Playing by Heart by Anne Mateer ~ Review

Lucie's Review:

Lula Bowman left college and her plans to be the first woman in Oklahoma to earn a PhD in mathematics, to take care of her younger sister Jewel after the death of her husband. Lula takes a teaching position in her hometown teaching the only subjects that are not already filled, music and basketball!
Both of these subjects are completely out of Lula's element so she asks the boy's basketball coach, Chet Vaughn, to help her understand the game. But as she grows closer to Chet she begins to question her well laid plans.
Will Lula give love a chance to work things out?

A delightful small town setting, and a great plot. I learned a lot about early basketball, and didn't know how different the girl's version of basketball was from the boys'.

Chet was a great hero, who genuinely cared about the boys he was teaching, and taught them more than just basketball, but also lessons about life.

Lula was so brave to take on a job where she knew almost nothing about the topics that she was expected to teach, and she did her best to learn what she didn't know.

The one thing I wished there had been more of was real interaction between Chet and Lula, though I will admit that the lack of good communication was mostly due to the school's strict rule about their male and female teachers fraternizing. So much of their relationship was built up in their heads.

Overall, an enjoyable read, I can honestly say that I learned so much from this book in terms of history. I could tell that the author put a ton of work into the research of this book. Great plot, and characters, very nice read :)


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