Well, Ms. Jacobs certainly did her homework. I was moved to tears on more than one occasion. Sometimes out of awe for Ms. Gibson and sometimes out of frustration for the things that happened to her. I grew up watching tennis and while I knew Ms. Gibson's name in theory, I knew nothing. That is a shame and Ms. Jacobs has done her best to make sure we never forget.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC

Very well researched biography of a tennis great. Coming of age between Althea's time and the rise of Serena and Venus, and now Coco, I was intrigued by Althea's formative years, her "tennis years", and her later years. Solid (and needed, in my opinion) book for avid tennis fans--and those who aren't.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for accepting my request to audibly read and review Althea The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson.

Narrated by Chanté McCormick

Overall this was a low three star experience. The line between two and three stars was significant with the narration tipping the scale over. Chanté McCormick had the perfect matter of fact voice.

This read like a documentary of black history with Althea sprinkled in.

I picked this story up to learn about Althea Gibson, all her firsts, her trials, and her thoughts. There could have been a story without all the name dropping. Sadly, the ending would be the same either way. Too many people, specifically athletes, are lost in the crowd once their usefulness wears off. It was heartening to see those who never gave up calling Althea knowing she probably wouldn't answer.

This was too dry and encyclopedic for my tastes.

I am so glad this book crossed my path. Sometime in the last 3 years I became aware of Althea and have become more and more curious about her. This book is exactly what I was looking for. A full biography of one of the most important tennis players to ever enter the sport, and yet so few people are aware of her.

She was #1 ranked female tennis player in the world for both 1957 and 1958, the first African American to win a Grand Slam title (the French Championships), Wimbledon and the US Nationals (precursor of the US Open). She was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments: five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title.. Seven years later she broke the color barrier again where she became the first Black woman to join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

Despite those incredible accomplishments Althea never received the recognition that other Tennis athletes have, nor the monetary compensation.

Read this book. Learn her story. Share it with others.
It's the bare minimum that Ms. Gibson deserves.

***Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with the Audiobook for free via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

The story of tennis legend Althea Gibson, this biography is wonderfully written and beautifully narrated in its audiobook. I haven’t read Althea’s autobiography, but this book is so comprehensive that I feel like nothing was left out here.

The preface of this book shares that Althea’s name isn’t as well-known as it should be, and I count myself as one of the people who was less familiar with her life. I encourage readers to pick up their own copies if they want to know more about one of the legends of tennis and the blueprint for Black players in the sport today. Althea’s impact on tennis and sports, in general, can’t be overstated and definitely shouldn’t be overlooked.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

Well respected and easy to follow, Sally H. Jacobs did a great job of bring Althea Gibson to life. I really enjoyed the deep dive into her background from growing up in Harlem to breaking color barriers despite wanting nothing to do with activism.

A very in-depth telling of the life of tennis player Althea Gibson.

I'll admit, I had never heard of Althea before this book. That is a travesty since she was a trailblazer in her sport from the beginning. Reluctant as she was, she broke racial barriers in tennis in the same manor as Jackie Robinson. But she was also a woman which added a deep difficulty that she struggled with her entire life.

This is a long read and very straight forward. It is strictly educational and may have been better read in hard copy rather than audio.

#netgalley advance Audiobook review.

Before the Williams sisters, before Arthur Ashe there was the original GOAT Althea Gibson!

This is the second biography written by author Sally H. Jacobs, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, the first was The Other Barrack. Jacobs adds to a small but rapidly growing list of books about Althea Gibson, including one autobiography initially published in 1958 and republished in 2022 with a foreword by Billie Jean King.

What makes this particular book about Althea Gibson worth reading or listening to?

First, it was well-researched over a 4 year period. The author conducted more than 150 oral history interviews and utilized primary source documents, many of which seem to be referenced for the very first time in print.

Second, the author reviews Althea’s history through a contemporary lens and growing societal understanding of institutional discrimination: racial, gender, socio-economic and sexual orientation. Never shying away from the harsher realities of her difficult childhood and detractors or overlooking her many champions, mentors, chosen family and supporters. Althea emerges as fully human, both perfect and flawed.

Third, it includes a great, modern history synopsis detailing the Harlem Renaissance which Athlea lived in the wake of. Also the histories of the sport of tennis, modern tennis associations, black tennis and its stars, the ATA Jr Development Program run by Dr J, the early days of integrating the sport, and examples of discrimination and segregation in American sports and society with a focus on the 1940s and 1950s.

Chanté McCormick, an award winning audiobook performer with training in speech and theater, has a voice that can be sincerely described as an instrument. She can choose to modulate, employ an accent (in this case southern) when needed and infuse her voice with emotion or restraint. For this audiobook she often chooses restraint with bursts of unexpected emotional force, which I feel compliments Althea. McCormick’s work is a testament that an audiobook can be, at its height, a wholistic performance that both compliments and enhances the book.

Whether you’re a long-time admirer of this legend and disruptor Althea Gibson, or a brand new fan, this book is worth your time which is nearly 19 hours in audiobook format.

I particularly enjoyed learning about her challenges abc successes in pursuit of education. Dropping out after middle school in Harlem she excelled at high school in Virginia under the tutelage of tennis coach/activist/physician Dr. Hubert Eaton and his family. She attended Florida A&M University on a full tennis scholarship.

Content Warning: child abuse and neglect, racism, sexism, homophobia, substance abuse

What. A. Life.
I cannot believe I’d never heard of Althea Gibson until now. I love tennis and followed avidly the careers of Venus and Serena Williams, but I never knew their forerunner was a Harlem champion of paddle tennis before being discovered by people who saw her athleticism and took pains to teach her the sport.

This book was so well researched and thorough and it taught me so much - more than getting to learn about a tennis legend, I learned about the tumultuous times she lived and grew up under. She was so fierce and so admirable— but the author didn’t polish over her less than stellar traits, she presented her in this book as fully human with all her beauty and flaws and the result was that it made her even more relatable and heroic. I cannot even imagine how it must feel to be silenced on the world stage about your lived experience as a Black woman living in a racially charged country and participating in a racially charged sport.

I loved how Sally Jacobs gave insight not only into Althea’s life but also shed light on the state of global affairs and made the effort to anchor Althea’s timeline into what was actually going on in the United States at the time of her rise to notoriety. She also she’d light on the inner world of tennis amateurs and pros - it was really cool to see how they all knew each other and befriended one another even as they fought tooth and nail to beat each other on the court.

Again, I really appreciated how human she was- when tennis was not working for her to make a living wage, she moved into singing and golf- what a talented woman Althea Gibson was. It’s so sad to think her relatively unknown in the world today when she was such a powerful force of life. If you enjoy tennis, this is an excellent read, shedding light not only on the sport but on the challenges of living as a world famous Black American in the Jim Crowe era of the United States.

I’d like to thank Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

3.75/5 stars

Only reason this isn't higher - it was too long. Not that Althea Gibson's life wasn't fascinating and amazing, it was! But Sally Jacobs tended to repeat things and, in my opinion, go off on side stories that were related but not directly impactful to the main story. The repetitiveness and tangents made it feel longer than it needed to be, but the story was still great.

But wow, this was such an interesting story! I had never heard of Althea Gibson but now I'm so glad I have. The writing was good quality, her story was amazing, and I really loved getting to learn more about Althea, tennis, and the time. This is an important story that I think everyone should read.

I admittedly didn’t know a ton about Althea Gibson before receiving a copy of this book to read and review, but I love tennis and history, so I was excited to dig in. I alternated between reading and listening to the audiobook - I had the audiobook pretty sped up since the narration was kinda of slow and monotone.
Althea Gibson’s life, overall, was certainly heartbreaking, but she didn’t let any of the trials she faced hold her back. I can’t imagine having her determination and I truly admire her after reading this book. She was an absolute force and inspiration and should be way more widely recognized. I know it’s a sign of the disgusting times in our history that she was so easily cast aside despite her incredible talent, but she should definitely be praised now - I’ll definitely have to hunt for Althea Gibson children’s books to purchase for all my friends babies, so her name can be up there with Sally Ride and Katherine Johnson in their admirable female role models.
This book is heavy on the facts, but told well enough to keep attention. It’s definitely not a binge read - maybe a good bedside table book to pick up and put down with leisure. And it’s very long, which leads to my one star removal. I’d have a hard time recommending it to people who aren’t tennis or history buffs or any of my strictly fiction/romcom friends who’d probably find this book boring. But as far as a long into an incredible life, Sally H. Jacobs had created an incredible book about a bad*ss woman. I felt like I missed Althea as soon as the book ended.

I did not know much about Althea Gibson other than she was a US tennis champion. Learning about how this scrappy girl from New York became the number 1 tennis player in the world was amazing. Tennis when Althea was playing was not like tennis today. She never made anything from her tennis and had to have other jobs just to afford to live. She was a true groundbreaker in tennis and golf and yet she only wanted to really just play the game.
This would have been 5 stars except it felt repetitive at times and could have been tightened up a bit.
Thank you to #NetGalley and #macmillanpublishers for the digital ARC in return for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think this is my first nonfiction arc and it took me a long time to start it and a longer time to finish it. The audiobook is 18 hours long and it was definitely a slog at some points. I enjoyed hearing about the context of major issues in the country and interrelationships between Althea and the major players of the time. I learned a lot about her as well, and she is someone I had literally never heard of before now. They lost me a bit on the play by play of matches and allll of the various tournaments. I know that several are really important to understand in that detail but I had a hard time getting through it all.

This is my very first ARC ever and I was so excited!! This book exceeded my expectations! Before Serena and Venus Williams, there was Althea Gibson. The author took us on a journey about a phenomenal athlete from the streets of Harlem to become a Grand Slam and Wimbledon Champion. The author goes into great detail about her upbringing. Her father abused her and she would do anything she could do avoid not going home because she knew another beating would await her. She was frequently mistaken for a male and her sexuality was frequently questioned. If you are a tennis fanatic you may very well love this book. Althea was her own person which many people saw as selfish but she worked just as hard to get to where she was going. As a fantastic player, Althea Gibson took years for her to succeed. She was getting little money and when her tennis days were over she started to play golf in the LPGA. Again, there wasn’t as much money in golf but she had much more support from her fellow golfers.

I found the end to be quite sad, I wished she had a better life. Her health started to decline and had little to no money to live off of, but I’m so happy she was an inspiration to women all around. Even the Williams sisters and Zina Garrison. I enjoyed learning about this great player.

4 stars

I have been recommending this book to all my friends! I knew little about tennis, golf, or Althea Gibson before starting to read this biography, but I enjoyed every page! Althea is an amazing woman & this book is well researched & written.

[What I liked:]

•I didn’t know much about Althea before picking up this book, but she is incredible! Besides all of her very impressive athletic achievements, I especially admire that she was unafraid to be herself, despite the unrelenting racism she faced & even under pressure from all sides to conform and be more feminine, etc. She has a truly interesting life story & I wish I knew about her sooner.

•I learned a lot about the civil rights movement, the history of tennis as a sport, and the racial integration of sports in the US. This is a very well researched book & I appreciate all of the work the biographer did to help contextualize Althea’s life & story.

•Even though this is a long book I never got bored reading it. It’s very engaging & well written. I kind of didn’t put it down for two days!


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Honestly, there’s nothing I disliked about this book!

CW: racism, sexism, homophobia, child abuse, substance abuse, infidelity

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I am ashamed to admit this, but as a former college tennis player, I did not know much about the great tennis legend Althea Gibson. How and why did I not know about her athletic fetes and incredible life? Anyone who has ever picked up a tennis racket (or done any sport for that matter) this book should be required reading.
I didn't know what I was getting myself into. This biography brings all the emotions to the court. Sally Jacobs leaves it all our there for the reader. This was a deep dig into her turmoutulous past and inspiring life. Althea's difficult childhood left me in shock that she was able to over come evrerything and maintain such spunk and drive. I loved the confidence she had and she opened so many doors for future generations of tennis (and golfers!)
Again I am sad to say when you may have asked me if I could meet any tennis player in the world, she had not been on my list. But after reading this delightful recounting of her life and career I can think of nothing more pleasurable that sitting down and sharing an order of McDonalds Pancakes in one of her fancy cars and diving deep into a conversation.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves the game of tennis. Althea thank you for all that you did for the game!

Thank you Netgally for this advanced reader copy. I was not influenced in anyway for this honest review.