“One Life” Book Review

Book: “One Life” by Megan Rapinoe

Genre: Memoir

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Blogger’s Note: Thank you to Penguin Press for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warning: This book featured some explicit language and the author takes a blunt approach to many political and social justice hot topics.

This book was written by the famous professional women’s soccer player Megan Rapinoe. As a United States Women’s National Soccer Team member and social justice activist, Rapinoe details her experiences throughout her personal and professional career that have led her to where she is today.

This woman is spunky. She is determinedly blunt and straight forward with her reader, and I loved that. She opens her book with an introduction and tells the reader very clearly what to expect. She lays groundwork for an honest discussion on things like sexual orientation, race, politics and yes… soccer.

Starting this memoir, I was reading with a fresh slate as I didn’t know much about Rapinoe’s soccer history. I don’t follow women’s collegiate soccer, so I wasn’t familiar with all of the amazing players that Rapinoe had played with early on. Once the book moves towards the USWNT, the content became familiar but the author shares the untold stories behind the famous moments. The behind the scenes details of key games and pivotal soccer plays were amazing to learn about. She manages to bring the electricity from the pitch to the paper that will capture the hearts of true soccer fans.

In true Rapinoe fashion, her book will most likely be polarizing. She unapologetically challenges readers to show up in whatever fashion they can, where ever they are and make a difference in their community.

“When you know yourself and your strengths, there is always something you can do to raise the standard for everyone.”

Megan Rapinoe “One Life”

The book covers the oppressive nature of the US Soccer Federation, the “Kneeling Protest” for which Rapinoe took a lot of grief in the media and provides a full bodied discussion of LBGTQIA+ issues. In some instances the author over generalized issues. Perhaps this was done for clarity sake, but these all or none statements were extremely divisive and made the book’s message feel a little more choppy. The loss of cohesiveness was a disappointment. With that being said, the majority of the book had a positive and determined stance that hopefully will be a catalyst for change.

The writing in this book wasn’t impressive, but the author’s passion made up for that. This book is worth the read, even if just to stimulate some further thought on some extremely important topics.

Recommendations: Highly recommend for USWNT fans or someone interested in learning more about Megan Rapinoe or “The Kneeling” Protest.