The Women's Review of Books articles from November 2006

The Women's Review of Books archives from November 2006

Living your dreams, struggling with gender.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Your reviewer [Kimberly Palmer] of Lyndall Gordon's Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft in the July/August WRB is right on target about how Gordon defends Wollstonecraft from negative charges in terms of her life and legacy to reclaim...

An assault over breakfast.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I subscribe to and read Women's Review of Books with a many-year devotion, gleaning its pages for the information about the whys and ways of the world through the eyes of women. It is for me a woman-space, a place I come to at breakfast when I...

Puzzled.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... As ever I was delighted to receive the new WRB and started right in with Robin Becker's "Field Notes" and then went on to Joan Hilty's cartoon. "The Ghostwriter." Looking at the contents I was pleased to see many articles that excited me. and...

The man who didn't exist.(James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon By Julie Phillips New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006 447 pp, $27.95, hardcover A six-year old girl from Chicago in the Belgian Congo, whose "mother walks next to her, holding a rifle...

"You're next".(The Caged Virgin)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... The Caged Virgin By Ayaan Hirsi Ali Translated from the Dutch by Jane Brown New York: Free Press, 2006, 187 pp., $19.95, hardcover. As I write this, Dutch politics are in turmoil. The coalition government has been forced to resign amid...

No one speaks for everyone.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... In her July/August review of Women's Studies for the Future: Foundations, Interrogations, Politics, Karin Aguilar-San Juan refers to "white feminism." It amazes me that academics who accuse white women of universalizing, or trying to speak on...

Moosewood heaven.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the last WRB (Sept./Oct.). The reviews were thoughtfully written and the issue as a whole was very balanced and provocative. However, I have to protest characterizing "Moosewood" as "hell." As...

Reaching the goal.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Just a quick note to say congratulations on issue #4! I loved it. Almost everything in it was of interest to me, and it struck me as totally fulfilling the goal of speaking to generalists as well as to scholars. Great job! Nan Cinnater ...

Sweating it out.(Hot and Bothered: Women, Medicine and Menopause in Modern America)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Hot and Bothered: Women, Medicine and Menopause in Modern America By Judith A. Houck Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, 328 pp., $39.95, hardcover. Feminist scholarship about the contentious relationship between women and the...

A conservative in liberal's clothing.(When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex Since the Sixties)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex Since the Sixties By Kristin Luker New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006, 360 pp., $25.95, hardcover. Americans have been duking it out over sex education for the past four decades. Sociologist...

Sappho's lost sessions.(discovered poem)
November 1, 2006... Sappho has come out with a new poem: not bad for someone who's been dead for about 2600 years. A little over a year ago, Martin L. West, an emeritus fellow of All Souls College Oxford, announced in the Times Literary Supplement (June 24,...

Crossing the divide.(The Other Side of Israel: My Journey across the Jewish/Arab Divide)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish/Arab Divide By Susan Nathan New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2005, 336 pp., $25.00, hardcover. What does it mean to be an "outsider" who espouses the cause of an oppressed group; to...

Whose choice?(Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America )(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America By Rickie Solinger New York: New York University Press, 2005, 301 pp., $27.95, hardcover. For me, a feminist occasionally depressed about the state of the world,...

My Isadora.(Cartoon)
November 1, 2006... As a young art student... GRANDMA, CAN I BORROW THIS? SURE, KEEP IT. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] I'LL NEVER HAVE HER GUTS? IF you pay my way to EUROPE, you will be hailed for RECOGNIZING an IMPORTANT American ARTIST. ...

Charlotte Bronte, Student.(Poetry)(Poem)
November 1, 2006... Charlotte Bronte, Student Roe Head School, 1831 When I arrived, they eyed me queerly, these daughters of wealthy locals. Oh, I could not blame them--me with spectacles and old woman's dress, unmistakable tinge of...

At The Mall Cineplex.(Poem)
November 1, 2006... At The Mall Cineplex Herded into the narrow aisles, I can't help thinking of the Fox-Bay theater on long Saturday afternoons; the high school kids in burgundy blazers ushering us into the hushed generous darkness ...

In memoriam: Patricia Goedicke (1931-2006) and Jean Pedrick (1923-2006).(Field Notes)(Obituary)
November 1, 2006... This summer, the deaths of Patricia Goedicke and Jean Pedrick touched many people. Cherished community members, beloved poets and teachers, each forged a rich, creative life, with her writing at the center. Patricia Goedicke, born Patricia...

Forugh Farrokhzad: her poetry, life, and legacy.(Biography)
November 1, 2006... In Iran, mischief and unreason have long been thought native to a woman's tongue, and Iranian women writers have historically had to contend with this religious and cultural legacy. For centuries, they were discouraged from writing and were...

"The End is far, and time is short".(Suite Francaise )(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Suite Francaise By Irene Nemirovsky Translated by Sandra Smith New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, 401 pp., $25.00, hardcover. The story of this highly acclaimed book's emergence decades after its author perished in the Nazi concentration camp...

The given life and the chosen life.(Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy )(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy By Louise W. Knight Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 582 pp., $35.00, hardcover. Jane Addams was one of the most influential public intellectuals in the United States during...

The wisdom of myth.(Bellini in Istanbul)(Five Terraces)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Bellini in Istanbul By Lillias Bever Dorset, VT: Tupelo Press, 2005, 85 pp., $16.95, paperback. Five Terraces By Ann Fisher-Wirth Nicholasville, KY: Wind Publications, 2005, 132 pp., $14.00, paperback. To put these two books of poems...

The long version.(Mara and Dann: An Adventure)(The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... Mara and Dann: An Adventure By Doris Lessing New York: HarperCollins, 1999, 407 pp., $14.00, paperback. The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog By Doris Lessing New York: HarperCollins, 2006, 288 pp., $24.95,...

On wives and prostitutes.(The Purchase of Intimacy )(Book review)
November 1, 2006... The Purchase of Intimacy By Viviana A. Zelizer Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005, 356 pp., $29.95, hardcover. "Wives and whores are--if not exactly like Coke and Pepsi--something akin to champagne and beer. The same sort of...

The history of torture.(That Inferno: Conversations of Five Women Survivors of an Argentine Torture Camp)(Truth, Torture, and the American Way)(Book review)
November 1, 2006... That Inferno: Conversations of Five Women Survivors of an Argentine Torture Camp By Munu Actis, Cristina Aldini, Liliana Gardella, Miriam Lewin, and Elisa Tokar Translated by Gretta Siebentritt Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2006, 302...

The shelves of good intentions: Women's Review writers and readers let us know what they're reading in their spare time.(On My Bookshelf)(Column)
November 1, 2006... My bookshelf is about best intentions and laziness. I develop a passion about something and I collect books on that subject, like a reference librarian run amuck. Sometimes I read all the books I buy, but just as often, the newly bought...