Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution/Mona Eltahawy/240 pgs.

Readers of "I am Malala" will want to read this book! Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy explains the treatment of women in the Middle East, using her own experiences and those of others, to show how deplorable conditions for women still are today: child marriage, genital mutilation, rapists marrying their victim, etc. The United States isn't presented in the best light, and rightfully so. It's quite eye-opening and disturbing. Highly recommended.

The Invention of Wings / Sue Monk Kidd / 373 p.

Multiple reviews and several recommendations led me to this title.  I was also familiar with Kidd's popular title The Secret Life of  Bees. When I spied this audio version on the shelf, I decided to give it a try.

This book is beautifully written; beautifully read. This fictionalized account of the sisters Grimke illuminates both what has been worst and best in our country's history. I was totally unaware of the important role the sisters played in the history of our country. Born into Southern aristocracy in the midst of slavery, Sarah and Angelina became staunch, out-spoken abolitionists and leaders in the push for women's rights. The story is told by Sarah and by fictionalized slave, "Handful." The two actresses narrating the story do a fabulous job with Kidd's flowing style.

Readers who liked Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini would also enjoy this title.

A Girl Called Fearless/Catherine Linka/353 pgs.

This debut novel by Catherine Linka has me hoping she has more stories like this waiting to be written. In a Dystopian United States, 50 million women died from cancer due to ingesting a synthetic hormone in beef. As a result, young girls, old women, men, and young men are left to rebuild the United States. The book takes place 10 years after the tragedy occurs, with 16 year old Avie Reveare living a "normal" privileged life in Los Angeles. Although the death threat is past, fathers form a movement known as the Paternalists--a movement to protect their daughters, since future generations and re-population of the United States depend on them. Daughters are constantly monitored, and in the case of privileged girls like Avie, have body guards--there is no freedom or women's rights. Avie's father "contracts" her out to marry a wealthy man who has bought up stock in his biotech company. Not wanting this marriage, Avie does the only thing left to do--run. With the help of her friend, Yates, and others involved in the underground movement to free women, Avie takes off. This review isn't doing the book justice--it's one of the best YA books I've read, and grabs the reader from the first page. It's told in Avie's voice, so the reader experiences the emotions Avie is going through, and keeps the reader in suspense through the end of the book. Highly recommended!

The Milk Memos/Cate Colburn-Smith & Andrea Serrette/370 pages

The milk memos : how real moms learned to mix business with babies- and how you can, too.
I thought that this book was WONDERFUL and I definitely recommend it to any mother who is working and pumping/breastfeeding.  It followed several IBM employees who shared a lactation room and wrote to each other in notebooks explaining their hardships and triumphs while pumping and offering advice to the other "milk mamas."  The notes from their notebooks were interspersed with helpful information about your first days back after maternity leave, continuing pumping despite difficulties, emotional issues of returning to work, and many other helpful facts.  It is amazing the trials that working mothers must go through to provide the very best food for their babies.  I found it very encouraging in my current situation as a working nursing mother.