Nonfiction

The Moon Juice Cookbook, Cosmic Alchemy for a Thriving Body, Beauty, and Consciousness by Amanda Chantal Bacon 00’s? The Moon Juice Cookbook makes healthy eating mouthwatering and stunningly beautiful. Amanda explains that she got into the world of food preparation in an effort to maximize feelings of radiant, energetic good health. In doing so, she found a calling – her recipes have metaphysical overtones. Her enthusiasm. coupled with the gorgeous photographs by John Von Pamer, has made me consider investing in a few new kitchen appliances.

Dependent States, The Child’s Part in Nineteenth Century Culture by Karen Sanchez-Eppler 70’s This work provides a close, scholarly look at the role of the child in the American culture in the 1800’s. Karen sees children as both assimilators of cultural norms (since they are dependent on adults) and as agents, having their own impact on culture. Using a wealth of material both published and unpublished-- diaries, poetry, daguerreotypes, temperance flyers, primers, and Sunday School texts – Karen documents this tension. She shows how conventional a child might be in writing about, say, grief, having assimilated social expectations; on the other hand, the frank utterances in children’s diaries and poems indicate an impulse toward originality. I think of The Emperor’s New Clothes. It is a child who has the fresh vision to observe what no one else will admit as the unclothed emperor goes by. The tension between th…

Buy Now Pay Later by Hillel Black late 40’s? I grew up in the forties when it was customary to save up for something if you wanted to buy it. Not that our parents were so virtuous; there was just no other way. By the time Hillel Black wrote this book, published in 1961, an explosion had occurred in the world of consumers. No more saving up! We had to have things right away whether we could afford them or not. The credit card, one of the chief detonators of this change, began in 1950. Hillel tells the story of Frank MacNamara, who went out to dinner, having carelessly left his wallet in his office. When it came time to pay, he was in for serious embarrassment. The next day he got together with some friends and formed the Diner’s Club – the first credit card.

Credit cards are on…

Girldrive: Criss-crossing America, Redefining Feminism by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein early 2000's. Over Bloody Marys, two young women hatch the idea of a cross country road trip during which they will take the pulse of the American woman, listen to her stories, and find out how she relates to feminism. Nona will do most of the writing, and Emma will take most of the pictures. Dozens of interviews and snapshots later, this complicated mosaic of women's voices and faces came together.

Many of the women are young, like the authors. They struggle with finding their way, often rejecting feminist stereotypes or defining feminism their own way. Blogs on the internet have replaced the consciousness-raising groups of the Second Wave. If I generalize at all about them (as they range from phone sex professionals to nuns), it is that they are all trying to find meaning in lif…