Every so often, books show up at my house unannounced, courtesy of a publisher that has my address. Resilient by Booke Wells is one of those books. It looked interesting, but what got it to the top of my reading list was my Hype TBR game on YouTube. I needed a book with a gray cover, and since I’m trying to read more non-fiction in 2024, it won out.

Resilient [Buy Bookshop Amazon LibroFM] is a memoir from a star of the CrossFit world. She writes about a dramatic injury she sustained during a competition and the subsequent recovery. Brooke pushed herself to not just heal and get back to the gym, but to make it to the CrossFit Games one year later.

This book starts quite strong with the lead up to the injury and what happpened shortly after her elbow dislocated mid-lift. This part of the story really drew me in and definitely made me make a few faces as she described the pain. The middle of the book is less engaging, as you’d expect from the recovery portion. It doesn’t carry as much tension as competition, but it’s also filled with medical jargon that can take the reader out of the story.

Overall, there’s a great story here. Just go into it knowing that Brooke is an athlete and not a writer. The prose itself isn’t stunning, but if you can look past the technicalities of it, you’ll find a pretty powerful look at overcoming challenged and pain.