Women Reflect on Change, Loss, and Love

Twenty-nine women write of the experiences that have transformed their lives. Essays by Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Diane Glancy, Joan Halperin, Maxine Kumin, Madeleine L'Engle, Gloria Wade-Gayles, and more appear alongside pieces by exciting upand-coming writers. From Beth Kephart's reassessment of her relationship with the world after a near-death experience to Joan Arcari's humorous account of her double life as career girl/mother, each voice illuminates a time and place familiar to us all.

Women's Studies

Journalist Betsy Israel paints remarkably vivid portraits of single women — and how they have been perceived — throughout the decades using primary sources, including private journals, newspapers, and other materials from popular media. From the nineteenth-century spinsters of New England to the Bowery girls of New York City, to the career girls of the 1950s and 1960s, single women have fought to find, and feel comfortable in, that room of their own. One need only look at Bridget Jones and the Sex and the City gang to see that single women still maintain an uneasy relationship with the rest of society — and yet radiate glamour and mystery.

Bachelor Girl shines a light on the stereotypes that have stigmatized single women and celebrates their resourceful sense of spirit, enterprise, and unlimited success in a world where it is no longer unusual or unlikely to be unwed.

She tried to warn us: With the publication of Shrub in early 2000, syndicated columnist Molly Ivins detailed George W. Bush’s privileged rise and disastrous reign as governor of Texas in the mid- to late ‘90s. In Bushwhacked, she looks at his first term as president. The picture she paints is unremittingly bleak—unless, of course, you’re a big campaign donor well served by Bush’s prescription for all economic ills (deregulation, tax cuts for those who need them least, and lax enforcement of worker and environmental safety standards). As the only president in U.S. history to slash taxes and go to war simultaneously, Bush wins consistently low marks from Ivins for pursuing "crony capitalism" to its inevitably depressing extremes. While many of the topics covered here have been covered extensively (Enron, the war in Iraq), Ivins does a good job of building on what’s already been written (proving Bush’s close ties to former Enron chief Ken Lay, and laying out the fundamentalist, apocalyptic view of Iraq and the Middle East that drives Bush’s foreign policy). Ivins is particularly good in taking arcane federal regulations and showing how the Bush administration’s lax oversight has hurt ordinary Americans, making their jobs, homes, water, and food less safe. Ivins is no distanced observer. She’s clearly incensed by Bush’s policies, but her reporting is so detailed and writing so witty that even those who come to the book undecided about Bush will likely be outraged by the time they finish it. ——Keith Moerer

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase "in
between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman
alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the
other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two
men: a husband who's easing out the back door; and a
best friend, who's laying siege to her heart in her front
yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her
and raised her right; and the Crabtrees, who won't forget
how they were done wrong. Now, in Between,
Georgia, a feud that began the night Nonny was born
is escalating and threatening to expose family secrets.
Ironically, it might be just what the town needs...if only
Nonny weren't stuck in between.

When Lena Fleet goes to college, she makes three promises to God: she will stop fornicating with every boy she meets; never tell another lie and never, ever go back to her hometown of Possett, Alabama. All she wants from God in return is that He makes sure the body is never found! But ten years later, it looks like God's going back on His deal. Lena's high school archenemy appears on her doorstep, looking for the golden haired football god who disappeared during their senior year. To make matters worse, her African American boyfriend has issued her with an ultimatum — introduce him to her lily-white family or he's gone! While she would rather burn in a fire than let him meet her steel magnolia Aunt Florence, her half-mad Mama, her sweet-as-pecan-pie cousin Clarice and the rest of her eccentric and racist family, Lena realises it is time to go home to Alabama and confront the past once and for all!

From her own India, from Bali, Japan, China, from Far Eastern and Middle Eastern countries, Madhur Jaffrey brings us tantalizing new dishes, new flavors and new aromas. 400 recipes using nutritious ingredients.

Alicia has four friends, and her friends are great, but when she decides to throw a best friends party, they all want to know which one of them is her best friend. Is it Mitchell, Charlotte, Henry, Lucy, or Alicia"s dog, Neptune? They say she has to choose, but Alicia doesn"t know whom to pick. How can she, when each one of them is uniquely special to her? With characteristic emotional honesty and a little creativity, Alicia finds her own wonderful way of solving the happy dilemma of being blessed with not one, but many, best friends.

When the stewardess brought me off the plane in a wheelchair, I lowered my head. I was too scared to even look at my father. I didn't want to see the disappointment and horror on his face. All that hate I had accumulated for him over the years, all the resentment against him for not understanding what I was going through, just released with the tears.

"So, where are your parents?" the stewardess asked me after a few minutes. "I can't wait here with you much longer."

I looked up and wiped my eyes. My father was standing ten feet away. He didn't even recognize me.

In the underbelly of Las Vegas, a cesspool of warring biker gangs and seedy strip clubs transformed the gawky, brace-faced Jenna Massoli into the bombshell Jenna Jameson. Today, Jenna Jameson is the biggest star in the history of adult movies, consistently ranked as one of the most beautiful women alive. But behind the glamour and the meteoric rise to fame was a path paved with tragedy and heartbreak. As a teenager drawn into a chaotic world ruled by rape, abuse, and murder, Jenna plunged into a downward spiral of addiction, even as she became one of the most photographed women in adult magazines.

Determined to overcome this past, Jenna rebounded in the adult-film business, where she encountered sadistic directors, experienced lovers of both sexes, amorous celebrities (from Howard Stern to Marilyn Manson to Tommy Lee), bitter rival starlets, and finally, glory, as she went on to become the biggest porn star the world has ever seen. But her struggle for happiness did not end when the accolades began. For years she wrestled with her resentment at her estranged father, the loneliness of growing up from the age of two without a mother, and her enduring childhood desire to find a man who could give her the security and love she never had.

Her unforgettable memoir is many things at once: a shocking sexual history, an insider's guide to the secret workings of the billion-dollar adult-film industry, and a gripping thriller that probes deep into Jenna's dark past. An unparalleled exploration of sexual freedom, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star ventures far beyond the flesh, into the heart-shredding tragedies and adrenaline-pumping triumphs of a woman who has already lived a hundred lifetimes. Always witty and humorous even as she faces the demons of her past, Jenna offers hilarious anecdotes about one of the most controversial businesses in history, and shares outrageous advice, including her ten commandments of dating and sex, how to become a "suitcase pimp," and how to make it in the business as a female (or a male).

Add to this never-before-seen photographs from Jenna's private collection and others taken exclusively for this book, and the result is certain to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.

A selection of 120 short modern poems by eighty American poets, including Angelou, Updike, Creeley, Williams, and Merwin, in pocket-sized format for travelers and others on the move.

For a generation of teenage girls, Sassy magazine was nothing short of revolutionary—so much so that its audience, which stretched from tweens to twentysomething women, remains obsessed with it to this day and back issues are sold for hefty sums on the Internet. For its brief but brilliant run from 1988 to 1994, Sassy was the arbiter of all that was hip and cool, inspiring a dogged devotion from its readers while almost single-handedly bringing the idea of girl culture to the mainstream. In the process, Sassy changed the face of teen magazines in the United States, paved the way for the unedited voice of blogs, and influenced the current crop of smart women’s zines, such as Bust and Bitch, that currently hold sway.

How Sassy Changed My Life will present for the first time the inside story of the magazine’s rise and fall while celebrating its unique vision and lasting impact. Through interviews with the staff, columnists, and favorite personalities we are brought behind the scenes from its launch to its final issue and witness its unique fusion of feminism and femininity, its frank commentary on taboo topics like teen sex and suicide, its battles with advertisers and the religious right, and the ascension of its writers from anonymous staffers to celebrities in their own right.

Wine expert Daniel Johnnes reveals the secrets of getting a really good deal on a great bottle of wine. Without using stuffy, technical language, he presents wonderfully complete discussions of 200 wines, a guide to "hot spots" for finding good value wines, explanations of grape varieties and the wine making process, and more.

This book takes the position that vocabulary is integral to all oral and written communication and that teachers can nourish development of language and words. Vocabulary in the Elementary and Middle School is written with clear descriptions, passion for the subject matter, and appreciation for the role of classroom teachers. Pre-service and in-service teachers will find this book to be an invaluable resource because numerous explanations, examples, and classroom applications illustrate how to stimulate and expand vocabulary and language learning. Each of the 9 chapters focuses on different aspects of the study of words and offers research based analysis as well as the authors' thoughts about vocabulary and language. This is a real labor of love by an author with 40 years of experience as a teacher and teacher educator. For literacy and language arts teachers.