Real Sex by Lauren Winner

June 14th, 2008 · No Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen

June 13th, 2008 · No Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 23% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein

June 10th, 2008 · 8 Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 21% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf

June 1st, 2008 · No Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

The Shaming of the Strong by Sarah Williams

May 27th, 2008 · 3 Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 26% [?]

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Tags: Canadian Literature

Sexless in the City by Anna Broadway

May 26th, 2008 · 2 Comments

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 [...]

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove

April 20th, 2008 · 6 Comments

Synopsis:
A San Francisco lawyer finds herself magically spirited back to ancient Rome, where she ends up running a tavern and weathering a German invasion.
Review:
I’m reading Household Gods for an online book club, and the only reason I didn’t quit this book is because I really like the people in the book club. I am [...]

Popularity: 28% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care by Jennifer Block

February 22nd, 2008 · 10 Comments

Synopsis:
A muck-raking expose of what happens in labor and delivery wards across America.
Review:
Pushed upset me–so much so, that I considered not finishing the book. I have an innate mistrust of doctors and hospitals after some rough treatment I received during a miscarriage last year. where I was not informed of all my options and [...]

Popularity: 30% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

A Much Better List of Books by Women

December 20th, 2007 · 12 Comments

Found here. I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read.
75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World
Selected by members of the Women’s National Book Association in Observance of Their 75th Anniversary
Popularity: 22% [?]

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Popularity: 22% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

100 Most Influential Books by Women

December 17th, 2007 · 11 Comments

Via BookGal–I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read.
1. Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind
2. Anne Rice, Interview With the Vampire
3. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
4. Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
5. Virginia Woolf, The Waves
6. Virginia Woolf, Orlando
7. [...]

Popularity: 44% [?]

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Tags: On Reading