One of my favorites. Read it twice. Made me want to get my butt off the sofa, and go for a run. Loved the characters, the adventure, and the ending. Very pleasant read. ( )

Flanagan - Trans Amer. race, Doc Cole, Morgan, McPhail, Lord Thurleigh, Kate
Excellent running bk!

In 1931 Charles C. Flanagan, a grand-scale promoter in the P. T. Barnum vein, organizes a cross-country footrace from Los Angeles to New York, with a purse of $150,000 for the winner. Two thousand runners from around the world gather to participate in the grueling trek, which takes them through mountains, deserts, plains, and cities, forcing some friends and some alliances, tempered of course by the intense competition of the situation. Only a portion of the novel is set in Illinois, but organized fisticuffs in Springfield and organized crime in Chicago provide interesting and lively entertainment, along with period views of those cities.

Acquired via BookCrossing 24 Feb 2010 - from Sorcha's TBR cull

A novel based on an attempt at a trans-America road race in the 1930s, this would possibly not appeal to the non-runner, although it is a good story with plenty of twists, politics, and some violence. It is a little old-fashioned in terms of the descriptions of some characters (the little Mexican, the icy Finn etc and the descriptions of the woman in the race) but it's also a good old-fashioned story, the likes of which you don't get much any more, and some excellent descriptions of actual running (the author has coached athletics teams at a high level, and it shows)

I think I'll save this to release around the Half Marathon in October. ( )