Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Suffering Shaped Its Schools by James K. Nelson

Between public schools, parochial schools, private schools, charter schools, choice schools, and online learning, today’s students in the city of Milwaukee have more choices in education than any other city in America. This amount of choice evolves from Milwaukee’s struggle to desegregate schools in the 1970s. Most are familiar with the ruling of Brown vs. the Board of Education which ended de jure segregation or segregation by law, and thoughts of desegregation tend to conjure up images of the Little Rock Nine as a group of nine African American students walk into their newly desegregated high school for the first time amid protest.

But what happens when segregation isn't the law, but neighborhood lines and housing patterns make it that way? Nelson traces the root of Milwaukee's segregation problems (including neighborhood segregation today) to discriminatory housing practices of the early 1900s which limited regions in which African Americans could purchase property. This caused clear racial lines in the city, which in turn made the neighborhood school segregated. Educating Milwaukee traces the evolution of programs in Milwaukee Public Schools, which were aimed at desegregation, from magnet schools, busing finally developing into the schools Milwaukee has today. This book provides wonderful background into many issues that plague and politicize our schools today and can appeal to the local history buff in us all. 

Meternity by Meghann Foye

Liz Buckley is a thirtysomething, single young woman, living in New York City, working as an editor at the it baby magazine Paddy Cakes. She's spent years pulling long nights and covering for her co-workers with children, so one day when her boss sees Liz nauseated in the morning, the rumor begins to float around that Liz is pregnant...which couldn't be farther from the truth. Impulsively Liz fakes a pregnancy, baby bump and all, and is looking forward to her "meternity" leave or the me time she'll have when she "gives birth" to figure out her life--work, dating and relationships, and the like. But just how long can Liz pull off this charade without getting caught?

Foye, who doesn't have children, has recently received criticism for her articles about mothers and maternity leave. While much of Meternity is centered around Liz and her often ridiculous, fabricated pregnancy, Foye does not shy away from addressing real issues, such as infertility, IVF, and surrogacy, that many women face.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

As a teenager, TifAni FaNelli is a student at the prestigious, private Bradley School. Desperate to be friends with the popular crowd, TifAni will do just about anything to fit in. She begs her mom to buy her clothes from Banana Republic, gets her hair done, and is even a bit ashamed that she doesn't come from the money that her fellow private school classmates do. All of her pretending works, and suddenly TifAni fits in. That's until she's sexually assaulted and raped by a group of the school's most popular boys.

Desperate to escape the humiliation that happened in high school, Ani FaNelli has reinvented herself. She's an editor at a top magazine, living in New York, dressed in the most expensive wardrobe, and has landed herself a wealthy fiancé from a good family. Ani is a new person, who has buried the traumatic experience of high school, until she's asked to be part of a documentary about her time at Bradley School.

With all of those memories resurfacing, Ani begins to take down the walls that she put up so long ago. But will everything she's worked for crumble with walls as Ani begins to let her guard down? Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive is an interesting look at what life is like for teenage girls as they grow into young women, and are destined to want it all.

The Green Road by Anne Enright

Enright's The Green Road features Rosaleen Madigan is an Irish wife and mother who attempts to control her family, husband and four children, with histrionics and melodrama. So in 1980, when oldest son Dan announces his intention to study for the priesthood, his mother starts to cry during Sunday dinner and, after dinner, takes to her bed for days. The family carries on, the burden of running the household falling on the oldest daughter, Constance. Eventually Rosaleen emerges from her bedroom and ordinary life resumes.

Decades later, Rosaleen is a widow and her children have left home. Dan, who did not become a priest, lives in North America and is involved in the art world and the gay community. His brother Evan has gone in an entirely different direction, providing medical care to poor people in Africa. Youngest daughter Hanna has gone into acting and only Constance remains near the family home, following the traditional Irish path of wife and mother. Feeling lonely, neglected and incapable of maintaining her property, Rosaleen decides she will sell her old house and live in something more modern. She summons her children home for Christmas and they dutifully obey. But the Christmas conversation devolves into arguments and injured feelings. Once again Rosaleen responds melodramatically, disappearing into the Irish countryside on a cold winter night. It is a pattern which will repeat itself again. Rosaleen may not get what she wants but she will be the center of attention.