Gymnastics: Balancing Acts

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book. This is REAL gymnastics!
Review: Gymnastics Balancing Acts is a must read book for gymnasts and fans alike.Christina Lessa did a wonderful job of portraying these gymnastics legends as both gymnasts and actors. From Shannon Miller standing on a horse to Lilia Podkopayeva dressed as a mime, this book shows gymnastics and the legends of gymnastics at its best.

Rating:
Summary: A foot fetisher's dream!
Review: The photos in this book are very nice, but everyone featured is inexplicably barefoot. Not only that, but feet feature prominently within these pages. Weird. Anyway, as another reviewer mentioned, the text is riddled with errors even a casual fan shouldn't miss. If you can tolerate these problems, then you might like htis one.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This book's main focus is on photography; beautiful photos of world class gymnasts playing dress up and wearing different costumes that mostly relate to their personality. There are also pictures of them in the gym, or doing gymnastics. Comments, thoughts, and quotes from the gymnasts are printed in each of their sections throughout the book. As some have mentioned, some of the results listed in the front are wrong, so that's why I'm only giving 4 stars. And about the gymnasts being barefoot: THEY ARE GYMNASTS! THEY COMPETE BAREFOOT. So it makes since for them to be barefoot in the book. Gymnasts featured are: All Mag 7 members (Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden, Jaycie Phelps, Kerri Strug), Julianne McNamara, Mary Lou Retton, Trent Dimas, John Roethlisberger, Chainey Umphrey, Cathy Rigby, Kim Zmeskal, Bart Conner, Nadia Comaneci, Peter Vidmar, Jair Lynch, Svetlana Boguinskaia, Lilia Podkopayeva, Mitch Gaylord, Abe Grossfeld, Mariel Grossfeld, Ivan Ivanov, Jordan Jovtchev, Ivan Ivankov, Vitaly Scherbo, and Olga Korbut. Bela Karolyi, Shannon Miller, and Dominique Dawes write forwards and intros. Shannon Miller is on the cover.

Pictures range from Shannon looking like a princess standing on a horse (an actual live animal), to Kerri Strug dressed like a ballerina, to Bart Conner covered completely in gold body paint, to Lilia dressed like a mime, and more. There are also gymnastics poses, like Jaycie Phelps doing a tumbling series on the beam.