Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly [Hardcover]

Rick Reilly (Author), Lance Armstrong (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Sports fans and regular readers of Sports Illustrated will already know to snap up this book when they see it's a collection of pieces by award-winning SI columnist Rick Reilly. Others should follow their lead, as this superb, wide-ranging collection isn't so much about sports as about "people who happen to be in sports." Some columns are tearjerkers, such as the story of a blind man who finally gets to "see" a match played by his beloved New York Islanders, but most are laugh-out-loud funny, like the one detailing the season Reilly coached his daughter's middle school basketball team ("I learned something about seventh-grade girls: They're usually in the bathroom"). A few are scathing, as in his acid-laced response to Barry Bonds denying he used steroids ("Bonds's records should stay in the books. With a little syringe next to every one"). And though it may not be surprising how many columns aim for inspiring-like the story of spirited Ben Comen, a high school cross-country runner with cerebral palsy-it's a shock how many hit the mark. Reilly's columns are short but pack a punch; a collection best savored, readers should resist as best they can the urge to consume this book in a single sitting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Rick Reilly has given his Sports Illustrated readers virtual access to sports' greatest stars for 22 years. In these 100 "Life of Reilly" columns culled from the past seven years, readers hang with golf's most anonymous legend, Annika Sorenstam (a security guard at one promo event asks to see her visitor's pass). We, along with the writer's 14-year-old son, attend an SI swimsuit-issue photo shoot ("Dad, we gotta be at the sunrise shoot. . . . they need us"). And we go through Derek Jeter's daily mountain of fan mail. A lot of Reilly's famed one-liners seem more shtick than funny. Or they're regrettable, as in his remark about skydiving with a partner: "I don't know how it is in our nation's incarceration facilities, but it's the most fun I've ever had with a man clamped on my back." Reilly, though, shines when he writes about nonprofessionals, like the dad who'd pushed his wheelchair-bound son through 212 triathlons, or the Katrina-decimated high-school team that won Louisiana's hoops finals, or the cancer-stricken boy who struck out to end his team's little-league championship hopes. And in this collection, Reilly elegantly, if unknowingly, delivers sports' essential paradox: the game has meaning, but, whether it's baseball or golf or basketball or football, it's just a game. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Sports Illustrated (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933821124
• ISBN-13: 978-1933821122
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #78 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Miscellaneous > Journalism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars.... Not just for sports fans: far more profound than you'd think, July 16, 2007

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Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly (Hardcover)

This is the second book by Rick Reilly that collects the best of his weekly Spors Illustraded back-page column. "Hate Mail From Cheerleaders" (320 pages) brings exactly 100 of those columns, from the last 7 years, in no particular order or chronology.

Some of these columns are simply funny and quick-for-a-laugh (such as "White Like Me" on why it's ok to mock white guys but not blacks or Asians, or "He Loves Himself Barry Much", which needs no explaning). Others, though, are meant to make bigger points ("Blind Justice" on the Nets' Jason Williams "accidetnally" shooting his limo driver). Yet other columns are inspirational, and that's putting it mildly: young kids living with certain handicaps yet overachieving with help of others ("Trumpeting the Father of the Year", "Strongest Dad in the World", etc.), assisting a good cause such as collecting money for mosquito nets in Nigeria ("Nothing But Nets"), etc.

The great thing is that for most of the columns, Reily gives an updated Postscript. In the postscript of his controversial 2004 column on the death of NFL player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, Reilly writes "I don't write about sports. I write about people who happen to be in sports. I write about human joy, sorrow, religion and politics as it weaves itseld through sports." This book is HIGHLY recommended for anyone looking for a good summer book to read on the beach or wherever.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for Rick Reilly fans!, July 3, 2007

By 

Aphroditemomma (Montreal, PQ Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly (Hardcover)

It's great! A mix of his funniest and most touching articles. He's also written a little updated post script at the end of each one with a little more insight or info...

Love it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for anyone who likes a good story, June 26, 2007

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B. Gotshall (Indianapolis,IN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hate Mail from Cheerleaders and Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly (Hardcover)

Rick Reilly has a gift of striking at the heart strings of his readers. At the same time he can be extremely funny and that is what makes this such a good book. He includes many different stories which makes it an easy read. I highly recommend this book to all.