Women's Review of Books - 2015 Issues
January/February 2015
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- Science, Religion, and Politics
From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age America
By Kimberly A. Hamlin
Reviewed by Emily R. Grosholz - Of Binoculars and Birdhats, Treaties and Toxicology
Fallen Forests: Emotion, Embodiment and Ethics in American Women’s Environmental Writing, 1781-1924
By Karen L. Kilcup
Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America's Environment
By Brian Musil
Reviewed by Shaeleen A. Meaney - Capital Matters... But So Does Gender
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
By Thomas Piketty, Translated by Arthur Goldhammer
Reviewed by Kate Bahn - Those Society Has Abandoned
From Pariahs to Partners: How Parents and Their Allies Changed New York City’s Child Welfare System By David Tobis; To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
By Cris Beam
Reviewed by Ruth Sidel - Keeping The Mission Alive
Sex Work Politics: From Protest to Service Provision
By Samantha Majic
Reviewed by Marianna Wesson - Art and Politics
The Other Black List: The African American Literary and Cultural Left of the 1950s
By Mary Helen Washington
Reviewed by Dayo Gore - Photography
The Meeting of Art and Technology: The Polaroid Collections
By Ellen Feldman - The Radical and The Moderate
Anna Howard Shaw: The Work of Woman Suffrage By Trisha Franzen; Alice Paul: Claiming Power
By J.D. Zahniser and Amelia R. Fry
Reviewed by Louise W. Knight - Field Notes
In Memoriam: Maxine Kumin (1925-2014)
By Robin Becker - Competition and Symbiosis
Invisible Beasts: Tales of the Animals That Go Unseen Among Us
By Sharon Muir
Reviewed by Marianna DeKoven - Poetry
By Irene Willis - A Lot More To Say
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure
Edited by Tristan Taormino, Celine Parrenas Shimizu, Constance Penley, Mireille Miller-Young
Reviewed by Wendy Chapkis - The Chaos and Quiet of Karen Green
Bough Down
By Karen Green
Reviewed by Ana Isabel Keilson - A Black-And-White Photograph
Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932
By Francine Prose
Reviewed by Marcie Blanco - The History of Western Art
The Blazing World
By Siri Hustvedt
Reviewed by Cassandra Langer - Lost Property
Things I Don’t Want To Know: On Writing By Deborah Levy; Black Vodka: Ten Stories
By Deborah Levy
Reviewed by Elaine Margolin
March/April 2015
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Trapped in the Self
Autism and Gender: From Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks
By Jordynn Jack
Reviewed by Ellen HermanCross with the Church
Good Catholics: The Battle over Abortion in the Catholic Church
By Patricia Miller
Reviewed by Mary E. HuntExclusion and Unexpectation
Girls Coming to Tech!: A History of American Engineering Education for Women
By Amy Sue Bix
Searching for Scientific Womanpower: Technocratic Feminism and the Politics of National Security, 1940-1980
By Laura Micheletti Puaca
Reviewed by Nina E. LermanHard Work and Overalls
Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America By Miriam Frank; Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Steelworkers
By Anne Balay
Reviewed by Bettina ApthekerSexual Revolutionaries
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
By Jonathan Eig
Reviewed by Wendy KlineRebellion and Survival
Holocaust Mothers and Daughters: Family, History, and Trauma
By Federica K. Clementi
Reviewed by Evelyn Torton BeckPoetry
By Marion BrownGood Reads
A Stranger Comes to Town
By Trish CrapoCarrying Across
Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz: Selected Works
Translated by Edith Grossman
Reviewed by Amanda PowellCartoon
By Kelly FrohFamilies in Motion, Fueled by Faith
More Than Conquerors: A Memoir of Lost Arguments
By Megan Hustad
The Last Days of California
By Mary Miller
Reviewed by Joy CastroParallel Lives
The Four Words For Home
By Angie Chuang
Reviewed by Valerie MinerI Want My Face to be Very Mad
Spectacular Girls: Media Fascination and Celebrity Culture
By Sarah Projansky
Reviewed by Elline LipkinA Tragic Mess
The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, The Power Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities
By William D. Cohan
Reviewed by Laura PappanoI Am Because We Are
Transformation Now! Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change
By AnaLouise Keating
Reviewed by Xiumei PuSleeping on the Same Pillow
Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early AmericaBy Rachel Hope Cleves
Reviewed by Marla R. Miller
May/June 2015
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- Making a Spectacle of Herself
Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Moorman
By Joan Rothfuss
Reviewed by Debra Cash - The Strongest and Wisest Amazon
The Secret History of Wonder Woman By Jill Lepore; Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948 By Noah Berlatsky
By Patricia Miller
Reviewed by Joan Hilty - Fashion Victims
Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco
By Clare Sears
Reviewed by Lillian Faderman - Offending Women
Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility By Susan Starr Sered and Maureen Norton-Hawk; Mean Lives, Mean Laws: Oklahoma’s Women Prisoners By Susan F. Sharp
Reviewed by Rickie Solinger - Public Women
The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation and Institutions
By Christopher F. Karpowitz and Tali Mendelberg
Reviewed by Glenna Matthews - No Tolerance for Easy Answers
The Essential Ellen Willis
Edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz
Reviewed by Astrid Henry - The Complexity of Success
Relentless Reformer: Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth Century America
By Robyn Muncy
Reviewed by Alice Kessler-Harris - How the Little House Was Won
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography
Edited by Pamela Smith Hill
Reviewed by Holly Blackford - Poetry
By Beth Enson - Field Notes
Euphoric Stew
By Robin Becker - Labor in Both Senses of the Word
Wombs in Labor: Transnational Commercial Surrogacy in India
By Amrita Pande
The Last Days of California
By Mary Miller
Reviewed by Rajani Bhatia - All in Her Head
Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health
By Joanna Kempner
Reviewed by Paula Kamen - "Disarm! Disarm!"
Modern Motherhood: An American History
By Jodi Vandenberg-Daves
Reviewed by Alicia Ostriker - Essay
Changing Women's Lives Through Literature
By Jean Trounstine - A Same-Sex Murder Ballad
Alice & Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis
By Alexis Coe, illustrations by Sally Klann
Reviewed by Susanna J. Sturgis - Things Underneath
How to Be Both
By Ali Smith
Reviewed by Rebecca Meacham
July/August 2015
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A Positive Social Good
Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights
By Katha Pollitt
Reviewed by Marlene FriedTen Fingers and Ten Toes
Fantasies of Identification: Disability, Gender, Race By Ellen Samuels
Reviewed by Lauri UmanskyComplicating the story of women in the Nation of Islam
A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women: African American Muslim Women in the Movement for Black Self-Determination, 1950-1975
By Bayyinah S. Jeffries; Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam
By Dawn-Marie Gibson and Jamillah Karim
Reviewed by Juliane HammerTransported Women
Harlots, Hussies and Poor Unfortunate Women: Crime, Transportation, and the Servitude of Female Convicts, 1718-1783
By Edith M. Ziegler
Reviewed by Rona L. HolubIndigenous Rights And Women’S Rights Together
Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories
By Hilary Klein Reviewed by Lynn StephenCartoon By Cara Bean
Good Reads ESPIONAGE AND INTRIGUE
By Trish CrapoPoetry By Jessica Greenbaum
Love As Fierce As Death
A Stranger’s Mirror: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2013 By Marilyn Hacker;
Swimming in the Rain: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2015
By Chana Bloch
Reviewed by Alicia OstrikerFailure To Communicate
Pan American Women: US Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico
By Megan Threlkeld
Reviewed by Catia Cecilia ConfortiniSplitters, Knitters, And Quitters
School’s Out: Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom
By Catherine Connell
Reviewed by Pam ChamberlainHer Own Chair
Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words
Edited by Malka Marom
Reviewed by Joanna WeissStaying Home Or Leaving It
Russian Tattoo
By Elena Gorokhova;
Waiting for Electricity
By Christina Nichol
Reviewed by Marta BladekUnencumbered
Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation
By Trimiko Melancon
Reviewed by Rachel Afi QuinnBlack Women Reporters On The White House Beat
Alone Atop the Hill: The Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press
Edited by Carol McCabe Booker;
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press
By James McGrath Morris; The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America
By April Ryan
Reviewed by A. J. Verdelle
September/October 2015
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Thirty Ounces of Death in a Feathered Jacket
H Is for Hawk
By Helen Macdonald
Reviewed by Mary Zeiss StangeNo Empire Without Collaborators
Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies From Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves By Peipei Qiu with Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei
Reviewed by Lihua WangPutin Performs Masculinity
Sex, Politics, & Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia By Valerie Sperling
Reviewed by Rochelle Goldberg RuthchildProtected and Policed
Regulating Desire: From the Virtuous Maiden to the Purity Princess By J. Shoshanna Ehrlich
Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and the Making of the FBI By Jessica R. Pliley
Reviewed by Anne Gray FischerUncaring Health Care
Reproductive Justice: The Politics of Health Care for Native American Women By Barbara Gurr
Reviewed by Andrea SmithNot A Feminist But
Cora Du Bois: Anthropologist, Diplomat, Agent By Susan C. Seymour
Reviewed by Lois BannerPoetry
By Amy DyanskyPhotography
Beyond Stereotype
Photography by Anne Rearick and Commentary by Ellen FeldmanField Notes
Recollecting in Tranquility By Robin BeckerA Nation Founded On Genocide
An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Reviewed by Brook ColleySerious Daring
Dollhouse By Elaine Terranova
Blue Hanuman By Joan Larkin
Otherwise UnseeableBy Betsy Sholl
Reviewed by Charlotte HolmesA Boy On the Run
Little Bastards in Springtime By Katja Rudolph
Reviewed by Kelly CherryNGOs: Soft Power Turning the Gears
Theorizing NGOs: States, Feminisms, and Neoliberalism Edited by Victoria Bernal and Inderpal Grewal
Reviewed by Miranda JosephFinding Her Life Path
Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro By Sarah H. Jacoby
Reviewed by Serinity YoungColonialist Dreams of Lesbianism
The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830 By Susan S. Lanser
Reviewed by Lisa L. MoorePleasure and Performance
A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography By Mireille Miller-Young
The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography By Jennifer C. Nash
Reviewed by Svati P. Shah
November/Docember 2015
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A Family Recipe
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs By Sally Mann
Reviewed by Trish CrapoBecoming Children
South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration By Marcia Chatelain
Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans By LaKisha Michelle Simmons
Reviewed by Tamara Beauboeuf-LafontantAn Activist in Her Own Right
Eleanor Marx: A Life By Rachel Holmes
Reviewed by Linda GordonPoetry
By Alice FrimanAdd These to Your Queue
Women’s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms By Patricia White
Reviewed by Erin TrahanColor Politics Remix
God Help the Child By Toni Morrison
Reviewed by Mecca Jamilah SullivanCartoon
Timebomb, or How I Discovered Sybil Lamb, My New Fave Queer Woman Author & ArtistBy Cristy C. RoadThe Unrecoverable Recovered
The Match Girl and the Heiress By Seth Koven
Reviewed by Lisa RodenskyGood Reads
Outrunning Sadness By Trish CrapoImagining Alternative Worlds
Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture By Adrienne Shaw
Reviewed by Carmen Maria MachadoShould a Feminist Dance Tango?
Dancing Tango: Passionate Encounters in a Globalizing World By Kathy Davis
The Gods of Tango By Carolina De Robertis
Reviewed by Debra CashThe Politics of Hair
Plucked: A History of Hair Removal By Rebecca M. Herzig
Reviewed by Rachel SomersteinVigorous Minds
Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley By Charlotte Gordon
Reviewed by Gina Luria WalkerNothing Is Wasted
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life By Hermione Lee
Reviewed by Ana Isabel Keilson
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The Women's Review of Books receives support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.