Sweet: An Eight-Ball Odyssey

by Heather Byer

When Heather Byer moved to New York from the Midwest in the early 1990s, she was like thousands of newcomers before her: wholesome, overeducated, ready to jump head-first into the ruthless, exciting... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159448936X
• ISBN13: 9781594489365
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

required reading for pool players...

...or for anyone looking for a story about transformation. Anyone who plays pool, however casually, will appreciate Byer's descriptions of nail-biting games. And anyone who has tried to learn something new as an adult will appreciate her frustrations as her game alternately improves and falls into slumps. I'm not sure what felt most familiar to me--her descriptions of New York City, her passionate love for the game, or Byer herself, a smart strong woman who is used to being good at things and who finds herself struggling madly to grasp this complicated and under-appreciated game. Her depictions of the world of league pool are so vivid, those who play will nod with recognition, and those who don't will feel as if they do. Most important, we get to watch her grow and change both as a player and as a person. If pool is your game you must read this book. Even if it's not, this is a beautifully-told story of a woman learning to hold her own in a world largely dominated by men. I couldn't put it down.

Playing Pool in New York

An out-of-town girl learns to play pool in this fun memoir. New Yorkers will also love the flavor of their city throughout the book.

Sweet - A Pool Player

This book is informative, interesting and easy to read without becoming boring. I liked the way the author described her experiences and how she related those experiences to the theme of the book. I highly recommend this book to everybody.

Like Michael Lewis for pool!

Propulsive, addictive, such a deeply satisfying read. Makes low-stakes pool a metaphor for breaking through all kinds of barriers. One of the best memoirs.

Full pockets

This is a delightful book, one that took me by surprise as memoir qualifies as my least favorite genre. But I started reading it, largely because I am a New Yorker (by adoption if not birth) and I like pool - not enough to brave the New York chapter of the American Poolplayers Association, but enough for misty-eyed memories of summers at my grandfather's table in Austin, Texas. That the author, Heather Byer, is far more certain in her literary voice than she is in her 8-ball skills makes her a terrific companion on every page, especially in her deft portraits of the Manhattan pool-bar world.