Nathaniel Philbrick is a Nantucket staple. The perfect primer for understanding the island and its history.

I'm so happy Penguin is releasing a new edition of this book, which I had never read before despite reading a good number of Philbrivk's books. This well written memoir covers a year of sailing that re-awakened in the author a love of a sport he had grown up competing in a new connection to his family. Highly recommending"

I have greatly enjoyed National Book Award winning-author Nathaniel Philbrick’s nonfiction books for adults in the past such as: Mayflower, In the Heart of the Sea, and Valiant Ambition. He has a gift for making history come alive. As a librarian for children and young adults, I have also admired his books aimed at younger audiences. So, when I was given the chance to review one of his books that was originally published in 1992 which has been reissued, I was happy to do do. It is delightful writing but quite different from his usual writing. Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor’s Odyssey is a personal account of Philbrick’s taking up sailing 15 years after he had given it up in his early twenties. At the time, Philbrick was a stay-at-home dad working on a book about Nantucket, where he and his wife and two kids lived. Although it hadn’t been sailed in years, he still owned an old, “dirt-encrusted” Sunfish sailboat which he called the “VW bug” of sailboats. Philbrick fixed it up and set a goal of competing in the 1993 Sunfish North Americans, to be held the following July. He also gets his wife and children involved in sailing and sets out to practice his skills by sailing bodies of water in the Nantucket area. If you are interested in sailing, you will enjoy this quick read. If you are not, I would recommend that you read one of his histories instead. Thank you Mill Hill Press and Net Galley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy and for the opportunity to review this book.