Small Puddles: The Triumphant Story of Yale's Worst Oarsman. Ever. Paperback – January 1, 2016

Small Puddles is well written, funny and heart-warming memoir of rowing at Yale. I was reading Small Puddles on a flight from CA to , NY and I was laughing so hard the young woman next to me thought I was nuts. At the end of the book I was moved to tears.As someone who was a coxswain, oarsman and assistant HS rowing coach, Zig learned after 4 years of rowing that lack of talent is fine; it is the lack of will and effort that is the shame.At age 68, I helped start rowing at my HS after a 35 year period with no crew program. I was an assistant rowing coach for 6 years, and some of the boys I helped the most were boat busters who were terrible oarsman, who couldn't make any other sport team in the HS.I was born into a rowing family, but I wasn't born on 3rd base. I was the only member of my family to go to college. It certainly wasn't Yale. I worked full-time and earned a BS and MBA at night school.Like Zig, I learned more lessons in the boat than I did in graduate school for my MBA.Zig is a great humanitarian and a gifted author.

I found this book delightfully written. Although the story is not earthshattering, the narrative of your Average Joe Yalie refusing todrown in countless failures, rejections, and insults as he strives to belong on the crew team gives new meaning to that "old college try"as well as evoking hilarious memories for anyone who ever went to college, attempted to do what he had no talent for and never took no for an answer.

I have a few books going, but the rest were ignored for awhile as this became the one I couldn't put down. It held particular appeal to me as:(a) the brother of a career 3V rower - when there was no 4V;(b) a Yale rower myself in the early '90s, when not much had changed since the time of this account, including coaches - loved the chance to reminisce;(c) a reader of the two other great books on the Yale rowing experience from roughly that time period, Kiesling's The Shell Game (heavyweight crew) and Gilder's Course Correction (women's crew) - Danziger's lightweight experience rounds out the collection perfectly.But forget all that. Of more universal interest, it's simply a great read, with inspiring insight into the spirit of one of those guys for whom the attempt is as important as any achievement. I've known a few guys like this, admire them all, wish I was made of the more of the same stuff.

Funny, self deprecating to the extreme, and just totally spot on in all of his observations about rowing crew at Yale. Heartfelt, intense, and spot on about what it is like to row for Yale. Funny to the core--I wouldn't expect anything less from Zig. You can't do better than this to appreciate a coming of age narrative of someone in college who chooses to row crew and, therein, find himself!

Just what I expected: the memoirs of a marvelous story teller, who gave life every ounce he had to give. Delightful, sassy with lovely life lessons woven all through it. Don't expect to hear all about his successes - and he had many - because he writes far more about his misses than his hits, and in doing so, you recognize the lessons he took away from them all. In the end, you hope you can become half as accomplished as Danziger at picking yourself up after a failure, examining what went wrong, why, and what can you do to turn it around...and then you'll wish he'd been your neighbor, or your teacher.. or maybe even your boss.

Very well written and has an emotional immediacy of evoking events that happened 30 years as if they just took place.

Danziger delivers and unflinching coming of age tale about his formative years and challenges at Yale. The world of crew was new to the NYC raised author when he arrived in New Haven and he was eager to embrace a new challenge and join a team of classmates he respected and admired. The only problem was, his skills did not match his enthusiasm for the experience and the coaches let him know that pretty quickly.Small Puddles is a redemptive true story that shows the benefits of perseverance and moxie and Mike's crew experience, though non-traditional, shaped his character and established a strong foundation for later success -- off the water. The author modestly underplays his post Yale accomplishments as Founder of Steppingstone; where his knack for stick-to-itiveness and dogged pursuit of a goal, enabled the organization to thrive and open the door to life changing opportunities for thousands of young people from humble backgrounds.Adults and kids alike will find inspiration in this story, as Danziger shares the slights and stings that we all encounter when things don't first go our way.

I met Mike Danziger many years ago in a ski shop in Alta, UT. He came into the shop I worked at and presented the front desk crew a magic trick. I will never forget this charismatic man. Reading this book emphasized everything I thought to have learned about him and his family through the years over brief visits at the ski shop. I rowed big boats in the Grand Canyon for many years always wondering if crew would have been a good choice for me. After reading this book about Mike's years of rowing I have no doubt I would have loved it like he did.Great job with this book. I had a hard time putting it down. I now feel more kinship with a man I barely knew and his amazing family. It was a truly enjoyable adventure and thank you for inviting us along.

Absolutely phenomenal. Outstanding