Friday, January 23, 2015

Review of "Ice Gold"

When the Winter Olympics are held, one of my favorite sports to watch is curling.  Seeing the rocks slide down the ice to the house while the sweepers madly clear the ice in front grabs my attention and I don't stop until the gold medal matches.  When I saw that a book was available for review about the two Canadian gold medal teams from the 2014 Olympics, I jumped on the chance to read it.  Here is my review of "Ice Gold."



Title/Author:
“Ice Gold” by Ted Wyman

Tags:
Curling, Winter Olympics

Publish date:
October 1, 2014

Length:
240 pages

Rating: 
4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:
During the 2014 Winter Olympics, a rare accomplishment occurred when both the men’s and women’s curling teams from Canada won their respective gold medals. The stories of both teams and how they rose from curling club competition to Olympic champions are captured in this book by sportswriter Ted Wyman.

The two skips of each team, Jennifer Jones and Brad Jacobs, are the prominent characters in the tales of the two squads, as Wyman details their lives in and out of the rink and how they both achieved their goals through hard work and each overcoming obstacles. Whether these obstacles were their personal lives or on the ice, the way both Jones and Jacobs rose to the top of their games is an inspiring story.

The book alternates chapters between the men’s and women’s teams, which is a good format as it keeps the reader in the flow for both teams. The chapters were not too long, which helped keep me on track while I was reading it. The styles for the writing between the chapters on the men’s and women’s teams were different as well. Wyman tells of the relationships and inner conflicts for the women, such as when Jones had to let a long time teammate go in favor of a new player.  For the men’s team, Wyman writes a lot on their training and athleticism.  I chuckled when he would mention how good they looked in their t-shirts.  

The stories of both teams were inspiring and it is clear to the reader that these teams were revered by an entire nation when they achieved their dreams of winning the gold medal.  It was not the typical Olympic book with these stories and will be a good addition to the library of someone who is a curling aficionado or likes uplifting Olympic stories.

I wish to thank NetGalley for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Pace of the book: 
Having not followed the sport of curling for very long and am still only a casual fan at best, I had some difficulty with the more advanced terminology and descriptions of some of the matches.  These passages took me longer to read as I sometimes had to refer to looking up some of the terms.  But overall, the flow and pace of this book was very good.

Do I recommend? 
Serious curling fans or athletes will enjoy this book on two excellent teams that overcame long odds to win Olympic gold medals

Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)

Buying links:


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