Books about Surfing and Dancing

One thing about traveling, I get some reading done. It needs to be light reading, though, nothing too heavy. Both of these books fit the bill.

I really liked The Red Bikini. It is the first published novel of a friend in Carrie's book club so I wanted to buy and read it in support of her. Yes, it is a romance novel but it was sensuous without being raunchy. Several of the locations were in SoCal near where Dan and Carrie live so that made it fun, too. The heroine is a divorced women with a young daughter and an ex-husband who is, well, a turd. The woman shows spunk and independence in leaving an unacceptable situation and in dealing in a dignified manner with the a**hole of an ex-husband and uncaring father. Sometimes in romance novels, the women melts at the sight of a guy who treats her chauvinistically but this surely was not the case here. The male love interest in this book is a professional surfer, which puts a nice twist on things. The juxtaposition of an ex-husband who is a doctor with the classy pro-surfer, who is far from the stereotypical beach bum, is insightful.  I also liked that the daughter is woven into the story and that situations take into account the practical realities and commitments of a relationship when there is a child to consider. I would recommend this as a great read.

I will definitiely read the next book Lauren Christopher publishes.

The other book I read was Taking the Lead by Derek Hough of Dancing with the Stars TV show fame. I generally have very little interest in the lives of the stars and almost never read their biographies or memoirs but I like this television show and Derek in particular seems to bring out the best in his dance partners. I was curious about his Morman upbringing and if that had an impact on his values that helped him relate to his co-dancers, partners, and judges. I also enjoy watching the banter on the television show between him and his sister Julia and his best friend and co-dancer Mark Ballas. Derek spent a good portion of his teen years living with the Ballas family in London in order to train for dancing and I was curious to get some insight into families that send their children off to train for a sport as many Olympians hopefuls do. His going off to London was a combination of an intense passion for dance and the upset of a divorce between his parents. Yes, Mormans do divorce I naively was surprised to learn. The slant on the book, "being a leader" seemed contrived to me and did not add anything to the read. He seemed humble and self-deprecating at times while simultaneously making the pretentious claim of being a leader. It was an odd inconsistency that I could not quite resolve. There was one concept, though, that stuck in my mind. It was about looking forward and not berating yourself for the past. Consider a car. The windshield is big relative to the size of the rearview mirror. We are supposed to look forward more than back and that idea appealed to me. This book can be read in a few hours and was well suited for the captive audience associated with an airplane flight. I am glad I read it and, if you are a fan of the TV show Dancing with the Stars, it is worth the read - not stellar - but not bad, either.

Not quite an insightful as I would have hoped
but did give me some background
on Derek Hough of Dancing with the Stars fame.