Both a medical drama and meditation on motherhood, The Water Giver is Joan Ryan's honest account of her doubts and mistakes in raising a learning-disabled son and the story of how his near-fatal accident gave her a second chance as a parent. Joan Ryan tells the powerful story of how her son’s near-fatal accident, and his struggle to become whole again, gave her a second chance to become the mother she had always wished she could be. • Acclaimed journalist and author: Joan Ryan’s sports columns earned her thirteen Associated Press Sports editors Awards, the National Headliner Award, and the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Journalism Award, among other honors. Her first book, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters was named one of the Top 100 Sports Books of all Time by Sports Illustrated. • Medical drama: When Ryan’s sixteen-year-old son fell off of a skateboard, it wasn’t obvious at first how serious his injuries were. With a journalist’s eye for the telling detail and the rhythms of a natural storyteller, she captures his medical ordeal as he lurches from crisis to crisis—and with harrowing honesty and astonishing insight, relates her own journey through unknown emotional terrain. • A mother’s story: Ryan’s son was diagnosed with Sensory Integration Dysfunction as a toddler; by the time he reached school age, it was clear that he suffered from ADHD and other learning disabilities. Though she loved him fiercely, she never stopped trying to fix him. When he is restored to her after his accident, she realizes she has the opportunity to be his mother all over again—only this time she lets go of the illusion of control. Now she not only accepts, but also embraces her son for who he really is.
A sports reporter investigates the training of girls as professional gymnasts and figure skaters, arguing that the pressure to succeed and to look beautiful results in mental and physical harm, from eating disorders to psychological trauma.
From baseball to biology, an award-winning journalist highlights the power of team chemistry in this "terrific" data-driven investigation of human relationships (Billie Jean King). Does team chemistry actually exist? Is there scientific or mathematical proof? Is team chemistry as real and relevant as on-base percentages and wins above replacement? In Joan Ryan's groundbreaking book we discover that the answer to all of the above is a resounding yes. As Ryan puts it, team chemistry, or the combination of biological and social forces that boosts selfless effort among more players over more days of a season, is what drives sports teams toward a common goal, encouraging the players to be the best versions of themselves. These are the elements of teams that make them "click," the ones that foster trust and respect, and push players to exceed their own potential when they work well together. Team chemistry alone won't win a World Series, but talent alone won't win it, either. And by interviewing more than 100 players, coaches, managers, and statisticians, as well as over five years of extensive research in neuroscience, biology, physiology, and psychology, Ryan proves that the social and emotional state of a team does affect performance. Grit, passion, selflessness, and effort matter -- but never underestimate the power of chemistry.
Contains study guide problems and activities for each chapter. Examples are vocabulary, fill in the blank, true/false, multiple choice, and problem solving questions.
A portrait of the three-time National Coach of the Year winner includes a chronicle of VanDerveer's rise as a coach of women's basketball, and her work with twelve unique women athletes
The New York Times bestseller about Major League Baseball’s Molina brothers and how they became Gold Glove, World Series–winning catchers: “A simply told, deeply moving story, quite unlike the usual baseball book” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). A baseball rules book. A tape measure. A lottery ticket. These were in the pocket of Bengie Molina’s father when he died of a heart attack on the rutted Little League field in his Puerto Rican barrio. The items are powerful symbols in Molina’s beautiful memoir about his father, who through baseball taught his three sons about loyalty, humility, courage, and the true meaning of success. Bengie and his two brothers—José and six-time All-Star Yadier—became famous catchers in the Major Leagues with World Series championships among them. Only the DiMaggio brothers can rival the Molinas as the most accomplished siblings in baseball history. Bengie was the least likely to reach the Majors. He was too slow, too sensitive, and too small. But craving his beloved father’s respect, Bengie weathered failure after deflating failure until one day he was hoisting a World Series trophy in a Champagne-soaked clubhouse. All along he thought he was fulfilling his father’s own failed dream of baseball glory—only to discover it had not been his father’s dream at all. Written with the emotional power of sports classics such as Field of Dreams and Friday Night Lights, Molina is a love story between a formidable but flawed father and a son who, in unearthing answers about his father’s life, comes to understand his own. “It’s this year’s baseball book most likely to be made into a terrific movie” (Chicago Tribune).
As Volume One ended, Maggie's life had taken a downward turn. Saddened by Paul's departure, she focused on school, but that dream too was abandoned.Volume Two opens with the introduction of Joseph Dodge, a man raised in violence, who laid a gentle hand on everything he touched. Joseph comes to Maggie with the horses that Dan buys for her to lift her out of depression. But the gift has unintended consequences, as Maggie finds a love for which she will sacrifice everything.
Following marriage to Mac, whom she's known for three weeks, at 21, Joan sets off for London. A polio survivor from Limerick, lacking domestic skills, she must now survive as a wife. Farewell to Ryan's Daughter is the story of her transition from daughter to wife. Her father's death brings the couple to Ireland, but without work, they return to London. Homeless and unemployed, they eventually set up home in Muswell Hill. Here, Joan obtains work and meets Mike Gilbert, beginning a working relationship and lifelong friendship. Clashes occur between her innocence and Mike's pedantic attitude to language and the lackadaisical Irish, and these, along with discussions on the arts and the Origins of Man lead to hilarious exchanges. Joan is up for any challenge - driving, cooking - with resulting disasters. She fails to kill her driving instructor, burn down the flats despite her cooking pyrotechnics - at failure she's a huge success. When her son, Vincent, is born prematurely, Joan decides that he should be brought up in Ireland and she and Mac buy a smallholding and return to live there. While some innocence and "greenness" has been eroded, she now has a new dream and is determined to live it
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