I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

Title: I Owe You One
Author: Sophie Kinsella

Genre: Women's Fiction

Fixie Farr can't help herself. As her nickname suggests, she can't let a task go undone or a project go untackled. However, there are some things that can't be corrected by her alone, like her posturing brother and her helpless sister who are supposed to help her run the family home goods store while their mom is taking a much-needed vacation. 

As if that weren't enough, Fixie's high school crush comes back to town. Plus, she's got to contend with a braggart uncle who is trading in a past favor for current freebies. When Fixie does an unexpected favor for a stranger in a coffee shop, her already chaotic life gets even more tangled. 

Can Fixie live up to her name and her dad's motto of "family first" or is it high time she changes that motto to "Fixie first"?

- Sarah R.

Check out I Owe You One @ the library.

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

Title: When Life Gives You Lululemons

Author: Lauren Weisberger

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction

Reprising the Emily Charlton character from her earlier novel Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger has Emily running her own business as an image consultant. Unfortunately a newer, social media savvy foe is stealing her would-be clients...until Karolina Hartwell. 

Karolina is a super model turned senator's wife who finds herself on the wrong end of a DUI charge. Worse yet, her husband, Senator Hartwell, seems more interested in cutting her loose than helping her out.

Miriam, mutual friend to Emily and Karolina, pitches in to provide moral support and dusts off the lawyer skills she put on the backburner to raise her family to try to help Karolina figure out what happened.

Will Karolina's name be cleared? Will she lose contact with the child she helped raise? Read this book to find out.

- Sarah R.

Check out When Life Gives You Lululemons @ the library.

Shrill by Lindy West

Quick, name a few role models you had growing up that you could both relate to, and see your self growing into their role. Now think about those role models, are they people you want to emulate? Are they people you can emulate? Are they reasonable? If not, can you (again quickly) think of more people closer to your self that look and have lives similar to yours? If not, welcome to Lindy West's world.

Shrill, Notes From a Loud Woman is a collection of essays that tell the story of journalist Lindy West's upbringing as a "big boned" kid who chose the worlds of fantasy over the real. Who did a presentation about her love for TV, specifically comedy, to the disappointment of a favorite teacher, who stood up for herself by claiming who she was, and who starting speaking up for those who might not be ready to stand up for themselves.

Funny and powerful, reading Shrill will both make you laugh and think. West is a writer and without knowing it you may have read her work for other sites. Recommended for readers who miss The Toast, check out Jezebel on occasion, and just want to read about someone who has stopped apologizing for who she is. 

Check out Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman @ the library!

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

Therese Oneill, known for her humor and history columns in The Atlantic and Jezebel, has put together a series of short essays on sex, marriage, childbirth, body image, clothing, and anything you could possibly want to know about women's lives during the Victorian era but were always too afraid to ask. From corsets and bathing to toilets and menstruation, no topic is off limits in Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners. 

In an era known for its romanticism, life for women was anything but. Unmentionable is peppered with illustrations and graphics from Victorian era publications and filled with quotes from male physicians and philosophers who have their fair share of thoughts on the menses and its correlation with hysteria. Oneill has put together a well-researched, thoughtful, hilariously snarky book filled with often horrifying and revelatory facts. The feminist in you will be happy you picked up this book.

Nine Women, One Dress by Jane L. Rosen

It's the dress of the season, the perfect little black dress that every woman wants. This charming, witty story weaves together many short stories about the lucky women who get to wear this dress. Nine Women, One Dress tells the stories of Natalie who works as a salesgirl at Bloomingdale's who just can't seem to get over her jerk ex-boyfriend who broke her heart to Felicia who has been in love with her boss for the last eighteen years to Max, a Polish immigrant to America, who has spent the last 70 years of his life as a pattern maker for one of the top designers in New York City and how this dress has forever changed their lives.

The best way to describe this funny book, is like a grown-up version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, where the greatest pair of jeans are exchanged for the perfect little black dress. With the perfect amount of heartwarming parts, this story resonates with every woman who has always wanted to find her perfect dress.

Paris For One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes

Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You, now a major motion picture, is back with a new book, but unlike her previous novels this one is a collection of short stories. The longest story is Paris For One, which features Nell, an analytical and practical girl trying to be more spontaneous. On a whim she plans a spur of the moment trip to Paris for her and her boyfriend. When said boyfriend doesn't meet Nell in Paris as planned, Nell is forced to find her hidden independent side, in the hopes that this getaway weekend doesn't turn out to be a complete letdown.

In true Jojo Moyes fashion, Paris For One and Other Stories is filled with a cast of relatable women in their ordinary lives. Funny and charming these eight short stories are sure to keep you turning the pages.

The Shore by Sara Taylor

The shore is a collection of three islands off the coast of Virginia--Accomack, Chincoteague, and Assateague. And the aptly named The Shore by Sara Taylor is a collection of stories about the inhabitants of these islands, ranging from 1876 to 2143. The stories jump back and forth by decades, only vaguely connected by characters with a common ancestor--Medora, daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and one of his Native American servants. Medora employs violence and alcohol to escape from two abusive men, her father and her first husband, thus setting a connecting theme for the stories of many of her descendants--alcohol, drugs, and abuse. Most of the inhabitants of Accomack are poor and poorly educated. Many turn to sex, drugs, and alcohol to relieve the boredom of life in a small community. Women and children suffer most from the resulting neglect and violence, beginning with thirteen year old Chloe who must use every shred of her resourcefulness to protect her younger sister from violent men, including her own father. Other young women make poor choices, particularly regarding the men they associate with. They wind up living in fear, in poor circumstances, tied down with unwanted pregnancies. Yet they, or their children, survive and Medora's line continues. The stories, which move disjointedly for present to past to future and back again, prove this. One of the greatest pleasures in reading this book is connecting characters in one story to those in other stories. Ultimately, far in the future, a pandemic leaves the population of the shore isolated, returning to a primitive, communal lifestyle, basically relying on fishing and gathering to sustain life, only barely in touch with the past. However, when an artifact from the twentieth century is discovered and its use is puzzled out, it seems history may eventually repeat itself.

Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulin

Ally Hughes is a single mom to her ten year old daughter Lizzie. She is a female studies professor at Brown with a heavy course load, has a highly critical mother who refuses to butt out of her daughter's life, and has absolutely no time or desire to date, let alone fall in love. Then she meets Jake, a bright student who has taken nearly every class Ally Hughes has to offer. One weekend, when Ally is supposed to be fixing her house, grading final papers, and not falling in love, she winds up spending the weekend having a fling with Jake.

Fast forward ten years. Ally is still single, tends to interfere with her grown daughter's life, and has recently lost her mom to lung cancer. What Ally doesn't know is that her world is about to change, when her daughter Lizzie brings home her new boyfriend to celebrate her birthday dinner. Imaging Ally's shock when Lizzie's new boyfriend winds up being Jake. Lizzie's birthday dinner is bound to be one awkward family dinner.

Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes is a laugh out loud funny book, that reads along the lines of a romantic comedy, with a feminist feel. Will Ally finally realize that she can still embrace her feminist ways and fall in love?

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg

In the first half of the twentieth century, homeless men were called bums and a movie patron bought a ticket from a woman who sat in a booth outside the theater. These two facts are the building blocks for Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie, a book based on a real person, Mazie Phillips Gordon.  

Mazie was an ordinary New Yorker but she was also a ticket seller with a heart of gold. She sold tickets from the booth in her brother-in-law’s movie theater in The Bowery, home to many poor and disadvantaged people. As part of her job, she sold movie tickets to bums who wanted to get out of the cold, rain, heat and other unpleasant aspects of a New York slum. To some, she sold ten cent tickets; others would be given a bar of soap from her supply in her booth and a ticket on the promise that each would wash his face. She would also give dimes and quarters to her needy customers. Mazie was non-judgmental. She freely gave small change to these men, unconcerned that they would spend the coins on drink. After work, in the wee hours of the morning, she would walk the streets of The Bowery, calling ambulances for men in distress and again passing out small change. Although Jewish, she teamed up with the Catholic nuns who served the poor in the area, united by compassion and empathy.

Jamie Attenberg was inspired to write this book by an old New Yorker article by Joseph Mitchell. Mazie is included in his collection Up in the Old Hotel, and this short essay is also well worth reading.

Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession edited by Elizabeth Benedict

We all have it. Some of us love it and others of us hate it. It can be short or long, stick straight, wavy, or Shirley Temple curly. With the added frizz of a humid day, it can make you look like you have a poodle sitting on top of your head. It gets tangled and messy. And don't even get started on the plethora of colors it can be. Hair.

Ask many women and at some point in their life, they're bound to complain about their hair. What's all the fuss about? In the new book, Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession, edited by Elizabeth Benedict, the topic of, not only hair, but sexuality, feminism, culture are discussed. The authors, coming from all different races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds make the argument that hair is often tied to who a woman is. For Suleika Jaouad losing her hair during chemotherapy made her think back about how as growing up as Tunisian woman she wanted to badly to assimilate that she tried to put blonde in her jet black hair. Hasidic Jew Deborah Feldman begged her bubbe (grandmother in Yiddish) for short hair. When her grandmother said no, Feldman realized the implications hair and the Holocaust had left on her Holocaust survivor grandmother.

Twenty-seven different women all talk about their hair, and as a result this book takes an interesting look at what it's like to be a woman. While each of these women come from different backgrounds, there is one thing they all have in common--their hair.

The Cake Therapist by Judith Fertig

With her marriage crumbling, Claire "Neely" O'Neil leaves New York to move back to her hometown of Millcreek Valley, Ohio. Using her amazing talents as a pastry chef, Claire opens Rainbow Cake, a quaint little bakery specializing in wedding cakes. Like any good chef, Claire has a great palette. With a little bit of magical realism, she believes that certain flavors just go hand in hand with certain feelings. With her ability to create amazing flavor profiles, it's easy to see why Rainbow Cake soon becomes more than just a charming, little bakery.

Flashback to the early 1900s for the second part of this story, which follows sisters Olive and Edie growing up through the Great Depression and World War II. At first it's difficult to imagine how Claire's story intertwines with Olive and Edie, but that's what makes this book so difficult to put down. Like any small town, Millcreek Valley has secrets and it's only a matter of time before they bubble to the surface.

The Cake Therapist is Judith Fertig's first work of fiction. The author has previously edited several cookbooks, and it's easy to see that cakes and pastries are her specialty. With the language Fertig uses, the pastries and baked goods from Rainbow Cake leave you longing for something delicious. While the author may specialize in cookbooks, it's easy to see she's found a new niche, because The Cake Therapist will soon have a sequel.