It’s Not About The Bike

People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong — a world-class athlete nearly struck down by cancer, only to recover and win the Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its grueling intensity. Armstrong is a thoroughgoing Texan jock, and the changes brought to his life by his illness are startling and powerful, but he’s just not interested in wearing a hero suit. While his vocabulary is a bit on the he-man side (highest compliment to his wife: “she’s a stud”), his actions will melt the most hard-bitten souls: a cancer foundation and benefit bike ride, his astonishing commitment to training that

got him past countless hurdles, loyalty to the people and corporations that never gave up on him. There’s serious medical detail here, which may not be for the faint of heart; from chemo to surgical procedures to his wife’s in vitro fertilisation, you won’t be spared a single x-ray, IV drip, or unfortunate side effect. Athletes and coaches everywhere will benefit from the same extraordinary detail provided about his training sessions — every aching tendon, every rainy afternoon, and every small triumph during his long recovery is here in living colour.

Every Second Counts

In the opening of Lance Armstrong’s memoir, Every Second Counts, he reflects: “Generally, one of the hardest things in the world to do is something twice.” While he is talking here about his preparation for what would prove to be his second consecutive Tour de France victory in 2000, the sentiment could equally be applied to the book itself. And just as Armstrong managed to repeat his incredible 1999 tour victory, Every Second Counts repeats -and, in some ways exceeds — the success of his best-selling first memoir, It’s Not About the Bike. Every Second Counts confronts the challenge of moving beyond his cancer experience, his first Tour victory, and his celebrity status. Few of Armstrong’s readers will ever compete in the Tour de France (though cyclists will relish Armstrong’s detailed recounting of his 2000-2003 tour victories), but all will relate to his discussions of loss and disappointment in his personal and professional life since 1999.

The Crisis of Islam

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, many Americans yearned to understand why Muslim extremists felt such passionate animosity toward the Western world, particularly the United States. Since that historic attack there have been many books and discussions about this very question, but few of them offer such a readable and relevant response as this excellent offering by renowned historian Bernard Lewis (What Went Wrong?). For modern Westerners, Islam is an especially foreign religion and culture to understand. For instance, Westerners typically dismiss things as unimportant when using the expression “that’s history.” But for those raised in Muslim households, history-even ancient history-is just as important (if not more important) as the present. And to better understand the hostilities rooted in this history-one could start with recognizing the long-standing resentment the Islamic community harbors from having its homelands torn apart and re-packaged into random political states by occupying Europeans (Westerners). Or stretch back in time to the brutality of the Crusades. Or go straight to the US political meddling in the region throughout the latter 20th century.

Give War A Chance

Political humorist O’Rourke is even more clever abroad than on the home front, as these sparkling dispatches reveal. A 12-week PW bestseller in cloth. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. The politically incorrect O’Rourke will likely hit best-sellerdom again in this follow-up to Parliament of Whores. The Gulf War, the death throes of communism, drug testing, the Middle East, and the Nicaraguan elections receive O’Rourke’s often hilarious conservative/gonzo analysis, as seen in Rolling Stone , American Spectator , and other magazines. Somewhat less successful, because they border on the mean-spirited, are pieces on the Kennedys, the Carters, Lee Iacocca, and other liberal lights. Even if you reject his conclusions regarding these issues and individuals, you can’t help but laugh at O’Rourke’s deflating of some sacred cows along the way.