An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Team tennis is a recurring theme in recent interviews with Billie Jean King as she promotes her latest autobiography, “All In.” To this day, she believes that team tennis is a promising format that can ultimately draw new fans to the sport. In Billie Jean King’s vision, tennis is best when women and men compete together.
Elizabeth Wilson is a cultural historian who turned her attention to the game of tennis in ‘Love Game: A History of Tennis from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon.’ The book is a sweeping history of the sport viewed through the lens of the world around it. The result is a brilliant and densely packed intellectual examination of tennis. It is a “must-read” for true tennis enthusiasts.
William Skidelsky is a literary editor for the Observer who stepped away from junior tennis before returning to the sport as an adult. “Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession” is a memoir of his life framed out against his super fandom of Roger Federer. It is a brilliant literary tactic that makes his own story relatable while simultaneously drawing in Federer super-fans who similarly obsess over the player.
I have never personally experienced tennis elbow. I want to attribute that statement to good stroke mechanics and diligent strength training, but it probably has more to do with luck. Previously, when people in my orbit asked me about treatment options for tennis elbow, I really didn’t have much to offer. That all changed when a copy of Tennis Elbow Relief: Serving up solutions for lateral epicondylitis by Emma Green first hit my hands.
Leading up to the release of ‘All In: An Autobiography’ by Billie Jean King last week, this site reviewed many of the previous books about her life. One notable omission was ‘Billie Jean King’ with Frank Deford. It was a simple matter of logistics. A copy of the Deford book did not fall into my hands until shortly after ‘All In’ was released. In retrospect that may have been a stroke of luck. The Billie Jean King biography is arguably best consumed after first reading ‘All In.’
“All In: An Autobiography” of Billie Jean King was the most anticipated tennis book of 2021 for me. As the most impactful female in the history of athletics, there are already several biographies previously published on her life. It might be tempting to assume that the story of Billie Jean King has already been exhaustively told. However, even when revisiting events documented in previous sources, All In brings a fresh perspective and additional color to all that transpired. With All In, we finally have the definitive book about the life of Billie Jean King.
“All In: An AutoBiography” by Billie Jean King was released two days ago. I am in the middle of a very busy week at work and haven’t yet completed my initial reading. Last weekend, in anticipation that I would not be able to turn around a review in two days, I hedged my bets by rewatching the “Battle of the Sexes” movie starring Emma Stone as Billie Jean King and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs. My review of “All In” will run next Thursday.
“All In: An Autobiography” of Billie Jean King will be released in five days on August 17. In the interim, I am passing the time by revisiting previously published books on her life. This week’s selection is positioned as a history book on the revolution in women’s sports. Interweaving the biography of Billie Jean King with the emergence of women’s athletics makes the history more accessible than when presented as a standalone topic. That story is virtually inseparable from the life of Billie Jean anyway.
I am counting down the days until the release of “All In: An Autobiography” of Billie Jean King which drops on August 17. In the meantime, I am revisiting previously published books on her life. First up is another autobiography, “Billie Jean” that was published in 1974. That work captures the chaos of the early days of the WTA as well as that moment when Billie Jean arrived at the realization that she was much more than “just a tennis player.”
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Pam Shriver’s book is a “Year in the Life” account based on her personal diary from 1985. While technically categorized as an autobiography, it is more accurately regarded as a snapshot of one year presented in sharp relief. Many of the details recorded in the book are not significant in the overall arc of Shriver’s life story. However, every day is a fascinating account of what professional tennis life was like in the mid-1980’s.