Sum It Up, by Pat Summitt

Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective.

THE BLURB: Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and bestselling author of Reach for the Summitt and Raise The Roof, tells for the first time her remarkable story of victory and resilience as well as facing down her greatest challenge: early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Pat Summitt was only 21 when she became head coach of the Tennessee Vols women's basketball team. For 38 years, she broke records, winning more games than any NCAA team in basketball history. She coached an undefeated season, co-captained the first women's Olympic team, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was named Sports Illustrated "Sportswoman of the Year."

She owed her coaching success to her personal struggles and triumphs. She learned to be tough from her strict, demanding father. Motherhood taught her to balance that rigidity with communication and kindness. She was a role model for the many women she coached; 74 of her players have become coaches.

Pat's life took a shocking turn in 2011, when she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, an irreversible brain condition that affects 5 million Americans. Despite her devastating diagnosis, she led the Vols to win their sixteenth SEC championship in March 2012. Pat continued to be a fighter, facing this new challenge the way she's faces every other - with hard work, perseverance, and a sense of humor.

My thoughts at 25%: (3h 20m - audiobook)

I have known about Pat Summit for many years, and have admired her from a distance, but I never knew her in person and never knew quite as much about her as did the people around me. Living in Knoxville, I heard her name often and held great respect for what that name meant, both for women and for athletes. But reading (listening to, actually) this autobiography has given me an entirely new perspective not only on her career as a headstrong and determined woman in basketball, but also as an independent and much-admired woman facing the loss of the life she had worked so hard to build. I found this book just after Pat Summit died when, in learning more about her from local memorial programs, I began to get more curious about her career, her Alheimer's diagnosis, and her life in general. Through this book so far, I feel that I've fostered a sense of camaraderie with her ... a sense of understanding her as a woman, a sense of learning from her as a mentor even though she is no longer in this life - and a sense of new compassion for my own grandmother, who is currently degrading due to her own battle with Alzheimer's disease.

My thoughts at 50%: (6h 40m - audiobook)

Wow. This woman was phenomenal. Strong and determined, she struggled sometimes to find a balance between her tenacious passion for life and her love for her team, friends, and family, but she managed her own struggles well and always seemed to meet whatever life gave her with her head held high. If ever a young woman facing adversity of any kind needed a hero, she need look no further than Pat Summit for inspiration of the highest caliber.

My thoughts at 75%: (10h - audiobook)

This book hasn't yet failed to amaze me. No, Pat Summit wasn't the most gentle coach, nor did loving kindness always come easily for her - especially when she knew her players needed tough love in order to be pushed to success. But she did love her players nonetheless, and she did make sure they knew it. I'm sure plenty of players not mentioned in Sum It Up might argue otherwise - Pat was admittedly a very hard-voiced, insatiable coach who sometimes pushed her players to the brink of giving up the game - but her legacy lives on nonetheless, both in the team she helped to build during her career, and in the bonds now broken with those who loved her, those who must surely still mourn her loss.

My thoughts at 100%: (approx. 12h 20m - audiobook)

I cried at the end of this book, listening to Pat's words (although not spoken in her voice) as she literally summed up her life and her career, proud of her accomplishments but willing to accept the fact that her path in this life was coming to a close. I heard my grandmother in Pat Summit's strengths, and wept for the loss of what these women had once been. Having read this book, I will be forever grateful to Pat Summit, not only for her dedication to women both in and out of athletics, but for having the courage to share the vulnerabilities of her story in such a public way. I will never forget the sense of understanding she lent me with her words, nor will I forget the admiration and determination her story gave me.

Thank you, Pat, not only for the legacy you left behind, but also for the ferocity you lent this world while you were here. Four stars.

Buy It Here.

Finding Me, By Michelle Knight

THE BLURB:
Michelle was a young single mother when she was kidnapped by a local school bus driver named Ariel Castro. For more than a decade afterward, she endured unimaginable torture at the hand of her abductor. In 2003 Amanda Berry joined her in captivity, followed by Gina DeJesus in 2004. Their escape on May 6, 2013, made headlines around the world.

Barely out of her own tumultuous childhood, Michelle was estranged from her family and fighting for custody of her young son when she disappeared. Local police believed she had run away, so they removed her from the missing persons lists fifteen months after she vanished. Castro tormented her with these facts, reminding her that no one was looking for her, that the outside world had forgotten her. But Michelle would not be broken.

In Finding Me, Michelle will reveal the heartbreaking details of her story, including the thoughts and prayers that helped her find courage to endure her unimaginable circumstances and now build a life worth living. By sharing both her past and her efforts to create a future, Michelle becomes a voice for the voiceless and a powerful symbol of hope for the thousands of children and young adults who go missing every year.

My thoughts at 25%:

I can't decide what's more heartbreaking about this book: the subject matter itself, or the fact that I relate so closely to much of it. Most of what's mentioned specifically didn't happen to me, but the feeling of invisibility and insignificance in early life resonates deeply. The desperation to survive, the sheer resilience and the will to keep going, the love of a mother for her child ... I've been in tears more than once already, reading this book.

My thoughts at 50%:

I don't even have words for this book. I have always known monsters were real and that true evil is something most people can't really comprehend ... but this woman's will to keep living in spite of everything that happened to her, her ability make the most of it and to even find joy in the small things is more inspiring than I can express.

My thoughts at 75%:

This book reads so matter of factly, it's almost easy to lose sight of the idea that it's true, that it's an accounting of a real woman's real life. It's hard to imagine how the author managed to handle everything emotionally, and still come out strong enough to have been willing to share her story in such a personal way.

My thoughts at 100%:

This is one of the most inspiring books I've read in a long time. To reach the end of the story and soak in the strength, courage, and positivity of Michelle Knight is a feeling I won't soon forget, and the lesson of forgiveness and resilience throughout her story is one that will stick with me for a long time. Four stars.

Buy this book, and see if you find it as inspiring as I did.

Buy It Here.