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Wait Till Next Year (Abridged): A Memoir Audiobook
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(3.01) - 2,302 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
By the award-winning author of Team of Rivals and The Bully Pulpit, Wait Till Next Year is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball.
Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, Wait Till Next Year re-creates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans.
We meet the people who most influenced Goodwin’s early life: her mother, who taught her the joy of books but whose debilitating illness left her housebound: and her father, who taught her the joy of baseball and to root for the Dodgers of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, and Gil Hodges. Most important, Goodwin describes with eloquence how the Dodgers’ leaving Brooklyn in 1957, and the death of her mother soon after, marked both the end of an era and, for her, the end of childhood.
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"If you grew up in the 50's and early 60's and enjoy baseball, you'll love this book! Kearns Goodwin shares what it was like growing up in Brooklyn when da Brooklyn bums ... er, Dodgers ... were trying to win a World Series. She describes listening to the games on the radio and keeping score in her scorebook so she could sit with her father after dinner and give him a blow-by-blow description of the game. (She didn't realize until later that box scores were published in the newspapers!). Goodwin is a great writer, but this one is special because she actually lived the history she is writing about. I loved this book!"
— Dick (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Ms. Goodwin has…made familiar events seem fresh again, as if they were happening for the first time only a couple of days ago.”
— New York Times -
“Lively, tender, and…hilarious…[Goodwin’s] memoir is uplifting evidence that the American dream still exists—not so much in the content of the dream as in the tireless, daunting dreaming.”
— Boston Globe -
“A poignant memoir…marvelous…Goodwin shifts gracefully between a Child’s recollection and an adult¹s overview.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“As the tenured radicals attempt to rewrite our nation’s history, the warm, witty, eloquent personal testimony of someone of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s stature is well worth reading.”
— Baltimore Sun
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
Wait Till Next Year Listener Reviews
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" Kearns Goodwin's account is a memoir of childhood, framed by her relationship with the Brooklyn Dodgers. You don't have to love baseball to enjoy this book (though it definitely enhances your experience). The unique circumstances of her connection to the Dodgers - sharing their trials and triumphs with her family and friends - is the draw of the book, but readers come away with more. The historian in her is able to tie together the incredible moments of history from the mid 40s through the late 50s with her beloved Dodgers and her growth as a young girl. She's a storyteller - and makes these connections well - but I kept wishing for something just a bit deeper. "
— Jennifer, 2/15/2014 -
" This was a great book. I completly got lost in her wonderful story! "
— April, 2/8/2014 -
" Loved every minute of this book. As a lifelong New York Mets fan, whose love of baseball was instilled by my Dad, I could relate to much of it, even though I am much younger. "
— Susan, 1/26/2014 -
" Dads and daughters. Good stuff. "
— Robin, 1/10/2014 -
" A memoir about growing up in New York in the 50's with baseball and the Catholic church at the center of the author's life. "
— Doris, 12/31/2013 -
" This memoir is a story that shouldn't have been told. Many parts were cute, the "small things in life" aspect to her small town and her love for baseball, but the events are so loosely connected, it hardly paints the "big picture" that a memoir should. "
— Kelsey, 12/27/2013 -
" One of my all time favorites, on so many levels. "
— Kasa, 12/26/2013 -
" Excellent and entertaining historical look at the baseball travesty which ended in the move to California of the Brocklyn Dodgers. Very well written. "
— Kay, 12/24/2013 -
" really good book. i learned so much about baseball! "
— Brittany, 12/18/2013 -
" Definitely a book for baseball lovers that no one else would probably be interested in. But I liked it! I also love history, so maybe that explains part of it too. "
— Gretchen, 12/16/2013 -
" I'd forgotten that I read this book until I saw it on a friends list. I don't even like baseball but I loved this story and found the young girl's relationship with her Dad to be very touching. "
— Susan, 12/15/2013 -
" Goodwins reminiscences about growing up in the 40's and 50's in Brooklynn, particularly regarding the Brooklynn Dodgers. Lovely, sweet period piece, recaptures baseball of the era. Very nice. Even if you are not a baseball fan, more so if you are! "
— Tom, 12/12/2013 -
" One can only imagine have hard it must have been for Brooklyn to lose the Dodgers. Lucky for Ms Goodwin that she was able to adopt the Red Sox. "
— Scot, 12/1/2013 -
" The master historian writes a tome about her own life. The book is interesting, if a bit slow at times. I enjoyed it even though I'm a Yankees fan! "
— Dave, 11/25/2013 -
" This is 3 1/2 stars. I enjoyed the book, a good memoir about growing up in suburban New York in the post war years and especially about being a Dodgers fan. I remember seeing Goodwin interviewed in Ken Burns' Baseball series. She almost makes me think I could enjoy following baseball. Almost. "
— Lila, 11/21/2013 -
" I could read this every summer! "
— Dorothy, 11/16/2013 -
" This is a sweet, but not cloying, memoir -- I recommend it for baseball fanatics, of course, but also loved the different perspective -- so many baseball memoirs are from the male POV, so it was interesting to read DKG's take on growing up in a baseball household. "
— Genie, 9/27/2013 -
" Easily read memoir of Kearns and her family growing up inlove with Brooklyn Dodgers. Not her best work, she writes better about others than she writes about herself. "
— Jim, 7/29/2013 -
" I live this every year being a Sharks fan! "
— Jeff, 12/28/2012 -
" Now that I know a bit more about baseball, I should reread this. Baseball was a way for DKW to connect with her father. I appreciated that with my mother. "
— Suellen, 12/10/2012 -
" Memoir about growing up in the New York of the 1950's and the way baseball played such a huge part in the lives of family and community. A feel good kind of book. "
— Krista, 10/5/2012 -
" I enjoyed this wholeheartedly, but even more interesting for me than Goodwin's stories about her childhood were her stories about a three-baseball-team New York; when she wrote about the Dodgers and the Giants leaving for California, my heart just about broke for the city. "
— A., 9/2/2012 -
" Wonderful! Baseball and growing up in NY.. "
— Jill, 1/27/2012 -
" I could picture myself doing many of the same activities growing up, including keeping the box score (the Indians, not the Dodgers). "
— Maureen, 10/30/2011 -
" If you want to read a memoir that centers around the Brooklyn Dodgers this book is for you! "
— Ruth, 7/31/2011 -
" I'm not huge into autobiographies, but this book was decent. I loved the stories of the baseball teams and how they related to her childhood. "
— Sara, 6/22/2011 -
" Of all Doris Kearns Godwin's books I like this one best. She evokes a time and place similar to what I experienced as a child. The love between members of her family is palpable. Readers can see the historian as she develops. A wonderful book. "
— Warren, 5/17/2011 -
" This is a delightful memoir of the author's early years on Long Island in the 40's and 50's and her love affair with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Written with great affection for both her neighborhood, her team, and her time, this was quite an enjoyable read. "
— doug, 4/26/2011 -
" Not much of a fan of sports; But I did enjoy how this book was played out. "
— Margaret, 4/14/2011 -
" Kick off baseball season with a good baseball read. "
— Roger, 4/11/2011 -
" Love this book, read it for the second time. Great memoir about baseball/growing up in the 1950's and 60's. "
— Peter, 3/28/2011 -
" One can only imagine have hard it must have been for Brooklyn to lose the Dodgers. Lucky for Ms Goodwin that she was able to adopt the Red Sox. "
— Scot, 2/17/2011 -
" Doris Kearns Goodwin is a master storyteller as she weaves the triumphs and tragedies of the Brooklyn Dodgers with her own up and downs in her personal life. Nice to see Rockville Center play a major role. "
— Tommy, 1/14/2011 -
" This was the most engaging book. As a female baseball devotee, I was mesmerized by her story of being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan as a child. The current events and story of her childhood woven in made this all the more interesting. Alas, she went on to become a Red Sox fan! "
— Susan, 1/9/2011 -
" Well written. More than anything it makes me want to be back in a city with major league baseball. "
— Whitney, 1/1/2011
About Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a #1 New York Times bestselling and award–winning author of acclaimed works of nonfiction. Her work for President Johnson launched her career as a presidential historian. Her first book was Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln. She won the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, for which she was executive producer.