Review of "Count the Rings!"

For most readers, summer is the time to catch up on reading at the beach or on vacation. Summer has just the oppisite effect on me - because of my fanatical love of baseball, I usually read less during the summer except for train rides to ball games.  But I do carry on trying to fit in some reading whenver possible.  This was a book that was in my TBR queue for a long time so thanks to a "pick it for me" challenge, I finally got around to reading this book on Boston sports championships.  Here is my review of "Count the Rings!"

Title/Author:

“Count the Rings! Inside Boston’s Awesome Reign as the City of Champions” by Bob Halloran

Tags:

Baseball, Football (American), basketball, ice hockey, Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, Celtics, championship

Publish date:

October 15, 2017

Length:

224 pages

Rating: 

3 of 5 stars (Okay)

Review:

Sports fans in Boston have had plenty of reasons to celebrate since 2001. In that time, the city has been the home of 10 championship teams – the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2015 and 2017. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, 2007 and 2013, while the Celtics took home their 17^th NBA championship in 2008 and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011.

Each of these championship seasons is relieved in all of their glory in this entertaining book by Bob Halloran. Each team’s special season is covered from the previous offseason when key personnel changes were made up to the moment the title of “champions” was proclaimed by sports broadcasters. 

It didn’t matter which team or which sport, Halloran was an enthusiastic writer for each chapter. This enthusiasm was evident in many ways.  The writing was an excited conversation style, meaning that it read like he was talking about the championship team over beers with buddies at a Boston pub.  There were many sentences that ended with exclamation points to emphasize his enthusiasm. While it is great to hear or read stories from excited fans (or writers in this case), sometimes it can feel over the top if the reader or listener isn’t a loyal fan of said team. 

That doesn’t mean this is a bad book – indeed, if the reader is a fan of Boston sports, he or she will love this book.  Taking an objective look at it, from the viewpoint of a reader who may not be a fan of any Boston team, the book may not get quite the positive reception.  Nevertheless, the book does what it sets out to do and give Boston fans a chance to relive those frequent moments of glory they have felt throughout most of the 21^st century.

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

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Count-Rings-Bostons-Awesome-Champions/dp/1493030086/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=