Second Wind, Nathaniel Philbrick
Second Wind, Nathaniel Philbrick
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Second Wind
A Sunfish Sailor, an Island, and the Voyage That Brought a Family Together

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick

Narrator: Nathaniel Philbrick

Unabridged: 4 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 03/06/2018


Synopsis

A charming memoir of midlife by the bestselling author of Mayflower and In the Hurricane's Eye, recounting his attempt to recapture a national sailing championship he'd won at twenty-two.

“There had been something elemental and all consuming about a Sunfish. Nothing could compare to the exhilaration of a close race in a real blow—the wind howling and spray flying as my Sunfish and I punched through the waves to the finish.”

In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late thirties, living with his family on Nantucket, feeling stranded and longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Was it a midlife crisis? It was certainly a watershed for the journalist-turned-stay-at-home dad, who impulsively decided to throw his hat into the ring, or water, again.

With the bemused approval of his wife and children, Philbrick used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground, sailing his tiny Sunfish to its remotest corners, experiencing the haunting beauty of its tidal creeks, inlets, and wave-battered sandbars. On ponds, bays, rivers, and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize, but finding something unexpected about himself instead.

About The Author

Nathaniel Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978, the same year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, Rhode Island. After working as an editor at Sailing World magazine, he wrote and edited several books about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind, and Yaahting: A Parody.     In 2000, Philbrick published the New York Times bestseller In the Heart of the Sea, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The book is the basis of the Warner Bros. motion picture Heart of the Sea, directed by Ron Howard and starring Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker, Ben Wishaw, and Tom Holland. The book also inspired a 2001 Dateline special on NBC as well as the 2010 two-hour PBS American Experience film Into the Deep by Ric Burns.   Philbrick’s writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He has appeared on the Today show, The Morning Show, Dateline, PBS’s American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR. He and his wife live on Nantucket.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on April 25, 2018

Having read “Mayflower” I knew Nathaniel Philbrick, who also authored many other books, was a good writer. As I scanned this new release I thought I’m not a sailor, yet I enjoy memoirs and love Cape Cod and Nantucket, so with Meat Loaf’s philosophy of “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” I delved into the b......more

Goodreads review by David on April 12, 2018

In this early effort, Nat Philbrick accomplished a masterpiece of sports writing, with enough digressions about Nantucket geography and history to inspire even non-sailors to make ferry reservations.......more

Goodreads review by Marty on April 24, 2020

My dislike of memoirs has long been documented (go ahead and check out my bookshelves), so you would think two things about my experience with this book: 1) why would Marty even pick it up; and 2) there is no expectation that he would enjoy it if he did. Fair point. Counterpoint: 1) this is written b......more

Goodreads review by Emily on November 23, 2021

The summary of this book made it sound very intriguing. I've never read a book about sailing before and I love the location of Nantucket, so I thought this would be a fascinating read into something new and exciting. Sadly, the story is just not that exciting. The author spends way too much time on......more


Quotes

Praise for Second Wind

“Describing his races tack-by-tack and gust-by-gust, Philbrick crosses the finish line with sure-to-be satisfied readers interested in sailing and the personal life of this highly popular author.”--Booklist

Praise for Valiant Ambition:


"May be one of the greatest what-if books of the age--a volume that turns one of America's best-known narratives on its head."--Boston Globe

"A suspenseful, richly detailed, and deeply researched book about the revolutionary struggle that bound George Washington and Benedict Arnold together and almost disastrous dysfunction of America's revolutionary government that helped drive them apart."--The New York Review of Books

"Clear and insightful, it consolidates his reputation as one of America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction."--Wall Street Journal

"Philbrick is both a meticulous historian and a captivating storyteller. The book has unforgettable novelistic details [and] also contains much astute historical analysis and argument. Philbrick sees Arnold not as the man who almost lost the war so much as the catalyst that helped to win it."--Christian Science Monitor

Praise for Bunker Hill:

"A masterpiece of narrative and perspective."--Boston Globe

"A tour de force . . ."--Chicago Tribune

"Popular history at its best--a taut narrative with a novelist's touch, grounded in careful research."--Miami Herald

"A story that resonates with leadership lessons for all times."--Walter Isaacson, The Washington Post