This month our book is Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Jenkins Reid is a powerhouse novelist who has written some of our most popular contemporary novels, including Daisy Jones and the Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and Malibu Rising. Nancy read Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo, and really wanted Front Porch Book Club to read this book because it’s about a tennis legend who decides to come out of retirement to defend her 20 Grand Slam record that is being threatened by a young phenom. Carrie Soto is Back is a New York Times bestseller. Elle magazine calls it “an epic adventure about a female athlete perhaps past her prime, brought back to the tennis court for one last grand slam.” Linda admits that she had a hard time relating to Carrie’s competitiveness, because she plays pickleball and she plays it for fun and exercise. Carrie was pretty over the top for her. Nancy loved it was about tennis and showed all the strategy and hard work that goes into the game. Nancy noted that the story, like so many Disney stories, turns on the fact that Carrie’s mom dies when she is just a little girl. Her mom thought tennis was sort of silly, but supported her husband playing it. Without her moderating influence, Carrie and her Dad, Javier, become solely focused on tennis. It’s how they spend time together and he plants the goal in her that she will become the best tennis player of all time and she just accepts that and goes for it. I think tennis is, in a way, an escape for them from her loss and a way for them to be together. Linny really liked Javier and thought he had a challenging role to be both coach and father to Carrie. Nancy says she felt, though Javier was great, he contributed to Carrie’s obsession and isolation. Nancy thought the book does an interesting job comparing the cost of greatness for Carrie compared to Bowe and Nicki, who were both better at the balance. Nancy liked how Jenkins Reid shows that part of being an athlete is putting up with the media. Linny and Nancy both loved the chapters, interspersed throughout the book, where we are getting media commentaries on Carrie’s return to the professional game. It was such a great contrast because the commentators are extremely superficial, pretend to know more than they do, and make unfounded pronouncements. Linda likes Bowe, Carrie’s love interest, but can’t quite see why he puts up with her. Nancy notes that Jenkins Reid uses the classic storytelling technique of having the protagonist go on alone at the plot’s climax. Linda thought Javier’s death was an awakening for Carrie. For the first time, as he is failing, Carrie is taking care of him, that is, caring for anyone outside herself. Nancy says one of the most poignant parts of the book for her is when Carrie realizes Bowe may also be grieving her father, too. It’s a sort of epiphany for her. Linda talks about Carrie being considered past her prime at 37. Her body is feeling older. Nancy notes professional athletes have a short window to play at their best physically and to make their mark on their sport. Retirement from your sport, may be a frightening step, if you have never done anything else. Nancy likes that there are many people being active past the age they might have, such as the Rolling Stones. Linny mentions Serena Williams is 42 and came back to tennis after have children. Nancy liked the conversation between Carrie and Nicki where Nicki disabuses Carrie of believing she, alone, wasn’t given anything and was an outsider. Nicki says every professional athlete has to fight and no one gives anyone slack. And, if you want to talk about outsider, Nicki talks about being the first Asian woman to win Wimbledon. Nicki feels she has earned now being called the best tennis player of all time but she wants Carrie’s respect and Carrie mostly won’t give it to her. Carrie misses out on growing as a human and benefiting from the support of others because she can’t figure out how to be a friend to her tennis opponents. Nancy thinks the book poses interesting questions about legacy. Linda describes what legacy means for Carrie and Javier. Nancy thinks legacy, how we are remembered, will we be remembered, is a human question. None of us can imagine our death. Legacy is a way to be remembered, we think. But ultimately, we will be forgotten. Linda says we don’t know people who did remarkable acts of heroism or innovation. Knowing people’s names or basic biographies isn’t the same as knowing who people truly are. Linny says questions about the meaning of life and purpose are universal. Carrie starts finding some meaning outside of her grand slams as she begins building human relationships. Linny says she went through the existential crisis of why are we here when she was in high school. Nancy says those are questions she asks herself those questions all the time.