Powerful and raw look into Shannon's triumphs and difficulties of her professional and personal career. I enjoyed hearing about her backstory and I think the flow and pace were nice. Great read and willing to read more!

Lady Ref is a great book about a woman breaking barriers to show she belongs in a man's world. Shannon shares that path that led her to be the first woman referee in the NFL. It took a lot of work and a LOT of resilience. The only (very minor) thing I questioned a bit was the chapter titles. The concept of going through "Pregame" and such was clever, but didn't really hold throughout the middle of the book. Great job though!

I am all for female empowerment stories and of course anything to do with football. Page one starts with Seattle Seahawks and Pete Carroll talk and that was an even better bonus.
I always say I like my memoirs to be specifically about the persons moment of life that I know them for and I felt like her backstory and childhood was dragged out a little too long but I also understand that that makes up who she is and how she got to the NFL. Overall it’s a really cool look at the behind the scenes of one of my fav sports and releases just in time for kickoff!

Shannon Eastin is a trailblazer in the world of sports officiating, breaking barriers, overcoming obstacles, and carving a path for herself in male-dominated spaces.

“Lady Ref: Making Calls in a Man’s World” delivers reflections on the personal struggles, sexual harassment, and misogyny Eastin faced in her pursuit of becoming an NFL referee. This is a densely-packed, detailed read from childhood forward, including her triumph as a champion in Judo.

While the bones exist for an engaging story, unfortunately Lady Ref reads less like a memoir and more like a transcript from dictation software. The lack of careful editing and narrative structure cuts off the ability to emotionally invest and results in a unsatisfying reader experience.

This is not to say that Eastin herself isn’t compelling. More that a co-writer’s job is to take a volume of experiences, anecdotes, and facts from their subject and break it down to the essentials. Which experiences in Eastin’s past gave meaning and context to her present career?

Digging into a few carefully curated stories would show the internal struggle and external conflict. Instead, this is stuck in a resume of “And then this happened…” achievements which rarely dig beneath the surface. The most triumphant and controversial moment of Eastin’s career as a strikebreaker merits a few scant paragraphs and some vague hand-waving – a significant missed opportunity.

Despite its shortcomings, the memoir does illuminate the battles women face in professional sports. Perhaps with a second pass that focuses on strong and effective storytelling, Eastin's resilience and determination can shine.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Rowman & Littlefield for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date Sept 13th, 2023.