Adventure Racing Books

"Unlike racing," St. James says, "life isn't run on a predetermined course, and you aren't given a map of all the bumps and turns along the way. My life certainly didn't follow any predestined track. I can't remember a time when I developed any grand strategy to become a race car driver. Neither of my parents worked in racing, and aside from the occasional teenage drag race, we had no racing history or culture. We were a working-class family and I, like millions of other little girls, was a child of the baby boom." When Lyn St. James completed her first Indy 500 at the age of 45, she was just the second woman in history to race in the event. Some doubted that a woman could keep up with male drivers, and St. James struggled to get the sponsorship she needed to race. Fueled by inspiration and limitless motivation, St. James managed to rise through the ranks and eventually become known at the American Woman Racing Icon of the Century. Her story is not only sport, but of overcoming the odds.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope and South State Street Journal

It's hard not to like Lyn St. James. She wasn't the first woman to drive at Indy but until Sarah Fisher came along she was the most accomplished. I was looking forward to a book that would recount her successful career and provide unique insight into her accomplishments.

She does provide that in this book regarding the amazing challenges she faced just to get into the field in her last race at Indianapolis. For many underfunded teams, the challenge of qualifying can far surpass what happens on race day and St. James recounts the ordeal with great clarity.

The problem is that the rest of her career is barely touched on in anecdotes about the past while talking about her last season. I came away from this book learning very little about her life outside of Indy or even her racing career in other auto racing competitions.

More importantly, she failed to share many personal feelings or emotions in the book. The most personal story she tells is about how she lost a pet that was hit in a freak accident at a race track. That story moved me, but little else did.

She also fails to discuss the overall state of racing. Currently open wheel racing in the United States is in a shambles due to a split between sanctioning bodies. She never talks about the issue and barely mentions the growing success of NASCAR.

Finally, the book contains a number of self-help types of advice throughout the book. They're meant to be inspirational but come off as tired and hackneyed.

The book is a pleasant read and St. James is likeable. The problem is that the book could have been so much more and falls far too short of what it could have accomplished.

Hang on! This is a thrilling ride through professional racing, as seen through the eyes of a pioneer who "just did it" long before Nike advised us to. Like the best autobiographies, this book explores one extraordinary person's life while at the same time inspiring all of us to excel despite the odds. I first met Lyn St. James many years ago at a women's sports conference. She's a beautiful woman, with an intense gaze and a ready laugh -- not what most of us would expect in a professional race car driver. And despite her impressive resume full of "first woman"'s, St. James remains grounded and generous, committed to helping other women learn to drive, race, and win. An excellent gift for people -- especially female people -- who need some inspiration. -- Mariah Burton Nelson

Our minister interviewed Ms. St James as part of his sermon today. Her book was available to us and I just finished it. A great read! A compelling narrative about racing and life lessons. What a class act and role model for young people and inspiration for her peers.

I bought this for my 3 year old son based on the user reviews. I was expecting more activities, but there's just one nut and one wrench. You can imagine doing different tasks on each page, but it's still the same nut and the same wrench. My son lost interest after a short time and hasn't been interested in picking it back up since. This is surprising to be because he's a big Cars fan and loves working with other plastic tool sets he has.

I guess this is the downside of buying things sight-unseen over the Internet. Had I seen it in person I probably would have passed on it.

I totally agree with the last review; you will certainly be part of the pit crew with your own wrench and there's a bolt built in the book so that you can help tighten lug nuts and fan belts, change spark plugs and tires, tune up Lightning's engine, and, oh yeah, tighten the bolts loosened from Mater himself at the end. Did you know that cars can have fevers, too? When the fan belt is broken or loose, the car can get really hot and that's when you have to tighten or replace the fan belt so it can stay cool. I certainly recommend this book for every child who's ever wanted to be part of a pit crew.

I bought this book for my 2 year old son and he just loves it. It is very interactive and he loves using the wrench on the book and hearing the cranking sounds it makes. My 4 year old daughter even played with it. It is money well spent.

Francis offers his usual fare: The same protagonist with a new name; a plot of investigation, discovery, physical pain and mental exercises; a supporting cast of believable characters who act in supportable, self-interested, and logical ways. All of which is not to say anything bad; i love to read Francis, and do so when looking for a vicarious thrill and a light read. The protagonist in this one is Edward "Link" Lincoln, an action picture actor ~ the sort who might star in movies made of Francis' books ~ who goes to South Africa for a little off-set investigation. At least, he thinks that's why he's gone there; he's actually gone to be killed. In a post-Apartheid world the picture of South Africa is rather sweet; i would guess Francis had some coöperation from the government in return for his portrayal of the country.

This is one of my favorite all time Dick Francis novels. Link is a character you'll love and you'll loves to plot twists as fiction can become reality.

Smokescreen is one of those Dick Francis mysteries that take the reader to a country other than England. In this case, two countries, Spain and South Africa, are the sites of the action. The protagonist, Edward Lincoln, is an actor, in his thirties, and when the story opens, he's starring in a movie being made in Spain: Man in a Car. Talk about foreshadowing. But like most of Francis' heroes, "Linc" has lots of experience with horses. As a young man, he worked in a stable; in his early movie career he was a stuntman, specializing in horses.

Given his early experience, it is only natural that a good friend should ask Linc to go to South Africa and find out why her stable of horses is doing so badly in their races after promising beginnings. His friend, it turns out, is dying. The horses are to go to her nephew in her will. And she doesn't want to leave him the horses if they aren't any good.

Shortly after his arrival in Johannesburg, Linc is nearly injured in an accident. If it weren't for the fact that a female TV reporter was seriously injured, he could believe that the publicist for the movie distributor had staged it. The next accident proves that there's no joking around.

Francis' prose is always clean and direct. His characters are straight forward and believable. In the abridged edition, however, much is lost of the nuances of story that are always so enjoyable. If you like Francis, read or listen to the full version. It will be worth the extra time.

Fun, fast-paced rhyming story enticing seven year olds to do math without even realizing what they have done.

Pictures match the story well. Lots of detail.

Good book.

Interested in taking a group of third graders on an adventurously dividing race from start to finish? This is the book for you!
The race starts with a group of 80 participants, that divide in half evertime they reach a new adventure in the race course. One half ends up in a mess, while the other half races on. Read the book to find out who wins!!
The story is written with rhythm and ryhme making it a fun read for your youngsters. And the illustrations are drawn with so much detail making it easy to connect to the text.

In the interesting and involved book, Nascar Hammer Down by T.B Calhoun, drivers and crewmembers describe their lives of being involved with racing. The author has written many books such as, Rolling Thunder, The Grove, Race Ready, Speed Demon and Spinout.
There are two facts about the book that stood out while I was reading. One of them was that it was very interesting, like when it talked about all the different jobs that take part in being a Nascar driver and crew member. Also, when the author talks about the involvement Nascar members lives entail. Another fact is when the story was suspenseful. An example is when two kids hired a man and woman to find a treasure and the couple turned out to be criminals.
Through out the whole book the author has explained the lives of Nascar drivers and crew members. He talked about the specific jobs that the crew members had. For example, one of them was being an overflow person who caught the gas that would overflow from the tank. The person would also try to run with the car as long as they could before they would get hurt. Also when the author talked about the drivers and how they need to have so much concentration. Another thing is that they have to know how to communicate with the crew members using headset radios.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I hope that I can read the rest of T.B. Calhounýs collection. Following that, I recommend this book to kids in the age range of 10-14 year olds. The reason for this is that kids below the age of 10 probably wonýt be able to follow or understand the story. And kids over the age of 14 probably wouldnýt be interested because some of them already have careers in mind.

This book is not to be read unless you have read the first 4. You will have no idea what is going on. In the book, Kin gets a job as a gas can man, while Laptop looks for buried treasure.....He gets two people with sunglasses.......Who are they???

Perhaps it was just MY son, but the book was no longer considered interesting when he realized he had to use the 3-D glasses. He liked the pictures, but it wasn't really a storybook, per se. I couldn't sit down with him and read it and he didn't want to go through it by himself. I think this is a neat book, but it really is better for kids that are probably over the age of 5.

Great pictures comes with 2 3-d glasses and there is a really big fold out picture in the middle of the book. My 3 kids 9 and under love the book.

I disagree in a way with Mr. North Salem. Hasnt he ever heard that everything old is new again? I have spent recent time in the West Village, and the scene is the same with a different list of characters. RACING SEPTEMBER takes you there. Loved the action and the true dialogue. Book style reminds me of early Elmore Leonard.

This book takes you on an enjoyable trip back in time, the fifties, the Beats, the gungy poets, the coffee shops and bars, and that center of all Bohemia, the New York West Village. The author has a very real affection for this world and I suspect he may have lived much of it. Summer of 1957 when our teenage hero, Danny, escapes his home in New Jersey for the lure of the Village. Here he falls in love. With an actress. Who goes to California. Danny must have her and is off on his cross country quest. On a motorcycle. Racing September. (Thats when school starts) This is an amiable, enjoyable book. Whats it all about? Being human I guess. And being young.

The Introduction, by Larry Niven, is worth the price of this book [IF you are a fan of "Lucifers Hammer" or "the Mote in God's Eye"]!

I had read 1/2 of what's in this Hardbound, in used ING paperbacks. But I was Delighted to get a "Keeper Edition" for Christmas!

This reprint collection collects two novellas and a short novel featuring Harve Rackham, Bay Area PI, bounty hunter and survivalist. "Inside Job" (2001), the most recent, is the earliest in Rackham's timeline -- but his timeline doesn't make sense, as "Inside Job" is a near-future piece, while the last, set about 10 years later in Rackham's life (but written first, in 1980), features a Soviet nuclear attack on the US!

Well, let's call it an incompletely-retconned alternate-history, and move on to the stories themselves, which are all worth reading. "Inside Job" is a pretty routine techno-thriller, featuring an attempted large-scale terrorist attack on San Francisco by dastardly Middle Easterners. The pages turn, and I enjoyed it.

The second novella, "Vital Signs" (1980), has Rackham the bounty-hunter hunting a savage ET hunter-killer, with a sweet twist ending. Slight, but nicely done.

"Pulling Through" (1983) , the only one of these I'd previously read, is a story of surviving a (then) near-future full-scale nuclear attack on the US, by the USSR. It was intended as somewhat of a didactic civil-defense preparedness message, the utility of which has (probably, and fortunately) mostly passed, but it still works pretty well as a story.

Ing is an underrated writer, imo. These aren't among his best works, but they're all competent or better commercial fiction, and well-worth reading if you're a fan of this sort of thing.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

Only four short stories packaged as "novels" into this new juvenile series, and it's already feeding off itself. Here's a retread of the second "novel", ROBOT OLYMPICS, except this time the fellers are building small jets souped up with rocket boosters, instead of building fighting robots. As usual Andy Foger is the bad guy, but the REAL bad guys are, well, you know, that anti-technology terrorist group which seems to have replaced Brungaria or whatever it was. There are no surprises. I found it difficult to picture an audience (or even a target age group) for this series. And Tom-as-narrator is very hard to get used to. And Bud Barclay could really be annoying if he set his mind to it. Wonder what the sales have been so far?

These books are good. The stories are quick and short and full of science and adventure. They're great for young boys and girls just getting into science fiction and if you just want something fun.

My son got book #1 from his school's book fair and quickly finished it. I went online to seek out others and have since purchased 5 more. My son reads for 20 minutes/day and likes to be timed - he does the reading without issue but doesn't necessarily enjoy it. Since he's been into these books, when time is up, he says, "okay but just a little bit more!" We especially like the hardcover feature at such an affordable price.