the Book Brothel

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 239 pages, 2006

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: From first-flip I could tell this book had a huge ‘wow’ factor.

Synopsis: What do women in their 20s and 30s think about themselves? How do they view the world? How is life different for them than it was for their mothers and grandmothers? How does the place they live impact all of their opinions? Imagining Ourselves is a diverse collection of essays, poems, and artwork from young women all across the globe which attempts to answer these questions and many more.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 376 pages, 2005

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: Like most people, there are always things I’m putting off doing ‘until I know enough to do it right.’

Synopsis: Has there ever been something you wanted to do - eating sushi, getting a massage, going to a foreign country - but you pushed the idea aside for fear of looking stupid? McCutcheon has assembled a group of women that are experts in their fields to play big sister and talk you through ten areas of life (entertaining; health & fitness; spirits & sustenance; dating; travel; work; the great outdoors; art & culture; fashion; money) where you might want a little help.

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Here they are, my top picks for 2005. No, they weren’t all perfect 10/10s, but they’re the ones that I loved the best, that made me look at the world in a new way, that kept me thinking about them for months after I’d turned the last page, that made me laugh and/or cry. Simply, they’re the ones that stuck.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 364 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I had no idea until I saw this book that Carolyn Keene was a pseudonym, so curiosity made me pick up Girl Sleuth to see who was behind a series I often read when I was younger.

Synopsis: While the name ‘Carolyn Keene’ is synonymous with mysteries and Nancy Drew to millions of people, females especially, there is no Carolyn Keene, and there never was. Instead, journey with Rehak into the worlds of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Mildred Wirt Benson, the women that began writing the smash hit series seventy-five years ago. Through careful guidance, fiery competition, and exuberant-if-not-fantastic writing, these women molded Nancy Drew not just into a detective, but a cultural icon that symbolized female independence to generation after generation of young readers.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover (available in trade), 296 pages, 2004

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: It caught my eye on amazon.ca’s best of 2004 list.

Synopsis: Experts are experts because they’re smarter than the average random crowd walking down the street, right? Maybe not. Surowiecki sets out to prove that as long as certain conditions are met, group decisions and actions can average out to a better choice than ones even experts can come up with. From Google to traffic jams to taxes, Surowiecki demonstrates time and time again that society could be much better if we’d drop the idea of the solitary genius and instead consider everyone’s input.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 258 pages, 2005

Rating: 8/10

Reason for Reading: I love seemingly strange coincidences, so why not find out how strange they really are?

Synopsis: You’re playing poker and can’t decide whether to stay in or fold; or maybe you’re wondering how impressed you should really by be the latest medical report; or perhaps you’re wondering if that man walking behind you that matches the description of a loose serial killer actually is the serial killer. What do you do? If you’re Jeffrey Rosenthal, you turn to probability theory for answers (and more likely than not, reassurance). In Struck by Lightning, Rosenthal examines the questions that plague us in every day life, explaining what probability theory is, how it works, and why life might be a lot less frightening than you’ve been led to believe.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Trade, 259 pages, 2005

Rating: 7/10

Reason for Reading: I’m playing catch-up on everything to do with business and finance after years of English courses.

Synopsis: Tired of feeling like you do all the work while your boss reaps all of the benefits? Maybe it’s time to consider starting your own business. But wait - as Robert Kiyosaki cautions in this book, there’s a lot more to consider the product or service you’re considering offering. You can work as hard as you want, but unless you know all of the areas you should be working on, as outlined in the book, you may be dooming your business to become one of the many companies to hit the market and fail within a year. The purpose of Before You Quit Your Job is to teach you to change your thinking mentality from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur.

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alt="Nice Girls Don't Get Rich by Lois P. Frankel" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 288 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I’m pretty sure expanding my shoe collection as often as

possible does not, alas, really count as ‘investing.’

Synopsis: Don’t be fooled by the book’s title - Frankel’s goal is to help you find

your way to financial independence for life, not to turn you into the type of greedy

monster that would kick her best friend in the teeth if it meant a raise and promotion at

the office. Frankel outlines seventy-five mistakes women commonly make with money, and with each one expands

on the negative effects and possible motivations behind the mistakes, before

finishing up with a section of ‘coaching tips’ that can be applied to that specific problem in order to help you get your

financial situation on track.

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by Charlotte Gordon" />

Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 337 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I have a weakness for biographies about authors.

Synopsis: Mistress Bradstreet is a biography of Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan

that moved to America with her family at the age of eighteen, just a decade after the

Pilgrims first arrived in the early 17th century. Her experiences in the New World - marriage, starting a family, and trying to establish a Puritan community without

the corruptions that ran rampant in England - were the topics she focused on in her poetry. Through her bravery (women

were often punished for overstepping their boundaries and not showing the submission that

was expected of proper religious women - including venturing it’s the ‘man’s world’ of

writing) and her talent, Anne Bradstreet strove through a number of obstacles to become America’s first established poet.

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Reviewed by L.D.Y.

Hardcover, 128 pages, 2005

Rating: 9/10

Reason for Reading: I love having gorgeous photograph collections around to randomly browse through when the mood strikes.

Synopsis: The Women is a collection of one hundred photographs focusing on the Native American women of more than eighty tribes (culled from what Cardozo believes may have been as many as 10,000 negatives in which the women were a strong presence in the photo). The photographs cover a lot of ground: portraits of elderly women, groups of giggling school-aged girls, mothers with their babies, women at work, women bundled up for winter - anything that Curtis believed captured the heritage and everyday lives of these Native women in the years of 1899-1928.

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