Book Review: Attitude
Katie 
There are very few college basketball coaches that I can name – but Jay Wright is definitely one of them. I don’t watch too much college basketball, but whenever Villanova was on the TV I’d stop and check out the game. This book has a foreward written by Charles Barkley and is all about Jay Wright’s path to becoming a coach and building a winning season. Throughout the book there are “beyond basketball” notes with lessons that can be used in any part of life. You really don’t need to be a basketball fan to enjoy this book, it’s a great read and a lot of really great information – even though Jay says he’s not an authority on leadership.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
In this behind-the-scenes look at the making of a champion, the coach of the Villanova University men’s basketball team shares his competitive and cooperative philosophy, along with lessons from his coaching career and the story of his personal road to success.
When Kris Jenkins sank a three-pointer at the buzzer to win the 2016 NCAA Tournament, it was a victory not just for a team and its coach but for an entire program. In his twentieth season with the Villanova program, including a five-year stint as an assistant to Coach Rollie Massimino, Coach Jay Wright had achieved his lifelong dream—and witnessed the culmination of a decades-long effort to build a culture of winning around a set of core values.
In Attitude, Coach Wright shares some of the leadership secrets that have enabled Villanova, a private university with an undergraduate enrollment of less than 6,500, to thrive in the hypercompetitive world of college athletics. As he recounts the story of the 2015–16 Wildcats, Coach Wright offers anecdotes from his own journey up the ladder of success, with lessons learned on the Little League playing fields of his youth and wisdom passed down from his coaches and mentors.
Each step of Villanova’s journey to a national championship incorporates a signature term torn from Coach Wright’s own motivational playbook. Here are key principles that aspiring leaders can apply, not only on the basketball court but in the boardroom, the classroom, and the living room. From learning to accept your role to remembering to honor those who came before us, Jay Wright’s core values provide a positive blueprint for transformational team building based on the idea that anyone—from the head coach to the last player on the bench—can be a leader when the moment demands it.
The product of a lifetime’s worth of championship-level preparation, Attitude is perfect for anyone looking to build a team, achieve a goal, or nurture their own winning culture.
Blondie was like a reality show before there was reality TV. In New York, in the punk era – they knew they had made it when they landed the cover of Rolling Stone in 1979. Debbie’s entire life she had been trained to become a house wife and for marriage – but that’s not what she wanted. In a time when NYC was collapsing and life in New York resulted in seeing a lot of dead bums, Debbie and Chris had a spark and made Blondie a household name by 1980-1981. This book was a really cool look back at a band that I wasn’t all that familar with – and as always – I loved all the pictures! There was lots of pictures. I also loved reading about New York in the early 80s, even though it was nothing like it is today, it’s cool to see how far it has come.
Joey’s Journal is subtitled “Staying Strong when Far From Mom” and is the journal of a 12 year old boy whose Mom took a job offer on the other side of the country and decided to not move the family there. They visited back and forth and Joey and his sister continued to go to their regular school – and watch lots of American Idol. I guess that I was not the ideal audience for this book because to me it was just a journal of a young boy. “Today we…” every day… I didn’t see him having too much struggle with his Mom being away – he was happy to visit her and happy when she visited him and other than that seemed to go on his merry way to school each day. This was a quick read and might be better for a family who is going through a similar situation. (I guess I need to stop picking books because I think they have cool covers)
Whoa, Baby! is a book by Destiny’s Child’s Kelly Rowland. I wanted to check it out because of the music connection but I really am not the audience that Kelly was looking for. The book is a guide for new moms and talks about trouble and questions that new moms may have after giving birth and is written with her doctor. Each chapter is a question that Kelly had or that new moms might have that they discuss. Some of it was a little bit TMI for me – but I think that as a resource for new moms it will be really great because it may be things that you are too embarrassed to ask your doctor or friends about and there is information that you need to know! If you are a new mom, are going to be a new mom or know a new mom, definitely pick up this book.
Thurston Moore: We Sing A New Language is about Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. I did not realize that he was from Bethel, CT! The band was signed in 1989 and the book documents 130+ recordings and collaborations with interviews from the collaborators involved on each of the recordings. I thought it was really cool and a different approach to a biography. You could go to specific recordings that you wanted to know more about, or just check out the whole book and find out pretty much everything you ever needed to know! It includes collaborations, solo recordings and guest appearances.