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Category: Women’s Studies

Review: MWF Seeks BFF by Rachel Bertsche

[ 2 ] April 28, 2012

Reviewed by Ann Liu

If Carrie Bradshaw, from Sex and the City, and Mr. Big left New York with her three girlfriends behind, what would she do without them? MWF Seeking BFF is a true story of Rachel Bertsche, a writer herself, who moves to Chicago with her husband, on the search for new friends.

MWF Seeking BFF, or Married White Female Seeking Best Friend Forever, is Rachel’s personal memoir of her yearlong search for a best friend. She dissects the friendship element and shares a lot of research toward understanding the psychological makeup of friends. According to Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist, the size of the brain determines the number of relationships we can maintain. The human brain can maintain 150 relationships. After calculating her social network of friends, families, and acquaintances, Rachel came up short 20 people. She decided to fill the 20 spots with a yearlong project to find a best friend that rivaled her best friends back home.

I found the story quite enjoyable, as Rachel describes the weekly dates and the friends she meets along the way.

Rachel writes in a captivating way, sharing some very humorous stories. The same way that dating is set up, she went on a friend date after friend date, with most dates fizzling out. 365 people is a lot of people to meet and toward the middle of the story, it was difficult to keep track of whom she has gone out with; all the people she met became a blur.

I ponder if the feelings of connections were mutual since the book was written from one perspective. If it had not been for the research and professional people she consulted with, the story would not have survived.

Dating is difficult enough but finding and bonding with friends is harder in this day and age with social networking and the internet. Without a friendship manual available, meeting friends after college becomes a difficult task. I can relate to a lot of what she experienced and commend her for going outside of the norm to find friends. I recommend this book to every female looking to connect with others and yearning to find that best friend.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Ann Liu loves to read women’s fiction, chick-lit, romance, and self help books. She lives in sunny Southern California, where she can enjoy her time reading outdoors.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Ballantine Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Magic Room by Jeffrey Zaslow

[ 7 ] April 11, 2012

Reviewed by Joanne Reynolds

The Magic Room is located at Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, Michigan. Shelley Becker, the third generation owner, created this room for brides to enter, wearing the gown they have chosen for their bridal day. There is a pedestal in the middle and the entire room is surrounded by mirrors for the bride to view herself from all angles.

Becker’s Bridal has been open for business since 1934. Fowler is a middle-class community with a population of 1,100. Becker’s Bridal houses anywhere from 2,500 gowns in it’s small shop, a former bank. The Magic Room was once the bank vault.

Shelley Becker spends six days a week, and up to 12 hours a day, working in her shop. She was “initiated” into the business at the age of 14. She has seen countless brides and mothers come through the doors and has heard many stories – some tragic, some loving, and some fearful. She has met young first time brides, older second timers and everyone in between.

Jeffrey Zaslow’s purpose in writing The Magic Room and sharing the story of Becker’s Bridal was to show the love that parents have for their daughters. This was well done with the lives that were brought forward. Each family had it’s own history, but the love for the daughters pursuing their own lives was a prevalent theme.

I absolutely loved the history of the Becker family being brought into the book also. The hard work and sacrifice to keep such a business running is a book in itself. Jeffrey Zaslow did a wonderful job of making me feel  the love and heartache of the eight stories incorporated into the book.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Joanne has always been an avid reader and loves the ability to lose herself in someone else’s life for the time that it takes to read about it. She has a huge admiration for authors and the worlds that they create for us. She enjoys reading to her granddaughters and hopes that they take up the love of reading.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by PR by the Book. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead

[ 5 ] February 20, 2012

Reviewed by Colleen Turner

On January 24th, 1943, 230 women boarded a train in France, bound for the unknown. They ranged in age from fifteen to over sixty and encompassed positions in society from school girls to furriers to farmers’ wives to doctors and chemists. Most, on the surface, seemed to have little in common. What united them was much deeper and much more binding.

These women found themselves imprisoned together for their various resistance acts against the German invaders that had taken over France upon their occupation on June 14th, 1940. And all would have to cling together as strongly as possible in order to survive what lay ahead of them at the end of their train ride: the death and work camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau and Ravensbruck. Their united strength, intelligence and determination to live and tell others of the horror they have witnessed, experienced and survived led to forty-nine of these brave 230 coming home to France in the summer of 1945.

A Train in Winter is a remarkable story that not only brings attention to this specific group of women and what they went through under the Nazi regime but the bigger picture of the French Occupation, the French Resistance and the other men and women, many communists but not all, who were determined to fight for what they saw as right and to reclaim the country that was theirs. It also brought into the light, using stark and blunt writing, the true horrors of what the people of Europe, from many countries, religions and political beliefs, experienced in the various Nazi concentration camps.

I was absolutely enamored with these women, their friends and families and with the bravery they all exuded when so many others would have, and some did, give in to the Germans. Faced with such extreme degradations, brutality and hatred inflicted on them they managed to maintain their morality and defiance and banded together to save those they could and never forget those they couldn’t.

In no way can A Train in Winter be looked at as a happy, uplifting read. What this book is is a testament to strength, friendship and the ability to maintain a core set of beliefs even when in hell. It is fully apparent that Caroline Moorehead not only did extensive research but interviewed survivors and their family members and enclosed their lives and words into the story. She makes you feel like you are witness to these atrocities right along with the women, making for a heart-wrenching experience. I don’t believe I will ever forget these women and what they did for what they felt as right.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Watch the story of these amazing women in a video created by the UK publisher

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son, their dog Oliver and their fish Finn. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Across Many Mountains by Yangzom Brauen

[ 13 ] November 1, 2011

Reviewed by Alyssa Katanic

Across Many Mountains, by Yangzom Brauen, is every bit the epic journey that the cover promises it to be; the reader walks through the life of three generations of Tibetan women, from the age of six through adulthood. In doing so, the reader is able to recognize the different worlds that each of these women are raised in, and the effect that it has on their view of life itself. This approach would give a beautiful representation of any culture, but it is especially striking to experience the Tibetan culture that few of us are truly familiar with.

Not only does Brauen walk us through the lives of her grandmother, mother, and herself, but she is also walking her readers through the history of nearly 90 years of daily life in Tibet and the devastating effects of its Chinese occupation. She doesn’t hesitate to point out how little the western world knows or takes notice of little Tibet, nor does she whine or show bitterness about that. It is just one of the matter-of-fact issues that she points out and does what she can to change while weaving a great cultural and historical story.

Brauen is a wonderful storyteller with great timeline and language skills. She keeps her stories tight without also running too shallow or too deep with detail and personality. I could not help but be amazed at the depth of dedication of her grandmother to her life as a Buddhist nun, her mother’s adaptations to the other cultures she found herself living in and how she got there, or Brauen’s own western life.

Across Many Mountains is epic on many levels: historically, culturally, and relationally. It is awesome to see how an obscure, poor little Tibetan orphan girl travels through life to become a 90-year-old grandmother who has traveled the world and has shared audiences with the Dalai Lama.

For readers interested in adventure, culture, and history (with out the overly “educational” feel), Across Many Mountains is a story not to be missed.

Rating: 5/5

Alyssa is a wife and stay at home, homeschooling mother of five, with two boxers, two cats, a soft shelled turtle named after Bob the Builder, and 7 frogs (admittedly a homeschooling project gone froggy). In all her spare time, she loves to read and believes that there is no such thing as having too many books!

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by St. Martin’s Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

[ 8 ] August 19, 2011

Reviewed by Alyssa Katanic

Imagine that a new government immediately takes over your state and informs you that women are no longer to work, attend formal education, be seen in public without a head to toe covering and a related male chaperone, and must not communicate with any male outside of their own families. I am not sure that our own experiences and culture would even allow our brains to begin to rightly imagine such a dramatic change in lifestyle, but The Dressmaker of Khair Khana portrays a true story of women from Kabul, Afghanistan who experienced just that. Overnight, their lives change from a largely westernized lifestyle to one of seclusion from society. Many families were, therefore, left without providers for the family, as widows were not permitted to work and many young men had to leave their families in order to escape forced service to, or death by, the Taliban.

After weeks of being shut up at home, shut out of pursuing her education and career, and having to part with her father, mother, and one of her brothers, Kamila Sidiqi was faced with finding a way to provide for her many younger sisters and brother.  Through the challenge, this brave and strong-willed young lady became an entrepreneur who provided employment and hope, not only for her own family, but for her community as well.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is a well-written account of life suddenly taken under Taliban control. It gives an exceptional picture of how fear-filled such a life is and what a difference one brave, quick-minded woman can make. The dressmakers accepted the restrictions placed on them and excelled despite them. They are truly inspiring.

There is so much depth to Lemmon’s The Dressmaker of Khair Khana that it is a must read!

Rating: 5/5

Alyssa is a wife and stay at home, homeschooling mother of five, with two boxers, two cats, a soft shelled turtle named after Bob the Builder, and 7 frogs (admittedly a homeschooling project gone froggy). In all her spare time, she loves to read and believes that there is no such thing as having too many books!

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life by Nava Atlas

[ 10 ] August 7, 2011

Reviewed by Alyssa Katanic

Do you, or someone you know, love to write, but find yourself discouraged and overwhelmed by the busyness of daily life and frustrated by not knowing how to start or which step to take next? Would you be comforted to know that Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others faced many of the same obstacles that you do? Would you like to know how such female literary giants dealt with obstacles to their writing life?

The Literary Ladies’ Guide to the Writing Life by Nava Atlas brings together twelve such giants and pulls from their journals, letters, and articles pieces that showcase how they handled writing challenges and what advice they had for other young or aspiring writers in the areas of “Becoming a Writer”, “Developing a Voice”, “Conquering Inner Demons”, “The Writing Mother”, “Rejection and Acceptance”, and “Money Matters” among others.

The Literary Ladies’ Guide is beautifully designed and thoughtfully written. Despite being a “guide”, The Literary Ladies’ Guide is anything but text-bookish. The well-chosen quotes and excerpts from twelve well-known women writers work together to make this volume a very personal collection of inspiration, encouragement and advice while giving us a peek into their every day lives. Its artistic design also lends to the personal feel of the book. The photos and artwork throughout would make for a wonderful gift book or coffee table book for anyone interested in writing or for those who simply enjoy the classic books put forth by the twelve ladies who are spotlighted: Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, Madeline L’Engle, L.M. Montgomery, Anais Nin, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and Virginia Woolf.

Atlas has given us a moment of standing on the shoulders of those who came before us and shows us that we are not as alone in our obstacles as we may feel. We are encouraged to take a look at these ladies and recognize the doors that they helped in opening for the women writers who would come after them and to realize that, though they were truly blessed writers, our beloved authors still had to work hard and still faced rejection and criticism time and again, as every writer will.

The Literary Ladies’ Guide will serve as a beautiful encourager to every writer. Enjoy!

Rating: 5/5

Alyssa is a wife and stay at home, homeschooling mother of five, with two boxers, two cats, a soft shelled turtle named after Bob the Builder, and 7 frogs (admittedly a homeschooling project gone froggy). In all her spare time, she loves to read and believes that there is no such thing as having too many books!

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sellers Publishing. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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