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Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes (Billie Jean King Library) | 
 enlarge | Author: Billie Jean King
Creator: Christine Brennan
Publisher: LifeTime Media Inc.
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $14.57
You Save: $5.38 (27%)
New (34) Used (15) Collectible (2) from $4.70
Rating:  10 reviews
Format: Illustrated
Media: Hardcover
Edition: illustrated edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0981636802
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.342092
EAN: 9780981636801
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Billie Jean King's victory over Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" was a pivotal moment in gender relations for generations of American women and men. But her journey to the "Battle of the Sexes" was no accident. Now, for the first time ever, Billie Jean shares the life lessons that led to her success in that match, in sports, and in the world at large. Published in conjunction with the 35th anniversary of this monumental event, Pressure is a Privilege uses the Billie Jean King / Bobby Riggs match to illustrate what she learned in her early life that brought her to that event and the lessons that she learned from it. Packed with the common-sense lessons by which Billie Jean has lived her remarkable life, as well as words of wisdom and inspirational advice for how you can use these lessons, Pressure is a Privilege is an invaluable tool for any person in any profession who wants to achieve a richer, more fulfilling life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Catchy Title November 22, 2008
I bought this as a gift for my daughter, who has been under alot
of pressure lately. We are using the title now as a mantra.
The book is not a How To book. More of an autobiography.
I admire Billy Jean for all she did for women's tennis.
 A look into a mind of an everyday woman who did wonderful things October 10, 2008
One upping a man in tennis thirty five years ago has given Tennis star Billie Jean King much to think about. "Pressure is a Privilege: Lessons I've Learned from Life and the Battle of the Sexes" is her autobiography of her life as a figure for feminists and a model for gender relations. With a good dose of common sense and wisdom, "Pressure is a Privilege" is a memoir worth reading for a look into a mind of an everyday woman who did wonderful things.
Great Advice from a Great Champion October 7, 2008
Billie Jean King is one of my heroes. She is from my generation, and as an amateur tennis player, she is "the greatest" to me.
This is an advice book, full of ideas useful on and off the court. There is no greater advocate of women's sports and tennis in general than this lady.
The book relates the impact of her famous match against Bobby Riggs, her preparation for the match and realization of what it meant to all women. How proud we all were when she "beat the socks off of him."
While she has achieved equal pay for women at the major tournaments, she herself played the best of five sets against Riggs, something women still do not do in pro tennis. Some critics say that women should play the longer matches to earn equal pay.
Regardless of one's opinions about tennis tournaments, this is an excellent compendium of advice for facing all sorts of challenges in life. Those who excel at something certainly earn the higher level pressures they face, hence pressure is indeed a privilege.
It is a small, short book, well worth the time to read and expenditure of the low Amazon price.
AN INSPIRATION FOR ALL September 11, 2008
GREAT READ! GREAT GIFT! I am going back to buy 10 more copies as gifts for my mother, father and other family and friends!
As a former college athlete - one of the millions of women who benefited from the hard work of and changes created by Billie Jean King, I was thrilled to read personal thoughts, memories, and advice - straight from Billie Jean King herself!! This is a quick, entertaining, and informative read that gave me countless tools to better deal with personal and professional life challenges. I HIGHLY recommend it! I'm giving it as a Christmas gift to everyone I know!!!
 Billie Jean King is a great lady - this book is not August 21, 2008
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Where is Billie Jean?
I was delighted to get an ARC for Billie Jean King's book, since I think of her as an extraordinary woman, one who has not only been a #1-ranked tennis player, but a woman of integrity, who championed the Title IX for equal disbursement of Federal funding for male and female sports in schools, World Team Tennis, the Virginia Slims Tournament, equal pay for women's tournaments, women's liberation and for non-discrimination in life style choices. I have always admired her for her willingness to take a position, albeit unpopular ones, because it was the right thing to do.
That being said, I am sorely disappointed in her book. It's not that the book isn't well written, as prose goes, it's just fine. And, actually, her subtitle does indicate that her book is about lessons she has learned and The Battle of the Sexes. I was hoping that the book was about more than the subtitle. My mistake.
She does list and discuss these lessons and her set of life principles with great enthusiasm, and I agree with them all.
The problem is that these lessons and principles are not new ones; certainly lots of champions and even everyday people live by these same principles. They are good principles to live by, and it isn't a bad thing to be reminded of how powerful they can be in your life. But she could have talked about all of these things in one chapter, as a prelude to telling us about herself. Instead this book is about stating and then restating (in large boxes at the end of each chapter) her principles and life lessons.
Secondarily, most of the rest of the book is about the tennis match for the ages - The Battle of the Sexes - with Bobby Riggs. Billie Jean would chat about other events in her life in a vague sort of way, but they always let back to some more conversation about the Bobby Riggs match. The book has 187 pages of text. She begins on Page 20 (following a preface and an intro) mentioning Bobby Riggs and the match. The story continues with him, ad nauseum, up to page 97, when Billie Jean states that she wants to make a "final observation" about Bobby Riggs. I thought - whew! - Enough already, we're going to get to the story of Billie Jean. Except, that promise of release from Bobby inanities was broken and Bobby continued to be discussed throughout the book and was last cited on page 186.
I agree that, in retrospect, that tennis match was more than just the entertainment, more than the spectacle. At the time a statement about women in sports, women as champions and equal rights was being promoted. But enough already! It was also just a tennis match. In equal retrospect, any number of other important events could be cited in that same vein - we just don't need 187 pages of it, couched in between lots of not-new lessons of life.
In reading this book, I relearned one of my own life lessons. Never let your expectations exceed a reasonable payoff -- you're bound to be disappointed. I went looking for Billie Jean and got Bobby Riggs and platitudes instead.
I think that Billie Jean is worth much more, that her life story would be profoundly more interesting that this rather trite and ultimately uninteresting account. Too bad she didn't write that book.
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