If you are a junior or senior, male or female, sports enthusiast or history buff, a lover of ideas or action, or if you thrive on suspense, this book will capture your mind as well as your heart. Daniel Brown literally puts you into the time and the places that he describes by providing vivid details about everything he introduces. You taste the dust, and falter in the winds, and pull your sweater tighter around you to protect yourself from the driving rain. As the characters experience hope, pride, frustration and elation, so will you. This is a book where, even though you most likely know the outcome (the author tells you from the beginning), you hold your breath as you turn every page. The book contains enough material to inspire a hundred great sermons, but it is not sermonic. This is a truly great story that will make you care a lot about something you may have very little knowledge about, and attach you to real people you have likely never heard of. You don't just read this book, you experience it, and as a result of that experience, like with all significant experiences, you emerge enriched, invigorated, and maybe, even a little bit wiser. When I was a little girl and responded to everything that I was told to do by asking "Why?" The answer was frequently, "Because." In the unlikely probability that you might respond to my recommendation that you read "The Boys in the Boat" by asking, "Why?" My answer would be the same: Simply, "Because." (I promise, you won't be sorry!)