book reviews

Kimmi Auerbach’s reading at Border’s in Columbus Circle last night was packed–I’ve never been to a reading quite like it. Kimmi, author of The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot, picked three tarot cards from the deck and read the correlating chapters (each chapter’s title is the title of a card). Her performance was stellar; her writing hilarious, poignant, alive.

During the Q&A, someone asked how her parents (who were sitting in the front row) felt about turning up as characters in her memoir, and I had flashbacks to all the times I got that question while on the road with Only Child earlier this year. Among other bits of wisdom the 30-something wise-beyond-her-years writer dispensed was this, a line adapted (I think) from Kimmi’s friend and fellow funny girl Wendy Shanker, who was also in the house:

“The children who are loved the most are boldest on the page.” Meaning, children who are well loved don’t fear losing the love of their parents when they grow up and become writers who write about their past. I thought this was an interesting counter-sentiment to the words of the writers who told Daphne and me that they couldn’t safely write about their parents until they were 6 feet under. Interesting litmus test, I say.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Chapter 8 of Wendy Shalit’s book, the one called “Feminism’s (Mild) Fourth Wave.” The chapter’s title of course begs the question: Is mildness the choicest term? My dictionary defines “mild” as gentle, easy-going, and slow to get angry. Lightly flavored and not strong, hot, spicy, or bitter in taste. Pleasant and temperate and not excessively hot or cold. I prefer mine hot, but hey, I’ll admit: It takes all kinds.

Just found a review of Sisterhood, Interrupted by Eryn Loeb on my number one favorite book site, Bookslut! As Daphne, who is sitting across from me with her computer, Battleship-style, can attest, I am literally jumping out of my seat.

So I’m in the middle of Wendy Shalit’s Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It’s Not Bad to Be Good. Watch for a review from me soon over on The American Prospect. I promise to do the kind of reading diary here on Girl with Pen that I did while reading Leslie Bennetts earlier this summer.

Once again, we cycle. I’m intrigued by Shalit’s argument that there’s now a “fourth wave” of feminists who feel alienated from the “third-wave” feminist “establishment”. How cool that we’re now an establishment, huh? Gee, that was fast. Eager to hear others’ thoughts on the book and the issues she raises. So stay tuned….

And in the meantime, check out this book on the other end of the age:lust continuum — Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, by the sizzling Pepper Schwartz!

A must-read by Rebecca Traister appears in today’s Salon: “Katie Roiphe’s Morning After”. Katie’s new book, Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in Literary London, is being met with rave reviews. And in her profile of feminism’s enfant terrible, Rebecca does a trademark excellent job of deconstructing a grown up and somewhat reconstructed Katie Roiphe. She asks a telling question: Is it Katie, or her critics, or both, who have grown up?

Rebecca and I share something massively in common: Katie Roiphe is part of the reason we do what we do. (Check out page 3!)

…is a work in process, and is growing. Here’s what I’ve got so far, and do let me know if there’s feministy/pop culture/intergenerational stuff coming out that I should add!

Wendy Shalit, Girls Gone Mild (because how can I not, with that provocative title?!)

Kristal Brent Zook, Black Women’s Lives: Stories of Power and Pain (Kristal is one of my co-panelists on the intergenerational panel we’re putting together)

Maria Elena Buszek, Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture (this came out last summer; Maria is an assistant prof of art history at the Kansas City Art Institute)

Sylvia Hewlett, On Ramps and Off Ramps (I went to her book party in this fabulous apartment and got a free book; my favorite moment was when she stepped up on a homemade stage to address her admirers, because she is, like me, short)

Rachel Kramer Bussell, Best Sex Writing 2008 (ok, so it’s not out til November, but I’m excited for it! Guess I’ll tide myself over instead with her Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists)

Amy Tieman, Mojo Mom (Amy just interviewed me for her podcast and she’s my newest online guru)

Kimberlee Auerbach, The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot (comes out in August; she’s a dear friend of a dear friend)

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (because I’m behind the times)

Christine Kenealley, The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language (because Chris is supersmart and so will be anything she writes)

Greetings from sweet home Chicago! I’m happily ensconsed at Mom and Dad’s, preparing for the Chicago book-related activities this week. Still, can’t help the surfing, and boy oh boy – I just got to get me this book: Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit. More from me on the subject as soon as I have a chance to check it out, but in the meantime, WSJ piece on it here.

Mom, Dad, and I watched “Age of Love” last night (cougars — women in their 40s — versus kittens — women in their 20s — duking it out for the love of a bachelor). And then part of “Science of Love” (go Pepper Schwartz!). I have TONS to say, but no time at present. Book tour — and my amazing 97-year-old grandmother who now lives here with my parents — calls. But stay tuned!

If you’re looking for a summer read to kick off the season, I highly recommend Lynn Harris’ Death By Chick Lit. Maybe I’m enjoying it so much because I’m about to launch a book and am drinking that complicated cocktail of selfish envy and altruistic delight for all my friends who are currently publishing books to great acclaim. Or maybe I’m enjoying it because it’s just damn lol funny. Enough about why. Just read it. Because it will make you laugh. If you don’t believe me, ask Marco, or ask my cat, because it’s been making them laugh out loud too. (Ok, that cat line proves it: *I* am not funny.)

Here’s a teaser:

LOLA SOMERVILLE WOULD KILL FOR A BOOK DEAL.
APPARENTLY, SHE’S NOT ALONE.

You’ve heard of Lola Somerville. Or not. Her first novel, much anticipated by her mother, was promptly eclipsed by…everyone else’s first novel. These days, seems no one Lola knows can write a letter to the editor without having it optioned for a major motion picture. Sure, Lola thinks, I have a great geek-hottie husband and a cool apartment in “up and coming” Brooklyn—but just once, can’t I write some random article and have Jodie Foster call me for the film rights? Or jeez, okay, Minnie Driver. Just something?

Then one night at a swanky book party, Lola finds her frenemy Mimi McKee, author of Gay Best Friend, dead in the basement, throat slashed with a broken martini glass. And when the bodies of It-Girl writers begin to pile up, Lola starts asking dangerous questions: Are the murders connected? Am I next? If not, um, why not? If I solve the mystery, then will my agent remember my name? And as Lola digs deeper, the stakes get higher. Will getting her hands on the killer—and the book deal bound to follow—mean losing the people she loves most?

Marco’s gorgeous review of The Dangerous Book for Boys is now up on his blog, Hokum. Here’s an excerpt from his review, to whet your appetite:

Its contents have a distinctly Anglophile charm: segueing from stickball and rugby rules to Morse code to cloud formations to marbling paper and cutting italic nibs (!!), Dangerous seems intended for some unlikely jock-geek hybrid, equal parts introvert and extrovert. In fact, what with chapters on polar exploration, navigation, historic battles and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, some might argue that the Igguldens have compiled a kind of throwback primer for young male WASP imperialist-adventurers educated in the classics; indeed a great part of the books’ appeal is its obstinately old-world presentation (the Seven Wonders are illustrated by what look like reproductions of Victorian postcards). The Age of Imperialism did coincide with the broader cultural impact of the Industrial Revolution, and so technology enabled not only global travel for the original tourist class, but also the wide dissemination of travel literature to a reading public, including the first generation of young armchair adventurers (boys and girls: remember lonely little Jane Eyre sitting cross-legged “like a Turk” on the window seat, browsing a natural history of the “bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland”). Some boys of that generation may have ended up becoming colonial administrators and big-game hunters, but other boys and girls of that generation became anthropologists and naturalists for the enlightenment of future generations.

Read more

(How much do I love him for referencing Jane Eyre?!)

But first, a big slurpy THANKS to all you who took the quiz below and sent me feedback (and especially to Marc, who saved me on that tenure bit, and to Dara, always). I truly appreciate it.

Ok, so my generational stripes are coming out, but can I just say how excited I am that Bust reviewed my book! I was hooked when they launched and became one of their early subscribers. It’s been fascinating–and fun–to watch them evolve.

So here’s what the Busties say in their next issue (June/July):

“Betty Friedan versus Gloria Steinem, radical feminists against cultural feminists, even Ms. contra Bust–[Sisterhood, Interrupted] is a history of battles within and between the second and third waves of feminism. Siegel surveys many instances of ‘feminist infighting’ over the last 30-odd years–wherein much energy has been spent debating how to achieve feminist goals as opposed to actively fomenting change–and explores the disconnect between older and younger feminists….The book’s singular focus on feuds presents an opportunity to revisit these happenings within the context of the movement–to see how the bickering often stalled forward progression and to learn from that.” – Bust Magazine

Ok, they said some other things too. But I swear, in light of that nice little piece by Henry Alford about mis-blurbing that appeared at the back of the New York Times Book Review the other week, I promise that what I’ve extracted here is verbatim and nondoctored. No really, I swear!