Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport [Paperback]

Joli Sandoz (Editor), Joby Winans (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 19, 1999

From Elizabeth Cady Stanton on bicycling to Anna Seaton huntington on rowing, the first anthology of women's personal essays on sports.

With edge, passion, and depth, Whatever It Takes demonstrates the enormous importance of sports for girls and women. These essays deal with everything from finding a mentor -whether it's an Olympic gold winner or a neighborhood coach-to reveling in female team spirit. There are historical selections, as well as discussions of such developments as Title IX. The contributors, including world-class athletes and celebrated writers from Mariah Burton Nelson and Grace Butcher to Diane Ackerman and Maxine Kumin, tackle traditional favorites such as basketball and softball as well as more exotic sports from boxing and motorcycle racing to rock climbing.

Both timely and riveting, Whatever It Takes will appeal to the rapidly growing ranks of female athletes and to their enthusiastic followers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A companion to A Whole Other Ball Game, in which Sandoz collected women's short fiction on women's sports, this book collects women's essays (and some poetry) on the same subject. The authors of the 56 pieces include Diane Ackerman, Annie Dillard, Grace Butcher, Mariah Burton Nelson, Maxine Kumin, and Jewelle Gomez. Although the book covers the expected wide range of athletics, the writing is so superb that it does not feel as if the pieces were selected just to be representative. Standout essays include Teresa Leo's self-deprecating "Seconds," about her high-school decision to leave her dead-end Pennsylvania mining town, and Megan McNamer's "Longing and Bliss," about the importance of basketball in her life despite its being a boys-only sport in her youth. The few short historical pieces included seem pale by comparison. More suited to public libraries, this book could also be added to women's studies collections in academic libraries. Highly recommended.AKathryn Ruffle, Coll. of New Caledonia Lib., Prince George, BC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This impressive "gathering of women's personal writings focusing on participation in competitive sports" brings together memoirs, essays, and a few poems. The authors range from relative unknowns to Pulitzer winners, and the topics are equally diverse--from the amateur boxer who says she wandered into the sport while looking for "something to get me out of the house" to Annie Dillard, who recalls "walking that famously lonely walk out to the mound, our graveled driveway" to hurl baseballs against the garage wall. All of the contributors write passionately about their sports, whether it's a chubby 45-year-old psychologist who gets a kick out of ice skating or a woman who equates motorcycle riding with youthfulness. For browsing or reading straight through, this collection speaks to anyone who harbors a competitive spirit. Sue-Ellen Beauregard

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1St Edition edition (August 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374525978
• ISBN-13: 978-0374525972
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great collection of short pieces!, August 13, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport (Paperback)

A wonderful anthology by women writing about their personal passions. Each piece stands by itself. The range of sports is wide--basketball, baseball, track, climbing, ice skating...each piece from a unique angle. I'm a woman and I love sports, but I was still surprised by the consistent high quality of the writing and by how much I enjoyed almost every piece.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, heartbreaking, and inspirational, June 6, 2000

By 

Martha H. Garvey "book author" (Hoboken, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport (Paperback)

An awesome collection of essays about women and sports by women who play sports. The writing spans the century, and it is both bracing and shocking to read those turn-of-the-century comments...and realize how far we still have to go. I defy you to read this without crying at least once, and yet, somewhere else, laughing so hard your subway partners get jumpy. You may never look at a woman playing sports--or your own body--the same way again. I intend to give this to my 69-year-old Pacers freak mother, my 36-year-old sports t.v.-producing sister--AND my niece, 6, who, every time she leaps into the water, asks, "Do you want to see my grand finale?" Sure I do...and you'll want to see each of these women's grand finales.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book about passion and struggle, September 2, 2002

By 

Mary Malmros (Charlemont, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport (Paperback)

After reading this book, my first thought was of all the things that might have been, and weren't. There are no household names in this book; some, a few, are known to sports enthusiasts. But most of the stories are told by women whose names we don't know or remember. They write about the struggles and obstacles, about battles won and lost -- and always, about the passion that kept them coming back. What might have happened, I wondered, if these women had not had to fight so many battles just to be allowed to play? How far might they have gone if they hadn't had to carry those extra burdens?

The stories are sad, many of them, if only by implication. But the book is inspiring. To every athletic woman who ever felt alone or marginalized, who had to break the "gender line" to do what she loved, there is inspiration, and the knowledge that there are others like us. The sports represented are diverse, but the themes are common. Get this book for the woman athlete in your life -- or the woman athlete inside you.