Any girl who grew up with a father who told her she could do anything will appreciate Brennan's book as a touching tribute to her own dad. But as a memoir, this book about forging a career as a sports journalist doesn't rise above the ordinary. A lifelong sports addict, Brennan became the first full-time female sportswriter to join the Miami Herald
staff in 1981. She moved to the Washington Post
in 1984 to cover the Redskins and then the Olympics, and was offered a general sports column in USA Today
in 1997. Her account is sprinkled with amusing anecdotes about learning to maneuver through a man's world, such as the secret to interviewing naked guys in a locker room. (Carry a large notebook, so when you look down to write, all you see is paper.) Her father's support is present throughout; when Brennan, along with a crowd of 90,185 girls and their dads, watched Brandi Chastain score the winning penalty kick in the 1999 World Cup, Brennan reached for her phone: "I called someone who... knew exactly what it meant to both of us. Of course I called Dad." Unfortunately, Brennan's book lacks the spirit and imagination with which Brennan accomplished her dreams. (May)
