Author:
Gabrielle Reece and Karen Karbo
Publisher:
Crown Publishers
Published:
First Edition, First Printing, 1997
Format:
6-1/4" x 9-1/4" Hardcover Book,
256 pages,
8 pages of photographs
ISBN:
0-517-70835-3
Rating:
4/5
I just finished reading Big Girl in
the Middle,
by Gabrielle Reece, and Karen Karbo. Half the chapters are written by
Reece, mostly talking about her growing up and being a female athlete
and about in general. The other half of the book is by Karbo, who
followed Reece during the 1996 Professional Beach Volleyball Tour and
is filled with anecdotes and interesting "what it's like to be a female
athlete in a minor sport".
Gabrielle Reece is one of the best and possibly the most popular female
volleyball player in the world. She did modeling before devoting
herself to volleyball and is both tall at 6'3" and beautiful. She is
also very outgoing and although perhaps a bit too honest she is quite
personable. Reece has hosted various television shows, does lots of
interviews, and is generally a standard bearer for the sport and woman
athletes in general.
Reece talks about growing up with a single mom who was not quite
emotionally there for her daughter. She learned to be very independent,
especially since she was so tall. Various people have shaped her life
and philosophies. She is a very "deal with what you can change and
ignore the rest" type of person. Type A personality with almost no
regrets.
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Karbo writes
about the disastrous 1996 season for Reece's team Nike.
The PBVT plays four-person per team beach volleyball. That year there
were five teams, all sponsored by various companies. Each week is
played in a new location around the country, many times in artificially
built beach volleyball courts just for that week. Round robin system
Friday and Saturday with the top three teams playing Sunday for the
tournament title of that week.
Reece's Team Nike — she is the captain of the team, in a league it is
the team captain, not the coach, that makes all the player decisions —
lost in every tournament that year, never making it to the playoffs in
I guess about a dozen tournaments. There is a lot of frustration and a
lot of second guessing and Karbo does a good job depicting a team
slowly self-destructing throughout the season.
It's not a long book, about 250 pages of regular type. I read it in two
days because it's not my book and I need to return it soon. It is a
chatty book. Reece writes as if she's talking to you and she can be
fairly blunt and to the point. Karbo is more third-person-ish but
includes lots of commentary. It's a hardcover book with glossy photos
of Reece in her youth and with her teammates.
It's an easy to read book about a relatively interesting person,
especially where the subject of the book does some writing of her own.
It's very "this is life" full-of-anecdote stories that I like to listen
to when my friends talk.
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