Books

The trend in positive psychology interested memoirist Ariel Gore, especially after further reading uncovered a rash of male experts seemingly out to prove that women with traditional lifestyles were happiest. Bluebird is her personal journey into happiness.

At the opening of this novel, a mid-19th-century tomboy named Pell Ridley faces an important decision: marry a man she doesn't love to exchange her life of freedom for a life of household drudgery, or strike out on horseback for the unknown.

Marchetto, a cartoonist for The New Yorker and Glamour, among others, details the 11-month odyssey that followed her cancer diagnosis with blunt candor and honesty about even the most embarrassing details (chemo farts-who knew?).

A black-and-blue mess of confessions in which best-selling author Julie Powell (Julie and Julia), apprentices with a butcher while simultaneously hacking away at her own life and loves.

Blogger Julia Wertz's second book of illustrations chronicles her move from California to New York with sharp one-liners and a quirky eye.

A witty first-person narrative in which Stein and Kim wonder if anything in all of human history has been so reviled, feared and catered to as menstruation

A must-read for anyone considering going on synthetic estrogen, author Barbara Seaman has pulled together evidence-based accounts about the use and misuse of Premarin.

A zippy significant other chronology in which author Julie Klausner explores the unsavory details of sleeping with a gallery of losers.

Using letters, diaries and articles of sources ranging from Betty Friedan to Marilyn Monroe, award-winning novelist Appignanesi reveals how women's ability to live creative lives has been controlled by culture, and how their unsuccessful attempts have lead to mental illness, another evolving cultural concept.

Published in 1982 and only now translated into English, Tove Jansson's novel asks the timeless question, whether it is better to be kind than to be truthful when a poor woman inveigles her way into a wealthy older woman's life.