Monroe 'Reads Together' Project Chooses 'The Boys In The Boat'

Monroe Reads Together is a partnership among the Monroe Public Schools, the Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, businesses and community members seeking to engage town residents in the benefits and enjoyment of reading. The project also seeks to foster a community conversation about books and the issues they present. 

This year’s book is the true story of the University of Washington’s crew team that defeated the elite East Coast teams to win the chance to represent the United States in the 1936 Olympics. The project will culminate with a panel discussion featuring national figures, including an Olympian, a historian and a coach from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, librarian Margaret Borchers said. 

The panel discussion is free and open to the public on March 29, at 7 p.m. in the Jockey Hollow auditorium. Multiple copies of both the standard and young readers’ editions are available at Linda’s Story Time, the Edith Wheeler Memorial Library and the libraries at each of Monroe’s public schools. 

Copies are available in print, audiobook, e-book and large print. For more information, click here.

An Amazon review says, "Daniel James Brown’s 'The Boys in the Boat' is the kind of nonfiction book that reads like a novel. Centered around the life of Joe Rantz—a farmboy from the Pacific Northwest who was literally abandoned as a child—and set during the Great Depression, 'The Boys in the Boat' is a character-driven story with a natural crescendo that will have you racing to the finish. 

"In 1936, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team raced its way to the Berlin Olympics for an opportunity to challenge the greatest in the world. How this team, largely composed of rowers from 'foggy coastal villages, damp dairy farms, and smoky lumber towns all over the state,' managed to work together and sacrifice toward their goal of defeating Hitler’s feared racers is half the story. The other half is equally fascinating, as Brown seamlessly weaves in the story of crew itself," the Amazon review said.

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