The Women's Review of Books articles from July 2007

The Women's Review of Books archives from July 2007

Modern childbirth: failure to progress.(Pushed: The Painful Truth about Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care)(Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First)(Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care By Jennifer Block New York: Da Capo Press, 2007, 400 pp., $26.00, hardcover Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and...

The Feminist Minima.(Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism By Janet Halley Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, 402 pp., $29.95, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I admit I was predisposed to dislike Janet Halley's...

Michael Field and their world.(Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper )(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Writing as "Michael Field," Katharine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862-1913), the British aunt and niece lesbian couple, produced an enormous and distinguished body of plays and poetry. Long neglected, they now appear frequently in...

Regendering the movies.(Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood By Karen Ward Mahar Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006, 291 pp., $45.00, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Imagine: the film industry is a bastion of equal opportunity. Women...

The Cartography of Age.(Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking)(Lesbian Communities: Festivals, RVs, and the Internet )(Whistling Women: A Study of the Lives of Older Lesbians )(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Age Matters: Realigning Feminist Thinking Edited by Toni M. Calasanti and Kathleen F. Slevin New York: Routledge, 2006, 353 pp., $32.95, paperback Lesbian Communities: Festivals, RVs, and the Internet Edited by Esther Rothblum...

Sibling rivalry: history and memoir.(Essay)(Essay)
July 1, 2007... Here is the dilemma: history is cross with memoir for not being more like history. It is easy to understand why. The two interpretive modes have their differences. Memoir interprets a personal past; history a collective one. Memoir, being told...

Total optimism reigned.(Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford Edited by Peter Y. Sussman New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, 744 pp., $35.00, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a member of an eccentric British aristocratic family and of the Communist...

Comic.(Cartoon)
July 1, 2007... ... and then she wrote [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mommeeeee... i'm booored! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Look at the Picture, and write a story! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The grade two creative writing award goes to Saleema...

The poem as postcard.(Field Notes)
July 1, 2007... What does a lyric poem have in common with a postcard? Brevity and compression, certainly, and urgency. From a specific site--physical as well as emotional--the writer desires contact with another and crafts a message suitable to the form. The...

East End Postcard.(Field Notes)(Poem)
July 1, 2007... East End Postcard Provincetown, December I love the mosaic these shacks make as they gerrymander the air for their views of the harbor. Some tiptoe on stilts right down to the water, precarious as drag queens in...

Rending the Garment.(Poetry)(Poem)
July 1, 2007... Rending the Garment The night before my mother goes into the ground I try to eat in my hotel near Kennedy, but since Sept. 11th the restaurant is temporarily closed. In the still-open souvenir shop I find...

Smoking Raleighs.(Poetry)(Poem)
July 1, 2007... Smoking Raleighs When my mother still believed my father was who she wished he was, she kept a card file of recipes, and Red Skelton was the voice of Raleigh whose ads depicted a couple in evening dress-- a man in...

Fresh, clean--and hidden.(Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation )(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Capitalizing on the Curse: The Business of Menstruation By Elizabeth Anveda Kissling Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006, 155 pages, $39.95, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "From puberty to menopause woman is the theater of a...

"Neither Whores Nor Submissive.".(Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics, and Social Exclusion)(Breaking the Silence: French Women's Voices from the Ghetto)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics, and Social Exclusion By Trica Danielle Keaton Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006, 223 pp., $22.95, paperback Breaking the Silence: French Women's Voices from the...

The most powerful woman in business.(Tough Choices )(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Tough Choices By Carly Fiorina New York: Portfolio, 2006, 319 pp., $24.95, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1998, when Carly Fiorina was an executive vice president at Lucent Technologies, she received word that she would...

Taking the risk.(The View from Castle Rock: Stories)(The Light of Evening)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... The View from Castle Rock: Stories By Alice Munro New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, 349 pp., $25.95, hardcover The Light of Evening By Edna O'Brien New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006, 304 pp., $25.00, hardcover...

Dancing with the patriarchs.(History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism By Judith M. Bennett Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, 214 pp., $49.95, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Speaking of patriarchy, Judith Bennett...

Changing sex, changing mind.(Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers)(What Becomes You)(The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male)(Book review)
July 1, 2007... Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers By Cris Beam New York: Harcourt, 2007, 323 pp., $25.00, hardcover What Becomes You By Aaron Raz Link and Hilda Raz Lincoln: University of...

Emerging from silence: Tillie Lerner Olsen: January 14, 1912--January 1, 2007.(Obituary)(Obituary)
July 1, 2007... In 1972, the Feminist Press republished Life in the Iron Mills, by Rebecca Harding Davis, which had originally appeared in the April 1861 Atlantic Monthly. The 1972 volume carries a wise and empathic biographical interpretation by Tillie Olsen,...

Literary Wanderings: Women's review writers and readers let us know what they're reading in their spare time.(On My Bookshelf)(Column)
July 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I belong to three book groups and have an ever lengthier "to read" list. However, I don't routinely buy books as I have downsized considerably since my retirement in 2000. Fortunately, I can borrow most of the books...