Standing Tall

When talk-show host Don Imus made racist and sexist remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team, many American didn't know who their gifted coach Vivian Stringer was. To be clear, Stringer's book is not a basketball memoir. It's about personal and professional integrity, about life as a team sport, and about the role of family, friends, and communities who share in its victories and defeats. The Imus flap is relegated to a small section at the end of the book. Making Stringer's story her own, narrator Adenrele Ojo creates the atmosphere of a kitchen-table chat as she quietly shares Stringer's reflections on having had breast cancer and raising a special-needs child, and recounts experiences of courtship and marriage, including the death of her husband. Ojo's delivery of the details of Stringer's life as an athlete and coach give the book the energy of a locker-room pep talk as her love of the game, professional style, and aspirations for her teams come through. G.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 26, 2008
Move over, Horatio Alger. Stringer's inspiring story of rising to the top through hard work and the love of a close-knit family is one of the strongest sports memoirs in recent years. The oldest child in a large family that stressed education, teamwork and dignity, Stringer manifested all those values in nearly four decades as a basketball coach. As the first coach in NCAA women's history to bring three different teams to the Final Four, Stringer has loads of fantastic stories to share, particularly the turnaround that resulted in the 2006–2007 Rutgers women moving from the bottom of their division to the top, winning the nation's respect even before their dignified response to Don Imus's slurs. This memoir is also about winning off the court, as Stringer describes the heartrending trials that have tested her endurance and faith: a major crisis with each of her three children; the sudden death of her beloved husband in 1991; and her own quiet struggle with cancer, discussed openly here for the first time. Karen Chilton's performance is strong and memorable, and Stringer herself reads the introduction. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover.

Listeners who don't follow basketball may have come to learn a little about C. Vivian Stringer through the Don Imus affair in 2007. But fans know her as a longtime winning college coach. In her memoir she opens up about her basketball and non-basketball worlds, sending clear, positive messages along the way. Through Stringer's anecdotes and advice, the listener hears lessons without lectures, hears about tragedies without self-pity. Throughout her life, Stringer has stayed the course through determination in her career and the support of a loving family. In her narration, Karen Chilton is just as consistent, sounding like an instructor who knows how to keep students interested in a story that has a purpose. She doesn't overdramatize the story of a woman who loves basketball but who is much more than a coach. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine