Billie Jean King - On Perfection

"Perfection is something you never reach, although you keep trying. Always. It’s being in perfect balance. If you’re planning a topspin backhand, that’s exactly what you produce. That doesn’t happen very often. Even if you hit it almost perfectly, you think, Maybe I could have hit it just a little closer to the line, a little bit harder or softer. You just keep extending yourself. It’s fun to see if you can do it."

– Billie Jean King, from 'Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times' by Lynn Gilbert.

Enjoy the oral biography of Billie Jean King from her time on the courts -- through Facebook for a limited time.

Billie Jean King – The oral biography from her days on the court.

"I do something because I want to do it, not because I feel a sense of responsibility. Sacrifice is doing something you don’t want to do. Yes, I get tired, cross, lose my temper, get ticked off, and sometimes I don’t feel appreciated, but as I told the women players when we started with Gladys and Joe, “If you think that we’re going to be appreciated ten years from now, I got news for you. You should get joy and gratification out of it now. You know that you’ve done it. If that isn’t enough for you, don’t bother."

– Billie Jean King, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times', the oral biography of Billie Jean King, who created opportunities for women on the tennis court and in the workplace, and who continues today to champion social change and equality around the world.

For a limited time, enjoy a this complimentary chapter of Particular Passions -- the oral biography of Billie Jean King from her days on the court. Available at Facebook.

Available at Amazon and Apple.

Billie Jean King – HERSTORY.

"I don’t think about the past too much, only if it’s going to help me today. The danger of thinking about the past all the time is that you live in the past. A lot of athletes do that. They remember when they were number one. That’s all they talk about to their friends. How boring. You don’t want to hear about somebody who was champion in 1958. They don’t live in 1958, they live in 1981. I get burned out a lot, sure. I take a rest and then get charged up again. I want to shape the todays and tomorrows."

– Billie Jean King, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times', by Lynn Gilbert.

The oral biography of Billie Jean King, who created opportunities for women on the tennis court and in the workplace, and who continues today to champion social change and equality around the world.

Available at Amazon and Apple.

Billie Jean King – The oral biography from her days on the court.

"People don’t change overnight. It doesn’t matter what the law says. You can have a civil rights act, you can make abortion legal, but you still have to deal with what people feel and think. And that’s what it’s all about. You slowly have to persuade people and hope they are reasonable enough to see things in a logical, objective way."

– Billie Jean King, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times'.

The oral biography of Billie Jean King, who created opportunities for women on the tennis court and in the workplace, and who continues today to champion social change and equality around the world.

For a limited time, enjoy a this complimentary chapter of Particular Passions, the oral biography of Billie Jean King from her days on the court. Available at Facebook.

Available at Amazon and Apple.

Bella Abzug – On the rights of women.

"What I try to do is make women feel that there isn’t anything they can’t do if they want to. And when I speak to them or meet with them, I try to give them that feeling, that this is their right. Whatever they want to do, they have a right to be and a right to expect support from institutions which affect their lives. I also try to awaken young people. This is their future. They’re going to be in charge in the year 2000. I tell them that they are the major force for change in this country and that they can change their own lives and the lives of others by acting on that together with other people. When I’ve finished, I like to think they believe it."

– Bella Abzug, from 'Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times', by Lynn Gilbert. For a limited time -- the oral biography of Bella Abzug, an outspoken crusader for peace and human rights who heralded in an era of social change, is available free of charge.

See our offer on Facebook.

Eleanor Holmes Norton – HERSTORY

"Did I have doubts? If I simply said I had no doubts I could do it, I wouldn’t be conveying at all the complexity of why I knew I could proceed to do this. I’ve left out one piece of the mosaic—my grandmother. She lived in the house right in back of us. My grandmother thought I was the smartest child that was ever created. She never said to me, “You are the smartest child in the world,” but I knew she thought it because the way she related to me made it clear that she expected great things of me. So in point of fact I believed I should get 100 on every spelling test and that I should be able to answer every question. The reason that’s important is clearly that, in addition to my own parents, there was this matriarchal figure who considered me the center of the universe and that helped to build self-confidence and the sense of ego that drives a person forward. If you said to me, Did I ever have any doubt that I could get the EEOC running effectively? all I could say was that my grandmother expected me to. It’s the last piece of the mosaic."  – Eleanor Holmes Norton, from 'Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times', By Lynn Gilbert.

PARTICULAR PASSIONS recounts the rich oral histories of pioneering women of the twentieth century from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics.  We share their journeys as they pursue successful paths with intelligence and determination, changing the world for the millions of women and men who were inspired by them.  These stories will captivate, educate, and inspire you.

Particular Passions is available on Apple and Amazon.

Elizabeth Duncan Koontz - On becoming interested in teaching

"When I was a third grader my mother, who was a teacher, and my father, who was the principal of the school, had a concern for adults in the community who were illiterate. My mother taught those adults at home, evenings. Sometimes she would check on something being cooked or whatever, and she would leave me to listen to these adults’ lessons as they read. I was a good reader, and I was able then to correct them in their reading. I was seven. That was my beginning interest, I suppose, in teaching, but it was also something else, a healthy respect for the fact that a lot of people had not had the chance to go to school.  – Elizabeth Duncan Koontz, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times', by Lynn Gilbert.

PARTICULAR PASSIONS recounts the rich oral histories of pioneering women of the twentieth century from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics.We share their journeys as they pursue successful paths with intelligence and determination, changing the world for the millions of women and men who were inspired by them.

These stories will captivate, educate, and inspire you.

Particular Passions is available on Apple and Amazon.

Grace Murray Hopper – On Accomplishments

"I never thought about what I wanted to accomplish in life. I had too many things to do. I was so deeply involved in things, I just kept on going.  Then something came along and changed the direction. I went off with it. I didn’t know where it was going to lead me. It just keeps on leading me."

– Grace Murray Hopper, from 'Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Shaped Our Times' by Lynn Gilbert

The oral biography of Grace Murray Hopper, whose work with early computers transformed mathematical symbols into words, helping to usher in the era of technology.

This brief chapter is available for .99  on Amazon and Apple,  one of 42 chapters that recounts the accomplishments, frustrations and passions of the great women of the 1920s - 1970s.

DOROTHY MILLER OF MOMA CREATED EXCITING EXHIBITS CELEBRATING THE THRILL OF GREAT ART

"I have a tremendous passion for making a good exhibition. You’ve got fifteen artists, who’s going to be in the first gallery? The order in which you place the artists... you try to achieve... climaxes — something new is coming around the corner, it’s going to knock your eyes out...” — Dorothy Miller (one of 42 pioneers) in "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped Our Times"

Dorothy Canning Miller, curator of seminal exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art of her contemporaries, who went on to become the great American artists of the 20th century.

One of the reviews of Particular Passions:  “This is a wonderful book... The book is recommended reading for anyone — no matter what political or sociological background — who wants to know more about living history.” — Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Available at Amazon and Apple for $0.99.

BECOMING AN OPTIMIST

"Wouldn’t life be worth living,
Wouldn’t dreams be coming true?
If we kept the Christmas spirit,
All the whole year through."
- Carolyn Wells.

Christmas at the Galleries Lafayette dome

 On the cusp of 2012’s last day, with that eternal hope, we move on to the next year, a little older, and a little wiser.

I would like to pour a glass of champagne and toast in the New Year with you but as I can’t, I can offer something that will give you pleasure that will certainly have more lasting value.   Check out one of the chapter’s from Particular Passions:  Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times which recounts the rich oral histories of pioneering women of the twentieth century from the arts and sciences, athletics and law, mathematics and politics.

It isn’t "the bubbly", but it’s cheaper than champagne…(if you were to buy it)…It’s only $0.99 and I know these stories will inspire you going in to the New Year.

Try the Tatyana Grosman chapter. What she did with her life will touch your soul and make you realize anything is possible.

"One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T. Maclay

Tatyana Grosman on Amazon and Apple.

Check it out. You won't be disappointed.