An empowering and informative read for women of all ages.
Mason describes the “evolutionary lineage” of life as a woman in this nonfiction work.
Aiming to expand on the old chestnut identifying a woman’s developmental stages as “maiden, matron, and crone,” the author conceptualizes the lifespans of women across nine stages: Foundation, Awakening, Sovereignty, Matrescence, Segue, Metamorphosis, The Free Period, The Glide, and The Resolution. For each stage, she describes typical features, outlines some science and research, and discusses how to empathize with someone living through it. Mason also includes excerpts from interviews, some of which were conducted on her podcast, The Rose Woman Podcast. Each chapter concludes with a list of “Key Takeaways” summarizing the main points of the stage in question. While the author presents ample scientific support for these developmental stages, her spiritual and social considerations are equally thorough and convincing. “Sovereignty” and “Matrescence” are the longest chapters, containing extensive discussions of sexuality along with feminist analyses of womanhood in society. Some of the most edifying arguments in the text are found in these chapters—one such concept is journalist Nicolle Hodges’ idea of a “sexual debut,” which typically occurs in Stage 3, Sovereignty. Mason describes the sexual debut as an alternative to the “loss” of virginity, “a celebration of stepping into your sexual self, in whatever way feels right for you. Not something you lose, but something you claim.” While the author expresses her hope that the book can be “for every woman—across age, background, and life experience—who is curious about the diverse stages of female development,” she acknowledges that her lens is that of “a woman in a particular cultural, racial, and socioeconomic context, and the perspectives of those I interviewed.” Throughout the book, Mason includes space for differences, emphasizing that the stages are descriptive, not prescriptive. (Only when discussing breast implants, which she views as “insanity,” does her validation of alternate perspectives wane slightly.) The book provides a powerful new way to look at the lifecycles of women that feels inclusive and affirming.
An empowering and informative read for women of all ages.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9798218643775
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Moonglow Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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