Natural Born Heroes

February 2, 2015
Journalist McDougall (Born to Run) travels to the Greek island of Crete to serve up a mixture of mythic heroics and still-applicable fitness techniques. There, with amateur historian Chris White's help, he explores how, in 1944, Greek partisans and British commandos abducted Nazi Gen. Heinrich Kreipe. Further delving into the Greek resistance, McDougall offers astonishing stories about shepherds turned partisans, George "the Clown" Psychoundakis, known to run over 50 miles nightly with a 60-pound pack on his back and on a diet of nothing but boiled hay, and Costi Paterakis, who ran cross-country to shoot, from a quarter mile away, a German commander about to order a massacre. He also documents contemporary heroes like the Pennsylvania elementary school principal who singlehandedly saved her school from a machete-wielding stranger. Throughout, McDougall pauses to consider what exactly makes a hero a hero, examining history, anatomy, physiology, and fitness. This book reads as a page-turning historical account, with fitness techniques and instruction embedded throughout. Readers, regardless of their fitness levels, should come to the end feeling both inspired and a little bit winded.

November 15, 2014

Researching his triumphant Born To Run, which spent a combined 206 weeks on the New York Times best sellers list, McDougall encountered legendary ancient Greek "all-day runner" Pheidippides, which led to his investigating the long-standing techniques for endurance, natural movement, and nutrition that allowed Greek soldiers of yore to run all night through the mountains. Even if you're not planning to run all night, these techniques could do a lot for you. With a 300,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 29, 2015
Veteran British voice-over actor Smith does his best to handle the wild ride of journalist/author McDougall latest book, which explores sports and fitness from scientific, historical, and cultural perspectives. McDougall examines a relatively little-known Allied success story from late in WWII, when a highly unorthodox unit of covert soldiers from the United Kingdom banded together with the local Greek Resistance to kidnap a Nazi general on the island of Crete. Smith does an effective job of juggling the distinctive accents from all over Europe in the primary story line. The challenge—for both Smith as a performer and for listeners—comes with McDougall’s continuous asides, challenging our current notions of what constitutes strength, endurance, and heroism, and highlighting the exploits of iconoclastic heroes from other points in history. Smith tackles the transitions as smoothly as possible, but audiences not steeped in the subjects at hand may still have a difficult time keeping up with the story. A Knopf hardcover.