Women Books - Page 3

The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives

Cheryl Jarvis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The true story of thirteen women who took a risk on an expensive diamond necklace and, in the process, changed not only themselves but a community.

Four years ago, in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a diamond necklace in a local jewelry store display window. The necklace aroused desire first, then a provocative question: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and a leap of faith later, Jonell bought the necklace with twelve other women, with the goal of sharing it.

Part charm, part metaphor, part mirror, the necklace weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women.
With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, the women show us how they transcended their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey. What started as a quirky social experiment became something far richer and deeper, as the women transformed a symbol of exclusivity into a symbol of inclusiveness. They discovered that sharing the necklace among themselves was only the beginning; The more they shared with others, the more profound this experience–and experiment–became.

Original, resonant, and beautifully told, this book is an inspiring story about a necklace that became greater than the sum of its links, and about thirteen ordinary women who understood the power of possibility, who touched the lives of a community, and who together created one extraordinary experience.

Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest To Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass LookBig, Or Why Pie is Not The Answer

Jen Lancaster

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 75 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

On a shelf I almost didn't see .... 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When I decided to buy Jen Lancaster's book, I had never heard of her or her writing before. After having a bad day after a lifetime of struggling with a bad body image, low self-esteem and an eating disorder, I went to Barnes & Noble to find a book to take my mind off of my life (a favorite escape of mine). I saw this on display and decided to give it a try.

What I didn't know is that I had in my hands a hilarious yet deeply insightful and even beautiful book that would change my thought process forever. I remember thinking at some point while reading, "Why does she make this diet thing such a big issue? Her life is perfect." And then I went through a mini-enlightenment: my bad body image had everything but destroyed my relationships with my family, friends and loving boyfriend. Jen, unlike me, was a strong and intelligent woman that had the sense to realize that "until you figure out your insides, nothing on the outside matters."

Even though she has the perfect life and an adorable husband, she approaches her autobiography in a down-to-earth, yet never self-deprecating fashion. Her book is refreshing in today's culture of the pursuit of pointless perfection. In this far from serious book, I learned very serious life lessons of what's important and what isn't worth my time even thinking about.

I hope Jen is still fat, drunk and happy. She is an inspiration to all.

Editorial Review:

A NOTE FROM JEN LANCASTER:

"To whom the fat rolls…I'm tired of books where a self-loathing heroine is teased to the point where she starves herself skinny in hopes of a fabulous new life. And I hate the message that women can't possibly be happy until we all fit into our skinny jeans. I don't find these stories uplifting; they make me want to hug these women and take them out for fizzy champagne drinks and cheesecake and explain to them that until they figure out their insides, their outsides don't matter. Unfortunately, being overweight isn't simply a societal issue that can be fixed with a dose healthy of positive self-esteem. It’s a health matter, and here on the eve of my fortieth year, I've learned I have to make changes so I don't, you know, die. Because what good if finally being able to afford a pedicure if I lose a foot to adult onset diabetes?"

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Marjane Satrapi

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 172 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

Elizabeth McCracken

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Short and Sweet 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I wonder if when Elizabeth McCracken writes on page 112 that she "flipped through stacks of magazines until I found a copy of O, with a cheerful, childless Oprah Winfrey on the front" if she knew that Oprah gave birth to a stillborn boy when she was just fourteen years old?

Editorial Review:

"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.
This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of course you don't--but you go on. And if you have ever experienced loss or love someone who has, the company of this remarkable book will help you go on.
With humor and warmth and unfailing generosity, McCracken considers the nature of love and grief. She opens her heart and leaves all of ours the richer for it.

Led By Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide

Immaculee Ilibagiza, Steve Erwin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For three months in the spring of 1994, the African nation of Rwanda descended into one of the most vicious and bloody genocides the world has ever seen. Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young university student, miraculously survived the savage killing spree that left most of her family, friends, and a million of her fellow citizens dead. Immaculée’s remarkable story of survival was documented in her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

In Led By Faith, Immaculée takes us with her as her remarkable journey continues. Through her simple and eloquent voice, we experience her hardships and heartache as she struggles to survive and to find meaning and purpose in the aftermath of the holocaust. It is the story of a naïve and vulnerable young woman, orphaned and alone, navigating through a bleak and dangerously hostile world with only an abiding faith in God to guide and protect her. Immaculée fends off sinister new predators, seeks out and comforts scores of children orphaned by the genocide, and searches for love and companionship in a land where hatred still flourishes. Then, fearing again for her safety as Rwanda’s war-crime trials begin, Immaculée flees to America to begin a new chapter of her life as a refugee and immigrant—a stranger in a strange land.

With the same courage and faith in God that led her through the darkness of genocide, Immaculée discovers a new life that was beyond her wildest dreams as a small girl in a tiny village in one of Africa’s poorest countries.

It is in the United States, her adopted country, where Immaculée can finally look back at all that has happened to her and truly understand why God spared her life . . . so that she would be left to tell her story to the world.

Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office

Jen Lancaster

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 314 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A bOoK tHat diLLeD mY piCkLe 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read a review for Jen Lancaster's newest book in some entertainment magizine. I loved the sound of her writing and her personality seemed somewhat familiar.
Being the freak I am - I had to make sure that I read her work in order and checked to see if she had any previous books. BingO! I started hunting around the fiction isles and was getting miffed when I finally surendered and asked the store clerk for some assistance. To discover that her writing is also nonfiction floored me!!
I grabbed my copy and headed to the nearest chair to give it a gander. I read the first few pages and was hooked. Jen writes so much of the stuff that really goes on in my head but I would be too chicken to write (anywhere other than my journals). She's funny and real! I can't wait to read her other books!
I liked her so much that I checked out her website and was hoping she might make some southern bookstores for signings. I highly recommend this book and have been shamelessly pushing it at family and friends ever since! (Although, I threaten their lives when it comes down to my copy and demand that they purcahse their own :-)
MUST READ!!!
Love, Loved, Loved it!!!!
e.

Editorial Review:

Jen Lancaster was living the sweet life-until real life kicked her to the curb.

She had the perfect man, the perfect job-hell, she had the perfect life-and there was no reason to think it wouldn't last. Or maybe there was, but Jen Lancaster was too busy being manicured, pedicured, highlighted, and generally adored to notice.

This is the smart-mouthed, soul-searching story of a woman trying to figure out what happens next when she's gone from six figures to unemployment checks and she stops to reconsider some of the less-than-rosy attitudes and values she thought she'd never have to answer for when times were good.

Filled with caustic wit and unusual insight, it's a rollicking read as speedy and unpredictable as the trajectory of a burst balloon.

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation

Cokie Roberts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Founding Mothers, Cokie Roberts paid homage to the heroic women whose patriotism and sacrifice helped create a new nation. Now the number one New York Times bestselling author and renowned political commentator—praised in USA Today as a "custodian of time-honored values"—continues the story of early America's influential women with Ladies of Liberty. In her "delightfully intimate and confiding" style (Publishers Weekly), Roberts presents a colorful blend of biographical portraits and behind-the-scenes vignettes chronicling women's public roles and private responsibilities.

Recounted with the insight and humor of an expert storyteller and drawing on personal correspondence, private journals, and other primary sources—many of them previously unpublished—Roberts brings to life the extraordinary accomplishments of women who laid the groundwork for a better society. Almost every quotation here is written by a woman, to a woman, or about a woman. From first ladies to freethinkers, educators to explorers, this exceptional group includes Abigail Adams, Margaret Bayard Smith, Martha Jefferson, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Catherine Adams, Eliza Hamilton, Theodosia Burr, Rebecca Gratz, Louisa Livingston, Rosalie Calvert, Sacajawea, and others. In a much-needed addition to the shelves of Founding Father literature, Roberts sheds new light on the generation of heroines, reformers, and visionaries who helped shape our nation, giving these ladies of liberty the recognition they so greatly deserve.

Escape

Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 307 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.

Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.

Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China

Jung Chang

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 353 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.

Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader

Joe Hilley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Christian women are taught that their children & family are # 1 1 out of 5 stars.
10 of 31 people found this review helpful.

Conservative Evangelicals have promoted God & family first. Biblical teaching has always been that a Christian woman's primary role is first her God then family. A woman's Ministry & Mission is to raise & nuture her young children and honor her husband who is the head & Priest of the family. Yet with Sarah Palin it is suddenly alright to do the opposite! Yet this brand of Feminism had long been opposed by Rightwing Evangelicals who won't even allow Women Pastors or Elders their teaching proclaims that no woman should rule over men! (They Read to us chapters on Jezebel who took the Kingdom from Ahab & destroyed a nation)
What hyprocrisy that this woman is all of a sudden applauded for acting like the Feminist they blame for bringing this country to a moral ruin!!!!! She has young children which could not possibly get their mothers full nuturing & attention while she in on a quest for power & attention). A Christian woman's young children have first place according to Biblical principles when a woman has finances should stay home & raise them herself). No wonder teen pregnancies, drugs and divorce is just as high in Christian homes as non-Christian when there is no difference in how we behave,what a sham Conservative Evangelicals organizations must appear to the world !!!! Was it Abe Lincoln that said you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people most of the time.Half of America is not convinced on anything that comes out of this opportunist mouth!

Editorial Review:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin s nomination as vice presidential candidate by John McCain not only changed the landscape of the current election, but also marked a shift in leadership style across our country. Exploring themes from her career in politics, her life as a hockey mom, and her strongly held Christian Faith, this book explores the leadership principles that made Palin successful.