Status
Available
Publication
Dey Street Books (2017), Edition: Reprint, 240 pages
Description
"Abby Wambach has always pushed the limits of what is possible. Named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of 2015, the iconic soccer player captured the nation's heart when she led her team to its recent World Cup Championship. Admired for her fearlessness and passion, Abby is a vocal advocate for women's rights and equal opportunity, pushing to translate the success of her team to the real world. She has become a heavily requested speaker to a wide a range of audiences, from college students to executives at Fortune 500 companies. In Forward, Abby recounts her own decisions, wins, losses, and the pivotal moments that helped her become the world class athlete and leader she is today. Wambach's book goes beyond the soccer field to reveal a soulful person grappling universal questions about how we can live our best lives, and become our truest selves. Written with honesty and heart, Forward is an inspiring blueprint for individual growth and rousing call to action"--… (more)
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User reviews
LibraryThing member Jim53
Abby Wambach has long been one of my favorite soccer players. Her memoir, Forward, is a rather slight book but provides lots of detail about her history in sports, her coming out as a lesbian, and her struggles with discipline. She's quite frank about her problems with alcohol and pills and the
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problems that they caused her. Apparently she managed to switch back and forth between a very focused in-season persona and a very relaxed one, but is still working to find an identity that has the necessary restraint without overwhelming tension. A very public DUI arrest gave her the wake-up call that she needed to accept the need for serious change. She is turning the strong focus that she gave athletics to being a spokesperson for various causes, especially the empowerment of young women. For fans, it's an interesting look at how one star athlete dealt with her demons and also with the challenge of doing meaningful things after retiring. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beth3511
Hard to put down. The book is fast-paced...I think that reflects the way Wamback lives her life. I think Wambach has fought some inner demons, and is still fighting others.
LibraryThing member ASKelmore
I love soccer – I’ve been playing it on and off for 30 years – and I especially love women’s soccer. I went to five World Cup matches up in Vancouver Canada last year, including the final, where the USWNT beat Japan 5-2. I have season tickets to the National Women’s Soccer League Seattle
Ms. Wambach and I are the same age, but other than both playing soccer and being white women, we don’t have much else in common. She has an intensity that I can’t even begin to imagine, which makes sense – it seems fairly necessary to become elite in any field, especially one as demanding as athletics. For most of her life, she seems to have taken the concept of ‘work hard, play hard’ to the extremes, mainly through either strict adherence to training while in the middle of camps, or through serious ingestion of alcohol and pills. She remains the record holder (male or female) of most international goals, but she is also known for the DUI she received in Portland just a few months after retirement.
There is a brutality to this book that should make it a challenging read, but instead I devoured it. The fuel to turn the pages wasn’t so much born out of a desire to see what next ridiculous high or painful low was going to follow; instead I was genuinely interested in how Ms. Wambach was going to both explain and handle her life experiences. Would she be full of excuses? Philosophical? Would she only barely mention the more challenging parts of her story?
No, she was just honest. She sometimes looks like the hero (as she should), and sometimes she is epically fucking up. She is ultimately human, and I feel like we could only get this story from someone who is no longer in the field, especially if the story is coming from a woman. As we’ve seen lately, with Hope Solo being fired for calling the Swedish team ‘cowards’ (something Cristiano Ronaldo essentially did regarding Iceland to zero consequence), women get a whole lot of negative attention when they don’t fit into the mold we’ve created to represent what it means to be a woman in the public eye.
I don’t think you need to be a soccer fan to enjoy this read, so if you are curious at all, I recommend it.
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Reign (who still have a chance to make the playoffs this year!), and attended the USWNT victory tour match in Seattle last fall. When I learned Ms. Wambach was going to write a book about her life, I knew it was going to be a must read.Ms. Wambach and I are the same age, but other than both playing soccer and being white women, we don’t have much else in common. She has an intensity that I can’t even begin to imagine, which makes sense – it seems fairly necessary to become elite in any field, especially one as demanding as athletics. For most of her life, she seems to have taken the concept of ‘work hard, play hard’ to the extremes, mainly through either strict adherence to training while in the middle of camps, or through serious ingestion of alcohol and pills. She remains the record holder (male or female) of most international goals, but she is also known for the DUI she received in Portland just a few months after retirement.
There is a brutality to this book that should make it a challenging read, but instead I devoured it. The fuel to turn the pages wasn’t so much born out of a desire to see what next ridiculous high or painful low was going to follow; instead I was genuinely interested in how Ms. Wambach was going to both explain and handle her life experiences. Would she be full of excuses? Philosophical? Would she only barely mention the more challenging parts of her story?
No, she was just honest. She sometimes looks like the hero (as she should), and sometimes she is epically fucking up. She is ultimately human, and I feel like we could only get this story from someone who is no longer in the field, especially if the story is coming from a woman. As we’ve seen lately, with Hope Solo being fired for calling the Swedish team ‘cowards’ (something Cristiano Ronaldo essentially did regarding Iceland to zero consequence), women get a whole lot of negative attention when they don’t fit into the mold we’ve created to represent what it means to be a woman in the public eye.
I don’t think you need to be a soccer fan to enjoy this read, so if you are curious at all, I recommend it.
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LibraryThing member over.the.edge
There is so much more....so much depth....I was not expecting such an honest and straightforward memoir. It does center on soccer but takes it much deeper, into her life, her feelings and her climb to sobriety and staying healthy. inspiring and we'll done. an unexpected pleasure
LibraryThing member SoubhiKiewiet
Unfortunately I didn't find this very well written. It's tone was conversational, with poor grammar.
LibraryThing member roniweb
Speechless & sobbing. Thank you for being so brave with your story, Abby. More thoughts soon.
Awards
ALA Over the Rainbow Book List (Nominee — Non-Fiction — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
240 p.; 5.31 inches
ISBN
0062466984 / 9780062466983