Reviews

Straight Up by Ruby Tui

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ashleighday3's review

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challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

trinamarie's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

Hmmmm, interesting

This memoir by Kiwi Rugby Sevens player Ruby Tui & NZ singer Stan Walker's memoir [b:Impossible: My Story|50255973|Impossible My Story|Stan Walker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1608343261l/50255973._SY75_.jpg|85972392] employed the same ghostwriter, Margie Thomson. & both books to me feature an amazing theme of the ability to forgive people in their childhoods who have done them both a great wrongs.

Until just before this book was published, most people didn't know the truth of Ruby's childhood. I'll leave it for you to discover in this book - other than at the end there is just the slightest tinge of bitterness when she says;

"...even my Dad's choice of alcohol above anything else in his life, including me..."

Ruby could have chosen to have her life take a very dark turn - but she didn't. She worked like a dog to get a university education & discovered rugby gave her a sense of belonging that no other sport did. Even after training and hard, physical work she remained small, but her speed, determination & team spirit made her perfect for rugby sevens & her personality should give her a media career long after she retires from this sport.

The section I found most fascinating was her candid discussion (I don't think Ruby does any other kind of discussion!) of her own sexuality & her refusal to be put in any kind of box. This will make me look at sexuality in quite a different way & is totally in keeping with Ruby's wonderful free spirit.

I think Ruby will succeed in what ever she puts her mind to - & I hope that she writes the next installment of her memoirs on her own. The only other Kiwi sport memoir that I have ever enjoyed was Jeremy Coney's [b:The Playing Mantis|7860428|The Playing Mantis|Jeremy Coney|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1457849926l/7860428._SX50_.jpg|11008164] & I hate cricket even more than I hate rugby! This book is unique among Kiwi sports star memoirs in that Coney wrote it himself.

Part of her motivation for writing this book came from a visit to her local bookshop.

I stood in the sports section, and I searched and searched. I pulled out book after book, but there wasn't a single biography on a Kiwi female in the whole section. I eventually found an autobiography of Billie Jean King, a famous white American tennis player who did amazing things, but that was it.

I pictured a young brown female sportsperson walking in there and seeing herself nowhere, not belonging in the book world. My eyes welled up right there in the bookshop. I have to do this.

I'll just finish with a You tube clip that shows why Kiwis (even rugby haters like me!) love Ruby Tui.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvdvEiFL0h0&ab_channel=AndrewForde

Ruby is awesome!