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Rebecca's Reviews > Forward: A Memoir
Forward: A Memoir
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Reading Women 2019: About a Woman Athlete
My last book to complete the Reading Women 2019 Challenge!! I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. I’m a bit embarrassed to say I only really became aware of Wambach after she began dating and married Glennon Doyle, whom I’ve loved for several years. My husband, a soccer fan, certainly was much more aware of Wambach and her accomplishments and her DUI in early 2016.
Throughout reading the entire book, I was so struck by her similarities to Doyle, albeit in a completely different context. While Wambach struggles were in the world of sports, Doyle’s experiences centered in family and motherhood. I can absolutely understand now how they fell so deeply in love so quickly. Wambach writes openly and honestly not only about her addiction, but her devastating childhood feeling of being unloved and unlovable, and how she had to come to terms with that to stop abusing her body. Add to that the fact that I listened to the audiobook, which she reads, and this book is a profound experience.
Of course, you also can’t talk about Wambach without talking about soccer, and her love and yet sometimes hate of the sport shines throughout the book. It was such nice timing for me to listen to this book during the 2019 Women’s World Cup. I felt like I learned about the true experience of what it means to be a professional women’s soccer player in the US, but without the book becoming pedantic or dragged down in complicated sports terminology. I found myself completely able to relate to Wambach’s emotional ambivalence about the game as well as her hard lessons in learning how to best succeed at her chosen profession and then finally her realization that she could not play soccer at that level forever as her body slowed down. It’s a universal human experience to always realize sometimes we have to “lead from the bench� and someone younger, faster and smarter is always coming up behind us.
I can’t recommend this book enough, and especially the audiobook. You won’t regret your time spent here!!
My last book to complete the Reading Women 2019 Challenge!! I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did. I’m a bit embarrassed to say I only really became aware of Wambach after she began dating and married Glennon Doyle, whom I’ve loved for several years. My husband, a soccer fan, certainly was much more aware of Wambach and her accomplishments and her DUI in early 2016.
Throughout reading the entire book, I was so struck by her similarities to Doyle, albeit in a completely different context. While Wambach struggles were in the world of sports, Doyle’s experiences centered in family and motherhood. I can absolutely understand now how they fell so deeply in love so quickly. Wambach writes openly and honestly not only about her addiction, but her devastating childhood feeling of being unloved and unlovable, and how she had to come to terms with that to stop abusing her body. Add to that the fact that I listened to the audiobook, which she reads, and this book is a profound experience.
Of course, you also can’t talk about Wambach without talking about soccer, and her love and yet sometimes hate of the sport shines throughout the book. It was such nice timing for me to listen to this book during the 2019 Women’s World Cup. I felt like I learned about the true experience of what it means to be a professional women’s soccer player in the US, but without the book becoming pedantic or dragged down in complicated sports terminology. I found myself completely able to relate to Wambach’s emotional ambivalence about the game as well as her hard lessons in learning how to best succeed at her chosen profession and then finally her realization that she could not play soccer at that level forever as her body slowed down. It’s a universal human experience to always realize sometimes we have to “lead from the bench� and someone younger, faster and smarter is always coming up behind us.
I can’t recommend this book enough, and especially the audiobook. You won’t regret your time spent here!!
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 28, 2019
– Shelved
June 28, 2019
– Shelved as:
audiobook
June 28, 2019
– Shelved as:
2019-reading-women
June 28, 2019
–
Finished Reading
