Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) is a LibraryReads selection for August 2022. The main character is a female tennis player who decides to try for a comeback, defending her championship, record setting performance from the 1980’s. Yet, the story is also about finding oneself and what one values in life. The comeback occurs in the mid-1990s and Reid is not afraid to lash out at inequality for female athletes, such as in this side comment: “We live in a world where exceptional women have to sit around waiting for mediocre men.” Soto is coached by her insightful father, a tennis legend in his own right. Through multiple flashbacks to Carrie’s childhood and adolescence, Reid chronicles numerous tennis matches in an exciting manner and describes the pressurized training that is involved in the sport. Readers may initially feel little rapport for Carrie Soto (the media refers to her as the Battle Ax and other b-words), but she evolves as a tennis player and as a person in endearing ways. CARRIE SOTO IS BACK received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Library Journal.