JULY 2019 - AudioFile
Sullivan Jones comfortably narrates John Urschel’s focused memoir, which alternates between his life as a football player and his off-the-field mathematical studies. It’s evident that Urschel is a rare high-level athlete who is not one-dimensional. Jones’s storytelling is spot-on. Occasionally he imitates someone, like a Southern teammate who has a bit of a drawl or a professor asking a question. It’s just a slight shift, and just enough. He seems genuinely interested in the audiobook’s topics, and the listener will be, too. Urschel brings both passion and approachable explanations to the sections on higher math. With an eager tone and vocal clarity, Jones brings together Urschel’s multifocal story. M.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/14/2019
Urschel, a former guard for the Baltimore Ravens, shares his lifelong attempts to reconcile math and football in his captivating memoir. Urschel recalls his childhood attraction to puzzles; they gave him a glimpse of a more logical and orderly world than the one in which he lived as the child of divorced parents. By middle school in Buffalo, N.Y., Urschel, bigger than many of his classmates, wanted to play football in order to fit in. While his lawyer mother encouraged him to develop his considerable intellectual abilities, his father, a surgeon, urged him to develop his football skills. In alternating chapters he recounts his pursuits in both: he enrolled at Penn State in 2010, where he played football and studied math. After graduating, he was drafted in 2014 by the Baltimore Ravens, with whom he played for three seasons; in 2016, he enrolled as a PhD candidate at MIT. Math, Urschel writes, “gives me a way of making sense of the world. It helps me see past the confusion of everyday life and glimpse the underlying structures of the universe.” Urschel’s brilliant memoir explores the challenges of making difficult choices and the rewards of following one’s passions in life. (May)
From the Publisher
Captivating. . . . Urschel’s brilliant memoir explores the challenges of making difficult choices and the rewards of following one’s passions in life.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[Mind and Matter] follow[s] Urschel through the academic and athletic rigors that expose the sharp contrasts and surprising connections between the two passions that shape his life—one taxing his brain with proofs and calculations, the other toughening his muscles with gridiron competition. The candid narrative conveys both the intellectual excitement of mathematically formulating the irregularities of an asteroid’s orbit and the physical trauma of sustaining a concussion in blocking a blitzing linebacker. A piquantly improbable memoir.”—Booklist
“The most creative people are those who can embrace very different disciplines: Einstein loving music and physics, Leonardo da Vinci with his art and engineering. John Urschel, in this delightful memoir written with Louisa Thomas, describes his passion for both football and mathematics. He makes Joe Paterno’s fall and Newton’s three-body problem of moving objects equally interesting. But this book is about something much deeper: the importance of grit and determination in all fields of endeavor. Urschel has mastered that in his life, and he can inspire all of us to do so as well.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci
“A charming memoir on the joys of solving puzzles and pushing yourself past your so-called limits. It’s not every day that you read a book by an NFL lineman who’s working on a math PhD at MIT, and John Urschel reminds us that a full life depends on exercising both your brain and your body.”
—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
“John Urschel’s charming autobiography-so-far about his journey through the highest levels of football and mathematics will give you some hope that the ideal of the student-athlete is still alive; and you’ll learn some math, too.”
—Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong
“Meet ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’: John Urschel. Having reached the highest level in football, he’s on his way to doing the same in math. His beautifully written memoir is a fun, fast-paced look at the route to excellence, and a tribute to old-school virtues like hard work, determination, and curiosity.”
—Steven Strogatz, professor of mathematics at Cornell University and author of The Joy of x
JULY 2019 - AudioFile
Sullivan Jones comfortably narrates John Urschel’s focused memoir, which alternates between his life as a football player and his off-the-field mathematical studies. It’s evident that Urschel is a rare high-level athlete who is not one-dimensional. Jones’s storytelling is spot-on. Occasionally he imitates someone, like a Southern teammate who has a bit of a drawl or a professor asking a question. It’s just a slight shift, and just enough. He seems genuinely interested in the audiobook’s topics, and the listener will be, too. Urschel brings both passion and approachable explanations to the sections on higher math. With an eager tone and vocal clarity, Jones brings together Urschel’s multifocal story. M.B. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
