Tag Archives: Women’s Issues

Real Sex by Lauren Winner

American Literature June 14, 2008 Superfast Reader

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…

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen

American Literature June 13, 2008 Superfast Reader

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…

Waiting for Daisy by Peggy Orenstein

American Literature June 10, 2008 Superfast Reader 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 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…

Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf

American Literature June 1, 2008 Superfast Reader

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…

The Shaming of the Strong by Sarah Williams

Canadian Literature May 27, 2008 Superfast Reader 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 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…

Sexless in the City by Anna Broadway

American Literature May 26, 2008 Superfast Reader 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 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…

Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove

American Literature April 20, 2008 Superfast Reader 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 not worried about hurting anyone’s feelings by admitting it, because I’m the one who chose it! It’s been languishing in my TBR stack since Christmas 2006 when my…

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

American Literature February 22, 2008 Superfast Reader 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 wound up in the ER with an infection. My quest to find a new care provider ultimately led me to choose home birth with a midwife for my…

A Much Better List of Books by Women

On Reading December 20, 2007 Superfast Reader 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

100 Most Influential Books by Women

On Reading December 17, 2007 Superfast Reader 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. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood 8. Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth 9. Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence 10. Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome 11. Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness 12. Nadine Gordimer, Burger’s Daughter 13. Harriette Simpson Arnow, The Dollmaker 14. Margaret Atwood,…

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