Book of the Week: Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh

Seven Deadly sins is the superb account of David Walsh's long struggle to demonstrate that Lance Armstrong cheated his way to seven Tour de France titles whilst consistently bullying any people who were silly enough to oppose him.

Walsh has been a long time sports journalist for the Sunday Times, who lost a million pounds when Armstrong sued them for libel and won due to Britain's very tough libel laws. The Sunday Times are now in the process of suing Armstrong to get their money back.

The true heroes of this story are the people who stood up for honesty in cycling at great personal cost, as the leadership of professional cycling and the majority of the media had little interest in unearthing the truth. Walsh is excellent at explaining how the lack of enforcement regarding drugs placed great pressure upon cyclists and he presents a balanced view of why it was often difficult for journalists and members of the professional cycling community to seriously challenge the status quo.

He explains how his love of cycling and some of the cyclists led him to soft pedal an Irish cyclist who was taking drugs too. If you have any interest in how Armstrong escaped consequences for so long and how his actions finally caught up with him, this is the book to get. You can find it here at Booktopia. 

Book of the Week: Touchback

Touchback is the story of Scott Murphy, a bitter, frustrated, depressed former high school American football star. Crippled in his last game before embarking on a college and professional career, Murphy has struggled in life since, unable to properly provide for his wife and daughters subsequently, haunted by the memories of what his life could have been. Pushed beyond his endurance by his latest failings, he attempts suicide and finds himself back in time, a week before the pivotal game, in full possession of his memories. He must choose whether to change his life at this time, or to accept it.

As a middle aged man with a family, his battles to provide for his family rang very true for me, and I loved the willingness of Don Handfield to write a novel that is willing to go into the heart of  a man's emotions. His presentation of American small town life conveyed humour, pathos and empathy in equal measures. While his final decision was fairly predictable, the journey he took to get there wasn't and the characters we spend time with along the way were consistently engaging. The re-telling of the game was captivating and the ending left me with the tears that I'm sure Don Handfield was hoping would appear.

Shoeless Joe covered some of the same ground and Handfield was equally wise in not attempting to explain how the time travel occurred, as such explanations inevitably tug at one's suspension of disbelief. All the American football knowledge required to read this book is that quarterbacks are the key to the game.

I picked this up for free on Kindle based upon some solid reviews. Recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/Touchback-ebook/dp/B007TXT9XA

Books

Reading has always been a giant passion of mine. It wouldn't be inappropriate to call them the greatest passion of my life (until I met Kristy). Books have provided me with many of the great moments of my life. We have 9 full bookcases in our house and number 10 is on the drawing board.

I was asked once about the last time that I had gone a day without reading a book of any sort. I wasn't able to give a definitive answer, but my guess is that it hasn't happened in my adult life. So it's inevitable that books are going to find their way into this blog.

I'm going to write some posts about my favourite books and books I am reading. I will label the posts Book of the Week. I'm going to start with a book I've only recently read, but that won't always be the case.