…the agony of defeat.
Growing up, many a Saturday was spent watching Wide World of Sports. Its opening became an iconic sports meme for me long before the Internet was flooded with them.
I’ve been thinking about this intro as the Olympics begin.
There are lots of ways spectators can participate without flying to Rio. Knitters can join the Ravellinic Games on Ravelry, where there is only one rule:
The One Rule To Rule Them All: Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2016 Summer Olympics.
There are actual events such as the Mitten Medley, WIPs Wrestling, Sock Put and Synchronized Spinning. Although I am madly working on a WIP (Work in Progress) I am not participating in the Ravellinics. Too much pressure to perform.
I am however, reading a sports themed book!
Publisher’s Summary:
I am Lou Brown:
Social outcast, precocious failure, 5’10” and still growing.
I was on the fast track to the Olympic superstardom.
Now, I’m training boys too cool to talk to me. In a sport I just made up. In a fish tank.
My life has quickly become very weird.
Nat Luurtsema’s YA debut is side-splittingly funny and painfully true to anyone who’s just trying to figure out how they fit into the world.
Goodreads gives a little more detail.
Goodreads Sumary: Lou Brown is one of the fastest swimmers in the county. She’s not boasting, she really is. So things are looking pretty rosy the day of the Olympic time-trials. With her best mate Hannah by her side, Lou lines up by the edge of the pool, snaps her goggles on and bends into her dive…
Everything rests on this race. It’s Lou’s thing.
… or it was. She comes dead last and to top it all off Hannah sails through leaving a totally broken Lou behind.
Starting again is never easy, particularly when you’re the odd-one out in a family of insanely beautiful people and a school full of social groups way too intimidating to join. Where do you go from here? Finding a new thing turns out to be the biggest challenge Lou’s ever faced and opens up a whole new world of underwater somersaults, crazy talent shows, bitchy girls and a great big load of awkward boy chat.
Lou Brown guides us through the utter humiliation of failure with honesty, sass and a keen sense of the ridiculous. This girl will not be beaten.
This book was first published in the UK as Girl out of Water.
In France, it is Moi et les Aquaboys.
No matter what language you read it in, this is a funny and poignant novel about what happens after the agony of defeat.
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