowing team. Central to this story of achievement is Joe Rantz, an orphan who redeems his self-esteem and rouses Americans during the era of the Great Depression. Full of amazing detailed side stories and description, you can pick this book up anywhere and find forward momentum. A bit melodramatic in it's heroism, but nevertheless a story of remarkable achievement.

Share/Like this Review?

This is an incredible book that depicts the era and life of young people who lived in the dismal 1930s. Yearning for education and a good life, a boy who has been abandoned several times finds what he needs in a rowing team. Discipline, trust, skill and more. The struggle to work together and become a good rowing team is shown in the smallest detail. Self-doubt, fear and failure often undermine the efforts. As the team develops the reader sees how the struggles for survival haunt the hearts of not only Joe but his teammates. They compete for the few available jobs to earn enough to pursue their degrees slogging ahead one year at a time. This is a good, no, a great read that I can recommend to anyone interested in this era because the book is more than a tale about a rowing team. It's about life and living with hardship, viewing it all with clarity.

Share/Like this Review?

The author weaves a wonderful story of the sport of rowing and at the same time, relates the historical events of the same time period. I enjoyed the book very much.

Share/Like this Review?

this was a wonderful book.i learned so much about rowing and the kind of commitment it takes to be a winner.the heart and soul and hard work it takes to be a champion in this sport and many others,too.these boys were amazing

Share/Like this Review?

In 1936, nine working-class boys from the University of Washington went to the Berlin Olympics in a quest for the gold medal. Their sport: rowing, a sport of which George Yeoman Pocock said, "That is the formula for endurance and success: rowing with the heart and the head as well as physical strength." It is an emotional, mental, and physical sport which, in this particular case, asks that nine human beings be in perfect tune with each other.

Author Daniel James Brown does an excellent job of putting his story into the context of the world stage, a time in which Hitler was determined to become master of the world-- and also a time when the world was still in the grip of the Depression.

At the heart of The Boys in the Boat is Joe Rantz of the University of Washington rowing team. At the age of ten, he was abandoned by his parents. Joe's father was willing to follow the lead of his second wife, a woman who decided that there were too many mouths to feed and that this child had to go. At one point, she told him, "Make your own life, Joe. Stay out of ours." Brown builds his story from the boys' journals and vivid memories, and it's a true Cinderella story. These boys were competing in an elite sport normally thought of as belonging to the privileged rich of the East Coast.

Often compared to Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, I found The Boys in the Boat more in tune with another of her books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, with its emphasis on sport, the Depression, and a fascinating cast. As much as I savored the stories of the boys on the University of Washington rowing team, I also appreciated the in-depth look at the sport of rowing itself. I never knew how popular it was in the 1930s or how demanding it was.

If you're in the mood for a thrilling, eye-opening, often heart-wrenching, slice of history, I highly recommend The Boys in the Boat.

Share/Like this Review?

This book was so well-written, that I was sad when it was over. It reads like fiction, but knowing that each detail actually happened made it so difficult to put down. I've recommended this book to many people!

Share/Like this Review?

Excellent read. It should be on High School required reading lists.

Share/Like this Review?

have never rowed. I have never read a rowing book that I can remember. If all stories about rowing were written like Daniel Brown's fabulous multi-level biography, I would read every one of them. This is a wonderful account, told with such detail and precision that I sometimes felt as if I were in this tale. Mr. Brown totally sucked me into his adventure. These young men who rowed for the USA in the 1936 Olympics faced huge obstacles. It was the Depression. Many were dirt-poor. They came from a small (then) and nondescript town of Seattle. They could not have had more difficult problems thrown their way. But by taking every sliver of hope, and mixing in superb craftsmanship (from George Pocock), excellent coaching (Al Ulbrickson), and these nine perfectly attuned young men learning together........the result was perfection. This is a true Team sport. I learned that. It is nice to learn something you never knew, but is common knowledge to an entire set of other people. If you want to read a great, true story of success, this will fit the bill in spades.....and you will understand rowing to boot.

The research is mostly based on primary resources, including interviews with some members who were still living as the book was pulled together. Family members did supply additional information to make this undertaking feel solid and well thought out.

Concepts from Daniel Brown to consider that are mixed into the story to teach all of us: 1) One of the fundamental challenges in rowing is that when any one member of a crew goes into a slump the entire crew goes with him. 2) There are certain laws of physics by which all crew coaches live and die. The speed of a racing shell is determined primarily by two factors: the power produced by the combined strokes of the oars, and the stroke rate, the number of strokes the crew takes each minute. 3) To defeat an adversary who was your equal, maybe even your superior, it wasn't necessarily enough just to give your all from start to finish. You had to master your opponent mentally. When the critical moment in a close race was upon you, you had to know something he did not- that down in your core you still had something in reserve, something you had not yet shown. 4) The things that held them together--trust in one another, mutual respect, humility, fair play, watching out for one another--those were also part of what America meant to all of them. There are other great ideas to ponder in this epic almost 400 page, could-not-put-down story.

I am not giving away anything by telling you that they DO win Gold at the 1936 Olympics. It is HOW they did it that is so darn exciting. Even knowing the end result does not diminish this bigger than life adventure. This is a must read, period.

Share/Like this Review?

Fabulous read. I loved this to put it down, and wanted more when it was over. Not a book I normally would have picked up, but a friend suggested it, and I am so happy that she did. Wonderful story.

Share/Like this Review?