The Women's Review of Books articles from May 2008

The Women's Review of Books archives from May 2008

Feminist economics.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... When I saw "the economics of care" on the front cover of my latest issue of Women's Review of Books, I was excited that renowned feminist scholar Riane Eisler's most recent book, The Real Wealth of Nations, was featured and I sat down...

Correction.(Correction notice)
May 1, 2008... We apologize for the confusion we may have caused by leaving out the name of the author of Peregrina: Love and Death in Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2007), reviewed in the May/June issue of WRB. The book is by Alma Reed, edited and with...

Female spoons and male forks.(American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes Edited by Molly O'Neill New York: Library of America, 2007, 753 pp. $40.00, hardcover "Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are." So...

The insanity file.(The Madness of Mary Todd Lincoln)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Madness of Mary Todd Lincoln By Jason Emerson Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007, 258 pp., $29.95, hardcover Mary Todd Lincoln was a difficult woman whose life was darkened by the deaths of three sons and the...

Art without balls.(Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art Edited by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin London and New York: Merrell, 2007, 304 pp., $54.95, hardcover "Does a woman artist need to have balls to be...

Sex without procreation, procreation without sex.(Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World; Queering Reproduction: Achieving Pregnancy in the Age of Technoscience)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World By Liza Mundy New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, 406 pp., $26.95, hardcover Queering Reproduction: Achieving...

The rescuer of women.(Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories By Katha Pollitt New York: Random House, 2007, 207 pp., $22.95, hardcover Learning to Drive is an unremitting pleasure to read. This is in marked contrast to Katha Pollitt's other work--not...

The boys against the girls.(Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal; Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Playing with the Boys: Why Separate Is Not Equal By Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, 349 pp., $28.00, hardcover Equal Play: Title IX and Social Change Edited by Nancy Hogshead-Makar and...

The resonance of "quiet" fiction.(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Alice Stories By Jesse Lee Kercheval Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007, 240 pp., $24.95, hardcover Water: Nine Sories By Alyce Miller Louisville, KY: Sarabande Books, 2007, 216 pp., $15.95, paperback ...

The Widow of Few Tears.(Poetry)(Poem)
May 1, 2008... The Widow of Few Tears 1. How is she doing? Has she begun to weep? Not yet, but she is walking back and forth in coastal waters which are composed entirely of tears. 2. When she is...

Metamorphosis.(Poetry)(Poem)
May 1, 2008... Metamorphosis Such havoc there was in your house when the sparrow flew in and the cats set to: somebody's arms flailing, somebody's larynx ululating. You were reaching out to interrupt a cat as the sparrow dove...

Detour de force.(Awkward: A Detour)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Awkward: A Detour By Mary Cappello New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2007, 224 pages, $16.95, paperback Adeft maneuver, this--Mary Cappello's use of "detour" to parody the familiar publishing ploy of constructing a...

Where no woman has gone before.(Essay)(lack of literary portrayals of women's participation in Antarctic explorations)(Essay)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At a time when the globe seems ever smaller, Antarctica remains enduringly remote. And at a time of overpopulation crises, Antarctica is the only place in the world without an indigenous or population. Despite its...

Cultural identity and multicultural complexity.(The Colors of dews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... The Colors of dews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism By Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2007, 268 pp., $24.95, paperback Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz has a long history as a Jewish feminist...

Quinceanera Barbie.(Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina; Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Hijas Americanas: Beauty, Body Image, and Growing Up Latina By Rosie Molinary Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007, 280 pp., $15.95, paperback Once Upon a Quinceanera: Coming of Age in the USA By Julia Alvarez New York: Viking...

Handmaidens no more.(Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Daring to Care: American Nursing and Second-Wave Feminism By Susan Gelfand Malka Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007, 219 pp., $25.00, paperback [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Early in the twentieth century, when...

All to mother.(Household Accounts: Working-Class Family Economies in the Interwar United States)(Book review)
May 1, 2008... Household Accounts: Working-Class Family Economies in the Interwar United States By Susan Porter Benson Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007, 233 pp., $45.00, hardcover [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Our long romance with what...

Tender impiety: Grace Paley, 1922-2007.(Obituary)
May 1, 2008... Just months before the venerated writer and political activist Grace Paley died of breast cancer at the age of 84, one of the best graduate students I have ever taught spotted her at a sparsely attended antiwar demonstration in Boston. "Don't...