One Life Hardcover – 10 November 2020

Christmas gift. Arrived on time in perfect condition. Item exactly as described.

Megan Rapinoe grew up in a Conservative family. Her dad voted for Donald Trump. She's gay and unapologetically vocal about her beliefs. She's tiny in her stature, and yet, she's fearless. Even as far as going against her family's political leanings. She's faced censure from the league in which she played, even as far as being benched by her coach. All because she decided to kneel as the Star Spangled Banner played. But still, she persisted.She's won awards, accolades, suffered injuries and heartbreaks. But still, she persisted.If you are expecting this memoir about how an athlete rallied to defeat everything against all odds, you would only be partly right. Because amongst everything, Rapinoe uses her platform for activism. And this book is about that. Facing censure against a league who didn't want to change the status quo, she persisted in raising awareness about the racial injustices in America. And when she's not doing that, she's rallying the women of the league to get their due. The economic inequality between professional men and women soccer players is beyond laughable. The women's team have won more games, gold medals, and championships than the men's team, and yet they only make half of what they earned.Truthfully, I've never followed Women's Soccer until Megan made an enemy of the White House. Since then, I've been a huge follower. What I admire about her the most is that she took the time to educate herself about racial disparities before she opened her mouth. She read books, talked to people, and did her research. She learned about redlining which is a bank's way of denying mortgages to people of colour who live in a district that they deemed 'dangerous'. She also talked about how the GI bill that excludes Black vets from receiving benefits. These are just two racial issues that she's learned on her researches. She was the first white athlete to kneel in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. Honestly, what's not to love?We never really learn about Megan Rapinoe in her memoir. She barely talked about her childhood, her twin sister. Though she was very candid about her brother's ongoing battle with addiction. Mostly, I think the main purpose of her book is to show how someone of her stature and clout could use her privilege for the good.

Meinung zur Biografie von Megan Rapinoe:Schon als das Buch bei mir ankam, war ich sehr gespannt auf den Inhalt. Megan Rapinoe ist eine der bekanntesten Fußballnationalspielerinnen der USA. Sie hat mit ihrer Mannschaft schon mehrmals den Weltmeistertitel (zuletzt 2019) geholt. Was nicht so sehr bekannt ist, ist die Tatsache, dass sich Rapinoe auch stark in der Gesellschaft für die Rechte von "Randgruppen", wenn man es so bezeichnen will, einsetzt. Sie macht sich stark für die Rechte von Homosexuellen und Schwarzen und kämpft dafür, dass Frauen gleichwertig wie Männer entlohnt werden. Wenn man ihre Geschichte gelesen hat, muss man die Frau einfach für ihren Mut bewundern. Sie scheut sich nicht davor, ihre Meinung zu sagen, selbst wenn das ihre Sportlerkarriere mehr als einmal gefährdet hat. Ich finde es toll, dass sich jemand mit so viel Social Media Einfluss auch für politisch wichtige Verbesserungen einsetzt und deshalb kann ich dieses Buch jedem empfehlen. Ich habe es im Rekordtempo gelesen und keine Seite davon war langweilig.

Rapinoe's life certainly had an epic story arc and several parts make for great rafting. The story telling is usually kinetic and laced with humour.A couple nits: I wish she'd given more real estate to leaving bread crumbs of advice that aspiring spokeswoman could follow. I wish she'd talked more about football and the tricks of the trade on how to be the first high performance athlete in her field. Instead, there's a lot of time spent on her political thinking. Even if you completely agree with her (as I do), it makes for laborious reading, some of the way.

Was ein geiles Buch... habe es mir auf Englisch gekauft, weil ich einfach das Gefühl brauche genau ihre Worte zu lesen. Womens Empowerment pur! Habe Gerste die letzte Seite gelesen und das Gefühl ich müsste mehr in meinem Leben tun