Rating: 
Summary: A must read for all!
Review: Doris Kearns Goodwin is famous for her biographies, especially the Pulitzer Prize winning, NO ORDINARY TIME. Her new book, though, is not about someone else's life, it's about her own. "When I was six, my father gave me a bright-red score book that opened my heart to the game of baseball." Goodwin begins to recall the game that was her childhood into this "score book". Although the cover of her memoir, WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR, is not bright-red, it serves it's purpose well. Goodwin writes a "play by play" account of her life from the time she first recieved that score book till the end of her childhood at age fifteen. Underlying it all is her passion for baseball and the New York Dodgers and her hope that they will win the World Series. The author attributes her love of narration to baseball. Every day, Goodwin would recount to her father, using the system he taught her, that day's game as he got her ready for bed. As well as a sign of her father's love, this ritual introduced her to the art of storytelling. "It would instill me in an early awareness of the power of the narrative, which would introduce me to a lifetime of storytelling..." This book is filled with poignant stories about the relationships between the author and her family and friends. It also draws on the many experiences of Goodwin's from her first trip to Ebbet's Field, to her hero, Jackie Robinson. There are stories about her religious experiences as a Catholic, her obsession with James Dean and how, at first, television brought her neighborhood together. The significance of the era is portrayed well. For me, this book was particularly interesting because of my own love of baseball. Just reading it made me long for those hot summer days when major league baseball is played. I can also simpathize with Goodwin over how many times her team came close to winning the World Series. As a Cleveland Indian fan, I have been waiting my whole life for the Indians to be crowned champions. They have not one a World Series since my Dad was born, in 1948. This theme of resulted in the title of her book, a popular saying among Dodgers fans,"Wait till next year". Not only did the story amaze me, Goodwin is an extraordinary writer. Her writing clearly and smoothly tells her story. I could almost hear her narrate the book while once in a while two characters would have a conversation. I could visualize it all too. WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR is a passionate, well written, captivating book. A must read for all!
Rating:
Summary: Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir
Review: Ms. Goodwin captures what it meant to be a baseball fan before the era of free agency and player self-promotion. The book beckons to a time when fans became emotionally attached to teams and players, and baseball was seen as the embodiment of Americana. The slow pace of the game, the time between pitches to analyze situations and plan strategy, all the aspects of the game which make it America's first sport. Equally, the book captures the traditions and the heartbreak of being a Dodgers fan in the 1940's and 1950's, when they were continually the second-best team, behind, of course, only the hated Yankees. On a more personal level, the book brought back for me the memories of just sitting around on a warm summer night, in the house, on the steps, or for the best reception, in the driveway listening to the game on the radio with my dad, my brother and some friends. No ESPN, no cable, only "rabbit ears", and a black-and-white TV.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly delightful!
Review: Memoir of Doris Kearns' younger years, as an avid Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Although baseball was her obsession, the story is about much more than baseball - it's about life in the 50's, childhood spent outside or at the corner soda shop, the importance the community had at that time, and the troubles and changes that adolescence brings.Great memoir, and incredibly well written and told. I thought the book was excellent, even though I glossed over the baseball parts of it! Read this for my library book group, I never would've picked this one up on my own.
Rating:
Summary: An Incredible Book
Review: Wait Till Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, is a stunning autobiography about the connections between her hometown, her school, and her team. The book, based in the 1950's, gives tremendously reliable and accurate information on baseball, predominantly her favorite team the Brooklyn Dodgers. Goodwin's collection of beaten red scorebooks served as a diary of her whole life. At age six Goodwin's father taught her to keep score and "a lasting bond had been forged among my father, baseball, and me" (Wait Till Next Year. Goodwin. 13). Goodwin had a passion for Jackie Robinson's career as the second baseman for the Dodgers and the first black player in the major leagues. Goodwin documents the careers of other favorite Dodger players: Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella (two other black players playing for the Dodgers), Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese, and rookie pitcher Clem Labine. The book is about her childhood and her keen interest in the Brooklyn Dodgers, their games, players, and box scores. Growing up in an intimate bedroom community of New York City, all the neighbors were close. Goodwin lived a sheltered, storybook life. At the end of the book, as Goodwin gets older, her perfect unravels. First, her neighborhood disintegrated, neighbors moved to cities all over the country. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to the West Coast, along with another New York baseball team, the Giants. One baseball team remained in New York, the Yankees. Her best friend Elaine moved to Albany. Goodwin's mother, who had been suffering from a failing heart condition, died leaving her father incredibly distraught. Goodwin's father sold the only home his children had ever known, because it was tainted with memories of his late wife.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a love and a passion for baseball. The thrill of hearing every detail makes the games easily imaginable. For a baseball-lover like me, remembering some of the greatest players in history and reliving some of the most exciting games ever played is a major thriller. Goodwin does an incredible job transcribing these games and players from her red scorebook memories with meticulous detail; one can easily live in every moment. This book reads easily, but slowly. If you love to live in your books, Wait Till Next Year is a good choice for you.
Goodwin writes in very scrupulous detail, thus, the book reads very slowly. Her meticulous dwelling on some subjects can be dull and provide an excuse to skip a page or two. While Wait Till Next Year is an easy read, the multiple pages of detail on each subject make the book a very slow read. It is a long book, and her extensive points slow your speed of reading. Wait Till Next Year is an intriguing story that provides its readers with insight into baseball. The passion that the author shared with her father provides the backdrop for learning about this riveting game, which truly is a Great American Pass-time.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book about a Great Game
Review: As a genre, baseball books are of two general types- the rarely interesting memoirs of a jock or coach, or the baseball writer/enthusiast's dissection of the game in general, or of a season or team in particular. "Wait Until Next Year" by Doris Kearns Goodwin is of the latter genre. A lifelong baseball fan who grew up in a Long Island suburb of New York City, Goodwin grew up rooting for her father's favorite team- the Brooklyn Dodgers in what many regard as the golden age of baseball, the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was an era where the Dodgers went to six World Series in ten years (1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, and 1956) and won the title over the hated Yankess in 1955. It was an era that saw baseball integrated by Jackie Robinson, and some of the best players in history (Robinson, Duke Snider, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin) wowed the fans time and again with their spectacular play. And Goodwin watched it all while growing up. "Wait Until Next Year" is as much a memoir of growing up in suburban Long Island in the 1950s as it is a remembrance of what baseball was like in that long-gone era. Anyone who followed sports as a kid can remember what it was like to watch their heroes on the television, fervently hoping they may emerge victorious (this baseball fan was crushed to watch the big, bad Oakland A's slaughter his heroes, the San Francisco Giants, in the 1989 World Series) or being so fortunate to actually attend a game in the flesh. This reader smiled as he read Goodwin's memories of attending a game at Ebbets Field, her horror at Robby Thomson's miracle home run in the 1951 playoffs that lifted the Giants over the Dodgers, her satisfaction with the Dodgers triumph in the 1955 World Series, and finally her sadness at the Dodgers decision to depart for Los Angeles in 1957. A very good book that even non-baseball fans will find hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful treat
Review: I enjoyed this book the first and second time I read it. Doris Kerns Goodwin writes about her early years in post-war Long Island with grace.
This memoir reads like a charming novel - the details are wonderful, the characters are people we come to care about, and young Doris is someone you will smile with and cry with.
I've recommended this book to friends and students (I teach adult ed creative writing workshops). Everyone thanks me. If you want a good book by a good author check this one out. If you're considering writing your own memoir study WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR to see how it should be done!
Rating:
Summary: Best baseball ever
Review: The book "Wait Till Next Year" is a suspense thriller that will leave you hanging until the next chapter. The book just doesn't talk about the way baseball is played it talks about the way the fans listened to the games. It also talks about the way of life for the fans. The author Doris Keans Goodwin made it special by telling her life story and introduced all the people in her life. She also talked about the rivals inside the little suburban area. She discussed how most of the people were Dodger fans in the area and in another area were the Yankee fans. The author also talked about how people conducted themselves when their teams won and lost. She tells you how you never should think of the past but always think of the future. Doris explains what families went through during the era when you didn't have T.V. or you had to go to the beach to swim and other places to have fun. The book really tells you the story from the viewpoint of the little kid growing up in that time period. This book was very good and you should take the opportunity to read the book. JTVK
Rating:
Summary: Baseball Memories
Review: Anyone who's seen Ken Burns's BASEBALL will know Doris Kearns Goodwin. She was one of the few women interviewed. After she appeared in BASEBALL, many people asked her about her baseball experiences growing up, so she wrote this memoir. She writes about her growing years in the forties and fifties, not only as a baseball fan but also as a Catholic and a member of a neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else. DKG is four years younger than I, and our early lives had much in common. I, too, grew up a Catholic and a baseball fan (the Cleveland Indians) and lived in a neighborhood with a butcher shop, a fruit and vegetable market, and two drug stores with soda fountains. Unfortunately, I didn't grow up to be a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of political biographies. If you grew up in a middle-class suburb in the forties and fifties, this book will make you yearn for the "good old days" when, in spite of the threat of nuclear destruction and Joseph McCarthy, life seemed simple, safe, and solid. It really did.
Rating:
Summary: Baseball, families, & faith...
Review: This book touched me on many different levels. I bought it as a baseball fan but learned a lot about New York, the Catholic Church, and the 1950's in addition to baseball. Goodwin's portrayal of early New York suburbanites is very well written and reminded me of my own experience of moving to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. a generation later. Ultimately, I was moved by the way she caringly described each of the relationships in her life during that time, particularly with her father. Goodwin could work for MLB, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and the Catholic church and improve each of those entities public image. Her book made me nostalgic about things I have never experienced, if that is possible.
Rating:
Summary: Wait Till Next Year
Review: Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin's wonderful memoir of her childhood in the suburbs of New York in the 1950's. It tells about growing up, and Doris's love for her family, friends, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Living in that time was somewhat different. All the kids on the block played together, shopkeepers knew all of their customers, and friendly rivalries between Giant, Yankee, and Dodger fans were all over the neighborhood.
In her life, the most important thing to her was baseball. She was a big Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and kept score of nearly every game. When she was six, her father gave her a scorebook, and they became very close through their love for baseball. After all the times that the Dodgers got so close to winning the World Series, Doris was heartbroken. When the Dodgers finally won, her amazed family joined in the celebration with the other fans.
Doris also enjoyed other things. She inherited her love for reading from her mother, and was very dedicated to her Catholic religion. Another pastime was going with her sister to Jones Beach.
As she got older, the end of an era was approaching. The Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and small stores went out of business. For her personally, neighbors and her best friend moved away, and her mother died from illness.
"Wait till next year" was the saying used after the times that the Dodgers lost in the World Series, but it also symbolizes Doris and her family's healing from her mother's death.
Although a lot of the book talks about the Dodgers, you don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this touching story of growing up.
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