From Southern Living Magazine
July 2005 Issue

SOUTHERN LIVING SELECTS: She's Got Next
by Melissa King (Houghton Mifflin, $13)

Many of us walk right past the neighborhood pickup game without thinking twice. In this author's autobiography--subtitled A Story of Getting In, Staying Open, and Taking a Shot--she mostly tells the story of a woman who never walks by without feeling the urge to play.

Basketball drives Melissa King. In her late twenties, she is a transplanted Southerner living in Chicago. With an unfulfilling love life and a career lacking passion, she spends her spare hours on the court, subconsciously "searching for clues to the mystery of how to live." From her parents' driveway in Arkansas to the concrete courts in urban Chicago to the waxed floors of adult basketball camps, Melissa learns to confront her insecurities, defeat life's frustrations, and build self-assurance with each dribble and shot.

As her story moves into her mid-thirties, Melissa trades looking for neighborhood pickup games to coaching fourth-grade girls' basketball. As a mentor, Melissa further explores the raw elements of human nature so clearly revealed through competition, victory, and losses. As she plays the game, Melissa slowly learns life lessons and passes her skills and wisdom to basketball's next generation.

Ann E. Stratton