Synopsis:
An exploration of the meaning of chastity in the 21st century.
Review:
Real Sex is an excellent companion piece to Anna Broadway’s Sexless in the City. Winner offers a larger cultural and historical context for Broadway’s desire to live chastely, and has some ideas about why Broadway expresses some disappointment in the way she has been taught by the church to think about sex.
Winner’s analysis is thoughtful and well-researched, and is worth reading even by those who don’t hold the same beliefs in the importance of chastity as Winner.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: · 21st Century, Christian Life, Hipster Christians, Sexy Intellectuals, Understanding God, Women's Issues
Synopsis:
An autobiography of a promiscuous life.
Review:
The most striking thing about Kerry Cohen’s Loose Girl is the inevitability of her misbehavior. Cohen’s parents divorced when she was a preteen, and neither one seems able to practice any kind of responsible or involved parenting. Her dad is the kind of guy who asks for a toke when he catches his daughter and her friends getting high, and her mother is a gynecologist who prescribes abortion pills for Cohen without even an office visit. Both parents exhibit some very creepy boundary-crossing behavior. The only surprise here is that worse didn’t happen to Cohen.
As the mother of a daughter who reads a lot of stuff like this, I’m well aware of the pitfalls facing girls and young women navigating today’s world. I really hope that Superfast Husband and I can provide the kind of home where she will feel safe and secure to explore her independence–take risks without engaging in self-destructive behavior.
Cohen’s life was a misery, until she (hopefully) managed to break her pattern. Loose Girl is a sad, sobering read that sheds a lot of light on the inner pain of such a free spirit.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: · American Girl, Autobiography, Headstrong Girl, Kerry Cohen, Sexy Intellectuals, Women's Issues
Synopsis:
A writer and journalist who never wanted kids finds herself spiraling into obsession when she begins to try to conceive.
Review:
Peggy Orenstein paints herself in such a bad light in Waiting for Daisy that it’s next to impossible to sympathize with her predicament. And that’s too bad, because three miscarriages are a lot to suffer through. However, Orenstein paints her desire for a child not as a powerful emotional urge but as an accomplishment she can’t live without. She never once talks about wanting to be a mother, or even wanting to have a baby. She is singularly focused on getting pregnant and staying that way for as long as possible.
Near the end of the book, there’s a truly bizarre incident that actually broke my heart a little bit. Orenstein’s husband is Japanese, and during one trip to Japan, Orenstein put her name on a list for a Japanese baby. She gets a call that there is a baby who needs parents, and she never calls back. However, when her husband learns that she hid this from him, he goes ballistic. So they get back on the waiting list and eventually another baby comes up. They travel all the way to Japan and spend the weekend with the little guy, like they’re test-driving him, and then decide not to go through with it because the paperwork will take too long and besides she’s pregnant again anyway. Her writing about this incident is so vague and unfocused and emotionally detached that I got really creeped out. Shopping for babies.
I don’t like to criticize a book like this, one that is so personal, and came from such a dark and difficult experience. But I don’t think Orenstein did her own story justice. I am glad that she had a child in the end, and I hope that she is enjoying every minute of it.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, Autobiography, Parenthood, Peggy Orenstein, Women's Issues
Heather at Errant Dreams came up with a wonderful meme–enjoy & consider yourself tagged!
* Answer the questions as you see fit. Although they’re all phrased to ask about a singular author, feel free to respond with multiples, or even a list.
* Where possible & convenient (you don’t have to go as crazy as I did!), include a link here or there to an author’s website, your review of one of their books, or a review that inspired you to try the author(s), so your readers can get more information on anyone that sounds interesting.
* Tag five people and drop by their blogs to let them know you tagged them, or open-tag your readers.
* It would be nice if you included a link back to your tagger.
1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?
I think I would have to say CS Lewis. I’ve read all of his books, many of them several times. I’ve read the Narnia Chronicles at least a dozen times, and books like The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters have meant a lot to me at certain times in my life.
2. Who was your first favorite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
The first author I remember being obsessed with–as in, I’ve got to read everything by this person–was John Bellairs. He wrote gothic stories for kids illustrated by Edward Gorey that were imaginative and just scary enough, and the first one I read was The House with a Clock in its Walls. I’m saving a few for Superfast Baby when she’s old enough. I had read multiple books by other authors, but I was more into the series, than the author, as with the All of a Kind Family books.
3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Robin Hobb, without question. She’s a superlative storyteller and I just lost myself in love starting with Assassin’s Apprentice. I’d also add Leo Tolstoy and Jhumpa Lahiri to the list, having read both of them for the first time in 2007.
4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Stephen King, Madeleine L’Engle, CS Lewis, Robin Hobb, George RR Martin, Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, Charles Dickens, Kathleen Norris, Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, Dan Allender, Edith Wharton, Jhumpa Lahiri.
Nothing really to add on further reflection. I spend a lot of time thinking about my favorite authors!
Popularity: 43% [?]
Tags: · Barbara Vine, Charles Dickens, CS Lewis, Dan Allender, Edith Wharton, Favorite Authors, George RR Martin, Jane Austen, Jhumpa Lahiri, John Bellairs, Kathleen Norris, Leo Tolstoy, Madeleine L'Engle, Margaret Atwood, Memes, Narnia, Patricia Highsmith, Robin Hobb, Ruth Rendell, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King
Synopsis:
A practical how-to guide for greening your home.
Review:
I could have done without the celebrity endorsements in Healthy Child, Healthy World. I really don’t care what kind of diapers Brooke Shields uses or that Noah Wyle’s kids are vegetarians. I guess these are good selling points, but to me these sidebars were just a lot of clutter.
I did like the suggestions and recipes for green cleaning, which is something I’ve been working towards for some time, not just for the health of our family but because it’s so much less expensive to make your own cleaning products. But the natural body care section could have used more recipes. I guess I was hoping for something a bit more comprehensive.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, Environment, Non-Fiction General, Parenthood
Synopsis:
The personal is political, as feminist thinker Naomi Wolf uses her c-section as a springboard for the way in which the maternity care system in America infantilizes women.
Review:
There’s nothing in Misconceptions that hasn’t appeared in any number of other exposes of the state of maternal care in the US, such as Jennifer Block’s Pushed, which I reviewed a few months ago. However, it’s the way in which Wolf presents the information that makes this a must read, even if you’ve read it all before.
Wolf uses the popular pregnancy guide What To Expect When You’re Expecting and deconstructs its message, in order to show how the book takes power away from pregnant women. For example, the book presents a diet plan that is impossible to follow in its entirety. It’s simply too much food. But the book doesn’t expect you to follow the diet exactly, because it assumes that you’re not smart enough. So it gives you too much food in the hopes that you will eat some of it. This condescension is mirrored in the way that obstetricians and hospitals treat pregnant and laboring women, who are not to be trusted to make choices that are in the best interests of their babies.
Wolf had a particularly horrific birth experience which ended in a c-section that she describes in horror-movie terms. It is hard not to be moved when she describes the pain of a friend who is haunted by the thought that while recovering she could not know if her baby was crying. It pained my heart to read these stories, because there is something seriously wrong when 30% of laboring women end up with major abdominal surgery and all of its concomitant issues. Women are let down by a system that cares more about the bottom line than about their health and that of their children.
Wolf faltered in the section discussing the first months of her daughter’s life. It seemed that she described a caricature of a life, not the thing itself. She alluded to needing to supplement her daughter, and I would’ve liked to have heard more about how that came about, since she seemed pro-breastfeeding. Many women have difficulties and it would have been illuminating and instructive to hear hers.
I probably should not read any more books on this topic. They upset me too much. I am thankful I live in New York State where homebirth midwives are legal and where statistics on interventions are in the public record.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, Childbirth, Feminism, Naomi Wolf, Women's Issues
Synopsis:
Plagued by nightmares and hallucinations, a mayoral hopeful thinks he can trust a hospital counselor, but when his cancer-stricken daughter has a miraculous recovery, he starts to question his very sanity.
Review:
My only beef with The Price
is that I wish it were longer! I devoured this slim, suspenseful volume over the course of a trip to Brooklyn and back with Superfast Baby asleep in the mei tai. Yummy, yummy, yummy.
Like with Alex Sokoloff’s The Harrowing, you think you know where this is going, but you’d be so very wrong. She has a great knack for creepy set pieces and imagery that’s so creepy it’s like she dredged it from your own subconscious. Like, get out of my head and stop scaring me already.
I enthusiastically recommend this book for anyone who enjoys thrillers, who wants a compelling read that will make the world disappear for a few hours. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Tags:
Synopsis:
A full color introduction to the craft of crochet, with 30 patterns.
Review:
I am a dedicated knitter and have never really understood the appeal of crochet–until I started thumbing through the Chicks With Sticks: Guide to Crochet. The patterns are gorgeous and I found at least four things I want to make immediately. I’m particularly drawn to the flower-shaped washcloths, which would be perfect for using some cotton yarn in my stash.
The illustrations make the stitches very easy to understand. The patterns are arranged in order of complexity, with each one chosen to teach you a new technique. The sidebars are filled with really useful tips. And each pattern comes with modification recommendations to help develop you as a designer as well as a crafter.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this book might just lure me to the dark side of crochet. Crazy, I know, but I like to live on the edge. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to watching So You Think You Can Dance.
Popularity: 14% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, I'm Insane, Other Hobbies
Synopsis:
Told their unborn child has birth defects that will likely lead to stillbirth, a couple decide to see the pregnancy through to term.
Review:
I am a sucker for stories like those found in The Shaming of the Strong. When I was pregnant with Superfast Baby I thought a lot about what I would do if I found out that something was wrong, and I hoped that I would be strong enough to make the choice that Sarah Williams made, however painful it might be. I decided not to have any testing done during pregnancy so that I wouldn’t be faced with that decision. Having suffered a miscarriage before getting pregnant with Superfast Baby, my heart goes out to all mothers whose pregnancies take a painful turn.
I actually found it hard to read this book. What Sarah Williams experienced as she carried her child to term and delivered a stillborn baby was so painful to me as a mother that I just didn’t want to get too close. It is just too easy to put myself in her shoes, and I found that I did not want to go there with her. The book was given to me by a dear friend who also had a miscarriage, and she found it very healing. I can definitely see why, and I am sure that I will return to this book in the future.
Popularity: 19% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, Autobiography, Christian Life, Parenthood, Understanding God, Women's Issues
Synopsis:
The misadventures of a hapless twenty-something woman whose greatest fear is that she will die a virgin, and whose second greatest fear is that she’ll have sex before marriage.
Review:
I’ll let you know up front that there’s no way that I can be objective about Sexless in the City, because Anna Broadway met the woman who bought her book in my very living room. (Yes, I am Blogyenta, formerly known as Girlfriend #6.)
Reading Anna’s book was like sitting down to have a good long talk. We used to do this all the time, but then she decided that she could no longer resist the call to California, and off she went. Thankfully she’s great about keeping in touch, and made sure to come and meet Superfast Baby when she was in town a few months ago. Anna’d also honored me be asking my opinion on many a key section of the book, so there wasn’t much that was unfamiliar to me. Knowing how hard she fought to tell the truth, even when it painted her in a less than flattering light, I’m pleased to see that the end result is something of which she can be truly proud.
So congratulations, Anna! We miss you *kiss*
Popularity: 25% [?]
Tags: · 21st Century, Anna Broadway, Autobiography, Christian Life, Hipster Christians, New York Woman, Sexy Intellectuals, Talk About Jesus, Understanding God, Women's Issues
