In 2019, after a second World Cup win with the U.S. Women's soccer team, Megan Rapinoe spoke to her fans and asked them to work to make their world better. "We have to love more, hate less, listen more, talk less," she said. "This is everybody's responsibility." Rapinoe expands on this message in her thoughtful memoir, One Life, which takes its name loosely from the famous Mary Oliver quotation that also serves as the book's epigraph: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?"
One Life is Rapinoe's answer to that question: soccer and social justice. The memoir outlines her somewhat meteoric rise from youth leagues to national teams, packed with play-by-plays of some of her biggest and most career-shaping games as a player (including three World Cups and two trips to the Olympics). Rapinoe also reviews her work as an activist; as one of the first openly gay players in soccer history, she realized how much her sense of justice was tied to her success in her sport. "I couldn't imagine being an effective player if I wasn't completely honest. I play my best when I'm free." Since then, she has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, fought against the unequal pay of women soccer players based on their gender, and kneeled during the National Anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and the Black Lives Matter movement. "Arms out wide, claim your space," she tells her fans and readers--and that's exactly what she does here, with an inspiring memoir that reveals a strong, quick-witted writer whose words are as quirky as her on-field persona and as thoughtful as her activism. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm