Today's post is on God and Starbucks: An NBA Star Loses Everything, Starts Over, and Achieves Success by Vin Baker. It is 256 pages long and is published by Amistad. The cover is a close-up of the author when he was still a basketball player. The intended reader is someone who is interested in memoirs. There is mild foul language, talk of sex and no violence in the memoir. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- An astonishing memoir of redemption—the moving story of a former top NBA player who miraculously rebounded from a monumental fall thanks to hard work and his deep, transformative faith.
Sixteen years ago, Vin Baker was an NBA All-Star, an Olympic Gold medalist, and a multimillionaire. While he excelled on the court, Vin harbored a dark secret: a dependency on drugs and alcohol that began after the clean-cut preacher’s son turned pro. Eventually becoming a full-blown yet functional alcoholic, Vin convinced himself he played better under the influence—until his addiction cost him his basketball career, his fortune, and his health.
But Vin’s story isn’t a tragic fall from grace. It is a joyous tale of salvation. For Vin, hitting rock bottom was a difficult yet transformative experience that led him to renew his relationship with God and embrace life in a rich and fulfilling new way. Today the manager of a Starbucks and a youth minister, Vin has found more security and happiness in his ordinary working life than in all his years in the glamorous world of professional basketball.
God and Starbucks is a wise and unflinching look at the real dangers of addiction and the importance of taking charge of your life with meaning and purpose. It’s a powerful memoir about reaching the top and beginning again from the bottom—an inspiring personal tale of humility and grace that reminds us what is truly important in our lives.
Sixteen years ago, Vin Baker was an NBA All-Star, an Olympic Gold medalist, and a multimillionaire. While he excelled on the court, Vin harbored a dark secret: a dependency on drugs and alcohol that began after the clean-cut preacher’s son turned pro. Eventually becoming a full-blown yet functional alcoholic, Vin convinced himself he played better under the influence—until his addiction cost him his basketball career, his fortune, and his health.
But Vin’s story isn’t a tragic fall from grace. It is a joyous tale of salvation. For Vin, hitting rock bottom was a difficult yet transformative experience that led him to renew his relationship with God and embrace life in a rich and fulfilling new way. Today the manager of a Starbucks and a youth minister, Vin has found more security and happiness in his ordinary working life than in all his years in the glamorous world of professional basketball.
God and Starbucks is a wise and unflinching look at the real dangers of addiction and the importance of taking charge of your life with meaning and purpose. It’s a powerful memoir about reaching the top and beginning again from the bottom—an inspiring personal tale of humility and grace that reminds us what is truly important in our lives.
Review- A decent memoir about a man who is trying to get his life back. Baker gives an overview of his life and the choices that he made that led him down the road of addiction. We travel with Baker from his childhood to where he is now and it is a hopeful story. Baker believes that he can still have a good life in spite of the poor choices he made in the pursuit of alcohol. I hope that he can keep going the way he has been for the past few years. While Baker does not spare himself, he does lift up the people in his life that tried to get through to him. As the title implies religion is a very big part of the narrative but it is not front and center. It is a background voice that is always calling to him. A hopeful memoir and a quick read.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I was given this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
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