As a longtime player and coach, I'm impressed and truly inspired with this football story. It’s easy to embrace the selfless and dedicated group of young men and their equally dedicated coach. As a writer, I appreciate the clear descriptions and engaging sense of drama. I especially appreciate the compassion and respect that permeates throughout.
A journalist with a sharp eye for breaking stories, Thomas Fuller's instincts led him to take a risk when invested more than a year, living with a unique small-school football community, the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, California. He got to know the players and their families, the coaches, the fans. He was also immersed in the unique challenges — and surprising advantages -- that deaf football players have when competing with “hearing” schools. Fuller presents an exciting and compelling story of a team that overcame true adversity. After an unexpected, first-ever winning season and with most players returning for their senior year, Riverside School for the Deaf was a team filled with determination and hope -- a small band of inspiring young men on a quest for the California state championship.
This is a powerful story about defying incredible odds, told with clarity and affection.
The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.
"The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible.” —Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for…
My fifteen years in the airline industry were likely the best time in history to be an airline passenger — and to work for an airline. From 1965 through about 1980, air carriers like Pan Am, BOAC, Continental, Delta, American and United introduced large aircraft and spacious seats at competitive prices. They competed by offering genuine service like leg room, personable staff, and inflight meals that featured actual chefs to carve the roasts on transcontinental flights. There were no TSA lines and no-hidden fees. So when I read David Randall’s informative story of how a number of brave and independent pilots -- in countries like France, England, Italy, Portugal and Argentina — risked their lives in 1924 to prove air travel a possibility, I gained new respect for the industry and those who helped create it.
Randall’s story is filled with action and suspense, as a round-the-world flight race unfolds. He provides descriptions of hard-working and inventive pilot-mechanics-magicians who helped prove that aircraft could fly long distances over treacherous oceans and rugged terrain. In an incredibly dangerous undertaking, pilots from multiple countries proved that aviation was important, exciting and dramatic. They also proved that preplanning, logistics and ingenuity were essential. And that heroic trailblazers can overcome overwhelming odds.
"Thrilling . . . With deep research and suspenseful storytelling, Mr. Randall reminds us that America's pre-eminence in the aviation industry was never assured and that it took a race of unlikely heroes to bring the dream of world flight to the public imagination."-Wall Street Journal
"David K. Randall has conjured the first air race to circumnavigate the globe in all its death-defying glory, featuring a cast of unlikely heroes who had the right stuff before anyone knew what that was." - Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La and 13 Hours
Helen Suzman, a name well known in South Africa but not so familiar elsewhere, could teach politicians a thing or two, as I learned from her engrossing 2014 biography. For nearly fifteen years under South Africa’s abhorrent apartheid regime, Dr. Suzman was the single voice in South Africa’s parliament, speaking against 165 male members of the pro-apartheid government. She displayed courage and tenacity under impossible conditions. Nothing, it seemed, could ever overthrow this unfair and fully entrenched political system. Certainly not a solitary woman. But hold on, because conditions change, new leaders emerge, principles and courage occasionally win out.
As Americans observe the deep frustration and stubbornness of the 2025 congress, we can ask ourselves why they cannot do better. The House majority is currently 220-213; the Senate is 53 to 47 with 2 independents. The opposition party is nearly as large as the majority. Certainly a sizable American minority can do as much as the lone opposing voice of Helen Suzman nearly seventy years ago. Readers should take hope from former ambassador Robin Renwick’s excellent biography, and will find inspiration from Dr. Suzman.
This is another powerful story about defying insurmountable odds, told with insights and great respect.
'The task of all who believe in multiracialism in this country is to survive. Quite inevitably time is on our side...' Helen Suzman was the voice of South Africa's conscience during the darkest days of apartheid. She stood alone in parliament, confronted by a legion of highly chauvinist male politicians. Armed with the relentless determination and biting wit for which she became renowned, Suzman battled the racist regime and earned her reputation as a legendary anti-apartheid campaigner. Despite constant antagonism and the threat of violence, she forced into the global spotlight the injustices of the country's minority rule. Access to…
This is the first book in my Duff Malone series, where we learn about his younger years, when family tragedy caused him to turn inward and to distance himself from personal relationships. Malone grows into an idealistic, self-sufficient man with a passion for travel, and his life is filled with opportunities overseas — first in Nairobi and Cairo, then with American Express in New York and a career aboard luxury cruise ships throughout the world.
When the elegant SS Malolo launched its heralded Millionaire's Cruise in September of 1929, Duff was assigned as cruise director. Amid a group of wealthy passengers who were fully engaged in stock market deals, Duff's job was to keep them happy and shield them from doubt or worry. He knew he couldn’t protect them from harm, because the stock market was out of his hands.
Over three hundred passengers sailed away as millionaires, buoyed by a runaway economy and thoughts of eternal prosperity. The Great War had been won, stocks were soaring, speedy new cars and fancy electric products were all the rage, prohibition was ignored, and clothing and hairstyles were wild and loose and sexy. Just thirty-eight days later — on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 -- the American stock market crashed and their lives were forever changed.
Based on actual events, "The Millionaires Cruise” is a love story set in an era filled with romantic cruise ships, glamorous ports of call, and the emergence of a worldwide fixation on money, fueled by new technology like automobiles, radios, and electric gadgets -- and a volatile stock market. The story is also a mystery, where our characters don’t know what is about to happen to their money, as they cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii, Japan, China and Samoa. But our readers know, since it is based on a real event -- the stock market crash of 1929.
