unladylike 's review for:

Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson by Sally H. Jacobs

DID NOT FINISH: 39%

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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.