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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
This book was a detailed and extensive account of Althea's life, and I greatly enjoyed it...albeit the fact that because it's a heavy, detailed book, it could have taken me so longer to read that I ended up skimming some just so I could finish.
informative
inspiring
sad
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
I picked this up on a whim, without ever having heard of Althea Gibson, but being generally interested in Black history (and present and future). I'm also not a tennis player or fan, but I'm aware that it's a very white, elitist sport, maybe somewhat akin to golf in its class exclusiveness (but requiring far more athleticism, obviously). Without ever having actually watched their full matches, I'm aware of the persecution Venus and Serena Williams have endured while dominating the sport, and how they have re-sparked old conversations about gender and race-based physiological performance determinism and accusations of unfair advantages. So I was curious about Althea. It just so happened there were two biographies of Althea Gibson both published within six months of each other, and both exceeding 500 pages. They both had audiobooks available, but this one had more (positive) reviews on Goodreads already, so I went with it.
But after hours and hours of this book, it just is not doing that much to make me want to finish it. I guess because I don't care for tennis that much, and the book is basically giving a play-by-play of every match she played. I may come back to it and finish it, but there's a never-ending supply of more engaging audiobooks - many which deal with very similar topics - vying for my attention.
But after hours and hours of this book, it just is not doing that much to make me want to finish it. I guess because I don't care for tennis that much, and the book is basically giving a play-by-play of every match she played. I may come back to it and finish it, but there's a never-ending supply of more engaging audiobooks - many which deal with very similar topics - vying for my attention.
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
An in-depth look at one of the great female athletes of the 20th Century who has long been overlooked.
How is it possible that a young woman from an impoverished African American family in Harlem overcame seemingly insurmountable odds during the 1950’s to become not just a great tennis player but a champion time and again at Wimbledon and what is now known as the US Open? She became the first black woman to achieve these and other successes, and yet her name is not often recognized outside of the tennis world. This biography by former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs takes a thorough look at who Althea Gibson was; where and how she grew up, how she rose to such heights in a sport dominated by wealthy white people, what obstacles she faced, who helped and who didn’t, and what happened when she stopped playing the game.
While I would not consider myself a tennis aficionado, I certainly remember many of the champions (both male and female) who have succeeded in the sport in my lifetime. From Billie Jean King and Chris Everett through Venus and Serena Williams, with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe (oh, those tantrums!), Boris Becker, right up to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, there have been so many tennis greats who have crossed the line into celebrity. So too did Althea Gibson in her day, but as I discovered through reading this book it was a very different time for tennis and those who played the game. To participate in those tournaments, an athlete had to remain an amateur in status, and therefore was not making large sums of money from appearances and endorsements. As many of the players came from a financially secure background, this was not a huge problem for them, but for someone like Althea the worry of having money for meals and hotel rooms was every bit the concern that playing well was. Jackie Robinson had just broken through barriers in the world of baseball, but Althea faced discrimination and dismissal not only for being Black but for being a woman. Many of the women tennis players of her time were beautiful and feminine, gracious and graceful in their feminine white outfits. Althea was different, very aggressive and athletic in her play, driven to win, not prone to schmoozing the press or ingratiating herself within the tennis world. Her talent could not be denied, but she did not reap the same post-career benefits of the more traditional (and white) tennis players of her generation….no cushy board position at a sporting goods company like Wilson, or offers of writing a sports column for a magazine came her way. Was it because she was a woman? Not entirely, as other women did indeed net such deals. Was it her color? Certainly that was likely a factor. Was it her reserved, often prickly or blunt personality? Again, almost certainly that played into it too. But it meant that this incredibly successful and talented athlete struggled throughout her life for financial security, and towards the end of her life she was living in highly impoverished circumstances. She was a flawed person, and made her share of poor decisions, but she deserved better than what she got. The color of her skin, at a time when race relations were so bad that the US government organized tours of successful Black athletes to show the world that things weren’t as bad in the US as they seemed, was one of the biggest obstacles that Althea needed to conquer, and time and time again she did just that. It is not hard to believe that she was a hero to icons Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean KIng as well as Serena and Venus Williams. Hopefully this biography will start a dialogue that will lead to Althea Gibson getting the recognition today that she so richly deserves, in ways large and small.
You don’t need to love tennis to enjoy this book, though that wouldn’t hurt; you should be prepared to read about some ugly bits of our country’s history while also applauding those who helped to usher in acceptance of all. And be ready to meet a rough, funny, guarded, misunderstood woman who achieved so very much, and the people who helped her, loved her, and lived long enough to tell her story to a generation that had mostly forgotten about her. Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of this well-researched biography of an amazing woman.
How is it possible that a young woman from an impoverished African American family in Harlem overcame seemingly insurmountable odds during the 1950’s to become not just a great tennis player but a champion time and again at Wimbledon and what is now known as the US Open? She became the first black woman to achieve these and other successes, and yet her name is not often recognized outside of the tennis world. This biography by former Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs takes a thorough look at who Althea Gibson was; where and how she grew up, how she rose to such heights in a sport dominated by wealthy white people, what obstacles she faced, who helped and who didn’t, and what happened when she stopped playing the game.
While I would not consider myself a tennis aficionado, I certainly remember many of the champions (both male and female) who have succeeded in the sport in my lifetime. From Billie Jean King and Chris Everett through Venus and Serena Williams, with Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe (oh, those tantrums!), Boris Becker, right up to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, there have been so many tennis greats who have crossed the line into celebrity. So too did Althea Gibson in her day, but as I discovered through reading this book it was a very different time for tennis and those who played the game. To participate in those tournaments, an athlete had to remain an amateur in status, and therefore was not making large sums of money from appearances and endorsements. As many of the players came from a financially secure background, this was not a huge problem for them, but for someone like Althea the worry of having money for meals and hotel rooms was every bit the concern that playing well was. Jackie Robinson had just broken through barriers in the world of baseball, but Althea faced discrimination and dismissal not only for being Black but for being a woman. Many of the women tennis players of her time were beautiful and feminine, gracious and graceful in their feminine white outfits. Althea was different, very aggressive and athletic in her play, driven to win, not prone to schmoozing the press or ingratiating herself within the tennis world. Her talent could not be denied, but she did not reap the same post-career benefits of the more traditional (and white) tennis players of her generation….no cushy board position at a sporting goods company like Wilson, or offers of writing a sports column for a magazine came her way. Was it because she was a woman? Not entirely, as other women did indeed net such deals. Was it her color? Certainly that was likely a factor. Was it her reserved, often prickly or blunt personality? Again, almost certainly that played into it too. But it meant that this incredibly successful and talented athlete struggled throughout her life for financial security, and towards the end of her life she was living in highly impoverished circumstances. She was a flawed person, and made her share of poor decisions, but she deserved better than what she got. The color of her skin, at a time when race relations were so bad that the US government organized tours of successful Black athletes to show the world that things weren’t as bad in the US as they seemed, was one of the biggest obstacles that Althea needed to conquer, and time and time again she did just that. It is not hard to believe that she was a hero to icons Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean KIng as well as Serena and Venus Williams. Hopefully this biography will start a dialogue that will lead to Althea Gibson getting the recognition today that she so richly deserves, in ways large and small.
You don’t need to love tennis to enjoy this book, though that wouldn’t hurt; you should be prepared to read about some ugly bits of our country’s history while also applauding those who helped to usher in acceptance of all. And be ready to meet a rough, funny, guarded, misunderstood woman who achieved so very much, and the people who helped her, loved her, and lived long enough to tell her story to a generation that had mostly forgotten about her. Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of this well-researched biography of an amazing woman.
Thank you St Martin's Press for the amazingly detailed Althea by Sally H. Jacobs. This was a most welcome read as I did not know much, not nearly enough, about the life of Althea Gibson and now have a far better understanding not just of her life but of the meaning of her career and the impact it has had on the sport and recent and current players. At places the book gets repetitve but the power of the life lived is what matters.
This is a timely read as we move into the end of the big tennis tournament season and a great book for nonfiction/memoir book clubs.
Women are allowed to be complicated and Black women have endured centuries of our expectations that they behave one way or another. I appreciate a book celebrating a life filled with challenges, persistence, and accomplishment.
This is a timely read as we move into the end of the big tennis tournament season and a great book for nonfiction/memoir book clubs.
Women are allowed to be complicated and Black women have endured centuries of our expectations that they behave one way or another. I appreciate a book celebrating a life filled with challenges, persistence, and accomplishment.
All of the detail overtook the story. I wanted to hear more about the tennis and her life story, but it seemed to cover every month of her life.
slow-paced
Even growing up playing tennis, I knew embarrassingly little about Althea Gibson, who paved the way for the integration of women's tennis, so I was so glad I could pick up this book and learn more about her story. This book was excellently researched and engaging. I wish Sally Jacobs had spent a little more time on the important matches in Althea's career, as most of them simply stated the score, and only few described simply when the tide turned for or against her in a match. This is a hard book to read, not only the racism that she endured throughout her career but the heartbreaking end of her life alone.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.