Jeff Benedict

I'm married to a bioarchaeologist, so while I'm useless with bones myself, I know that you can learn a lot about them. No Bone Unturned is a biography of Doug Owsley, Head of Physical Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute. This book tells the story of his career, repatriating the remains of Americans murdered in Guatemala, identifying the victims of mass crime scenes like the Waco Massacre and 9/11, correcting the historical record at Jamestown, and in the centerpiece of the book, going show more up against the government to study Kennewick Man, a 9000 year old skeleton unearthed on the banks of the Colombia River.

This book is a lot of fun to read, but it uncritically presents Owsley as a scientific hero in the face of obstructionism from the Army Corps of Engineers and the superstitions of the Colville tribes. And reality is much more complicated. Kennewick Man is a unique scientific treasure, but he's also a person. At the time, Owsley believed based on skull morphology that Kennewick Man and the similarly aged Spirit Cave Mummy did not resemble contemporary Native Americans. This was evidence that human migration to the Americas did not solely occur over the Bearing Land Bridge.

Except of course, skull morphology isn't scientific. Subsequent DNA tests showed that Kennewick Man and the Spirit Cave Mummy are closely related to current Native American populations. The long lawsuit may have enabled scientific study of the bones, but Owsley's adversarial tactics feel like a strategic loss. Tribes have to be partners in American archaeological work, and despite protestations that Owsley's career has been full of respect for them, I didn't see it here. That, plus changes in scientific knowledge in the 17 year since, make this a book that has not aged well. show less

Has there ever been a sports figure more focused on then Tiger Woods? Michael Jordan, might come close, or possibly even Magic Johnson. But I think Tiger certainly eclipses them. It's because the story about Tiger is an amazing story. Good or bad Tiger, most of us want to know the story.

In the realm of golf I rate the top five of all time as Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. Tiger probably the tops due to his record and early achievement of that. Yet on show more the flip side has there ever been an athlete let alone a golfer who fell the furthest from the pinnacle?

Jeff Benedict in the latest book on the man lays it all bare. Not a flattering picture of Tiger Woods yet leaving the door open at the end for still a possible happy ending. What I liked most about this bio on Tiger is it got to he heart of the pressures, psychology, and motives that drove him, good and bad. This is not a shot by shot reenactment we often see in sports books and bios. Benedict delves much more on what was going on upstairs and behind the scenes, making for riveting reading.

There are many Tiger worshipers out there, there are many haters. I am not a hater but I did often root against him. Not because I am prejudiced as some would accusingly try to point out, but because of the arrogance and coldness I have perceived in him. I simply liked to see Tiger fail. And so often he did not do so but prevailed like none other. But I certainly always wanted to watch, like many of the millions of sports fans and much to the delight of professional golf and its sponsors.

An amazing story here, the success, the deception, the downfall, the attempted resurrection. It's all here in a spell binding page turner. At the very bottom one cannot feel sorry for the man who was utterly defeated in the sport and his life. And how sorry do we feel for a man will never want for anything materially? Yet this story goes on, it is not quite over, and for sure so many of us, we will be watching. show less

This is probably one of the most important books ever written about college football. It is both glorious and devastating at the same time. No sport seems to have as much majestic pageantry and despicable corruption as this one. For every heart warming story, there is one that just makes you want to vomit in disgust. And NO program gets a break either because ALL of them are tarnished in some way (yes, even my beloved Notre Dame).

Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Tennessee, show more Miami, North Carolina, Florida State, USC...all guilty of the crime of being part of "The System" that continues to get worse every decade. From paying players, dropped sexual assault charges, academic scandals, etc., this book covers it all. It is thoroughly researched using first-hand accounts from tons of people connected to various programs, and is so well written that you can't help but think, "what could possibly top this" as you're reading it.

As a die-hard college football fan, it is sometimes important to take a step back and realize the seriousness involved in supporting such a flawed institution. This book makes all of us die-hards come face-to-face with the grim reality of what college football is REALLY about...greed (winning at all costs) and corruption (doing anything to make that possible). show less

Tito became a Christian in Cairo, Egypt while he was studying there to become a Muslim cleric. His first step into Christianity occurred when he, oddly enough, became a nightclub DJ. This was the '80s, mind you, so the music he DJ'ed wasn't of the techno/electronica variety, which is what came to mind for me when I read the description; rather, it was stuff like Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Tito was (and perhaps still is) a big MJ fan. Jeff Benedict, a SI writer, co-wrote the book. show more Benedict's prose is competent and clear. Tito's fun personality shines through the whole thing (which is an odd thing to write about a book whose content is a sobering as this one's). show less