Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the Pursuit of Happiness in America Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other... (more)

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa

by Sherley Ann Williams, Mark Mathabane

Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself... (more)

The Inner Game of Tennis

by W. Timothy Gallwey

The Inner Game of Tennis is a revolutionary program for overcoming the self-doubt, nervousness, and lapses of concentration that can keep a player from winning. Now available in a revised paperback edition, this classic bestseller can change the way the game of tennis is played.

Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life

Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life

by James Blake

In 2004, James Blake's life was getting more perfect by the day. A rising tennis star, with each passing year his game seemed to improve. In 2002, he was named Sexiest Male Athlete by People , and along the way he continued to gain in the rankings and earn respect on the court. Each day seemed to offer a new milestone, a new achievement; he was leading a charmed life and loving every minute of the ride. But... (more)

A Champion's Mind

by Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now. In A Champion’s Mind , the tennis great who... (more)

Girlfriend Material

by Melissa Kantor

If Kate were Lady Brett Ashley, the devastating heroine of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises , she'd spend her summers careering around the Riviera in her coupe, breaking hearts by the dozen--because why not ? In reality, Kate's never even had a boyfriend, and she'll be spending the summer abetting her mom's lame ploy to make her dad jealous: running off to Cape Cod and crashing at the seaside home of her wealthy... (more)

Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open (Final Four Mysteries (Hardcover))

Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U.S. Open (Final Four Mysteries (Hardcover))

by John Feinstein

Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson return in another fast-paced, action-packed sports mystery from bestselling sports writer John Feinstein. The two hopeful sports reporters have kept in touch after their wild time at the Final Four, and when Susan Carol manages to score a press pass to cover the first week of the US Open Tennis Tournament in New York, Stevie works out a way to be there as well. The... (more)

The Thrill of Victory

by Sandra Brown, Erin St. Claire

A classic love story by bestselling author Sandra Brown, where betrayal is only a heartbeat away from desire, and love can be found in the most unexpected places. Stevie Corbett is in jeopardy of losing everything she's sacrificed and worked so hard for -- her career, her reputation, her future. Her life . Now she has just two weeks to make a monumental decision, but her fate rides on keeping the truth a... (more)

You Cannot Be Serious

by John McEnroe

John McEnroe stunned the tennis elite when he came out of nowhere to make the Wimbledon semifinals at the age of eighteen-and just a few years later, he was ranked number one in the world. You Cannot Be Serious is McEnroe at his most personal, a no-holds-barred examination of Johnny Mac, the kid from Queens, and his "wild ride" through the world of professional tennis at a boom time when players were treated... (more)

Game, Set, and Match (Going for Gold)

by Donna King

Ever since Cassie was old enough to hold a tennis racket, her dad has been training her to be the best. Now age twelve, she's a star player with fast reactions, long legs, and an excellent backhand. But something is wrong: she just doesn't feel the same way about tennis anymore. She keeps having to choose between her friends and tennis -- between having fun or endless hours on the court. When Cassie is whisked... (more)

Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played

Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played

by L. Jon Wertheim

In the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final, Centre Court was a stage set worthy of Shakespearean drama. Five-time champion Roger Federer was on track to take his rightful place as the most dominant player in the history of the game. He just needed to cling to his trajectory. So in the last few moments of daylight, Centre Court witnessed a coronation. Only it wasn’t a crowning for the Swiss heir apparent but for a... (more)

Open

An Autobiography

by Andre Agassi

A stunning memoir by one of the world’s most beloved athletes—a nuanced self-portrait, an intensely candid account of a remarkable life, and a thrilling inside view of the pro tennis tour.

On the Line

by Serena Williams

One of the biggest stars in tennis, Serena Williams has captured every major title. Her 2009 Australia Open championship earned her the #1 world ranking for the third time in her illustrious career - and marked only the latest exclamation point on a life well and purposefully lived. As a young girl, Serena began training with an adult-sized racquet that was almost as big as her. Rather than dropping the... (more)

Vanishing Act

by John Feinstein

Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson return in another fast-paced, action-packed sports mystery. The two teenage sports reporters have kept in touch after their wild time at the Final Four, and when Susan Carol manages to score a press pass to cover the first week of the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York, Stevie works out a way to be there as well. The behind-the-scenes action in the world of professional... (more)

Nancy Drew Files: Book 7

Deadly Doubles

by Carolyn Keene

Nancy is abducted by terrorists when she poses as a government courier to deliver a document vital to top-secret negotiations with a country on the brink of revolution.

The Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship

The Rivals: Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova Their Epic Duels and Extraordinary Friendship

by Johnette Howard

In the annals of sports, no individual rivalry matches the intensity, longevity, and emotional resonance of the one between two extraordinary women: Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Over sixteen years, Evert and Navratilova met on the tennis court a record eighty times—sixty times in finals. At their first match in Akron, Ohio, in 1973, Chris was an eighteen-year-old star and Martina, two years her junior,... (more)

Levels of the Game

by John McPhee

This account of a tennis match played by Arthur Ashe against Clark Graebner at Forest Hills in 1968 begins with the ball rising into the air for the initial serve and ends with the final point. McPhee provides a brilliant, stroke-by-stroke description while examining the backgrounds and attitudes which have molded the players' games.

Myron Bolitar Mysteries: Book 2

Drop Shot

by Harlan Coben

Valerie Simpson is a young female tennis star with a troubled past who's now on the verge of a comeback and wants Myron as her agent. Myron, who's also got the hottest young male tennis star, Duane Richwood, primed to take his first grand slam tournament, couldn't be happier. That is, until Valerie is murdered in broad daylight at the U.S. Open and Myron's number one client becomes the number one suspect.... (more)

The Tennis Partner (ARC)

by A. Verghese

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 addition, 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... (more)

Sudden Death

by Rita Mae Brown

Outrageous, irrepressible and endlessly entertaining, the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle and Bingo spins a behind-the-scenes tale of women's professional tennis that dramtically intertwines the heart-stopping excitement of competition and the lingering heartache of intimate human bonds. Carmen Semanan loves three things passionalty: tennis, money and professor Harriet Rawls. Just twenty-four,... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: tennis

by David Foster Wallace

by Sherley Ann Williams, Mark Mathabane

by W. Timothy Gallwey

by James Blake

by Pete Sampras

by Melissa Kantor

by John Feinstein

by Sandra Brown, Erin St. Claire

by John McEnroe

by Donna King

by L. Jon Wertheim

An Autobiography

by Andre Agassi

by Serena Williams

by John Feinstein

by Carolyn Keene

by Johnette Howard

by John McPhee

by Harlan Coben

by A. Verghese

by Rita Mae Brown