The April book pick for our Novel Idea Book Club was The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. This is the story of the 1936 USA Olympic Rowing Team that took Gold at the Berlin Olympics. It was a team of 8 college boys from the University of Washington who grew up in logging towns and fishing villages before making their way onto the worlds stage and rowed their way into the history books.
It is no secret that I am a giant history nerd so this book was right up my alley. 1936 was a historical time... the Great Depression was still holding America in its grasp, Germany was rising again into a monster no one could foresee and the world had not even yet recovered from the war to end all wars. It was into this backdrop that 8 tall, Northwestern boys stepped into a rowing shell and into the history books. I love a good underdog story and these boys, who had no money, no pedigree and no reason to believe that they could be Olympians were the ultimate underdogs. Rowing is an elitist sport and yet, it was the working class boys that took the day. You can't write stories better than that and yet, this one was real.
If you have not read it, all I can say is that you should.
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