Welcome to Week 1 of the Online Book Club discussion of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
The Online Book Club, if you've never joined us before, is a book discussion group that takes place entirely online. Each week, I write a new blog post that talks about different aspects of the book, and you can interact directly with me and other readers by leaving your comments. Check back each week and see what new topics we're talking about.
The Boys in the Boat follows an 8-oar crew that headed to the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to challenge Hitler and the dominant German rowing team. The book follows the members of the team as they go from inexperienced freshman rowers at the University of Washington to unexpected powerhouses in the sport. Running parallel to the story of the boys is the story of Adolf Hitler's need to dominate the 1936s Olympics to show the world the power of the new German government. It's a heartwarming and inspirational story that's really interesting, even if you know nothing about rowing!
If you want to follow along with us but you aren't interested in reading the book, you can always watch the movie version that was directed by George Clooney. Check out the trailer above if you want to get a feel for the how the story plays out on screen. Feel free to still leave comments on the blog posts, even if you're only watching the movie and not reading the book.
We'll read the first six chapters for next week, so make sure to read those before checking the next blog post!
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