The Barbizon by Paulina Bren

The subtitle of Paulina Bren’s nonfiction book, The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free, is somewhat misleading. While it was a fascinating cultural study of a hotel, it was possibly even more of a study of Mademoiselle magazine and its college guest editors who all stayed at the Barbizon during June. Bren is a… Continue reading The Barbizon by Paulina Bren

The Genius of Women by Janice Kaplan

The Genius of Women is not easy to review. Janice Kaplan’s book, subtitled “From Overlooked to Changing the World” is filled with compelling stories of female artists, scientists, mathematicians who were forgotten, who found a way to overcome the period in which they lived, and women who are overcoming obstacles today. Those stories are compelling.… Continue reading The Genius of Women by Janice Kaplan

Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher

Even the subtitle of Mary Pipher’s latest bestseller, Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age, doesn’t really do an adequate job describing how fascinating this book is. If you’re a woman over sixty, you might want to read this. If you’re a woman approaching sixty, Pipher provides hints as to how… Continue reading Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher

A Circle

I’m not going to talk here about the Presidential race.  But, I am going to end with a note about politics. It comes from a circle of belief. I’m reading Beth Kendrick’s novel Once Upon a Wine right now. It’s a romance, but it’s also a story about three strong women of different ages who… Continue reading A Circle

Pistols and Petticoats by Erika Janik

The subtitle of Erika Janik’s nonfiction book, Pistols and Petticoats, is “175 Years of Lady Detectives in Fact and Fiction”. Although the two subjects should fit together perfectly, they didn’t seem to flow as well as they should have in the book. However, if you are interested either in the role of women as police… Continue reading Pistols and Petticoats by Erika Janik