Solo: A Memoir of Hope

by Hope Solo

Overview

The Glass Castle meets A League of Their Own in Solo, a candid and moving memoir about family, loss, and reconciliation from Hope Solo, the supremely talented, headline-making goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

During the 2011 Women’s World Cup, Solo became an idol, role model, and sex symbol to a new generation of young American sports enthusiasts, inspiring the kind of intense devotion not seen since the days of Mia Hamm.

An Olympic gold medalist and arguably America’s sexiest athlete, Hope has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (twice), in ESPN: The Magazine, and as a contestant on the hit ABC television show Dancing with the Stars, and her poignant, compelling, and profoundly inspiring personal history will score big with her legion of fans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062136756
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/18/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	513,672
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 7.84(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Hope Solo, one of the most charismatic athletes in America, is widely regarded as the best women's goalkeeper in the world. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, she has been a member of the U.S. national team since 2000 and has appeared on the covers of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine. A prominent spokeswoman for Gatorade and Nike, she starred on the hit reality show Dancing with the Stars. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Ann Killion is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle. She has covered the past ten Olympics and the last three Women's World Cups for SportsIllustrated.com and the San Jose Mercury News.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 Life Behind the Smiley Face 7

Chapter 2 God's Second Paradise 21

Chapter 3 A Double Identity 35

Chapter 4 Somewhere-Anywhere-Far Away 45

Chapter 5 Bare-Branched, but Ready to Bloom 55

Chapter 6 The '99ers 69

Chapter 7 "I Should Have Died a Long Time Ago …" 81

Chapter 8 An Arm Like Frankenstein 91

Chapter 9 Made in the WUSA 105

Chapter 10 Baa, Baa, Black Sheep 119

Chapter 11 "Only a Daughter Cries Like That" 133

Chapter 12 Shadows 145

Chapter 13 "You Can't Go by a Gut Feeling" 153

Chapter 14 Stepping into Liquid 167

Chapter 15 "Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Joy" 179

Chapter 16 The New #1 195

Chapter 17 Pretty Damn Sweet 211

Chapter 18 Unprofessional Professionals 221

Chapter 19 Seattle's Finest 233

Chapter 20 It Just Takes One 245

Chapter 21 The Silver Lining 255

Chapter 22 Bare-Ass Naked on a Lawn 265

Acknowledgments 283

Editorial Reviews

Featured twice on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a TV regular, Solo may have made her name as the independent-minded goalkeeper for the U.S. women's national soccer team, but she's much more. Here's her story, focusing on her relationship with her father, who taught her to love soccer but disappeared from her life for a time when he was convicted of embezzlement. Given Solo's headliner reputation, not to mention comparisons to Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle, the 30,000-copy first printing seems a bit cautious.

Library Journal

There was a time when the author, the goalie for the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, almost lost it all after complaining about being benched in the 2007 World Cup. She’s come a long way since then, reclaiming her place on the team, winning titles, and appearing on “Dancing with the Stars.” Narrator Christina Delaine has a friendly, down-home voice that is well suited to the all-American tone of the book. Delaine is able to get to the heart of Solo’s story and varies her reading to accentuate the personal nature of the book. Delaine, however, doesn’t keep the story moving. She focuses too much on the emotions, which slows her down and results in her losing vocal energy. This sometimes diminishes the book’s impact. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2013 - AudioFile

There was a time when the author, the goalie for the U.S. National Women’s Soccer Team, almost lost it all after complaining about being benched in the 2007 World Cup. She’s come a long way since then, reclaiming her place on the team, winning titles, and appearing on “Dancing with the Stars.” Narrator Christina Delaine has a friendly, down-home voice that is well suited to the all-American tone of the book. Delaine is able to get to the heart of Solo’s story and varies her reading to accentuate the personal nature of the book. Delaine, however, doesn’t keep the story moving. She focuses too much on the emotions, which slows her down and results in her losing vocal energy. This sometimes diminishes the book’s impact. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2013 - AudioFile

The unflinching account of U.S. women's soccer team member Solo's life on and off the field. Born in Richland, Wash., a plutonium-producing town "created in the dark shadows of the American dream," Solo came from a family that "[didn't] do happy endings." Her father was a philandering con man who married her mother while still serving a prison sentence for embezzlement. When Solo was 7, he kidnapped her and her brother Marcus from their mother; after he was arrested, she did not see him again for many years. But the damage had already been done. Her home life was fraught with tension that manifested as fights between Solo and her brother and alcoholism in her mother. She found refuge in sports and excelled as a soccer player. By the time she was a high school junior, she had caught the eye of college coaches across the country. Solo chose the University of Washington, where she lived a double life as a respected college athlete and a national soccer team member while gradually rebuilding a relationship with her now-homeless father. Dreaming of World Cup glory, Solo then played for professional teams in the U.S., Sweden and France while continuing to train with the American national team. Never one to hold back, she speaks with great honesty about the difficulty of living in the shadow of the 1999 World Cup championship team. She also reflects thoughtfully on her infamous benching at the 2007 World Cup competition and how the misunderstanding it caused nearly ruined her reputation and professional standing. Through heartache, setbacks and career-threatening injuries, Solo demonstrates not only a fierce determination to overcome, but also the grace of a true champion. A readable, inspiring memoir about staying true to dreams and principles in a world that too often forces personal compromise.

Kirkus Reviews