Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

The Goldfinch (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 149 minutes.

R.

This is a movie I would normally disdain. It’s long and wordy and the plot is enigmatic. Directed by John Crowley and based on an equally long and wordy (800+ pages) novel by Donna Tartt that won the Pulitzer Prize, it is ostensibly about Theo Decker (Oakes Fegley) who, at 13 years of age, is present in a museum with his mother as she wants to show him her favorite painting, “The Goldfinch” by Carel Fabritius, who died in a gunpowder explosion in 1654.

Boom! Theo’s mother is dead in a terrorist attack and he survives. The movie then jumps back and forth between Theo as an adult (Ansel Elgort) and as a 13 year old as he tries to live his life with his real father (Luke Wilson), who is a drunken gambler in Las Vegas.

While there doesn’t seem to be much story here, there is a constant feeling that there’s more there that we don’t know. Crowley does an outstanding job of keeping up the pace, aided by exceptional music by Trevor Gureckis that keeps tension in the movie when you aren’t sure exactly why.

There are vignettes about Theo’s infatuation with a red-headed girl, Pippa (Aimee Laurence, in a moving performance, as a little girl; Ashleigh Cummings as a grownup), that he sees just before the blast, an antiques dealer, Hobie (Jeffrey Wright, doing a fine job), and a strange boy, Boris (Finn Wolfhard, who gives a good, bizarre performance, as a boy and Aneurin Barnard as an adult), who becomes his friend. Also in the cast is Nicole Kidman, who cares for him for a short time, and who is memorable in her short appearances. Actually all the performances are very good, which is one of the reasons the movie holds interest.

I liked it.