Surprise, Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Darlings, let me tell you, this book was nowhere on my Reading Radar.  In the first place, I do not read a lot of non-fiction, and, second, if I do, it has to be on a topic of special interest to me.  Which this was not.

                                    I admit to some hesitation, as I picked up "The Boys In The Boat.  But it had been recommended by a friend whose opinion I value, and so I began.

                                    I just could not stop reading.  Because Daniel James Brown just does not tell a story of nine young men lucky enough to compete in the Berlin Olympics of 1936, and that they came from a then Podunk town called Seattle, Washington, he manages to link this with world events, like Hitler's rise to power, and a pioneering woman filmmaker named Leni Riefenstahl!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   So, the book is more encompassing than one might expect.  And, just as the rowers speed up in completion, so does the book steam up in momentum, as one gets closer to the pivotal event.  I read the last hundred pages with my eyes flying across the page, drinking in every image and reference presented to me.   What an unexpected surprise!

                                   Where I was not surprised was the book's confirmation, which I had already formed, that I was never cut out for such activity.

                                    When it comes to boats, I will do "The Sound Of Music" scene--but that is it!!!!!!!!!!!!!