<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Christine Brennan tells it like it is.
Review: After reading "Inside Edge" I couldn't wait for Christine Brennan's next book to come out. When it did I snatched it up as soon as the bookstore was open. "Edge of Glory" was even better than "Inside Edge". Christine Brennan chronicles the lives of top figure skaters as they prepare for the most important competition of their amateur careers, the Olympic Games of Nagano Japan. I especially enjoyed the features on Tonia Kwiatkowski and Scott Davis and other skaters who always seem to be in the background. The rivalry between Michelle Kwan vs. Tara Lipinski was the best part of the book. You really get a peek at what really goes on behind the scenes. I admire Michelle Kwan and how she handled herself after losing the gold medal to Tara Lipinski. At the press conference after the ladies competition Michelle was in tears while Tara gloated how it felt like being on the top spot on the podium . Tara went on and on and said that the saddest part of the night was when she had to get off the podium. Michelle's response: "I like you, Tara". If they had gold medals for class acts, Michelle Kwan wins hands down!!!!This book also brings to light the attitudes of the Lipinski family. It features an article where Tara's mom was interviewed and she did nothing but trash Michelle Kwan and her family. How low can people get? Sorry Tara Lipinski fans, but the truth hurts. Tara's mom has a really bad attitude problem and Tara is definitely acting like her mother's daughter.
Rating: 
Summary: Olympic Gold or Adulation
Review: Christine Brennan wrote in Edge of Glory that Tonya Harding has more raw athletic talent then anyother female ice skater in US history. For all practical purposes, Brennan is calling Harding the most talented female ice skater to ever live.
Brennan also recounted how Harding used CPR to save an old man's life.
If I had to choose between an Olympic Gold Medal and Brennan's description of Harding, the medal wouldn't have a chance! When a world class journalist like Brennan spends such words on a genetic parasite like Harding, the earth momentarily stops spinning on its axis.
Most of the book is excellent but some of the trivia about Kwan's career bored me to tears. I also wish Brennan had given more details about Nicole Bobek's reasons for breaking and entering.
Rating:
Summary: More Delicious Inside Gossip from the Skating World
Review: If you are a fan of figure skating, you will enjoy this book. Brennan presents her topic with clarity and honesty, writing about skaters and people in the sport that you normally don't hear much about. I did find Brennan to be somewhat biased in her comments and at times a bit tactless in her remarks, especially about Elena Berezhnaia ("Skate In Head"), but all in all, this book is very entertaining and the author astute in her observations. It is interesting how Brennan contrasts the way Michelle Kwan and her family conduct themselves with quiet grace and dignity versus the loud, obnoxious, arrogrant, pushy Lipinski clan. Anybody who claims Brennan is biased against the Lipinskis should take a look at the self-serving dribble dished out by Tara and her Mommy in the yawn-a-thon book "Totally Tara".
Rating:
Summary: excellent, completely engaging
Review: this book describes the battle between rivals Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski, the comback of Japand Midori Ito, and the 397 days leading up to the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. Christine Brennan describes the backround live from Russia's Irina Slutskaya to China Lu Chen with updates on Denise Biellman, Evgeny Plushenko, Alexei Yagudin, Julia Sebestyen, Kazakova/Dimitriev, and Nicole Bobek with so much more. Not only does this book inform you on the athletes skating ability, Christine Brennan takes you behind the scenes to discover Tara Lipinski's frenzy problem of breaking out in tears if she doesn't hit a jump, Michelle Kwans family/coach issues, the list goes on and on. I highly suggest you buy this book. Its fun, entertaining, and you really get to know the skaters behind the double axel and combo spin. You get to know the skaters long program!
Rating: 
Summary: A bit too tabloid for my tastes...
Review: While the author does an excellent job of portraying the sport of amateur figure skating's "darker" side, it comes across as a bit too gratuitously scandalous in many parts. The few key things I did take away from this book were that: 1. Tara Lipinksi and her clan were clearly not liked by the author, as almost the whole book focused on her and her mother's tantrums, plots to dethrone Michelle Kwan, and to win a gold medal at the '98 Olympics (and the associated ca$h compensation)
2. There is so much more to figure skating than most of the world sees, as most of the world doesn't track the comings and goings of figure skatings biggest competitors in non-Olympic years.
3. Tara [messed] up bigtime by going Pro - when was the last time you saw/heard from her?
4. I prefer gold medalists who are humbled by their achievements and who continue to grow and develop, both as athletes and ambassadors of the sport.. not people who use their medals as coupons to redeem for a life of quick cash and an even quicker disappearance. That Michelle Kwan is the most enduring ladies' competitor in decades goes without saying - though the author seemed to feel she had to prove it - but Michelle has done that herself. If this tale of the road to the '98 Olympics shows anything, is that while drama and rivalry (and questionable judging) dominate the sport, it's the same drama and rivalry that makes figure skating so compelling to watch from a fan's perspective.
<< 1 >>
| 
