THE UNDERDOG Joshua Davis Buy The Book!

Reviews:

The LA Times says "The Underdog" is "laugh-out-loud funny."

The San Francisco Chronicle calls The Underdog "a charming and oddly poignant quest" in a lengthy profile of Josh.

"The world has run out of challenges, so we've had to invent new ones," writes Davis in a dorkily charming account of his quixotic mission to win at something, anything . . . . The rewarding Underdog proves that Davis is a winner at something.

--Entertainment Weekly

"Joshua Davis' dream to excel in the sporting arena is taken to great lengths in this funny memoir-travelogue...all with very funny results."

-- The Financial Times Magazine

If there was ever a book written for dart players, that doesn't have anything to do with darts, but that might shed some light onto our drive to succeed and give us something to chuckle about, this is it.

--Dartplayer.net

"Reporter Joshua Davis has done some crazy things to get a story," says Lisa Mullins, the host of National Public Radio's The World. "He hitched into Iraq during the US invasion and he went into rebel held terriotry in Colombia to test out a new strain of coca plant. Well, now he's really done it . . . ." Listen to the the full interview.

Joshua Davis intertwines a fearless appetite for adventure and absurdity with an incredible gift for telling a story better than anyone I've read, making him a contender for this generation's Mark Twain.

--Boo McAfee, Founder of World's Fastest Drummer Contest

[The Underdog] is a funny, beguiling quest that proves that losing is more enlightening--and entertaining--than winning.

-- Publishers Weekly

It is VERY VERY VERY PLEASANT to read it! Davis is a wizard of the pen.

--Paolo Pessina, Founder of The Golden Shrimp Backward Running Championship

Davis may not have realized his childhood sporting ambitions, but he has found his metier, and as a describer of outlandish pastimes, he has few peers.

-- The Telegraph (London)

The Underdog is as bright, energetic, funny, and ludicrous as its author, and is, finally, irrefutable proof that he is good at something .

-- Baltimore City Paper

[Davis'] prose manages to capture the euphoria, absurdity and the despair of the training process of each challenge. His prose is amusingly self-deprecating but full of confidence. He shows a curiosity about the world from the vantage point of someone who knows nothing and is not afraid to admit it. He captures the wonder of learning something new - and the frustration and self-doubt that inevitably goes with it - and the way that such learning is never wasted. Even if you don't win.

-- Spike Magazine

“Davis embodies the unique idiocy that made America great. He might move the goalposts so much that they're in an entirely different game, but it's still clearly the frontier spirit at work here: deeply personal, post-modern, manifest destiny for the Jackass generation. One can't help but find it all rather endearing.”

--Mil Millington, author of Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About

"This is a decidedly weird book, but weird in a way that tells us all sorts of things about what drives people to compete against each other. Ultimately, Davis contends that the nature of the competition doesn't matter; it's the act of competing, the comparing of strengths and weaknesses, that gives us what we crave: the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Young Adult Rating: Anything with a high weirdness rating has appeal for teens, and this scores a perfect 10."

--Booklist

Joshua Davis wanted to be world class in something. He succeeded -- he's a world class story teller with world class heart.

-- The Joy of Bocce Weekly

The Underdog is driven by swift quips and self-deprecating humor that will keep you laughing . . . . Davis is so endearing that his striving for victory and masculinity in the most offbeat manner he can find is always interesting.

-- Philidelphia City Paper

Davis has a talent for infusing his writing with personality, and the personality here is a charming, funny one. Self-deprecation is his starting point and a quality he stays loyal to throughout, but he manages to pull it off with sincerity -- it doesn't become the hallmark of ego that it might in a lesser author's hands. The result is a book that, as its title suggests, will have you rooting for it.

--AskMen.com

This is a thoroughly entertaining book, put together by a highly skilled writer with a pronounced sense of humour.

-- The Grumpy Old Bookman Blogger

[A] wild odyssey that's up there with the best participatory journalism. Four Stars.

-- Pop Syndicate

Now, let us join our hands together alongside our mouths and scream "Go, Joshua Davis, go!" For Joshua Davis has taken a page from George Plimpton's book and challenged the world's best. . . . [The Underdog is] funny, true, and a glorious example of the stupid things one can do if one really, really wants to.

-- Contra Costa Times

What's more impressive? A 134-pound "writer-type" who goes to the mat with a 450-pound sumo wrestler (and survives) or an unknown magazine staff writer who asks one of the biggest producers in the [film] business for a producer credit (and gets it)? Both describe Joshua Davis.

-- Hollywood Reader - Publishers Weekly

Engagingly funny and poignant.

--IGN.com

"Joshua Davis bullfights and wrestles his way through this amusing tour of sporting events around the globe. By showing up to rumbles outmatched - but unfazed - Davis earns his competitors' respect. He doesn't always win, but he's never at a loss for words."

--Wired Magazine, Septmeber 2005

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