Rating: 
Summary: A Great One
Review: Once you pick up this book you never want to put it down. It is hard for a non-player to understand what just being a high school player is like, but this book captures you in those moments and the life of being a player. Im from the town right across the Taunton River from Fall River, Somerset. We play Durfee and the games are diferent there, every shot is life or death, your entire life seems to depend on every play around here. If you are good, everyone knows who you are and thats the way it is, its the unwritten code or law around here, and thats the way it is. I wish Chris the best of luck in his upcoming rookie season in the NBA with the Denver Nuggets.
Rating:
Summary: I thought the book wasoutstanding, I'm a huge NCAA junkie.
Review: The book was outstanding, I love Chris Herren, and I'm a huge NCAA junkie. I play ball myself and I understand their troubles. I loved the book and will keep it until I die. And I'm only seventeen.
Rating: 
Summary: Smaller Version of "Season on the Brink"
Review: This a very capable high school version of John Feinstein's "Season on the Brink," except in Fall River Dreams you dislike the players more intensely than the coach. Readers bear witness to longtime Durfee High School coach Skip Karam losing more and more control over his players as each generation of kids has less integrity, work ethic, and respect for elders than the one before it. High school star Chris Herren was a prima donna whose laziness and insouciance not only prevented him from reaching his fullest potential, but undermined the efforts of the entire coaching staff and supporters, and generally created an atmosphere of discomfort and tension. It's a weird lesson indeed when brash, obnoxious older brother Mike Herren (the team star and league villain from years past) gave pep talks in the locker room when the squad lost. The book's strength is in its description of the blue collar town of Fall River, both physically and of its history. The decline of the manufacturing industry and towns' many mills cast a palpable gloom over the region. Even though readers from Massachusetts will undoubtedly get greater pleasure from the regional nature of this tale, there are Fall Rivers all over this country- wherever once booming manufacturing hotbeds succumbed to an economic and cultural shift, leaving confused and embittered workers in their wake. Readers will no doubt find parallels wherever they're from. High school basketball was this town's saving grace, and one of its few sources of pride, and Reynolds' writing style illustrated why sports truly matter in places like Fall River. Comeuppance prevails, and there is a payoff for readers routing against Herren's team, particularly after reading comparisons between the Herren brothers and the diligent, strong-but-silent-type Curley brothers from Duxbury. Fall River Dream's ending kind of fizzles, and earns a mere fraction of space and detail than the rest of the book got; however, it was kind of fitting in view of the dud that Herren proved to ultimately be. Indeed, his star shone most brightly in high school, and slowly burned to a cinder afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: Smaller Version of "Season on the Brink"
Review: This a very capable high school version of John Feinstein's "Season on the Brink," except in Fall River Dreams you dislike the players more intensely than the coach. Readers bear witness to longtime Durfee High School coach Skip Karam losing more and more control over his players as each generation of kids has less integrity, work ethic, and respect for elders than the one before it. High school star Chris Herren was a prima donna whose laziness and insouciance not only prevented him from reaching his fullest potential, but undermined the efforts of the entire coaching staff and supporters, and generally created an atmosphere of discomfort and tension. It's a weird lesson indeed when brash, obnoxious older brother Mike Herren (the team star and league villain from years past) gave pep talks in the locker room when the squad lost. The book's strength is in its description of the blue collar town of Fall River, both physically and of its history. The decline of the manufacturing industry and towns' many mills cast a palpable gloom over the region. Even though readers from Massachusetts will undoubtedly get greater pleasure from the regional nature of this tale, there are Fall Rivers all over this country- wherever once booming manufacturing hotbeds succumbed to an economic and cultural shift, leaving confused and embittered workers in their wake. Readers will no doubt find parallels wherever they're from. High school basketball was this town's saving grace, and one of its few sources of pride, and Reynolds' writing style illustrated why sports truly matter in places like Fall River. Comeuppance prevails, and there is a payoff for readers routing against Herren's team, particularly after reading comparisons between the Herren brothers and the diligent, strong-but-silent-type Curley brothers from Duxbury. Fall River Dream's ending kind of fizzles, and earns a mere fraction of space and detail than the rest of the book got; however, it was kind of fitting in view of the dud that Herren proved to ultimately be. Indeed, his star shone most brightly in high school, and slowly burned to a cinder afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: A book more about society than basketball.
Review: This book is a great look at the problems faced by a changing city and the hope that high school basketball can bring. It looks at the uncertain situation of a teen growing up with fame and having a city live and die on every shot he takes. This book is a lot more about society than basketball. But there's just enough basketball to keep a sports fan interested.
Rating:
Summary: The Passion For the Game
Review: This book really expressed the emotions behind the game of Basketball. Fall River Dreams brought alive to me, the reality of being a high school basketball player thats fame surrounding him holds himself down. The feelings of the packed Cole Field House, The tension behind every time the ball bounces off the hardwood. The expressions shown are tremendous, and I recommend it to any basketball fan.
Rating:
Summary: grew up in fall river
Review: This book was well written and told a good story. But i grew up in fall river and know the herrens personally - in other words there is alot more to the herren brothers and fall river than what was mentioned in the book (if you can believe it) but whatever. last I heard Christopher was married with children and doing well. big deal he screwed up. i have. chances are you have. he was a teenager. The one thing i dont get is that 75% of fall river never even heard of chris herren. The author makes a big deal about how important basketball is to the city but its a bunch of crap. good story though if youve never been to fall river. dont get me wrong the majority of the story is true but the man is trying to sell books. you know what ?christopher no longer lives in fall river and thats a dream for most fallrivians itself. basketball got him out of there - thats almost as good as a 25 milliuon dollar NBA contract. good for you chris
Rating:
Summary: Thank You Bill Reynolds
Review: This inspiring book gives us a little taste of the hoops crazed Northeast. A book in many ways similar to Darcy Frey's THE LAST SHOT and Rick Telander's HEAVEN IS A PLAYGROUND. Reynolds focuses his book on the trials and turbulations of Durfree high, located in Fall River, Mass. The book gives you insight on the city, its team and their eccentric superstar, Chris Herren. If you love baketball, you need this book.
Rating:
Summary: Basketball Sociology
Review: This is a terrific book. It is well written, has good characters, and explores some interesting cultural topics (high school sports, failing mill towns, youths in America, etc.). Fall River is one of the poorest towns in Massachusetts, but its one saving grace in the early 1990's was its successful basketball team. Life in the town revolved around the team, which provided some hope to some but certainly had negative consequences for many of the athletes and possibly the future of the city. It is a very similar tale to Friday Night Lights, which is probably the best sports book I have read, but is different enough that it is well worth reading. It is also fascinating to read about Chris Herren, who happens to be a classic example of a troubled athlete, before he he made headlines in college and joined the NBA. I really appreciated the focus on the town and the people rather than the actual games, which often dominates books of this genre and just distract from the compelling parts of the book. My only complaints about the book are that it wasn't particularly well edited (I caught several spelling errors that are particularly obnoxious in a mass punlished book, though really don't spoil the story in the slightest) and that it is not quite as detailed as it could have been considering the level of access Reynolds had to the kids and coaches. I would highly recommend this story to anyone and particularly sports fans or people who liked Friday Night Lights.
Rating:
Summary: Great characters, great book
Review: This is the less-known but perhaps best of several books about the lure of basketball in the inner city. But where "Hoop Dreams" and "Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams" chronicled the dreams of African-Americans in the major cities of Chicago and New York, "Fall River Dreams" chronicles the dreams of lower-middle class whites in the nowhere city of Fall River, Massachusetts. I know Fall River, and its depiction in this book is unsentimental and unsettling. This is an author with an eye and an ear for the life of this city, and he writes with a journalist's precision and clarity. Yet what makes this book great is being able to read it now knowing what happened to the book's central subject, Chris Herren. Herren was a can't-miss prospect who ended up missing. Despite some modest success in college and in the pros, Herren did not become the major star everyone thought he would become. His struggles in the book are all the more poignant now that we know what became of his life. The lesson of all these books is that basketball is not the answer to all of life's problems, even if you are the best of the best. Larger forces can overtake you.
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