book reviews

The Daring Book for Girls intrigues me. As an author, I’m interested in how this book’s authors have developed their platform (that schmancy publishing industry term for everything that’s going to help a book become a phenomenon). Daring has a trailer, and a theme song. It has two brilliant authors behind it, one of whom has a Ph.D. in ancient history and religion (for all you academics out there) and both authors are savvy web entrepreneurs as well. The book follows on the heels of an already-proven bestseller. It is marketable not only to girls, but to their parents—Gen Xers like me, who were raised on Free to Be You and Me and are fed up with Princess Power. And most of all, the book’s premise is one damn good idea.

I’d be green with envy if I didn’t personally know that the authors are women of stellar intention and integrity, not to mention generosity of spirit. Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz are the women who brought the parenting blogging circle MotherTalk into being and are responsible for bringing online visibility to a number of important books on women’s issues, and scores—perhaps hundreds now—of books by women. As the MotherTalk website says, “We love what we do, and really take our books and our authors under our wings.” And so, having taken their own book under their wings, it comes as no surprise that The Daring Book has soared. It hit the bestseller list on November 11, just a few weeks after it hit the stores.

What surprises me instead—and what I find intriguing—is the jaded critical reception the book seems to have inspired in some journalistic circles. Reporters and interviewers have loved to ask, with a lofty sniff of sarcasm, “What’s so daring about this book?” In a culture as overly saturated with images of toxic girlhood as ours, they ask, what effect can a wholesome activity book that mothers (or others) and daughters are encouraged to do together possibly have overall?

These critics have got a point—but only, I would counter, to a point. The popularity of the book among girls, I might venture, speaks for itself.

And what’s the lesson here for authors? Have a “high concept” idea that comes from a place of integrity, market the hell out of it online, and offer us all some semblance of hope. That last one—and you’ll forgive me for my lack of cynicism—is key.

These authors are no sell-outs or naive patsies. When NPR Weekend Edition’s John Ysdtie asked coauthor Andrea Buchanan on the air yesterday whether childhood itself is much different today, she had this to say: “In the 1970s, children had yet to be discovered as a powerful marketing demographic. Girls are schooled, at 8 years old, to think about their bodies, and the way they look, and the clothes they wear. Because girls back then were not marketed to as they are now, it wasn’t on their mind to think about these things until they were older.” Girls today are pressured to be grown-ups far sooner than we used to be. Nine is the new seventeen. There’s more focus today on doing activities not for activities sake, but to get into college. Girlhood used to be different. It used to last. “Part of what we wanted to do with this book,” said Buchanan, “was extend girlhood a little bit.”

Buchanan and Peskowitz are not nostalgic throwbacks. They are optimists who merely ask us to give daring a chance.

Just wanted to throw out there that I’ll be posting an interview with Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity, next week sometime. Stay tuned!

And on my pile of books to muse on next is one with the longest and most kick-ass subtitle ever–Suzanne Braun Levine and Mary Thom’s Bella Abzug: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed Off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied against War and for the Planet and Shook Up Politics Along the Way–and another by a Woodhull alum that sounds like just what I need right about now, On My Own Two Feet: A Modern Girl’s Guide to Personal Finance by Manisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar.

And do keep an eye out for some guest posting in this space from some of the incredibly talented women taking my Making It Pop bloginar…Coming soon!

These here are pics from last night’s party for RED–at a dim sum palace. I finally learned why this title. “RED,” it was explained to me, signals the outpouring of feeling that 58 emerging teenage girl writers spill onto the page of this anthology, which the editor referred to as “The real Daring Book for Girls.” (Hey, I still maintain the original Daring Book is daring too.)

The girls were terrific–talented, moving, and real. And it was fun hanging with Laura from Catalyst, Lauren Sandler, and Lauren’s awesome dude Justin, too (pictured above, from left to right). More on the book here.

I am SO having my next book party somewhere where they serve sticky pork buns. Mmmm.

And speaking of the 1970s (I’m on a roll here with linking this week’s posts!), the median age of marriage for women in 1970 was 21; for men, 23. These days, according to the Census Bureau, the median age of marriage for women is just shy of 26; for men, 27. The age goes up with advanced degrees. So it comes as little surprise that more and more of us are meeting our matches (or mismatches as the case may be) on the job. A 2007 Careerbuilder survey reveals that almost half of all American workers will date a colleague at least once.

And this week, a new book called Office Mate hit the shelves. I know one of the authors, Helaine Olen, and she has a very feminist-y sensibility, so I’ll be interested to see how that comes through in the book. Read more on the subject (and a quote from Jessica Valenti) in this San Francisco Chronicle article by Helaine’s coauthor, Stephanie Losee.

And more on Office Mate here.

Steven Heller has an interesting bit in the NYT Book Review on a new book that explains the 1960s to kids. Writes Heller,

“The ’60s are often portrayed now as a permissive, hedonistic moment when sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll reigned supreme. Though all that is true, they were also an incredibly volatile period when youth culture challenged politics and society in ways that continue to exert influence. The decade was more than a mere freak show of baby-boomer rebels. It was a time when young people acted positively, as individuals and en masse, to redress a slew of grievances. So it’s about time that today’s kids were introduced to the period in a manner that is not simply a reprise of camp clichés.”

The titles under discussion are a new book version of Puff the Magic Dragon and a book called America Dreaming, by Laban Carrick Hill. Full disclosure: my not-quite-hippie parents sang me Peter, Paul, and Mary songs and I still remember every single word.

A new book by Laura Pappano and Eileen McDonagh, Playing With The Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal, challenges the popular perception that since girls now play soccer, all is now equal when it comes to women and sports.

Says Pappano in an interview at the publisher’s website, “The biggest challenge is that women are often afraid to challenge the status quo for fear of losing what “progress” has been made. The problem is that we have codified a system of organized sports which places male athletes at the center and female athletes at the periphery.”

And what about Title IX?: “Title IX opened doors for females to play sports, but it opened sex-segregated doors, effectively limiting women’s athletics to second-class status. Title IX never demanded equality – only improvement – and it is not well-enforced and budgets for female sports dwarf spending on men’s sports, particularly football. Ticket prices for women’s events are lower than comparable men’s teams- even when a team (like the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team) far outperforms its male counterpart on the national stage. Publicity, television and print exposure for men’s teams remain the primary focus of college sports offices. This is not fair, particularly at institutions receiving federal funds. We need a wholesale re-thinking of the way organized sports are structured and supported.”

(The pic is Zoe Fairlie, daughter of my bestie on the west coast, Rebecca London.)

And speaking of girls who dare….I just heard about a cool anthology that’s about to launch. It’s called Red the Book, and while I’m not sure I fully get the title yet (do you? am I missing something here?), the substance sounds amazing. Here’s the blurbage:

A vivid portrait of what it means to be a teenage girl in America today, from 58 of the country’s finest, most credentialed writers on the subject

If you’re a teenage girl today, you live your life in words-in text and instant messages, on blogs and social network pages. It’s how you conduct your friendships and present yourself to the world. Every day, you’re creating a formidable body of personal written work.

This generation’s unprecedented comfort level with the written word has led to a fearless new American literature. These collected essays, at last, offer a key to understanding the inscrutable teenage girl-one of the most mislabeled and underestimated members of society, argues editor and writer Amy Goldwasser, whose work has appeared in Seventeen, Vogue, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. And while psychologists and other experts have tried to explain the teen girl in recent years, no book since Ophelia Speaks has given her the opportunity to speak for herself-until now.

In this eye-opening collection, nearly sixty teenage girls from across the country speak out, writing about everything from post-Katrina New Orleans to Johnny Depp; from learning to rock climb to starting a rock band; from the loneliness of losing a best friend to the loathing or pride they feel about their bodies. Ranging in age from 13 to 19, and hailing from Park Avenue to rural Nevada, Georgia to Hawaii, the girls in RED-whose essays were selected from more than 800 contributions-represent a diverse spectrum of socioeconomic, political, racial, and religious backgrounds, creating a rich portrait of life as a teen girl in America today.

Revealing the complicated inner lives, humor, hopes, struggles, thrills, and obsessions of this generation, RED ultimately provides today’s teen girl with much-needed community, perspective, and validation-and helps the rest of us to better understand her.

Ok, so can someone explain to me the title? Is it a riff on Little Red Riding Hook? Red Book? Read the Book? Red, like your period? (Sorry — I’m just kind of confused, and I know there’s something I’m missing here….)

Thanks to the ever-savvy Lauren Sandler for the heads up!

Check it out! The Daring Book for Girls now has an accompanying must-see video.

CONGRATS and heartfelt kudos to Miriam and Andi, the ingenius authors, who are also the women behind the ingenius blog tour community known as MotherTalk. This book is going to kill. In fact, already is, at #132 on Amazon, and it’s not even out yet! I’ll be blogging about it in December, as part of their blog tour. And I’m dreaming up other ways to help them get ink too–because they so deserve it. Well done, ladies.

For anyone remotely skeptical, here’s the book description, straight from their website:

THE DARING BOOK FOR GIRLS is the manual for everything that girls need to know –– and that doesn’t mean sewing buttonholes! Whether it’s female heroes in history, secret note–passing skills, science projects, friendship bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the eternal mystery of what boys are thinking, this book has it all. But it’s not just a guide to giggling at sleepovers –– although that’s included, of course! Whether readers consider themselves tomboys, girly–girls, or a little bit of both, this book is every girl’s invitation to adventure.

The authors’ appearances–including a spot on The Today Show on Oct. 31–are posted here. Spread the word!

The Brits sure are talking it up. The Myth of Mars and Venus pubs here on October 19. Check out coverage at The Guardian here, here and here. Author Deborah Cameron is the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford University. My what an interestingly named chair.

Bottom line: Counter to all the John Greyism out there, there is as much similarity and variation within each gender as between men and women. I’ll let you know what I think…soon…! Venus here signing off til Sunday. Have an excellent Saturday, and see you then!

So tonight, while Marco was (ahem) watching Blade Runner at the Zeigfield with the boys, I was moderating a panel at the Tenement Museum on the LES–with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Pulitzer-prize winning historian and author most recently of the much-anticipated Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History) and Pam Thompson (far left), author of the just-released novel, Every Past Thing.

Pam’s writing is gorgeous and I highly recommend her book. Here’s Pam on YouTube. Meanwhile, Laurel’s title has launched a thousand t-shirts and has, of late, been the subject of much discussion. For more on the travels of the slogan since its emergence in 1976, definitely check out Laurel’s introduction, where she writes:

“The ambiguity of the slogan surely accounts for its appeal….To a few it may say, ‘Good girls get no credit.’ To a lot more, ‘Bad girls have more fun.’ Its popularity proves its point.”

BTW, the young lady to my right is Amanda Lydon, who organized us all and is a true dynamo. The house was full, and I loved the generational span. Ann Snitow was there, and told me about a course she’s teaching at The New School called–guess what–Feminist New York! Oh to be a fly on that wall….