SOTR1989 Book Blog

Dancing From Darkness Eleanor Issacson & Jeannette Windle   Released: September 3rd, 2000 My 7th book for 2025 was Eleanor Issacson’s' “Dancing From Darkness”. My friends Becky and Eric picked up this book for me, as they felt I would enjoy reading it.  I truly did. Dancing from Darkness tells us the story of Eleanor, and her journey from war-torn child in Eastern Germany to successful speaker, dancer, and businesswoman in the United States. Eleanor is guided by her faith, and the book cites several examples where faith played a direct role in the directions, she chose to take her life.  She has unwavering faith, and she looks in a positive direction for every negative thing that has come against her.  This book reminded me a lot of Tony Dungy's " A Quiet Strength " in how she structures religion around her life.  While she maintains her faith, she has studied other religions and branched out into different ventures to give her life a fullness and depth of k...

  When Pride Still Mattered David Maraniss   Released: September 3rd, 2000 My 6th book for 2025 was David Maraniss' “When Pride Still Mattered”. You will never find a more Vince Lombardi title for a book about the man than "When Pride Still Mattered".  The legendary Green Bay Packers coach was known for discipline, standards, excellence, greatness, and glory.  The title suggests that "pride" is no longer a sufficient virtue in the modern world. This was a difficult book to read.  The material itself is very good, and you learn a lot about the man and his lifetime.  For some reason, whether the font size or formatting of the book, I struggled getting through it, and reading one page felt like reading three pages.  There were many days when my total page count read was 7, 8, or 10, as opposed to 20, 30, or 40. To help me understand it, I watched ESPN's documentary series "A Football Life".  This is a series of films chronicling stars and legends fro...