Run Like A Girl: How Strong Women Make Happy Lives

Author: Mina Samuels

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $45.00 NZD
  • : 9781580053457
  • : Avalon Publishing Group
  • : Avalon Publishing Group
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  • : March 2011
  • : United States
  • : 35.0
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  • : books

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  • : Mina Samuels
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  • : Paperback
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  • : 796.082
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  • : 288
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Barcode 9781580053457
9781580053457

Description

Run Like A Girl is about the impact that participating in sports has on women--how the confidence and strength that it helps to build spills over into all of our experiences, making us stronger and better prepared for life's many challenges.


In this inspiring book, Mina Samuels uses the varied personal stories of women and girls of all ages and backgrounds--as well as her own--to take a broad look at the power that sports have to help us face, and to overcome, obstacles in all arenas of life.
Myriad voices fill the pages of "Run Like A Girl" a US-ranked amateur triathlete who's raising an autistic son; a thirteen-year-old girl who discovers and falls in love with cross-country running; a woman who runs her first marathon at age sixty; an investment banker who quit her job to become a yoga teacher and adopt a daughter on her own; a young mother with scoliosis who cycled her way back to health and became a jewelry designer along the way; and countless other women--including Kathrine Switzer, Rebecca Rusch, and Molly Barker--who have been changed by their experience with sports.
"Run Like A Girl" makes the important argument that physical strength lends itself to psychological strength, that lessons learned on the field (or track, or slopes) can help us face challenges in other areas--and that for many women, participating in sports translates into leading a happier, more fulfilling life.

Reviews

"Get inspired to meet any fitness challenge with Mina Samuels's new book, " Run Like a Girl, " a chicken soup for the athlete's soul. Its interviews with hundreds of women will fire your desire to reach personal bests in all areas of life."
--"SELF," March, 2011
A well-rounded investigation into the profound impact of sports on women of all ages and walks of life.
Samuels ("The Queen of Cups," 2006) may celebrate the successes of professional female athletes who have thrived in a traditionally male-dominated arena, but her main focus is on the ordinary women who have achieved enlightenment through sports. The author illustrates the theme of sports as a metaphor for life, and is herself a testimony to this concept. Samuels credits her own discovery of distance running at 27 as the catalyst for her transformation from attorney and human-rights defender to writer and sports advocate. She suggests that women who approach life from an athlete's perspective are better equipped to find balance and harmony and are more courageous in the face of challenges than those who do not. She argues that the stamina and endurance built up by athletes is good practice for the resilience needed to persevere when they stumble off the pitch. The book is built on lighthearted accounts of women who become comically engrossed in their sport as well as uplifting tales of women who have overcome life-altering trauma. Samuels' anecdotes may at times seem redundant or excessive in quantity, but they are neatly interwoven with background information on the female athlete's plight from a political, psychological and social standpoint. As such, they serve a purposeful, rather than ornamental, function.
An enthusiastic tribute to women who replace the stigma attached to the term "running like a girl" with a sense of power and honor.
--"Kirkus Reviews" March, 2011
"There are lots of good sports books, but rarely beautifully-written ones." Run Like A Girl" iso