Book Description
Get a length up on the competition with cutting-edge technique, training, and racing information. Let the top rowing coaches and scientists in the world steer you to ultimate success, starting with sound training and racing principles and adding increasingly advanced instruction, drills, and insights all the way to the finish.

Rowing Faster is the most comprehensive and detailed guide for achieving excellence in the sport. Inside you'll find the following advice:

· Techniques, drills, and progressions used by World and Olympic champions to master every phase of the stroke· Tests to assess your rowing fitness and workouts to develop an aerobic base, increase anaerobic threshold, improve VO2max, and build rowing-specific strength and power· A rowing periodization plan to sequence all the training components into a complete training program to maximize boat speed for 1000 meters, 2000 meters, and head racing· Racing plans and tactics that have been proven successful at the highest levels of competition

Cut through the water faster than ever. Rowing Faster will boost your speed and performance to the highest level. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Amazing
This book is not for novices, it's for the already advanced rower, who wants to significantly improve their speed, and technique. It goes into complete detail on every major subject pretaining to rowing, from race prep. months in advance, to the race itself, this book covers it all.

Rowing Smarter
This is the definitive book on the current state of the art in rowing both on the water and on the erg.But it won't teach you how to row. Only how to think about things to improve and how everything fits together.The only other product out there today that comes close to this, and is really an excellent companion piece, is Xeno Muller's interactive DVDs.

A must-have.
'Rowing Faster' is the best and most up-to-date textbook on rowing I know. Each chapter within segments such as physiology, psychology, technique etc. is written by a true expert and well edited by Volker Nolte.
Buy this book.

This is the best book so far about rowing, period.
This book is the best source of information to increase boat speed.
Xeno Muller
www.gorow.com
Olympic Medalist, men's single scull rowing. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (24)

An Editor's Viewpoint
I recommend that you take these reviews with a grain of salt. The stories told by author are quite exciting, but I think that some readers have let them overshadow the author's trite metaphors, frequent, not-so-subtle digs at her husband, and self-aggrandizing style that any editor worth her salary would have edited out in the first draft. The author actually compares herself to Mother Teresa at one point.

If you are looking to read about adventure, try some real writers. Read "The Places In Between," by Rory Stewart, or "The Worst Journey in the World," by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. These are written with sensitivity, elegance, and complete lack of ego. Perhaps Ms. Fredston should have taken a look at these before dashing off her book.

Genuine, down to earth, beautiful
Her style is elegantly simple, her stories come from the heart...

Adventures of mind and heart.
Unusual deep and wide revelations, experienced and written by a woman describing extreme world wide rowing and paddling. Fully appriciated by kindred spirit having traveled with mind and heart.

Wonderful, honest narrative about life experiences
I was truly sad to finish this book.Jill is very honest about her adventures and about the frustrating and life changing times she has had in the wilderness.Even if the reader is not an outdoorsperson, he or she will enjoy the vivid descriptions of the arctic communities, the relationship between Jill and husband Doug, the struggles Jill faces in life including her mother's battle with cancer and much more.Thank you Jill for writing such a beautiful book.

Inspiring, Adventurous, Real
I just finished reading this book.I stopped part way through, because it was so good, I didn't want to finish it yet.Now, I'm going to name it as the book of the month when I host my book club next.This book is so fresh, so in-your-marrow real, so insightful, adventurous, and breathtakingly descriptive, it defies easy categorization.Ms. Fredston is a fantastic writer, and after hearing her words for the last 286 pages in my head, I sincerely would consider it a tremendous privilege and honor to meet her in person.She has sent me on a search for the woman in me who is so wise, so calm in the face of crisis, so adaptable, so loving, and so passionate about life and living it.I know I have emerged from this reading with a sincere desire to make my life what it is I desire, instead of waiting for "someday".I am thrilled to have her voice added to the voices of other women, so few, who lead us boldly into our dreams, fears, and wildest adventures.You must read this book, and if you have a daughter in high school or college, give her one as well. ... Read more

Book Description
“Anne Landsman’s glittering, shimmering new novel is a tour de force. . . . Elation and pain, anxiety and exuberance, and the uneven beat of living are all caught in language as silky and fluid as music.”—Roxana Robinson

“Like Joyce or William Gass or John Edgar Wideman, Anne Landsman fashions a sensual web of memory and desire, rescuing a world at the brink of extinction through the power of her lyricism.”—Stewart O’Nan

“An elegy for a lost father and a beloved world on the point of disappearing. Rarely in South African writing will we encounter language of such fire and passion.”—J. M. Coetzee

“A fierce elegy, a daughter’s imaginary inhabitation of the memory of her dying father . . . an adventure in language. . . . It makes art of a life.”—Louis Menand

Betsy Klein is summoned from her home in the United States to her father’s hospital bed in South Africa. Orphaned young, he had to struggle to become a doctor and to win the respect of his Boer patients. We first meet young Harold Klein on an excursion with his friends on the Ebb ’N Flow, a river to which he often returns. That is where he later teaches his little daughter to row, and finally, where he makes his last metaphoric passage.

Anne Landsman was born and raised in South Africa. Her debut novel, The Devil’s Chimney (Soho Press, 1997), was published in paperback by Penguin. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Customer Reviews (2)

The brilliance of remembrance
Anne Landsman shares so much in this brilliant novel. As an ex-South African of the same age, the remembrance of family - conflicted, beloved, dangerous and loving - reached deep into my soul. Landsman has the capacity to evoke pain and pleasure in just a few words. Her words paint a vivid picture of an experience that many of us will endure - the loss of a parent, strained love between siblings, a return to a world of pain in the midst of great beauty. Bravo.

Flows like a river
Anne Landsman's The Rowing Lesson is the story of Manhattan-based Betsy Klein, who returns to South Africa to be at the bedside of her dying father.While Dr Harold Klein, or "Doktor God", lies in a coma and his family awaits his death, pregnant Betsy imagines her father's life.

Like the river that is central to the story, Betsy's narrative flows lyrically, weaving deftly through past and present, painting an impressionistic picture of her irascible father's life.From his childhood days with Jewish immigrant parents in George and Wilderness, to his medical studies at Groote Schuur hospital and beyond, Landsman evokes the period in which the story is set and captures the political mood of the country with her keen eye and poetical turn of phrase.

I felt a little disappointed initially as I realized the book was written in present tense, second person, but my opinion changed when I got past the first few pages, and I gladly allowed myself to be swept along with the tide of Dr Klein's colourful life.In the end I realized this book could not have been written any other way.

This book is more than a story about father and daughter or about life and death.It is about black and white, jealousy and desire, beginnings and endings, about what it means to be Jewish in South Africa, and so much more.Anne Landsman's The Rowing Lesson is a beautifully-written portrait of a man with all his faults and fears, told in her unique and flowing style.I was swept away.
... Read more

Book Description
Learning to lead others is the critical skill for today's managers. Every day, you are challenged to lead-to get others to work at your direction towards your organizations goals.

Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction offers proven, easily understood, step-by-step instruction in how to get others to follow you. Whether you have to lead, hope to lead, or need to create change in your organization, the advice it offers is invaluable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Solid information to get everyone on the same page
One of the biggest problems in business is getting everyone pulling in the same direction.The larger the organization, the more diverse the goals and aims of the different departments.This is a delightful book that gives some great ideas to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

The book presents five principles which any business needs to follow to ensure that its people are all pulling together.

The first question to ask is "What is important here?What are the values of the individuals? The business?"

The second question to ask is "Where is the busines headed?You must create a common vision based on shared values."

The third question to ask is "What do we stand for?Who are we?"You need to concentrate your focus.Trying to stand for too many things means you stand for nothing.

To be successful you must learn to fall in love with risk.Most managers shun risk.No risk no reward.You need to learn to view risk as a positive force.This certainly doesnot advocate taking foolish action.But learn to understand risk.

To be successful you must learn to motivate people.The leader cannot mandate a vision. A leader must get everyone in the business to buy into the vision.

The book is easy to read.It is well written and contains lots of examples.

It would be helpful to read periodically to keep the ideas fresh.

Get Everyone in your boat rowing in the same direction
This book is a must have for any leader in a new role or new enviornment.
It is a quick read that keeps you engaged from the first page.There are many great thought starters and exercises to get your team inspired and motivated.I would highly recommend this book!

Important Messages Said Simply
Books about vision and mission are usually excursions into the ether of fine thoughts and noble thinking. I appreciated how Boylan reduced these concepts to very practical concerns and actions that once expressed willget an organization effectively pointed in the same direction.This is abook I recommend to anyone who needs to get an organization from here tothere, when the group is unclear about which "here" and which"there" is intended.

Boylan's ideas can be put immediately into practice.
Leadership isn't a commodity, but a process - one that Bob Boylan lays out clearly, step by step, so that almost anyone can follow it and put it immediately and successfully into practice in their own organizations.

Boylan's book could transform your career and your company.
I have used Boylan and the concepts from his book, at both KPMG Peat Marwick, and ARAMARK.Bob's ideas work because they are understandable, memorable and realistically actionable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Super "how-to" book on stripwood boat building
Susan's books on stipwood boat building are the best I've read.She takes you through the entire process step-by-step with lots of sound advice and many pictures.In this, her second book on the subject, she takes the reader through the steps in building two classy looking row boats.The processes she describes are equally applicable to other row boat designs such as the Whitehall Pulling Boat I am currently building.To be sure, I probably would not have tackled this seemingly difficult project without her excellent guidance as contained in this work.I have not been disappointed with this book or her previous book on canoe stripwood construction.If you are thinking of building such a craft, these are the books to buy. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Some sports--the solitary ones, in particular--are simply more prone to mysticism and mystery than others. Golf, certainly. Long-distance running, of course. Fishing. Climbing. Each has a literature that confronts the essence of its lonely pursuit and explores the way the solitude and self-discipline these sports demand grow the spirit and fill the competitor. Lambert's graceful reflection on rowing is a lovely addition to the genre, part memoir, part narrative, part celebration of a relatively arcane endeavor, and utterly provocative. The superficial journey here is over water; the real one is internal. "Like Einstein," he writes, "we wish to know God's thoughts. We shall attempt to pry them loose with an oar. The raw elements of the sport are our teacher: the wind and the water, the boat and its oars, our own bodies and minds." Given those elements, it's no surprise that the education is a profound one. The surprise is how accessible and appealing it turns out to be. --Jeff SilvermanBook Description
In this wise and thrilling book, Criag Lambert turns rowing--personal discipline, modern Olympic sport, grand collegiate tradition--into a metaphor for a vigorous and satisfying life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

LAME!
Over the top and over writen! I couldn't read more than half of it. I'll never get those hours back!
I know I never want him in my boat, if he talks the way he writes!

not for athlete
This will be a short review. To use an example visit the sample extract that is offered on this web site. The author mentions a double head. He builds it up as something mythic and impossible. This is a joke. Six miles is nothing. Just nothing. Its a warm up for some. Sports writing is not easy but effort should be made to represent the true hardships of a sport, because if you fake it you also fake the joy that can be derived from the sport. Rowing is tough and you learn a lot about yourself from it but limiting it to oh its really cold in the morning and the hagiographies of US olympians is boring and misguided.I suggest Lambert visit a few more boat clubs.

I'm buying six copies
I generally read fiction for entertainment. And, in fact, generally loathe books anywhere in a stone's throw radius of the personal development genre.However, Mind Over Water really touched me. Lambert's insights are packaged in such a way that they both are easily absobed and entertaining.I'm buying a copy for each of my closest friends with the suggestion that they read it once per year, about 5 pages at a sitting.

Gaack! Just when I'd given up highlighting my books. . .
"Mind Over Water" falls into the category of the memoir, highly personal and considered memories and musings. It's about rowing and, as the subtitle states: "Lessons on Life from the Art of Rowing." If you don't like this kind of book, steer clear. You also won't like "Green Thoughts: A Writer in The Garden." On the other hand, if you do like this kind of book, "Green Thoughts" is also recommended.

"Mind over Water" is about rowing internalized, what it means to row and race and how these lessons can be applied to life. As such, its primary goal is not so much instruction as translation. And translations, of course, are never exact, which may account for some of the animosity of other reviewers.

So what is "Mind Over Water" really about? It's not so much about rowing as it is about what rowing means to the author. As such, you can't really fault it for not being the book you might write about rowing or for not being an instruction manual. It has humbler ambitions. Think of it as an off-water musing.

In any case, I liked it. And, yes, I had to get to get out the highlighter. Among those who like the book, everyone is going to have favorite passages, as some of these reviews attest. Here are some of mine:

"Edges form outlines. If our boundaries determine our identities, then we learn who we are by finding our limits."

"Sliding between dark and shadow, between sunlight and the obscure, is the region of discovery."

"Staying on course limits your attention to the boat and its rowers, who are, after all, the motor that takes you there. The goal does not disclose itself until it is attained."

"Mistakes shine a spotlight on our model of reality and show us its flaws. Unexpected outcomes help us refine our picture of nature."

"Tall smokestacks rise from the powerhouse and waft plumes of smoke into the sky, the epitaph of fuel burned into power."

If this kind of writing disturbs or bores you, look elsewhere. If not, you might find "Mind Over Water" as enjoyable as I did.

as much about self-discovery as about rowing
A book that aspires to describe perfection better start with a sentence that aspires to perfection.

This is how Mind Over Water begins: "In the darkness, deep in silence, the lights --- green, red, a few of white --- surge ahead, in the rhythm of breathing."

If this were a class, Butler could riff for 10 minutes on that line. For now, let's leave it at this: You're in a long, narrow boat, with a skin that's just one-sixteenth of an inch thick and oars that extend fifteen feet. It's 5:45 a.m. on an October morning in Boston. It's chilly. And you are about to begin a race that is the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. On a Tuesday morning. Before work. Just for fun.

Okay, Craig Lambert, a veteran oarsman and a stylish writer, is a little bit crazy. Well, so are the best rowers. And so is Harry Parker, the Harvard crew coach whose exploits first got Lambert, a gifted amateur, interested in writing professionally about the sport.

You never heard of Harry Parker? He'd be thrilled. Recognition is the least thing he cares about. He's single-minded about something else: winning. And win he does. He became Harvard's crew coach in 1963, when he was just 27. For the next 6 years, Harvard did not lose a single intercollegiate race. His crews won 18 consecutive races against Yale. His winning percentage from 1963 to 1997 is .806 --- he is, very probably, the most successful coach in any sport in the whole and entire world.

Harry Parker has some voodoo wisdom that Craig Lambert has absorbed. And then there are the home truths Lambert's picked up himself along the way. Some samples:

"Speed demands that we risk our balance. Velocity comes with volatility... That which is stable is slow."

"Being part of a crew makes the individual shine; in rowing you pull harder and longer that you could ever alone because everyone else in the boat is depending on you."

"My years of rowing in eights [eight-man boats] convinced me that to succeed in this world we must be willing to do whatever is required despite what our mind says."

"Sometimes the best response to stormy weather is to unleash your own tempest. It is one way to restore equilibrium."

"Grabbing an early lead costs energy, an expense that may later haunt the front-runner... In practice, Parker would remind his rowers that when opponents jump out in front, you must make them pay the price."

"To build a winning crew, select the right athletes, place them in the proper seats, and allow for the freedom to create. In other words, hire the right people for the right jobs and manage with a long, loose leash."

If you're employed in almost any organization Butler can imagine, he'll bet that last idea is one you'd like to print out and slip under the boss's door. That's light years away from the sport of rowing --- and yet it's not New Age, hippy-dippy sloganeering. What it is, Butler submits, is writing at a level we're not used to seeing very often: prose that yokes close observation of the real world with deep wisdom about the world inside.

"We are out here in the darkness to reveal ourselves, to discover who we are," Lambert writes. "With the oars, we attempt things that we cannot do, we confront that which is beyond our capacities. Mind over water. The shells transport us into the unknown."

It almost makes you want to get out there some early morning and see how far, how fast, how smoothly you could make a boat --- or, really, your life --- go.

... Read more

Book Description
Ulla -Carin Lindquist was happily married, with four adoring children and a successful career as a newscaster. All of that changed when her fiftieth birthday drew near, and she was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In the face of this incurable, degenerative disease, Ulla kept a journal chronicling the last years of her life, not only for her children’s sake but also to help her cope with her impending death. As powerful and moving as books such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Tuesdays with Morrie, Ulla’s unflinching account is an unforgettable reminder of how precious life really is. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Memoir on Living and Dying
Ulla-Carin Lindquist's poignant personal journey with ALS is a well written account containing many end of life issues - end of life as one knows it, end of dreams for the future, the beginning of a different way of framing events of the past, and the slow deterioration of health and abilities once taken for granted.Relationships are explored while emotions are uncovered or discovered.This book is filled with real thoughts from an intelligent woman undergoing tremondous hardship, yet done with beauty and hope.

Ulla-Carin was a popular newscaster on Swedish Television.

Three parts of the book stayed with me (might be a spoiler if you're planning on reading the book - I'm not sure).One, when her now grown daughter describes that all she ever wanted when her mom was a busy career newswoman was to have a full day to spend with her, and she never could (ouch!)but now that Ulla-Carin is sick she has all of the time each day to spend as she wishes within her limitations - another, when her boys play communication games (very touching and some just for FUN!) and a thought her young son introduces into her life, and which she introduces earlier but then she ends the book.
... Read more

Book Description
This book is a comprehensive look at rowing training and technique. Loaded with illustrations and photos this book provides the reader with everything they need to develop their skills and performance on and off the water. Detailed descriptions of the strokes and drills leading to perfect technique will allow the reader to develop the finer points of rowing skills. Chapters on strength training, aerobic conditioning, program planning, and rigging will help readers from beginners to masters to get the most out of their time and improve their performance in the most efficient way. Information on tapering and race preparation will ensure that everything comes together on the big day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very helpful rowing guide
This rowing book is very helpful for the serious rower with training guidelines and technical advice. Also good for those post-college rowers in community clubs with little coaching available! ... Read more

Book Description
The Compleat Dr. Rowing is a collection of the greatest hits from the popular Ask Dr. Rowing column in the Independent Rowing News.The Dr. answers questions pertaining to all things rowing, from "Did all of the members of that Japanese eight that rowed so high really die?" to "Why do oarsmen produce only daughters?"The Doctor's own particular brand of humor blends with factual and historical research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Compleat indeed
I was lucky enough to hear Dr. Rowing speak, and afterwards was able to pick up a copy of this. His humor and style make this a joy to read, while taking a look at many sides of rowing.

There are stories and ancdotes from all over, which are entertaining and informational. There are also many letters that have been written to him, so, much of the book is in Q&A format. These questions range from myth-busting to speculations, to situations, and everything inbetween.

Here is the table of contents, so you can imagine what may be in them:
Preface
The Legends
Port vs. Starboard
Coaches
Coxswains
Gluckman's Theorem
Strange Boats
Strange Folks
Head of the Charles
Joe Burk
Short Pieces
Mysteries

I have read it from cover to cover, many times, and will probably do so again. It is an excellent and enjoyable book, I highly recommend it.

Judge a book by it's cover
Since Dr. Rowing is, of course, the quintessential expert on the subject, there is no better book to read. It is excellent.
I must comment on the cover illustration, however. It was obviously designed by someone with great talent and class. Could it have been designed by his sister, Sally Anderson? ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Covers very well all aspects not directly related to rowing
I think one of the greatest contribuition of this book is that it covers so many aspects that the athlete must care about outside of water and that are as important as rowing techniques. It covers methodolgies to become disciplined, to analyze progress, enhancement and assiduity. Covers very well the practices that should be taken in gym (weight work and stretching) focused on rowing, as well as very interesting and easy to understand physiological aspects of human body during the practice. The book obviously covers very well the rowing techniques and competition strategies.

indispensible...
I ama rowing coach and instructor.I find this book to be anindispensible tool for athletes and coaches alike.Form the basics of thestroke to training for "high performance rowing," this bookcovers it all in depth.Everyone who rows should read this book.Buy itfor your boathouse and pass it around!

Probably the best book on rowing currently in print
John McArthur is coach at a UK rowing club and has written a book for those who aspire to excellence in the sport.The book is up to date in areas of rigging, physiology, technique and training.What is more,McArthur explains the "why" and the "how" behindrigging and physiology - something usually skipped.This is not a bookwhich will help beginners directly, but it will inspire and inform thebeginner as well as the elite athlete.And I guess that's what I likedmost about it: treating rowing as a form of athletic endeavour and givingthe intelligent and committed rower enough information to enable him or herto understand every aspect of the sport and so to come to an informed,sensible position which suits their capacities and aspirations.

A good look at competitive, on-water rowing...
This book is primarily for those who row on water, rather than those who use an erg indoors, as I do. That being said it's a great book, crammed full of important and relevant information.

It has detailed tips onimproving technique, comprehensive explanations of what kind of training todo to achieve a certain goal, description on how to write a trainingprogram, and competiton strategies. It gets very specific in several areasregarding strength, endurance, power, and how to increase all of these.There are charts and graphs, diagrams and photos, the works!

I only wishthe author had given more focus to erg rowing, but even without that thisis an excellent resource for anyone who rows, whether on land or on thewater. ... Read more

Book Description
A sport of lyrical grace, enigmatic appeal, and Herculean effort, rowing is a pastime and a passion that inspires its devotees to a lifetime of dedication. Although it was once perceived as a blue-blooded activity limited to a privileged few, more and more people--including Olympic athletes, students from public and private schools, and casual gym-goers looking for an effective new workout--are taking to the rivers, lakes, and harbors to experience the beauty and health benefits of rowing.

Experienced rower and journalist D. C. Churbuck recounts the colorful history and lore of rowing from its beginnings on England's historic Thames to its modern incarnation. Churbuck covers shell design, sculling, collegiate rowing, training, international competition, and a history of the famous rowing clubs and their luminaries. A fully illustrated, step-by-step guide transforms the novice into a competent rower. Now completely updated, The Book of Rowing, which includes black-and-white photographs and line drawings throughout, is a practical tool for the experienced rower, a richly detailed history for the enthusiast, and an excellent resource for anyone interested in starting out at the sport. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A superbly organized and presented resource for rowers
Now in an new and completely updated edition, The Book Of Rowing by rowing expert D. C. Churbuck presents just about everything any aspiring rower wanting to successfully engaging in this strenuous yet highly enjoyable sport and pastime needs to know. From sculling to off-the-water workouts to rowing clubs, international rowing, the Harvard-Yale Regatta and more, The Book Of Rowing is thoroughly "reader friendly" and enhanced with a bibliography, a glossary, a list of rowing teams and organizations, more than 60 black-and-white photographs, a list of races and regattas and more. The Book Of Rowing is a superbly organized and presented resource for rowers of all skill and experience levels -- and highly recommended reading for rowing enthusiasts past and present!

Fantastic Book
Such a great book. The history lesson alone makes it all worth while but even an experienced rower will find things to learn. Well written and an easy read. Looks like it's hard to find but give it a shot. I just found it at one of those sidewalk stands in New York and was looking to pick up a copy for an old college friend. Guess I'm stuck with a used copy for him.

Good part of a rower's bookshelf
Praise to Overlook Press for getting this back in print. I have the hardcover first edition from 88, and it is one of the best designed books on my shelf. Unlike the usual blood and glory books on the sport:Halberstam and Kiesling, this one gets the job done in explaining a prettyopaque sport to the layman as well as the novice. Good history for the avidoarsperson too.

Good, basic overview of the sport
This is a classic overview of a classic sport, written from a ground-up perspective for the complete novice as well as experienced rowers looking for a good history. Churbuck takes the reader from the basic and mechanicsof rowing to the history and traditions of the sport. There is some goodhow-to advice from rowing machines to sculling.

Great demonstrative andhistorical photography and line art. It is good to see this book back inprint. ... Read more

Book Description
In the midst of the standard dreary midlife crisis -- complete with wine tasting courses, yoga classes, and a failed attempt at a first novel -- a 40-year-old Barry Strauss falls unexpectedly and passionately in love with rowing, a sport in which a 27-year-old is a has been. Strauss, a classics professor, writes about the unanticipated delights of an affair that, like so many others, begins as a casual dalliance and develops into a full-blown obsession. Drawn to the sport in part because of his affinity for Greek antiquity, he develops a love for old boathouses, a longing for rivers at dawn, a thirst to test himself, and, ultimately, a renewed sense of self-reliance -- as someone who had experienced sports humiliation as far back as Little League suddenly find himself bursting into athleticism at an unlikely age.From the awe-inspiring feats of the war-bound Greek triremes with their crews of 172 men rowing on three levels to the solitary pride of finishing a first race in which he gets stuck in the weeds and has to be fished out, Barry Strauss shows us why "there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A philosophical memoir of learning to row
Strauss has given us a surprising and unique rowing memoir here. In part a blatant excuse to write about a subject of his infatuation, rowing in ancient history, the book doesn't spare us some of Strauss' own trials and tribulations in his attempts and ultimate success in learning to row. All in all, this makes for quite a nice read, mixing personal experience and interesting historical tidbits exceedingly well.

The chapters are each ostensibly about something specific, with simple names to go with them ("The Practice", "The Beginner", "The Coach", "The Greeks", "The Race", "The Return"), and make for nice thematic musings. In the first, Strauss gives an illustration of typical solo sculling, bringing in the mystique of the water. Why scull? "Because it's beautiful. Because it's challenging. Because it's escapist," he answers, and we can relate. In "The Beginner", he combines a discussion of both famous and less-well-known rowing-related art with tales of his beginning steps at learning to row. It's an interesting mix: the technical and mechanical description of the boat and the stroke, and the cerebral experience of pondering visual art. "The Coach" continues on with the process of learning, delving into more philosophical aspects of coaching, teaching and learning in general.

By the time we get halfway through the book, we already know that Strauss has learned pretty well. He gives us a bit of an intermission with "The Greeks", a lovely chapter exploring rowing in ancient Greece. What makes this such a nice chapter is that he unashamedly gives us a very personal account of this history--his own opinions and reactions, intertwined with his desire to have come from tough rowing stock. The next chapter, "The Race" gives us an account of his first race in a single scull, where his ego got "carved into three parts". This is a self-effacing tale of embarrassment, injury, and pushing oneself too hard, and the consequences that come from all that. In "The Return", Strauss gives us more detail on the multi-layered pain of injury and turns it into a good thing. He was forced to abandon rowing for some time, but picked up swimming in the process; he made me want to wander over to the pool. But this chapter is ultimately about getting back into the water in a scull, which he does, with us cheering him along.

In closing, if you are the least bit interested in rowing as anything other than pure exercise, you will enjoy this book. You'll get a nice basic history of the sport--if more history books were written this way, there would be more fans of history. But you'll also get an enjoyable account of someone going through all the stages (painful or not) of learning to row and then rowing both recreationally and competitively. If you are a rower, Strauss' account will resonate throughout your own experiences, whereever you are in the process. And if you have not yet started learning to row, don't be surprised if you find yourself signing up for a class.

Going Forward Backwards
Author Barry Strauss is not the first intellectual who did not succeed in sports as a child or start out as a Little League star, but he didn't let that stop him from becoming proficient in a difficult sport as an adult.Combining his personal narrative about his athletic achievement with interesting facts about rowing from ancient to modern times, Strauss has written an interesting and delightful book not only about crewing but about himself.

Nice contemplation on rowing; good history on ancient sport
From time to time you run across one of those books that wanders gracefully from one topic to another, all the time circling around a central theme. John McPhee's "Oranges" is like that, and so is "Rowing Against the Current." Mr. Strauss, a classics scholar himself, is perfectly poised to write a book about rowing. His background in classics gives him a special vantage point from which to appreciate the ancient sport of rowing and its survival into modern times.

Be warned, this is not a book for everyone. If you're looking for a book on rowing techniques or how to improve your stroke, look elsewhere. The subtitle says it all: "On Learning to Scull at Forty." This is an intensely personal memoire about one man's experiences taking up a new sport in middle-age (although some of us might regard him as a mere spring chicken).

But for those looking for a book that ranges from a description of what it's like to take out a narrow shell with a twelve-inch wide seat on a river at dawn to a comparison of the status of rowers in ancient Greece and Rome, this book is highly recommended. Think of it as a fireside book -- something to curl up with on a cold night. And if you like it, then move on to David Halberstam's "The Amateurs." Enjoy.

In the Wake of Ancient Greek Triremes
"I am rowing toward the past," writes Strauss in this exhilarating and multifaceted meditation on learning and mastering the ancient art of rowing. As a frustrated athlete searching for a fulfilling sport to call his own and as a scholar of ancient Greek naval history, the author has hit on a fascinating and auspicious combination, the graceful blending of personal narrative with historical interest.

My favorite chapter was the one on the striking love-hate relationship the classical Greeks had with the wine-dark waters that surrounded them, from their naval victory against the Persians at Salamis to the nostalgia of lifelong sailors for home shores and the ever-present threat of loss at sea.

Reading "Rowing Against the Current" is a real adventure!

This book will make you think
Rowing Against the Current is one of those books that grabs you.

I'm not sure whether its the mixture of gritty reality and academic pondering, the ability of the writer to bring to life the minutia of coming to and mastering a new sport, a wake up call to the 40 something who feels they can do more, or just the ease of writing style that pulls you along. I am a fan of the short book, and this one I enjoyed.

Don't read it because you have any expectations, read it because you need a fresh view on a man's ability, attitude, and discovery of a new love. This is not a book about rowing, there's much more to it than that. ... Read more

Book Description
". . . original and provocative . . . Martha Nell Smith convincingly answers those who continue to ask why Dickinson did not publish more while she was alive. The author also offers a revisionist interpretation of the relationship between the poet and her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson, whose role in both the poetic process and subsequent publication of Dickinson's work she contends is much more significant than critics to date believe." --Belles Lettres ... Read more

Product Description
Taking on the challenge of coaching the poor-but-humble mens' varsity crew at UC Santa Barbara requires a special sort of person - Olympic gold medalist Brad Alan Lewis is the man for the job. Or is he? Yes, he'd won the gold at the Olympics, but he'd never coached a college crew - not even a novice team. Mountain lions, rattlesnakes, icy roads, crazed bass fishermen - they all conspired to make Lewis's challenge even more... challenging. Read 'Wanted: Rowing Coach' and find out if he survived. Actually, since it's an autobiography of sorts (thinly veiled fiction) you can pretty much assume he survived. Nonetheless, read 'Wanted' and find out how much fun, excitement, adventure Lewis and his crew had along the way. Several Class 7 rowing/life lessons included at no extra charge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

For the rower
As a rower myself, I greatly enjoyed reading this book.It gave me a bit of insight into a coach's mind and into how I think about rowing.I don't know how someone without knowledge of the sport would feel reading this book because it doesn't give one great specifics about some rowing terms, but nothing one could not look-up.In that respect, it doesn't delve into lots of rowing terms so I don't think the non-rower would be overwhelmed.It was a fun read, written like a diary of the events of the day for a coach and his thoughts on what to change, how to understand his rowers, and how to make the most of a season.I don't know who edited this because there were a handful of grammatical errors that you will notice, but it really doesn't take away from the reading.

Lots of rowing nuggets here!
Brad's book is a great read for rowers and crew coaches. He uses his excellent writing skills to combine a good story with lots of practical useable rowing drills and inspirational sayings. I would have loved having him as a coach. With all his superhuman coaching efforts, it was too bad his results were not better!

Wanted: Rowing Coach
The story is a good one, particularly if you are looking for a crew to coach, but I found the book so poorly written I couldn't read it all.A good story deserves more attention to the writing than Mr. Lewis provided. Where were the editors?

Another superb contribution to sports literature
Thanks again to Brad Alan Lewis for this entertaining and illuminating look at the sport of rowing, and athletics in general. This is a fitting post script to Brad's earlier work, Assault on Lake Casitas, which is one of the best books on high level athletics ever written.

Jam-packed full of gems for life, rowing and coaching
I can't remember the last time (if ever) that I wanted to start reading abook again as soon as I'd finished it... but, as a rower, coach (back inBlighty) and Zen acolyte, this book contains so many gems that I feel Ineed to go back and mop up any I might have missed.

When I first met thecharacter Brad Lewis in The Amateurs, 'likeable' is not a word I wouldimmediately associate with a predatory shark with sustained obsession...but, after this volume, I kinda like the guy...

The only downside is thatthis is a work of FICTION - how can this be?? Anyway, great stuff! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Sir Steven Redgrave - what better instructor
This book is very easy to read.A good introduction to the history of rowing (British bias), how to rig a boat and rowing technique.Perhaps the best chapter is devoted to faults, possible causes and how to correct them.This has been really helpful.

It's such a good book, I lent it to my coach and haven't been able to prize it away from him.I hope he buys his own copy soon.

Thoroughly recommended for everyone who has pushed down on a stretcher.

Peter

Gods Gift to Rowing
Mr Redgrave had won three consecutive Olympic Gold medals in rowing when he wrote this book, and he has just made that five in Sydney. This highlights the depth of his abilities and knowledge on the subject of rowing.

The book is basically an idiots guide on how to row.Within it he details not just how to row, and a large number of useful exercises, but provides chapters on diet, training (both physical and mental), and race plans.One of the most useful elements of the book is a chapter dedicated to common faults, how to recognise them and how to correct them.

I was impressed by the thoroughness of the book as it also provides information on how to rig a boat and recommendations for different sized crews in both number and weight.

The book is extremelly easy to read and understand and anyone who rows or coaches would find the book a valuable addition to their reference material. I purchased the book when it was first released as I was coaching schoolboy rowing in Australia. Although I had considered myself relatively experienced as a coach, the book was able to fine tune my knowledge and in some cases allowed me to introduce completely new aspects into my coaching regime. Due in no small part to the book the next few seasons were extremally succesful.

I very strongly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in rowing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Suffocating anguish and bursts of joy

Anne Sexton's final battles with her personal demons are documented here and it does not make for easy reading. The book opens with the poem Rowing and ends with The Rowing Endeth. In between are extraordinarily powerful poems about life, death, despair, the suicidal impulsive and mercifully about love too.

Referring to herself as Ms Dog, the author very honestly examines her psyche in poems like The Civil War, The Room Of My Life and The Witch's Life, a poem that continues a theme established by Her Kind in the first volume To Bedlam and Part Way Back and continued through The Black Art in All My Pretty Ones.

A poem like Courage overflows with hurt but has a transcendent quality too and the same duality or conflict becomes very clear in the poem After Auschwitz, where she declares: "Man ... / .../ is not a temple/but an outhouse", proceeding to curse mankind, before concluding with: "I say these things aloud./ I beg the Lord not to hear."

The Poet Of Ignorance is painful to read as the arresting image of an indestructible crab gripping the poet's heart becomes a metaphor for mental pain. This oppressive image is reiterated in The Dead Heart, where the tongue did the killing, a theme more delicately investigated in the next poem, Words.

The following one, The Sickness Unto Death, must be one of the bleakest poems in the English language in its seemingly casual wrestling with evil and utter despair. The line "My body became a side of mutton/and despair roamed the slaughterhouse" perhaps best encapsulates the unrelenting torment.

Mercifully, poems like Welcome Morning - a description of a burst of domestic joy - and The Big Heart - where the "fury of love" for friends and family rushes into her heart, show the other side of Sexton's intensity of feeling. The Awful Rowing Toward God was the last book to be arranged by the author herself and is not recommended for the fragile reader.

It chronicles a particularly agonizing search for meaning. But perhaps because of the intensity, some of the musical rhythm of her work from especially the two aforementioned books is missing here. There is still the conversational style, but it would appear that the large crab gripping Sexton's heart was squeezing very hard here, suffocating all but the most unquenchable outbursts of joy like Welcome Morning.

Suffocating anguish and bursts of joy
Anne Sexton's final battles with her personal demons are documented here and it does not make for easy reading. The book opens with the poem Rowing and ends with The Rowing Endeth and inbetween are extraordinarily powerful poems about life, death, despair, the suicidal impulsive and mercifully about love too. Referring to herself as Ms Dog, the author very honestly examines her psyche in poems like The Civil War, The Room Of My Life and The Witch's Life, a poem that continues a theme established by Her Kind in the first volume To Bedlam And Part Way Back and continued through The Black Art in All My Pretty Ones. A poem like Courage overflows with hurt but has a transcendent quality too and the same duality or conflict becomes very clear in the poem After Auschwitz, where she declares: "Man ... / .../ is not a temple/but an outhouse", proceeding to curse mankind, before concluding with: "I say these things aloud./ I beg the Lord not to hear." The Poet Of Ignorance is painful to read as the arresting image of an indestructible crab gripping the poet's heart becomes a metaphor for mental pain. This oppressive image is reiterated in The Dead Heart, where the tongue did the killing, a theme more delicately investigated in the next poem, Words. The following one, The Sickness Unto Death, must be one of the bleakest poems in the English language in its seemingly casual wrestling with evil and utter despair. The line "My body became a side of mutton/and despair roamed the slaughterhouse" perhaps best encapsulates the unrelenting torment. Mercifully, poems like Welcome Morning - a description of a burst of domestic joy - and The Big Heart - where the "fury of love" for friends and family rushes into her heart, show the other side of Sexton's intensity of feeling. The Awful Rowing Toward God was the last book to be arranged by the author herself and is not recommended for the fragile reader. It reflects the agonizing search for meaning that is so universal to the individual consciousness. But perhaps because of the intensity, some of the musical rhythm of her work from especially the two aforementioned books is missing here. There is still the conversational style, but it would appear that the large crab gripping Sexton's heart was squeezing very hard here, suffocating all but the most unquenchable outbursts of joy like Welcome Morning.

painful, but of great value
What to make of this sorid little book of verse? Its like watching someone disembowel themselves, draw up a schematic of what they should "really" look like, and then try, like Humpty Dumpty, to put themselves back together again.

Yet, somewhere here Anne Sexton reaches for something a little further from (and at the same time closer to) herself...namely, God. And that is what these poems are: Sexton wrestling with her God. A brief taste of what this text is like (from "The Sickness Unto Death" which is one of my favorite poems contained in the book)--

"I who was a house full of bowel movement,
I who was a defaced altar,
I who wanted to crawl toward God
could not move nor eat bread.

So I ate myself,
bite by bite,
and the tears washed me,
wave after cowardly wave,
swallowing canker after canker
and Jesus stood over me looking down
and He laughed to find me gone,
and put His mouth to mine
and gave me His air."

There is much to meditate on within the pages of "The Awful Rowing Toward God."When it comes to matters such as spiritual suffering, seeking, and pain, Mrs. Sexton seems to have had some experience. No doubt, this will not be everyone's cup of tea. Nevertheless, there is much of value here.

That is why I recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
With mixed emotions, fifteen-year-old Ida Lewis said good-bye to the little house on Spring Street on a sunny June day in 1857. Though her new home would still be in Newport, Rhode Island, it sat on a tiny outcropping of rocks out in the harbor, completely surrounded by water. Ida's father, Captain Hosea Lewis, was the keeper of the Lime Rock Light. The new lighthouse was big enough for the entire family of six. Then just four months later, tragedy struck. Captain Lewis was no longer able to man the lighthouse. Responsibility for keeping the lifesaving beacon aglow soon fell on Ida's young shoulders. It was an awesome task, but she was determined to do a good job. She knew sailors would be depending on her for their safety. As time went on, plenty more people would have petite, amazing Ida Lewis to thank for their lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Ida-lize Ida!
Masterfully written! Ms. Licameli tells the story of a heroine that our girls are sure to idolize!Her story has strong currents of strength, determination, family values and a willingness to help others no matter how strong the tide.Though expertly written for preteens and young teens, it is a great read aloud parents will enjoy, too!Teachers and librarians will find this charming tale will surely ignite their young readers!Kudos to Ms. Licameli for shining a beam of light on this humble soul for all of us to see!

Captivating from the start
I remember visiting a lighthouse during a childhood beach vacation and wondering what it was like to live there. That summer, reading a book like Doris Licameli's Rowing to the Rescue would have made my lighthouse visit much more meaningful. Ms. Licameli has a refreshing style that immediately engrosses you in the story of courageous young Ida Lewis and her family--her strong, kind father, her loving mother, her younger brothers Rud and Hosea and sister Hattie--and makes you feel as if you were there with them, experiencing the ocean's wind in your hair and the taste of its salty spray. This enjoyable book about the "ordinary girl who performed extraordinary deeds" should help inspire today's young heroines-to-be. Although written for girls age 8-12, this book provides an interesting read for people of all ages. Well done! ... Read more