Ten on Sunday: The Secret Life of Men

Rating:
Summary: now I understand
Review: As the girlfriend of an avid basketball player, I have always been intriguided about how it was so important for him to go to the court to play at certain times. Reading this book gave me great insight into the game and the importance it plays. THe book was engaging and I am now able to understand the basketball phenomonon.

Rating:
Summary: now I understand
Review: As the girlfriend of an avid basketball player, I have always been intriguided about how it was so important for him to go to the court to play at certain times. Reading this book gave me great insight into the game and the importance it plays. THe book was engaging and I am now able to understand the basketball phenomonon.

Rating:
Summary: A definite 3 pointer
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was very fast paced, funny and seemed to pick up momentum as it went along. Although there was not a suspenseful climax I still raced to the end to see how the book would achieve closure. The weekly basketball game served the book well. It was very interesting to read about how these guys would all gather weekly and how gradually they were able to reveal things about their lives. I admired how they truly came to care about each other and support each other.The characters were well delineated. I felt a little cheated because the author had to change their names to protect their privacy but their personalities shone through on the pages of this very enjoyable book.

Rating:
Summary: Great book about male bonding
Review: Ten on Sunday is extremely well written. The author is a master at dialogue. His descriptions of a weekly backyard pick-up game made me wish, longingly, that I could have been one of those players. The game felt special, almost sacred. For me, it was not so much the "secret" life of men or the fact that they never really talked much. It was, instead, a man's version of dancing -- sensing a rhythm and allowing it to govern movements to silence thought and to release fantasies. The fact that the rhythm returned just as powerfully the following Sunday, made the game seem irresistible.

Rating:
Summary: Get In This Game
Review: Ten on Sunday is extremely well written. The author is a master at dialogue. His descriptions of a weekly backyard pick-up game made me wish, longingly, that I could have been one of those players. The game felt special, almost sacred. For me, it was not so much the "secret" life of men or the fact that they never really talked much. It was, instead, a man's version of dancing -- sensing a rhythm and allowing it to govern movements to silence thought and to release fantasies. The fact that the rhythm returned just as powerfully the following Sunday, made the game seem irresistible.

Rating:
Summary: Great book about male bonding
Review: This book is an easy and quick read. It is a great book about more than just a weekly basketball game, but about male bonding in general.

I found myself laughing out loud several times during this book. Its humorous anecdotes added so much to the story. At the same time, you can relate to these men as they undergo financial hardships, marital trouble, and tragedies.

I think men and women will both enjoy this book. Men will relate to the characters and understand the draw of the basketball game. And women will learn a little about how men communicate and how their friendships grow.

You don't even have to enjoy sports to love this book... the basketball game, though told well for those who love basketball, is simply a means to an end.

Good for anyone, especially people who are considering major changes in their lives.

Rating:
Summary: He's Got Game
Review: This book really captured the feel of everyman's weekly basketball game. It felt like the author must have played in mine!

Weekly basketball games seem to be a part of the structure of many men's lives. They bring us back to the simpler times of our childhood, allow us to play out our professional athletic fantasies, and give us the opportunity to spend time with people who don't demand that we be sensitive and emote.

Eisenstock develops each character thoroughly, and makes us feel like we're participants in the game. While it's "just a game", the story detailing the changes in his life and the lives of his characters is touching and all too familiar.

Anyone who's played in a regular game, as well as their significant others and wives should enjoy this story of personal growth and friendship.

Rating:
Summary: Hold your horses!
Review: This book worked me up so much, I had to write my first ever Amazon review. Before I begin, Let me qualify this revie with three important facts about myself which vastly influence my opinion of this book.
1. I am a writer
2. I am a basketball player
3. I am honest and opinionated

And with that, I must say that this book was a big disappointment. My friend recommended it to me and I was excited to read something that might capture the spirit of my friends and our games. To help with this review, I've divided my critique into sections.

THE WRITING: The writing is average and at times overdone. The author seems to be trying to overcompensate for his lack of prose through the years with needless details and average metaphors. IWriting is craft, you have to respect it and you just can't come to it as a hack and expect success and orginality. In essence, he is trying to hard to sound like a good writer. It's uneven and at times contrived sounding to me. He mentions he is looking for his voice and you can tell cause he still doesn't have one. He writes as if he is writing what he wants people to hear, not what he wants to say. Plus, as an ex-sit com writer, this thing is littered with bad, corny jokes you'd see on TV.

THE CONTENT: This book could have been a hundred pages shorter, but who pays $25 for a 178 page hardcover? It's got a lot of filler.

CLASS ANALYSIS: My biggest gripe with this book, this coming of age, mid life crisis deal is that it is so gluttonous and whiny. I am supposed to feel sorry for a guy that made bad choices for himself, sought out the Hollywood life, and then can't afford mortgage on a million dollar house with 6 bedrooms. Man, rich people with problems is not fun to read about. (I must also add that I am originally from that desert LA wasteland and cannot stand the fame/whore/entertainment industry from producers to actors to.

GENDER ANALYSIS: Now I'm not some rah-rah gender theorist or really all that up on feminism, but I really don't like the limited depiction of gender and stereotypes in this book. I do like the thing about closeness and intimacy, that was good. The rest of the man-macho crap is so lame, so Western, so American. I think this whole big truck, big gun thing is so lame here and the author seems to buy into it and just accept it. Like how it's bad to show weakness, or cry, or have feelings. Hello, we are all have female and male,we carry both traits. Only in America can we just be so limited as to have to act our full selves in secrecy, hiding, and chat rooms.

THE BASKETBALL: It was okay. For these guys, it was about the comraderie and then the game. I play for both, but the game itself is also a beautiful thing, a thing of passion and i feel like that is left unwritten and undescribed.

Basketball, the LA stories--OJ, Riots, earthquake--plus the friends stories are all filler for this mid life crisis book about a bunch of old mostly Jewish players.

The jacket description is a big hype job, and seems like the writer over-wrote that himself as well.

Oh yeah, and last, he talks about how he wants to be a "real" writer right? And then he goes and cranks out a book on NFL officials and one on Sports Talk Radio. Way to be true to yourself. He might as well have stayed in TV cause he's still writing crap, only with one name, and making less money.

And I don't buy his hustle to become a writer when he can call the LA TIMES Magazine editor up directly and get his story published in 20 minutes. That is not called hustlin, that's called "juice" or connections, or "the hook up." Please save me the baloney for my sandwiches.

There's a reason I bought this book used in harcover for $0.74.
The one thing I did like was that it encouraged me to make good choices in my life, not chase the BS, and pursue my dreams not the money, and not get stuck in financial ruts. So I am thankful for that.