Women Books - Page 7

Sole Sisters: Stories of Women and Running

Jennifer Lin, Susan Warner

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Running & Jogging
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> Women's Health -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Half of all runners are women, and they are changing the face of the sport. It's a social outlet, a healthful way to improve mental well-being, and an opportunity to form bonds with like-minded women.

Sole Sisters: Stories of Women and Running is a gripping collection of stories that captures the inspirational heart of the women's running boom. Authors Jennifer Lin and Susan Warner have interviewed women of all ages from all walks of life and all parts of the country. All of their subjects have one thing in common: Running has transformed them. There are both heartrending stories of grief and survival and lighthearted tales of friendship. Among them are:

" Sisters who competed in a 5K race to honor a sister who survived breast cancer.

" A 9/11 widow who ran her first marathon to honor the memory of her husband.

" A 65-year-old woman who overcame obesity and alcoholism to finish the grueling Ironman triathlon.

" An unknown runner from Norway named Grete Waitz who decided to run a marathon-and changed the face of the sport.

Sole Sisters is not just for women who run. It appeals to all women who know what it means to have the support of others who share their trials and triumphs. Sometimes touching, sometimes funny, and always inspiring, Sole Sisters has the makings of a runaway hit.

Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, Second Edition

Rosemarie Tong

List Price: $75.00 By: Westview Press Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $38.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this second edition of her 1989 survey on feminist theory, Rosemarie Tong provides a more comprehensive and substantially redrawn map of twentieth-century feminist thinking. Besides providing up-to-date coverage of liberal, radical (libertarian and cultural), and Marxist-socialist schools of feminism, she covers psychoanalytic, existentialist, and postmodern feminism. All the chapters have been rethought and new chapters on ecofeminism and multicultural and global feminism have been added.In the clear-sighted and accessible style for which has become known, Tong guides the reader through the complexities of even the most notoriously difficult thinkers. Students will become familiar with many of the essential figures in the feminist tradition as well as some of the issues that have been of special concern to women (e.g., pornography, reproductive technology, housework, the environment, and militarism). Moreover, students are repeatedly urged to consider the many differences that separate women (class, race, ethnicity, age, nationality, religion) as well as the sameness that continue to unite women.Tong treats all views with respect and encourages the reader to think both sympathetically and critically about what feminism is and what relevance it has to their own lives. As valuable as the first edition of Feminist Thought, this second edition surpasses its predecessor in depth and breadth. Clearly, Tong believes that feminist thought is still developing even as it approaches the millennium.

Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World

Yang Erche Namu, Christine Mathieu

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Back Bay Books Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $4.24

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Fascinating & Unusual Bildungsroman 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As with all young people, Erche Namu Yang--or just Namu--faced the traditional crossroads of forging her own identity when she was a teen in the early 1980s. While many authors have written about this important life turning point, Namu's book stands out because she faced her coming of age in one of the world's most unique cultures. As the book's extended titles notes, she experienced "a girlhood at the edge of the world." What she should have said was "in a Feminist Utopia"!

Namu was born into the Moso (also Mosuo) people, who live near Lake Lugu (or Mother Lake) in remote parts of Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, bordering Tibet. This area has been referred to as The Country of Daughters, with good reason. The Moso are one of the world's few remaining matrilineal societies. Mothers serve as heads of their families, daughters are favored, and property and leadership is passed down among the females. Sounds good! However, this culture has been described as a feminist fantasy as well as mistakenly understood as tribes of promiscuous women, because the women do not marry. They move from one relationship to the next when they wish, without any self-consciousness or guilt between either party. Male roles within the family structure are filled by the family matriarch's brothers and sons. The Moso believe that because the men in the household are all blood relatives, they will be forever loyal and helpful to their women kin. There's definitely something to that.

No, I'm not making this up! The wealth of details Namu provides about Moso culture in her story will set the record straight about her people's lifestyle. Put on your cultural historian hat and remain aware that the Moso's socio-economic structure totally works for them, and you will learn a lot about an amazing group of people.

Though it traumatized her family--especially her mother--Namu knew her destiny lay beyond becoming her family's next leader. This book is about a girl having the courage to fulfill her dreams and how these ambitions affect her relationship with her mother. The Moso cultural aspect provides a unique backdrop for a timeless story about personal growth.

SIDE NOTE: I had the privilege of hearing Namu speak at the Shanghai Literary Festival one year. She is stunningly beautiful with a voice to match. She is so talented that she is successful at everything she does. When she couldn't sing anymore, she became a model. When she was too old to model, she became an author. To date, she has written 13 books--though only Leaving Mother Lake has been translated into English. Now she is trying to improve the quality of life in Lake Lugu and to be an ambassador for the Moso. She has opened the Namu Palace Hotel Museum at Lake Lugu, where artists can stay gratis if they create a piece to put in the adjacent art gallery and where guests can learn about Moso culture first hand. Hmmm. Definitely something to think about! But if nothing else, you can be inspired simply by reading her coming of age story.

Editorial Review:

This remarkable memoir transports us to the remote reaches of the Himalayas, to a place the Chinese call "the country of daughters," to the home of the Moso, a society in which women rule men. According to local tradition, marriage is considered a foreign practice; property is passed from mother to daughter; a matriarch oversees each family's customs, rituals, and economies. In this culture a young girl enjoys extraordinary freedoms--but the impulsive, restless Namu is driven to leave her mother's house, to venture out into the larger world, defying the tradition that holds Moso culture together. LEAVING MOTHER LAKE is a book filled with drama, strangeness, and beauty. Yet for all the exoticism, Namu's story is a universal tale of mothers and daughters--the battles that drive them apart and the love that brings them back together.

Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender

Margaret L. Andersen

List Price: $32.00 By: Macmillan Pub Co Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thinking About Women 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have really enjoyed reading this book. It is one of the more interesting textbooks I have read since being in college. The only downside to this book is that some of the statistics are a bit old. Other than that the sociological perspective on gender has never been more interesting.

Required Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It was great to be able to find this book online with Amazon.com because my professor "forgot" to tell the campus bookstore that she wanted an older edition of this work. That being said, the author is still living in the 60-70's when women were terribly "oppressed" and everything was gender opinionated. If I didn't have to read this for class, I would burn it much like a bra from a revolutionary of the times.

Editorial Review:

This book provides a comprehensive review of feminist scholarship in the social sciences, showing how the experiences of both men and women are created through social institutions. For anyone interested in sociology of gender, gender roles, or women's studies.

The Feminine Mistake CD

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperAudio Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $0.10

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 112 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Women are constantly being told that it's simply too difficult to balance work and family, so if they don't really "have to" work, it's better for their families if they stay home. Not only is this untrue, Leslie Bennetts says, but the arguments in favor of stay-at-home motherhood fail to consider the surprising benefits of work and the unexpected toll of giving it up. It's time, she says, to get the message across—combining work and family really is the best choice for most women, and it's eminently doable.

Bennetts raised two children while earning a living, and understands the challenges and the rewards firsthand. She and millions of other working women provide ample proof that there are many different ways to have kids, maintain a challenging career, and have a richly rewarding life as a result. When women sacrifice their financial autonomy by quitting their jobs, they become vulnerable to divorce as well as the potential illness, death, or unemployment of their breadwinner husbands. The truth is that when women gamble on dependency, most eventually end up on the wrong side of the odds.

Not since Betty Friedan has anyone offered such an eye-opening and persuasive argument for why women can—and should—embrace the joyously complex lives they deserve.

Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?

Susan Moller Okin, Joshua Cohen, Matthew Howard, Martha C. Nussbaum

List Price: $31.95 By: Princeton University Press Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $30.95

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Polygamy, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, punishing women for being raped, differential access for men and women to health care and education, unequal rights of ownership, assembly, and political participation, unequal vulnerability to violence. These practices and conditions are standard in some parts of the world. Do demands for multiculturalism--and certain minority group rights in particular--make them more likely to continue and to spread to liberal democracies? Are there fundamental conflicts between our commitment to gender equity and our increasing desire to respect the customs of minority cultures or religions? In this book, the eminent feminist Susan Moller Okin and fifteen of the world's leading thinkers about feminism and multiculturalism explore these unsettling questions in a provocative, passionate, and illuminating debate.

Okin opens by arguing that some group rights can, in fact, endanger women. She points, for example, to the French government's giving thousands of male immigrants special permission to bring multiple wives into the country, despite French laws against polygamy and the wives' own bitter opposition to the practice. Okin argues that if we agree that women should not be disadvantaged because of their sex, we should not accept group rights that permit oppressive practices on the grounds that they are fundamental to minority cultures whose existence may otherwise be threatened.

In reply, some respondents reject Okin's position outright, contending that her views are rooted in a moral universalism that is blind to cultural difference. Others quarrel with Okin's focus on gender, or argue that we should be careful about which group rights we permit, but not reject the category of group rights altogether. Okin concludes with a rebuttal, clarifying, adjusting, and extending her original position. These incisive and accessible essays--expanded from their original publication in Boston Review and including four new contributions--are indispensable reading for anyone interested in one of the most contentious social and political issues today.

The diverse contributors, in addition to Okin, are Azizah al-Hibri, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Homi Bhabha, Sander Gilman, Janet Halley, Bonnie Honig, Will Kymlicka, Martha Nussbaum, Bhikhu Parekh, Katha Pollitt, Robert Post, Joseph Raz, Saskia Sassen, Cass Sunstein, and Yael Tamir.

Composing a Life

Mary Catherine Bateson

List Price: $18.95 By: Atlantic Monthly Pr Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $1.67

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Hopelessly out of date 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This book was, I'm sure, timely 20 years ago, but you will struggle to get anything out of it this day in age. Plus, the author states in the introduction that she is not bitter about her time at Amherst, but the text of the book makes her seem extremely bitter.

Editorial Review:

This extraordinary book explores that act of creation that engages us all -- the composition of our lives. Through the comparative biographies of herself and four of her close friends, Mary Catherine Bateson provides a fascinating framework for her inquiry into the creative potential of complex lives, where energies are not narrowly focused toward a single ambition but rather are continually refocused and redefined. Each of the women in Composing a Life faced discontinuity at periods in her life, yet was rich in professional achievement and personal relationships. Bateson's life-affirming conclusion is that life is an improvisational art form, and that the interruptions, conflicted priorities, and exigencies that are a part of all our lives can and should be seen as a source of wisdom. Important and empowering, Composing a Life will change lives.

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress

Susan Jane Gilman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A better title might be, "Me, the Unique Rebel" 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Really, everyone who has given this "author" one star has hit the nail on the head; she wants to be fascinating. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that................until you decide that you're such an ironic paradox and so profound that you should probably publish. There are so many wonderful books and amazing authors out there; don't waste your time.

It is just OK, nothing special. 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I found the chapters scattered and storyline pretty uneventful. The book was not a quick read. Pretty forgetable overall. Funny moments, some chapters were more entertaining than others, but def was not a page turner.

Third Times a Charm 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It took me three attempts to get past the first twenty pages. Once I was into the heart of the first section it was laugh-out-loud funny. Well, that was until the second part of the book which was a bit dull and mind numbing. However, the optimism from the first section carried me through to the final section of the book. It was definately worth making it through the middle of the book.
This was an enjoyable read; the type of book to take to the beach for the day. There is about 100 unneccessary pages however, the remaining pages are witty, entertaining and enjoyable.

Editorial Review:

From the author of Kiss My Tiara comes a funny and poignant collection of true stories about women coming of age that for once isn't about finding a date.

The 15-Minute Organizer

Emilie Barnes

Amazon Price: $10.39 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvest House Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $2.69

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The best organization book out there! 5 out of 5 stars.
68 of 69 people found this review helpful.

This book is great. It gave a detailed chore list and told me exactly what to do to organize my cleaning. It was great help with our move, too. There is a section on almost every catagory you can imagine.

Each chapter can be read in 15 minutes, although I stayed up all night to read it... I would recommend this book to anyone who has 15 minutes to spare... If you don't have it, make it. You will have more time, I promise!!! :)

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author and time–management expert Emilie Barnes gives women the basic strategies they need to survive in today’s busy world. Realistic and practical, each chapter offers proven methods for taking the stress out of meal planning, housekeeping, finances, holiday shopping, and more. In just 15 minutes a day, readers will discover how to—

• whip their entire house into shape
• create a personalized daily planner
• double their closet space
• organize a fail–safe filing system

Now with an updated cover, the 15–Minute Organizer (over 220,000 copies sold) contains more than 75 time–saving strategies on topics that include goal setting, involving children in chores, grocery shopping, and record–keeping. Women will discover they can get ahead and stay ahead.

Bound Feet and Western Dress

Pang-Mei Chang

List Price: $22.95 By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $2.05

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"In China, a woman is nothing." Thus begins this harrowing dual memoir that braids the story of Chinese-American Pang-Mei's own search for identity with the dramatic tale of her great-aunt, Chang Yuyi, born at the turn of the century in tradition-bound China. In alternating voices, Pang-Mei captivates the reader as she tells the story of Yuyi's battle with her mother to stop the painful foot-binding process, the first in a series of rebellions that marked her extraordinary life. This deeply textured portrait of Chinese life in the perilous years between the fall of the last emperor and the Communist Revolution captures, above all, the struggle of fiercely independent women emerging from centuries of customs and ideals, both subtle and pronounced.

In pitch-perfect prose and vivid detail, Bound Feet And Western Dress is about the power of storytelling as Yuyi confides her innermost dreams and demons with her brilliant and assimilated American-born niece in this splendiferous literary debut.