Solo audiobook

There is much to be said about this outspoken goal keeper for the US Women’s National Team. Some people will describe her as selfish, some as too outgoing. People say she needs to keep her comments to herself. To me, she is an amazing goal keeper who says the things many people think, but are too afraid to say, and doesn’t care what the media says about her. Why should she? She is an Olympic gold medalist – more than once, and the greatest goal keeper in the world. In her autobiography, you, as the reader, gain an insight into what made Hope into the person she is today. When you think of star athletes, you think of fame, fortune maybe, and having a life where everyone looks up to you. For Hope, the story did not go that way. She has had to face much adversity to get to the place she is today. Her books takes you through stories about her personal family life, some of which could be really hard to share with people. Especially knowing the media hasn’t always been on your side – there will always be critics. The stories are filled with emotion, and gives you a pretty good insight into the type of person she is, which does not include selfish. There aren’t many good ways to critique an autobiography, you can’t judge the story, because it is all real. But, the writing in this book was full of intelligence and class. Hope has faced many issues with her team and with the media, she explains how every one of those events came about. She may not apologize for everything she says, which she shouldn’t, but she gives her perspective on the situations and makes you realize that the media does, in fact, blow things up in order to get a good story. It will have you crying one minute, then laughing the next. I guarantee, if you ever had a negative opinion about Hope, your mind will instantly be changed after reading this emotion-filled memoir. 5/5 stars. Beautifully written, and had me hooked from the very first page.

Fun, quick read. Love these women and lov Hope, too. I've followed avidly since '99. But ya know, Hope, at the point where people continue to treat you unfairly and disrespect you and otherwise hold you back, when it keeps happpening, it's probably on you, not them. Hope uses this memoir to defend herself and her freedom of speech. Yes, we all have freedom of speech, but none of us have the right to expect a safe zone when expressing our controversial opinions. I'd love to read about the next 4 years and the Zika controversy, and more recently, her bid for the soccer presidency. She crazy.

One of my favorite books of the year. Refreshingly honest, Solo captured the intense/difficult/rewarding aspect of playing team sports at a very high level.

Name: April M. FellTitle: A Memoir of Hope: SOLOGenre: BiographyAPA: Killian, H. S. (2012). A Memoirof Hope: Solo. New York: Harper Collins.Selection Process: Goodreads.com Hope Solo has been deemed America’s greatest women’s soccer goalie of all times. This title has come at a tremendous cost for Solo’s career as a professional soccer player. The tattoo etched on her back speaks to her fight in the face of adversity and it is from second Corinthians: “Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed.” (Killian, p. 123). This was a favorite biblical passage that her Grandma Alice liked to share with Hope as she struggled through many difficult times during her soccer career. She grew up in a non-traditional family. Her father’s sketchy past would be something Hope would contend with her entire life and even upon his death; Hope was never able to piece together the voids in his life. He had kidnapped his own children at one point and had been jailed on multiple occasions for infractions of the law. Despite his transgressions, Hope loved him and stood by him through divorce, bankruptcy, homelessness and an accusation of murder. Her mother was an alcoholic for many years of her young adult life and part of her teen years was spent living with a close friend. There is no doubt where Hope learned her fierce survival skills and loyalty. She played as a goalie with the same fierceness and intensity as she had to live her everyday life. Outspoken, independent, edgy, fierce and courageous-this is Hope Solo. I would definitely recommend this book to any female athelete in high school who has high hopes of becoming a professional athelete. Hope definitely shows the inner politics of national athletics and it is not always glamorous or glorious. She tells it like it is regardless of what others think and this is what has earned her the reputation as a "tough girl".

A lover, A fighter, A goalkeeper:I have not yet completed the book but I am about halfway through it. As of now it is extremely shocking, I would never have guessed what Hope Solo has gone through in her life time. She is one tough cookie, having to deal with her dad's issues and fight for a starting spot on the U.S. National team. She has to make decisions and it is a truely inpirational story. The book so far is a great read, it gives details on everythings placing a vivid picture in your mind of all her experiences. It jumps around a little which can make it confusing but it dosen't affect the read at all. I fully recommend this book, it will hit closer to home with a female soccer player or anyone who is athletic but that is not only for them. I recommend this book because it shows an amazing picture of endurance, strength, courage, hardwork, and determination. The story between her and her dad is very touching but also scary, wouldn't you want to know what he's done?

summary it takes place in Richland, Washington. the main characters are the dad, mom, Hope Solo and Hope's best friend Cheryl. the story is about a poor girl that had it rough all her life and had a dream to play pro soccer. she was very talented but was poor and needed help financially, and her community helped her with money. she works really hard throughout the story to achieve her goals. recommendation I would highly recommend this book for someone to read it really inspired me and once I picked it up I couldn't but it down. id recommend sport players or people going through a rough time to read this book.

This is probably one of the best biographies/autobiographies I’ve read this year - and I’ve read a few. Reading this allowed me to understand everything U.S. Soccer forced Hope to endure from her perspective and see the way she persevered through person drama off the field. Reading her memoir will inspire the next generation - no matter what field they’re working in or where they are - to focus on the current people they work with, and allow who they work for and external personal not to hold a shadow of past success over them.

This was an amazing book. Hope Solo, Goal Keeper on the US National Soccer team tells an amazing story. She is one of the most polarizing athletes in the US, and I love that about her. She tells her side of her life from growing up with an absentee father to being kicked off the World Cup team, to her redemption.I didn't know what to expect when I picked this book up, but it ended up being one of the most compelling biographies I have ever read!!

wonderfully written book that openly shares the struggles (and positives) Hope went through to get the top and become the best goalkeeper. Also shares an amazing insight of what its like to be in the game verses being a fan!

Understandably Outspoken …Prior to the 2012 Olympics, my only familiarity of Hope Solo is that she was a current member (goalie) of the athletic juggernaut also known as the US Women’s Soccer Team. Honestly, my interest in women’s soccer peaked and waned with the 1999 Women’s World Cup team and I don’t watch “Dancing with the Stars”, but Hope Solo grabbed my attention with the news of her candid tweeting during the past summer Olympics … especially her audacious jab at Brandi Chastain, the poster-child of that ’99 team. With the media painting her as yet another spoiled, outspoken, but gifted trouble-maker athlete; I was thrilled at the timely release of Hope’s autobiography: SOLO: A MEMOIR OF HOPE. While my original expectations of the book being nothing more than an assembly of girlie tabloid-like sports fodder, I quickly found myself immersed in a cathartic soul-bearing chronicle of deeply passionate individual whose complicated family life serves as her ultimate strength. Hope Solo is often portrayed as being stunningly beautiful, remarkably talented … and an opinioned loudmouth. Seems fair … at least that’s how I felt after reading about the uproar over her comments this past Olympics; it is also a superficial characterization. Unlike most athletes that utilize their moment of fame (or infamy in some cases) as a cash cow opportunity, SOLO: A MEMOIR OF HOPE seems more an attempt to draw people into discovering who Hope Solo REALLY is and not what she appears to be. Yes, a mini-scandal during the Olympics is a great selling tool (it got me to buy the book), but her deeply personal story proved to be an interesting, emotional and rewarding read. A relatively young athlete releases an autobiography while competing in the Olympics obviously means a chapter is missing and the story is incomplete. Well, maybe not. While future editions of SOLO may be supplemented with a chapter that recaps the trials and tribulations of winning another Olympic gold medal, most readers will likely discover such a chapter really isn’t necessary. I felt the purpose of Hope Solo’s memoir was less about self-promotion and more about releasing. The storyline is interesting, engaging and detailed in a manner that provides clarity without sacrificing the book’s reading flow (which is somewhat fast). While soccer may seem to be the logical focus of Solo’s memoir (it IS what made her famous enough to write the book), Solo’s relationship with her family (more specifically, her father) is what takes center stage in this memoir. It’s the rather complex and non-traditional father-daughter relationship that serves as the source of Solo’s resolve, fortitude and outspoken nature that makes her the soccer superstar she is, but also accounts for the troubles she’s encountered throughout her career. I found the stories of her family life dating back to her childhood to be sincerely written, but painful to read about. There is plenty of soccer drama too. All the ups-and-downs with winning and losing are documented, as well all the conflicts with coaches and teammates over the years (especially the “old guard” from the ’99 squad). What is refreshing is that I found Solo to be believably honest in her recollections of the more negative aspects of her soccer career. And while the ego of a world-class athlete is relatively hard to hide in autobiography, Solo reveals herself to be a sensitive and tender individual with her own insecurities … just like everyone else.I am glad I read this book. I honestly would not have given a second thought to Hope Solo after the Olympics had it not been for the hoopla over her tweets to Brandi Chastain. Reading SOLO explained (and even justified) much of this young athlete’s behavior/attitude and revealed a much more complex and interesting individual than I expected. Hope Solo’s book not only forced me to respect her, but turned me into a big fan as well.

This book was surprising. I was surprised at myself for even taking an interest in this book (I can't remember where this interest first manifested, but my best guess is that it came from seeing her talk about her father on Dancing With the Stars). I was surprised to find the other Goodreads reviews favorable enough that I decided it was worth actually reading. I was surprised that it was so well-written. And I was surprised when I realized halfway through the book that I was completely prepared to rate it an impressive five stars.In the end I went with 4 stars, though I feel that if Solo did a re-write a few years from now about the same time period, it would jump back up to five stars. For the first two-thirds or so of the book, Solo's story is seriously gripping. Her description of her childhood is so fascinating that it could stand on its own as a remarkable memoir even if it had no ties to an eventual world-famous athlete. I just read Angela's Ashes, and while Solo lacks McCourt's poetic prose, her storytelling and insight was just as remarkable.The problem is that Solo is writing about her life as it is happening, and as such, she is still too close to some events to write about them with clarity. She had a tumultuous relationship with her stepfather, Glenn, but as an adult looking back she can see why she treated him like crap, why he acted the way that he did, and can admit that she was in the wrong. With time came clarity.But the last third or so of the book refers to events which are still fresh and to relationships that are still forming, and so for those sections Solo is being honest about her current emotions, but still does not know how these events will affect her down the road, or how to clearly explain them to outsiders. I still found value in seeing the world through her eyes when she is so close and feelings are so raw, but as a work of serious nonfiction (as opposed to a reactionary blog or journal entry), this proximity injures her overall narrative. I cringed every time Solo talked about Adrian, the supposed love of her life, because, with her being famous and me reading the book 2 years after publication, I knew that two months after she went to presses she married somebody else who was never even mentioned in the book. She has an on-again, off-again thing going on with Adrian for years, which is obvious for anyone reading from the outside, but it was painful to listen to Hope give this guy so much attention in the book knowing full-well that she was writing from the middle of an on-again period. Some time and reflection probably would have given Solo the chance to reflect and give a more honest account of Adrian, and to choose more appropriately just how much weight to assign to him.Adrian is just one example. Soccer is another. It feels silly suggesting that there is too much soccer in a soccer-player's book, but... There's just too much soccer in this soccer player's book. I am of course not suggesting that there shouldn't be soccer, or that it shouldn't be a major focus, but at points we went into boring details about specific games that I'm sure seemed really major to Solo as she was writing them since they are more recent and thus prominently featured in her mind, but that aren't exactly fascinating to readers, regardless of how into the sport we may be. Hope's story is so fascinating, and her insights and reactions so robust, that play-by-plays seemed to just detract overall. It was much more interesting to read how Solo felt about certain games than to hear which of her teammates scores off of how many headers (we have game footage for that).Crap, this got too long. OVERALL REVIEW: You should read it because it is, above all else, honest and surprisingly full of substance.

Great book, not necessarily for content on face value, but because it paints such an interesting psychological portrait of fame, success, and these soccer players.

Review of Hope Solo Hope Solo is known as one of the best women's goal keepers in the world. She has won numerous awards such as the Golden Glove and winning the World Cup. She inspires young girls everywhere to get to where she is now as a professional athlete. Hope is an amazing teammate as her friends told in the story about her willingness to become the starting goalie. Hope had to overcome many obstacles in her life to become to where she is now and that is what this book explains and shows. She was known around the small town that she grew up in as an energetic and athletic little kid. Her older brother always played sports with her when he needed to practice and she joined in to. Soccer was not her favorite sport which was shocking to most people but instead she was into baseball. When she was maturing into a young teenager, that is when she picked the sport she would continue to pursue her whole life, it was soccer. Growing up, Hope faced many difficulties that young kids should not have to go through. Her mom was addicted to an alcohol and was an alcoholic when Hope was at a young age. Her father sometimes disappeared sometimes and she usually never saw him. Hope's parents were divorced and one time when she was with her mom her dad kidnapped her and took her to a hotel/motel. Hope didn't know what was going on and thought that her dad just picked her up knowing that her mother knew. Hope did not have a lot of money and when she played for her coach on a competitive team her coach sometimes had to pay her fees. He always said she was a special player. Later on in her career, Hope made the U.S. roster for the World Cup. She put in hard work and dedication to achieve her goal since she started playing soccer when she was little. Hope was stunned to know that she wasn't named the starting goalie for the World Cup and was mad about it. She then worked extra hard after the World Cup when she received minimum minutes during those games. She did extra sprints, worked out almost everyday, and ate healthy.Hope is one of the most hardworking female athletes. From being a bench player with no playing time to starting goalie of the U.S. Women's National Soccer team she shocked everyone and even herself. Hope loved the game and putting forth the effort she received a huge recognition from her teammates and coaches and even fans as well. Hope is now known as one of the best women's goalies in the world and she overcame obstacles when it came to soccer and her family problems. Overall, this book was one of the best books I have read about an athlete. It talked about how her life wasn't great when she was younger but it didn't bother her and kept cool. The adversities I thought that she faced were unbelievable and she should get more credit and I think not many people give her credit now a days. Now she is still known as one of the best but also troublesome off the field with charges against her for many different things. She has gotten better about herself off the field but I think this book gave great description of her struggles and life was and included a solid story about soccer and what she wanted and how she got there. I would recommend this book to girls who like soccer between the ages of 12 and up because some of the description and actions she faced when she was little could be to much for some young readers. I would give this book a five out of five stars because this was an awesome read and I think more people should know the background of Hope Solo.