{"id":786,"date":"2018-12-31T13:59:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=786"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:59:35","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:59:35","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=786","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Kirkus, <\/span>freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator at the 20th annual Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, High Country News, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho River Review, Monkeybicycle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, <\/span>and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>AUTOBIOGRAPHY\/SPORTS<\/p>\n

Simone Biles<\/span> (with Michelle Burford<\/span>); foreword by Mary Lou Retton<\/span><\/p>\n

Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance<\/span><\/p>\n

Zondervan<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-3107-5966-9 (also available as an e-book, an audio book, and on Audible), 256 pgs., $24.99<\/p>\n

November 15, 2016<\/p>\n

This is the story of a little girl<\/span> who fell in love with flying.<\/p>\n

Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance<\/span><\/a><\/span> is the autobiography of gymnast Simone Biles<\/span> (with an assist from Michelle Burford,<\/span> journalist and founding editor of O, The Oprah Magazine<\/span>), with a foreword by 1984 Olympic gold-medal winner Mary Lou Retton.<\/span> Despite her tender age, Biles has an exceptional biography and an impressive resume to share, overcoming challenging family circumstances, injuries, and Attention Deficit\/Hyperactivity Disorder to become the most decorated American female gymnast in history, culminating in triumph at the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

The usual sports-biography fare of innate talent, dedication, physical and mental discipline, and inspiring epigraphs, is well balanced with the more personal, even intimate. We are treated to a tangible sense of who Biles is. She\u2019s an animated storyteller whose personality jumps off the pages in simply evocative prose. When she must, Biles reluctantly, but gracefully and succinctly, addresses the issue of race. In paragraphs liberally spiked with \u201cOMG\u201d and \u201cBFF,\u201d we read of belly rings and her crush on Zac Efron, reminding us of how very young she still is.<\/p>\n

Courage to Soar<\/span> is fast-paced and engaging, highly recommended for middle grade and young adult readers, but older adults will enjoy it as well. Biles writes of her early years in foster care, her first trip to a tumbling gym during a field trip, adolescent body consciousness, truly frightening mishaps on the uneven bars (her \u201cnemesis\u201d), her first trip to the Karolyi training ranch outside Huntsville, Texas, and how her Catholic upbringing and faith in God helped guide her through.<\/p>\n

The writing is by turns funny, suspenseful, moving, and inspirational, and always feels honest. Addressing her \u201cbratty period,\u201d Biles writes \u201cI was so full of fourteen-year-old drama, you\u2019d have thought I was auditioning for my own reality show.\u201d Faced with competing against her childhood idols whose approval and friendship are important to her, Biles finally concludes, \u201cCompeting my hardest in all my events was the highest form of respect I could show to them and to myself.\u201d About the mixed blessing of fame, Biles found the perfect simile: \u201cI needed to learn how to carry those expectations lightly\u2014like a turtle carries its shell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lovely candid and posed photographs, in action during competitions and with family, enhance the story. As an inspired bonus, the interior side of the dust jacket folds out into an autographed poster of Biles hurtling through air over the vault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fight is won or lost far away from witnesses\u2014behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.\u201d
\u2014Muhammad Ali<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Kirkus, freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator at the 20th annual Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, High Country News, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}