The only book of its kind, Tennis and the Meaning of Life is a resplendent collection of the best fiction (and poetry) written about this extraordinary sport/obsession. Contributors include Ellen Gilchrist, J.P. Donleavy, Barry Hannah, Ring Lardner, Somerset Maugham, William Trevor, E.B. White, Irwin Shaw, Wallace Stegner, and many others.

"An award-winning author shares the inspiring and entertaining account of his pursuit to become a nationally competitive tennis player--at the age of sixty. Being a man or a woman in your early sixties is different than it was a generation or two ago, at least for the more fortunate of us. We aren't old.

Golf is a disease, not a game. Especially when you take the game up in your fifties, as I did. After a series of injuries stopped my recreational tennis play, and my retirement from a lifetime of coaching and teaching tennis, I tried golf. It didn't take long to realize it was not an easy endeavor. Someone said, "You can't learn anything from a golf book, but you have to read a lot of golf books to find that out!" I found the gurus of golf instruction: Ledbetter, Pelz, and Hogan, who was said to have written the book with the secret! I did find one that really attracted me but in a somewhat different way.

Takes you on a journey from the Olympic Games in Athens to the World Cup in Germany - via the Ashes series, the Ryder Cup, Wimbledon, and more. This book examines why sport holds us all in such thrall, how it uplifts and crushes us - and can seem to matter more than life itself.

An unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live and how they survive, from Abraham Verghese, the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water, an Oprah's Book Club Pick. “Heartbreaking. . . . Indelible and haunting, [The Tennis Partner] is an elegy to friendship found, and an ode to a good friend lost.”—The Boston Globe When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow. Just when it seems nothing can go wrong, the dark beast from David’s past emerges once again—and almost everything Verghese has come to trust and believe in is threatened as David spirals out of control.

Designed to guide and inspire those who may be in search of answers, this book of thoughtful quotes from eminent people around the globe, and touching photographs associated to each quote, offers insight into the deepest questions about life meaning for human kind.

Jimmy Connors is seldom considered when one discusses the best tennis players ever. Nevertheless, he was the most successful, with an all-time best 109 tournament victories through the 1970s and 1980s including eight major championships, and during the 1970s he was the world's No. 1 ranked player for a then unprecedented five consecutive years. In this carefully researched, admiring account of Connors' blue-collar rise through the tennis ranks shepherded by Gloria, the ultimate tennis mum, sports journalist Joel Drucker describes how mother and son pushed their way into the aristocratic tennis oligarchy with determination and hard work. Though popular as a charismatic and energetic joker on court, Connors wasn't always nice, had a temper and projected a mild paranoia. The chip on his shoulder that carried him out of Belleville, Illinois, to a number-one world ranking also antagonized the press, his opponents and the tennis establishment. But it was Connors' determination that inspired Drucker to pursue his career, hence the book's title. first-hand experience to craft a book that is both a comprehensive biography of Connors and a memoir of the author's life. Connors ignited a tennis revolution, personifying the notion that an athlete could be both a sports superstar and cultural icon, and by a fusion of rage, desire, ambition and talent Connors showcased the sport as no one before him. In chronicling the life of the enigmatic superstar, Drucker reveals in candid detail the profound emotional impact Connors had on him as his own life intersected and ultimately clashed with the tennis superstar.

Chronicling the tumultuous life of the original bad boy of tennis, this engaging memoir describes one man's public battle with clinical depression. Cliff Richey was best known for the 1970 season in which he won the Grand Prix, the Davis Cup, and was first in the American tennis ranking. He was also well known for his tantrums and boorish behavior that served to mask an internal, dark struggle. Describing torturous days in which he would place black trash bags on the windows and lay in bed crying for hours, this brutally honest narrative stresses that depression is a mental disorder that can affect anyone. Documenting his 10 year fight for control of his mind, aided by antidepressant medication, the determination and strength that afforded him the nickname of "The Bull" is highlighted. Expressing the joy of feeling stable for the first time in his life, this deeply moving story of nightmare and redemption serves to encourage and inspire anyone whose life is touched by mental illness.

If we understood the true role of money in our lives, writes philosopher Jacob Needleman, we would not think simply in terms of spending it or saving it. Money exerts a deep emotional influence on who we are and what we tell ourselves we can never have. Our long unwillingness to understand the emotional and spiritual effects of money on us is at the heart of why we have come to know the price of everything, and the value of nothing. Money has everything to do with the pursuit of an idealistic life, while at the same time, it is at the root of our daily frustrations. On a social level, money has a profound impact on the price of progress. Needleman shows how money slowly began to haunt us, from the invention of coins in Biblical times (when money was created to rescue the community good, not for self gain), through its hypnotic appeal in our money-obsessed era. This is a remarkable book that combines myth and psychology, the poetry of the Sufis and the wisdom of King Solomon, along with Jacob Needleman's searching of his own soul and his culture to explain how money can become a unique means of self-knowledge. As part of the Currency paperback line, it includes a "User's Guide" an introduction and discussion guide created for the paperback by the author -- to help readers make practical use of the book's ideas.

Tennis is one of the world’s most popular sports, as levels of participation and spectatorship demonstrate. Moreover, tennis has always been one of the world’s most significant sports, expressing crucial fractures of social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity - both on and off court. This is the first book to undertake a survey of the historical and socio-cultural sweep of tennis, exploring key themes from governance, development and social inclusion to national identity and the role of the media. It is presented in three parts: historical developments; culture and representations; and politics and social issues, and features contributions by leading tennis scholars from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The most authoritative book published to date on the history, culture and politics of tennis, this is an essential reference for any course or program examining the history, sociology, politics or culture of sport.