"The Guardian" by Nicholas Sparks

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks is a combination of a love story and a thriller with a dog thrown in.  The main character is Julie, a young widow who works at a salon and finally decides to date four years after her husband died.  Her husband, Jim, left her a letter and arranged for her to get a Great Dane puppy in the event of his death which I thought was a pretty neat idea.  The dog was his way of watching out for her.  After the Prologue, this book poked along for me until about half way through when the psycho stalks her and she realizes she is in danger.  I liked "The Guardian" because of the dog involved watching out for Julie.  Gerard read this a long time ago and liked it too.  He said I should read it and I finally got to it and am glad I did!

BEWARE:  SPOILER AHEAD--STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK!
The ending was pretty intense but I didn't like that the dog died.  I think Julie should have went for the gun when her dog grabbed the guys arm instead of letting him shoot her dog.  I get that the dog was like a guardian angel and once Richard was dead, she'd have Mike and live happily ever after and the dog's "job" was done.  I just think the dog could have lived too--I would have liked that ending better.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

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"Sweetness--Life of Walter Payton" by Jeff Pearlman

I enjoyed Sweetness--The Enigmatic Life Of Walter Payton a lot!  It tells the story of the life of Walter Payton aka Sweetness, a football player.  I especially liked hearing from all the players he played with and against as well as the details of his life off the field were fantastic and enjoyable.  It must have taken a lot of research to write such a book.  It seemed he left nothing out!  If you are a football fan, I think you will love this book!
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

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"Leading With The Heart" by Mike Krzyzewski

I read Leading With The Heart--Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski last year but with him being breaking coach Bobby Knight's record of winning the most College basketball games this week, I thought it would be appropriate to repost this.

This is a helpful book about coaching but many of the principles and tips he shares could also apply to business and teaching.  Every coach should read this one because there are so many practical tips that Mike shares and solid principles to follow.  After each chapter is a summary of the main points.  Mike shares from his experiences to illustrate his points in a very interesting way. 

Some key points on coaching that stood out to me from Leading With The Heart--Coach K's Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life by Mike Krzyzewski (Duke's head basketball coach):

1.  Recruit players with character who respect their parents, willing to be part of the team and are coachable.

2.   Do not have a bunch of rules that limit you, it's better to just have one rule:  "Don't do anything detrimental to yourself."

3.    Use plural pronoun's such as "our," "we," "us" so it's the player's team and not just the coach's. 

4.    Always look your players in the eye and tell the truth.

5.    Share the goals with the players.

6.    Lead with confidence, show your players what they need to see.

7.    Imagine the loose ball you're chasing has your name on it.  It belongs to you.

8.     Stress honor in all things.

9.      Set goals that revolve around playing together as a team, never the number of wins.  Define your own success.

10.    Five fundamental qualities that make a team great:  communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride.

11.    Win or lose together--don't play the blame game.

12.    Address the little things you may encounter in a real situation.

13.    Be positive about all things that happen to the team.  Look at nothing in the past as failure.  Learn from every game.

14.    Plan but be flexible.

15.    Believe you can win, but don't assume you can.

16.    Always respect your competition.

17.    Set up some team traditions.

18.    Maintain a good sense of humor--having fun reduces pressure.

19.    Show strength, hide weakness.

20.    The only way you lose is if you don't try your best.

21.    When people achieve something that they've really worked hard for, it makes them feel great, superb, wonderful.

22.    You have to work at staying in contact with your friends so that the relationships will continue and live on.

23.    If something isn't working, try something new and different.  Never give up, find a way to win.

24.    Spend time with your players outside of practices and games to get to know them and become friends.

25.    At the end of each season, thank the team for their hard work.

I really got a lot out of this book--it was great!
(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

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"I Am in Here" by Elizabeth Bonker and Virginia Breen

What a book I Am In Here by Elizabeth Bonker and Virginia Breen is!  I really liked it.  It is about the journey of a child with Autism who cannot speak but finds her voice through writing poetry.  It is written by Elizabeth and her mother.  I loved that Elizabeth shares what is going on in her head.  Here is one of Elizabeth's poems she wrote at age 9 from page 43:

Live and Let Live

Am I on display?

Why do they look at me that way?

I want to say

I am okay.

Sometimes I do things you may wonder about.

Just let me be and don't try to figure it out.

If this book doesn't tug at your heart strings, I'll be surprised. 
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.

Teaser Tuesday: "Sweetness." "I Am in Here" and "The Guardian"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Gerard's:

"I had no idea who he was. On the first day of practice I turned to hand the ball to him and he was so quick, I barely got it to him. Then I watched him run . . ."

From page 130 of Sweetness--The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton by Jeff Pearlman.

Am I on display?

Why do they look at me that way?

I want to say

I am okay.

Sometimes I do things you may wonder about.

Just let me be and don't try to figure it out.

From page 43 of I Am in Here: The Journey of a Child with Autism Who Cannot Speak but Finds Her Voice by Bonker and Breen.

Karen's:

In the past, he'd been the good guy, the friend, the one she could always count on.  The one who fixed her car and played Frisbee with Singer, the one who spent the first two years after Jim's death holding her as she cried.

From page 64 of The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks.

You can help our charity of the month just by leaving a comment on any of our blogs! We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month. The charity for this month is at the top of our blog.