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.

Bumblebee (7/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 119 minutes

PG-13

I had to do a lot of soul-searching before I gave this a positive rating because it’s a silly Transformers genre movie and I hate to give encouragement to any more. That said, I found it enjoyable (go figure!).

Bumblebee is an autobot transformer, a machine that can change itself into various shapes. Somewhere in space the autobots are engaged in life or death struggles with Decepticons, who are bad guy transformers. Bumblebee is sent to earth to protect it from two Decepticons, Shatter and Dropkick, and establish a safe base for the other autobots.

That’s the idea. Bumblebee finds itself looking like a VW Bug and is bought by teenager Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), who quickly finds out that she owns a lot more than a VW. Protecting Bumblebee from her family, she links up with next door neighbor, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), who has a crush on her and whom she lets in on the secret.

Also in the mix is Jack Burns (John Cena) a government agent dealing with extraterrestrial technology and threats, who perceives Bumblebee as a criminal and is out to get him/it. So not only are the Decepticons out to get Bumblebee, so is the government. Bumblebee and Charlie are on their own facing enormous odds.

Written by Christina Hodson and directed by Travis Knight, I found myself enjoying this thing even though I didn’t want to. Steinfeld gives a good performance as Charlie despite the almost total lack of chemistry between her and Memo which is the biggest downer of the movie.

Puerile as it is, it is entertaining to watch these autobots and decepticons transform themselves into their alter personas (you should pardon the expression), like cars and airplanes.

Call me crazy; I liked it.