journalism

Fearless Female Journalists

admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Fearless Female Journalists is a set of ten short profiles of female reporters, photojournalists, and newscasters hailing from various times and places over the last two centuries.

Among the women featured is one of the early pioneers of modern journalism: nineteenth-century American newspaperwoman Nellie Bly, a daredevil stunt reporter. Nelly Bly is perhaps most famous for circumnavigating the globe in seventy-three days in an era before airplanes, but she also took on assignments designed to do good as well as to make a splash. For example, she got herself admitted as a patient to the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island in order to expose the terrible conditions there. In a later chapter, we meet Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian reporter who, despite her privileged origins as the daughter of diplomats, made the decision to risk–and ultimately lose–her life in order to report on the Russian occupation of Chechnya. (Politkovskaya was assassinated on October 7, 2006, at age forty-eight.) The book closes with a portrait of Thembi Ngubane, a young South African woman who recorded an audio journal about her life with AIDS as part of an effort to end the stigma around AIDS, as well as to push the South African government to acknowledge the tragic proportions of the AIDS epidemic.

The book is geared towards children–I estimate that it is most appropriate for an audience aged seven to eleven. The profiles are attractive and highly readable, complete with photographs and sidebars containing “fun facts.” The stories are entertaining and inspiring, and the selection of featured journalists reflects some variety in terms of era, type of journalism, and nationality (although the book still skews heavily toward heterosexual North American white women). Unfortunately, the book does have a downside–it is written from a “nice, liberal” standpoint, in which history is presented as an inexorable march towards progress, driven by a few exceptionally determined actors. This perspective glorifies individual high-profile “heroines” while erasing the history of communal struggle. It also obscures the reality that, in most cases, the few exceptional people who “make it big” do so not because they are more courageous or determined than thousands of others, but rather because they got lucky or started out with some “extras,” such as racial or class privilege.

The book reaches its nadir at the beginning of the final chapter, when it begins the profile of Thembi Ngubane by blatantly exoticizing her ethnicity: “Thembi Ngubane had a beautiful voice. Like her name, it was wonderfully African. Her voice flowed and lilted and swam around words, especially words with ‘r’ in them."

While I enjoyed reading Fearless Female Journalists and learning about the ten outstanding women profiled within, I could have happily done without the book’s uncritical, unconscious approach to the narrative of history and social change.

Written by: Ri J. Turner, July 23rd 2010

The Tyranny of Opinion: Honor in the Construction of the Mexican Public Sphere

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:01:00 +0000

By Pablo Piccato

Duke University Press

A coworker who saw this book sitting on my desk commented, “The tyranny of opinion? Isn’t the whole point of an opinion that it’s free from tyranny?” Not quite. Even today, public opinion can make or break a celebrity’s or politician’s career. In The Tyranny of Opinion, Pablo Piccato weaves an intricate web connecting a variety of aspects of nineteenth century Mexican society, examining the notion of how honor was closely tied to one’s place in society and how public opinion affected people’s public and private lives.

Since honor was one of the most important—if not the most important—form of social capital one could have, people went to great lengths to maintain (or attain) it. Journalists at the time, for example, had a dualistic connection to public opinion. On one hand, they were responsible for publishing the material that helped create it. On the other, many journalists were underpaid and worked in poor conditions, and their upward mobility in society was closely tied to their success as writers. As such, establishing one’s reputation sometimes took precedence over objective reporting, which in turn had an impact on how public opinion was shaped.

Love affairs, student protests, public riots, and duels are also subjects of analysis in the book. Lest one think that he focused solely on the honor of the upper class, Piccato actually covers a broad spectrum of race and class. He is also careful to include a gender-based component in his analysis. Although the book focuses largely on the honor of men, Piccato examines the reasons why women—especially “respectable” women—were largely excluded from public life. In his conclusion, he notes how his analysis regarding women, domesticity, political narratives, and moral economy serve to contribute to a larger academic conversation about these subjects.

Piccato grounds his work in close readings of primary sources, interpreting everything from published newspaper stories to court documents. His knowledge of the historiography on the subject is evident, as is his knowledge of Mexican culture during the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The strength of the book lies in Piccato’s ability to convey the context of his analysis. The Tyranny of Opinion will surely serve as an excellence resource for Mexican history scholars.

Written by: Melissa Arjona, July 12th 2010

Love Goes to Press: A Comedy in Three Acts

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:28:00 +0000

Edited by Sandra Spanier

Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press

It's impossible to dislike a female protagonist who opines, fifteen miles south of the Italian front in the second-to-last year of World War II, "If there's anything I really loathe, it's a woman protector." Delivered by Annabelle Jones, war correspondent for the San Francisco World, in conversation with Jane Mason, war correspondent for the New York Bulletin, this line refers to one of the many well-meaning men who are the butts of the jokes in the play Love Goes to Press.

Longtime friends as well as colleagues, Jones and Mason are globetrotting journalists chasing after war stories when both improbably show up in the same tiny press camp in Italy. There, amid refrains of, "No, I am not a nurse," any time one of them places an intra-military call, each of the two women pursue dangerously-won exclusive stories and navigate surprise romantic encounters, the latter portrayed as considerably more perilous than the former.

The mostly-journalist ensemble draws an easy comparison to His Girl Friday, released six years before Love Goes to Press first appeared on stage. By contrast, the play's pacing and gender commentary read as tersely contemporary, and its production history as relatively dismal. First performed in the summer of 1946, audiences in London packed theaters to see it, taking advantage of the small luxury of cheap tickets, and in co-author Martha Gellhorn's estimation, eager to laugh amid grief, rationing, wide-spread destruction, and exhaustion in the first year of peace after the war.

American audiences, however, did not crave such levity. After only four performances in New York in the first week of 1947 (where, Gellhorn further recounts, the cast was ecstatic to shop and eat as much as they could), the play folded then disappeared. American reviews from the time reflect a limited range of emotions running from irked boredom to disgust: either the veteran lady war reporters who authored the play couldn't get war quite "right," for all of their experience, or they simply had the bad taste to profane such a sacred subject in a three-act comedy. From the distance of sixty-three years—perhaps as cushy as the distance between New York drama critics of the '40s and the European theatre of war—this self-important response seems a bit comical.

Editor Sandra Spanier does a fine job, in this expanded edition of Love Goes to Press, of providing historical and literary context for the play, which did not see a first printing until 1995. Her biographical focus remains overwhelmingly on Gellhorn, whose sixty-year career was comprised of relentless war correspondence, as well as fiction and travel writing. Co-author Virginia Cowles is comparatively unknown, despite being an experienced war correspondent and prolific nonfiction writer herself. (Gellhorn and Cowles met when both women were reporting on the Spanish Civil War—Annabelle Jones and Jane Mason are based on them, respectively.)

In addition to Spanier's description of rescuing perhaps the only extant copy of the play, and her recovery and reprinting of deleted sections of Gellhorn's war reporting from the Collier's archives, Gellhorn's original introduction to the 1995 edition may be the most enjoyable historical work here. Good-humored but pitiless, Gellhorn's recounting of the more hapless accomplishments of the play's authors, which included fleeing stunned from cries of "Author! Author!" at the close of the play's premier, is like an authorial bow on behalf of both herself and Cowles, albeit regrettably late.

Written by: Kaja Katamay, April 3rd 2010

My Estonia: Passport Forgery, Meat Jelly Eaters, and Other Stories

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

By Justin Petrone

Petrone Press

Long Island native Justin Petrone, like many young people, wanted to shake up his life after graduating from college. He wasn’t sure how, but he managed to do it in a big way. My Estonia tells his true story of a life-altering year of love and timeliness.

“Finland really was my last hope. It was calling me in my sleep from Helsinki: an open-air mental institution on the other side of the world.” Little did he know joining a foreign correspondence program wouldn’t just change his direction for a few shorts weeks. Ultimately, his compass would be facing north for a time longer than he ever imagined.

On his first day in Finland, he met the captivating Estonian named Epp. She wasn’t so much concerned with direction as long as she was moving. Justin quickly fell in love with her as she took him on a winding road to Estonia through England, France, Italy, and Ireland. Once it was decided they would marry, they settled for a while in Estonia so Epp could finish school.

As his time in Estonia progressed, Justin discovered the good, the bad, and the beautiful of this little country that many Americans are unable to locate on a world map. The small size of Estonia allowed him to explore the medieval old town of Tallinn, the hip university area of Tartu, and the bogs of the south.

He moved to Estonia in January, a time of year when the country is covered with ice and snow, and was hit by bitter cold days and a darkness that falls by mid-afternoon. Although he handled the weather well, other things didn’t come as easily: “When most people think about adjusting to life in a northern country during the winter, they think about being depressed by the dark and the cold and turning to alcohol for relief. But wasn’t the weather that starved me of joy in Estonia; it was the awful food.”

Through humor and humility I was able to connect with his experience. It also helps that I’ve been to Estonia and related to many of his observations. The one aspect of Estonia that I do disagree with, though, is his initial interpretation of the people. He never displays contempt or even very much irritation, but does paint them as not being personable. I’d agree their culture isn’t as open armed as, say, Brazilians or Italians are, but I was met with a lot of kindness and felt very welcome during my stay.

From his description of Tallinn’s Old Town to the college town of Tartu, anyone will become intrigued by this unique nation. This could be seen as a travel novel for people who have an interest in Estonia, but underneath is a much deeper story. Anyone who has moved somewhere unfamiliar, or unexpectedly fallen in love, can relate to this book. Even if you’ve only imagined finding love in an exotic place, this would be an interesting read for you.

Written by: Andrea Hance, March 3rd 2010

The Edge of Change: Women in the 21st Century Press

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:01:00 +0000

Edited by June O. Nicholson, Pamela J. Creedon, Wanda S. Lloyd, Pamela J. Johnson

University of Illinois Press

My bias as a journalist and editor made me want to love The Edge of Change, but the stubborn remnants of the journalistic outlook into which I was indoctrinated gave bias a real beating. So, in the end, I just liked some parts and hated others.

The concept was great, but the construction was lacking. Many of the book’s chapters, which range from personal essays to academic discussions to interviews, deal with many of the relevant issues well enough to be important counterpoints to the often male-centered nature of modern media criticism. Any journalist, male or female, who wants to make it in this rapidly-changing field, to improve how the media functions, or to preserve what is best about the press would do well to consider the issues the book raises about the need to adapt, the value of diversity, and the responsibility of representing the communities in which we work.

However, the book’s organization, shifting formats, and lack of focus often distract from the book’s theme. For instance, some of the essays and interviews focus so intently on the individual that the context is lost and we learn little about how these individual experiences relate to or illustrate the major trends affecting women in the press. On the other hand, some chapters deal with the state of the press in general and skip discussions of gender altogether. Scattered throughout the book, these chapters would probably have made more sense as an introductory section. These are just two examples of an organizational logic that seems to defy intelligibility as its eight major parts shift from a temporal perspective to women’s affect on the press to women’s professional roles to issues of diversity to the choices women make in their careers, with each category popping up in the “wrong” section here and there.

Yet, these problems are minor compared to the book’s two glaring flaws: the complete avoidance of class issues and a beginning chapter comprised of worn-out gender stereotypes and pseudo-scientific claptrap. Over the last few decades, journalism has become increasingly exclusive in terms of class, a fact that has garnered much criticism and has played a major role in the development of a modern press that is less reflective of the race, class, and gender composition of the general population and the pool of potential journalists than it was thirty years ago. Yet, this disturbing trend and its effect on the future of the press garner not a single mention. The second major flaw deserves its own essay, but I’ll have to settle for giving it its own paragraph.

In a chapter titled “The Female Mind: Biology of the Twenty-First Century Woman,” Helen E. Fisher, biological anthropologist and Chief Scientific Advisor to the online dating site chemistry.com, peddles the usual pseudo-scientific theories on innate sex differences that describe a natural order in which men and women somehow miraculously evolved 1950’s U.S. gender roles on the African Savannah in the Pleistocene. Fisher, like so many other purveyors of pseudoscience, ignores the actual scientific evidence concerning sex differences, the tremendous overlap between the sexes, and the variations across time and space that make it impossible for many of these traits to be innate products of human evolution. The inclusion of this chapter, with its bad science and worse logic, is downright insulting to intelligent readers specifically and women in general. For that fact alone, I’d suggest skipping this book.

Written by: Melinda Barton, January 22nd 2010

Lessons Learned from WAM! 2009

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:25:00 +0000

Women, Action & the Media

This past weekend, I attended the [Women, Action & the Media](http://www.centerfornewwords.org/wam/" target="_blank) Conference (WAM!) in Boston. It was a great weekend that offered over forty workshops and panels, a film series, two keynote talks, and a "genius bar" allowing conference-goers to sign up for time with media experts throughout the conference.

I started on Friday with the session PR: Getting Your Work Out There. It definitely set the tone for the rest of the conference—we'd be learning new skills, sharing our own experiences, and making new connections. On Saturday, my morning began with [Gender, Non-Conformity and the Media](http://twitter.com/search?q=%23wam09gnc&source=navbar&category=search" target="_blank), which explored how the trans experience connects with feminist dialogues and how it's portrayed in the media. I continued my day with a guide to self-publishing, which covered tips for creating your press, using your resources, what costs to expect, and hustling to get your work out there. A panel about community and ethnic media touched on the pressures of speaking for and to a community, the importance of intersectionality, and how "selling out" by relying on advertising actually supports local small businesses. In the Global Abortion Dialogue panel, we learned statistics about access to safe abortions around the world, and watched [Not Yet Rain](http://www.notyetrain.org/" target="_blank), a touching short film about access to abortion in Ethiopia. The last session I attended was [Pulling the Plug on Rape Culture](http://twitter.com/search?q=%23wam09rc&source=serp&category=search" target="_blank), which not only defined rape culture as a way of normalizing rape in our society, but also provided strategies for ending it.

In addition to the dynamic sessions I attended, I was able to follow some of the other panels I was interested in by keeping up with the [#wam09 Twitter feed](http://twitter.com/search?q=%23wam09&source=serp&category=search" target="_blank). This was a great way to make the conference interactive and to follow the conversations happening elsewhere. WAM! was also able to film a number of the sessions, which they'll post on their website in a few weeks.

We shifted gears a bit for the keynote talks. Friday's panel was Women Reporting from the Global Frontlines, and we were able to hear the experiences of three women who lived and reported from Iraq, Colombia, and Zimbabwe. Their stories were inspiring and reminded us how important it is to cover global issues in the mainstream media. Saturday's keynote was presented by Cynthia Lopez of [P.O.V.](http://www.pbs.org/pov/" target="_blank), who gave us a look at some of the compelling documentaries they've presented and urged us to become more involved in public broadcasting.

In wrapping up the highlights of the event, I can't possibly forget about the funniest time at WAM!, our evening with Sarah Haskins. If you're not familiar with her work, don't waste any more time and go check it out. She was even funnier at the event than she is in her videos! She made the night interactive and we all critiqued media and advertising together.

WAM! was a great experience. It was a place to meet the experts, hone our skills, learn new ones, and make connections with like-minded people. The blood, sweat, and tears poured into this event were evident, and I, for one, can't wait for next year.

Written by: frau sally benz, April 3rd 2009

Egypt: We're Watching You

admin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:06:00 +0000

Directed by Jehane Noujaim, Sherief Elkatsha

Cinema Guild

A window into a world unavailable to most, Egypt: We're Watching You, is as much a depiction of a nation in jeopardy as one of a people actively pursuing progressive change. Documenting the 2005 Egyptian Parliamentary elections, the viewer gets a glimpse of the torrid corruption through the eyes of the people and the activists of Shayfeen.com.

Shayfeen.com is dedicated to sharing the true story of what is happening in the streets of Egypt to the Egyptian people and the outside world. They use a variety of multimedia (including this very film). Its main vehicle though is its website, which is used to disseminate information and share video clips of everything from election proceedings to political demonstrations.

Started by three women with experience in journalism and marketing, Shayfeen.com was envisioned as an alternative media source. The videographers document hours of waiting at the polls during the three-phase electoral process. Individuals share their frustration and lack of faith in the process freely with the camera. They understand the elections are rigged, but refuse to lose faith in their country. Over and over again a prideful-yet-worn populous is shown. It's not a new system they want, just an honest, democratically chosen regime.

Beyond the powerful first person accounts of voters and demonstrators, there is this fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the activists' circle. One scene takes us to a meeting where people are discussing the decision for the group to continue, spurred by their lack of funds and potential need to shut their doors. The women, in turn, discuss their personal commitment not the organization, but to the cause—simply to build a better Egypt. There was no politicking or games, just people sharing their burdens and desires, or lack thereof. Such an honest picture of an activist, a caricature that rarely is seen to have multiple levels, was incredibly refreshing.

Running fifty-two minutes, it is a quick look at Egypt not seen on American television. Its honesty and tentative positivity is a sobering yet inspiring look at a nation in peril.

Written by: Nicole Levitz, February 26th 2009

On Their Own: Women Journalists and the American Experience in Vietnam

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:02:00 +0000

By Joyce Hoffman

Da Capo Press

Joyce Hoffman read a book about journalists who reported on American involvement in Vietnam in the sixties and wondered to herself, “Where are the women?” Considering that she holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, a job teaching journalism to college students, and pens a biweekly op-ed column about journalism accuracy and fairness issues, it was not unlikely that she would write the book that would answer that question. On Their Own offers a thoroughly researched account of fifteen women who played vital, if varying, roles in the reporting of the Vietnam War.

For myself, when I studied the media industry in college, I became so disenchanted with the corporate system of information dissemination in the United States that instead of packing the tailored black suit in my closet upon graduation, I grabbed a rucksack and waited tables for awhile. But journalism still fascinates me, and for that reason, I wish that I had read this book in school. Many of these women simply bought a plane ticket and showed up in Saigon, determined to find their own stories. They believed that if they did their job well, they would be published by many of the male editors who told them they couldn’t do it in the first place, as they indeed were.

As a pleasure read, On Their Own can be a bit dense with historical detail that sometimes stifles the narrative of each experience; however, this detail makes the book richer for any student of the history of journalism. I had a hard time getting started with it, but I soon realized that my difficulty was because the first 100 pages deal mainly with more socially conservative women who believed in the United State’s right to be in Vietnam and felt that the people there needed to be Westernized for their own good - talented and outspoken reporters, but not women I wanted to spend much time with. Once I got into chapter three, I found stories that were not only adventurous, but personally inspiring.

Frankie Fitzgerald’s story is one that any aspiring and socially conscious non-fiction writer should become acquainted with. Daughter of the CIA’s director of operations, she spent years in Vietnam, on her own, writing with a sense of purpose. Convinced that the war was immoral and wrong, she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. “She once asked a Vietnamese associate what he thought would happen if the United States withdrew. He told her: ‘Don’t ask us that. It’s none of your business. We just want you to leave.’”

Reporting on a war requires much more than death tolls and fire fight descriptions. Today, it seems obvious that different perspectives on the impact of war on societies engaged in it add invaluable relevance to that body of journalism. We are still faced with government influence and spin. The more people are reporting on events, the better we can understand them and use that knowledge to avoid mistakes in the future. Right?

Written by: Jen Wilson Lloyd, October 13th 2008

Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones

admin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:43:00 +0000

By Carole Boyce Davies

Duke University Press

Still unknown to many, the life story of Claudia Jones is equally inspiring and heartbreaking. Guilty of being everything she was labeled, Jones maintained many overlapping identities—feminist, Black Nationalist, Communist, and journalist—working in the early to mid-twentieth century on a wide array of equal rights causes. Her activism a precursor to much of the 1960s American counterculture resistance, for which we often remember recent history’s leaders of color. Jones’s political life in the United States and abroad is memorialized in Carole Boyce Davies’s new book that recognizes this astounding woman and her great achievements. With an excellent academic and personal balance, Davies thoroughly investigates and reveals the short life of a remarkable leader whom we could all seek to emulate for her work in radical, feminism, anti-racist politics.

Originally from Trinidad, Jones moved to Harlem when she was eight years old and grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression. A strong young woman, she became active in the Communist Party and spoke all over the nation about an anti-capitalist agenda. Often persecuted during the McCarthy era, and arrested several times, she maintained a clear vision and held to her beliefs that the Communism she knew was practical and possible. After being deported from the United States in the 1950s, she settled in London and immersed herself in the British Communist Party.

Jones is often noted for having founded both the UK’s _West Indian Gazette _and the Notting Hill Carnival, a Mardi-Gras-like celebration of Afro-Caribbean talent that continues to this day. Working to make Caribbean heritage the active part of British identity it has since become, Jones found solidarity in many radical political circles doing allied work. Her work as a writer, activist, and political leader is on par with many of the greats we know by name today, and this sort of tribute writing should be only the beginning in better understanding her role in the marriage between modern Marxist structures and Black history.

How overdue this chronicle of her life and work truly is. As Davies points out in the introduction, Jones is buried next to Karl Marx—to his left, to be precise, “an apt metaphor…her location in death continues to represent her ideological position while living.” Without spoiling this sometimes-scholarly read, it is a must-have for activists and academics alike. Be prepared for a sad ending, but the tales along the way supplement hope when the unfairness of life can seem too much.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, April 8th 2008

Friendly Fire: The Remarkable Story of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Rescued by an Italian Secret Service Agent, and Shot by U.S. Forces

admin — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:03:00 +0000

By Giuliana Sgrena

Haymarket Books

In the United States, Giuliana Sgrena is known as the Italian journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq, held for a month, and then, on the day of her release, shot at by American troops on her way to the airport; the Italian secret service man escorting her was killed and Sgrena herself was severely injured. In the weeks following, while the U.S. military insisted that Sgrena’s car had failed to stop at a checkpoint, Sgrena claimed that the shots had come without warning. In Italy, where Sgrena is known for her long career of courageous reporting, she became a national hero. Hundreds of thousands marched in the streets to demand her release, and her kidnapping brought together a national movement to demand the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq.

In Friendly Fire, Sgrena tells of her experience of being confined to a single room for four weeks by two gun-touting men who call themselves “Abbas” and “Hussein.” Left mostly in the dark with the barest of necessities, Sgrena cautiously engaged her captors in conversation, demonstrating great intelligence and acumen—qualities that have no doubt served her well in her career. But in her book she does not shy away from revealing her own fears and vulnerabilities, keenly showing what it was like to have her life in the hands of these two strangers and the organization to which they belonged.

This would make a fascinating story in itself, but Sgrena gives us so much more, interweaving her personal experience with keen observation and analysis of Iraq under American occupation and the sectarian violence that is pulling the country asunder. She describes the political and religious dynamics behind this apparent chaos while imbuing her writing with a pervasive sympathy for the ordinary Iraqis caught up in what has become a living nightmare.

Her chapter on women is particularly instructive, describing the deterioration of conditions for women generally in Iraq and how, with some parts of the country now effectively ruled by extremists and under Islamic law, women have become the conflict’s most unseen (literally—forced to wear the veil and leave public life) victims. A compelling read, her book makes real the enormous risks taken by reporters to tell the story of Iraq and other war-torn parts of the world and leaves the reader with an enormous admiration for this journalist in particular.

Written by: Elaine Beale, May 30th 2007

Foreign Exposure: The Social Climber Abroad

admin — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:57:00 +0000

By Lauren Mechling, Laura Moser

Graphia

Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser’s third book in the Social Climber series finds the 10th grade heroine, Miriam “Mimi” Schulman, spending a summer in Europe, continuing her high school journalistic exploits. The popularity of the series is evident in the relatable characters. Complete with excerpts from email correspondence, the “realness” of the characters mixed with the glamour of the narrative makes an excellent foray into youths’ pleasure reading.

The plot takes the reader through Mimi’s summer travels. First, she goes to Berlin to partake in a dysfunctional relationship with her professor mother and her mother’s boyfriend. After undergoing nanny hell taking care of two eight-year-old twin boys, who are allergic to everything under the sun, Mimi flees Berlin by herself (and unbeknownst to her mother) to a safe haven of a high school friend named Lily staying in London. There, Mimi interns at a gossip magazine, thanks to Lily’s rich and powerful connections. Through a series of mishaps, boy attraction and moral dilemmas, Mimi manages to run away from some problems while resolving others.

An easy read and generally well-written, I recommend this book with some caveats. First, the dialogue of all British characters is often stilted and awkward. Although it is written from an American perspective, the awkwardness can be distracting at some points. Second, from a feminist perspective the story does little to address ideas of empowerment, solidarity or accountability. As part of a young adult a genre, I understand the book’s aim to create a glamorous yet believable plot. At the same time, most of the character development and plot turns focus on Mimi’s relationships with boys. Even though most of the book takes place in Europe, it begins and ends with her contemplations about the boys and men that surround her at home. This makes me wonder, why did Mimi need to take a trip to Europe? While Mimi’s flight from Berlin was an impressive feat of youthful female independence, “girl power” even, the jet-set, upper-crust context just reinforces the notion that the only way for girls to pursue their dreams is through men and money.

I wish I could recommend this book more enthusiastically, since there are many elements of it that are charming and likeable. However, it does very little to stretch or challenge the young adult genre for young women, and comes across as superficial overall. While I can understand its appeal to teenage girls, parents and librarians might have to supplement it with more empowering and complex fare.

Written by: k. terumi shorb, May 28th 2007

Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move

admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:34:00 +0000

By Katherine Lanpher

Springboard Press

Given the choice between staying where your career, friends, home and loved ones are and moving to a large city where you knew no one, what would you pick? Lucky for readers, Katherine Lanpher chose the latter.

Lanpher, a newspaper reporter and radio host, grew up in Illinois and made her journalistic mark in Minnesota. Among other notable achievements, she was the first female metro columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In her late 40s, she traded her Midwest life for a new one in the Big Apple, and went to work for Al Franken and Air America. This book is the chronicle of her first year in New York, along with some fascinating autobiographical narratives.

To start with, Lanpher's writing style is addictive, which makes her stories all that more engaging. And for anyone who has moved to New York from another part of the country, reading about her becoming a New Yorker is that much more hilarious. But whether you've lived there or you haven't, you'll laugh your head off when reading about how Lanpher learns how to bribe the superintendent of her building and swear at bad drivers while she traverses the city on her bicycle. You'll be pissed when a snotty clerk informs her that she doesn't carry clothing larger than size 8. You'll be outraged when she recounts her experiences in the testosterone-filled newsrooms, and want to shout, "Bravo!" when you read her retorts to sexist comments. (I won't spoil that part; go out and get the book!)

The part I loved most about this book is that Lanpher is a feminist, and proud of it. She doesn't hide her disdain for women who don't appreciate those who forged the trail for the rest of us.

Add that to the fact that she's one of them, and deserves her moment in the spotlight. But she's refreshingly humble, as well. Her experiences may be extraordinary, but Lanpher comes across as self-deprecating and down-to-earth.

Written by: M.L. Madison, March 2nd 2007