Rating: 
Summary: No Easy Answers
Review: After the last year of telling all of my friends about Cathi Hanauer's The Bitch in the House, I'm now delighted to have discovered yet another provocative book (albeit a little late) about the current generation of women and the difficult choices we are making regarding work and family. What an emotional ride! I couldn't put it down.
Orenstein managed to touch upon all the contradictions that highly-educated career women face in this "postfeminist" moment without oversimplifying our decisionmaking. Like some of the other reviewers, I did recommend this book to my husband as it is a testament to the struggles we face. But if you are looking for easy answers, this isn't the book. If you are looking for a narrative that will give you some insight as to how other women are carving out lifestyles that, although less than perfect, are fulfilling and even joyful then this book is for you.
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Summary: This book changed my life!
Review: I discovered this book and recommended it for my book club without really knowing what to expect. As a woman in my early 30's I was able to relate to many of the topics that Ms. Orenstein covered. Every chapter had an "Ah Ha" moment for me! I came away from this book feeling like I wasn't the only woman out there today faced with difficult choices about my life. She allows the reader to recognize themself or someone they know through her use of personal interviews with real people. This book is so insightful that I have now given it as a gift to half a dozen people including men. This is a must read for anyone from 23-55 living in today's society and trying to figure out what it all means. The women's movement has come a long way, but this illustrates that we still have a long way to go. Horray for Peggy Orenstein for writing this wonderful, highly readable, not too 'preachy' book!
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: I liked it. A lot even. Although I'm an Israeli and this book is most about American women... I "found" myself in it :)
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book
Review: Incredibly provocative book. It will challenge you to really ponder and revel in your choices as a woman. Orenstein manages to cover a wide and representative range of lifestyles (young/single/career focused, married w/o kids, married w/kids/career, single mothers by choice, the stay at home mom after career). While covering every imaginable life choice, she also delves deeply enough into each of these woman's lives to give us a significant picture of the trade-offs, the joys, and the ongoing challenge of making choices between family, work and self fulfillment.I can't imagine any woman not finding this to be an uplifting read. One of the best books I've ever read. I cried at some extremely powerful passages in the book and laughed at others as I heard my life echoed back to me. There is a strong sense of control over one's destiny that resonates in your mind and heart after reading this book. I applaud Orenstein for her timely topic and enlightened presentation. It's truly a gift to all women.
Rating: 
Summary: A thoughtful compilation of life choices for women
Review: Like one of the previous reviewers, I happened to find this book while wandering in a bookstore, while dealing with major questions regarding my career, my marriage, and whether I am a "good enough" mother. This book didn't provide the nice, neat answers I thought I was looking for, but Peggy Orenstein nonetheless does an excellent job of detailing the lives of the women she profiles. She shows women at different stages of their lives, faced with different choices about marriage, career, motherhood, and gives the reader food for thought about the good and the bad behind the choices made. The biggest change, though, must, as Ms. Orenstein notes, come from culture as a whole. Men need to be given permission, and in fact encouraged, to consider flex-time, stay-at-home parenting, "daddy tracks," and corporate culture needs to encourage, not punish, those who take advantage of these opportunities to nurture their families. For me personally, the best part of this book, though, was the emphasis on the need for women to find their own identities. Self actualization need not equal selfishness.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provolking for both men and women
Review: Normally I don't like feminaz-type books, but a friend thought I might enjoy this one. I have to say it was a good effort and I found many of my own thoughts being echoed by many of the women. My only criticism is that it focused (perhaps inadvertently) on women of high socioeconomic class. Almost all were college educated and in high-paying positions. The dilemas of marriage and motherhood may seem magnified in this group of women, however it is not exclusive to them (I, myself am one). I am also African-American, however and would have liked to see more women from different ethnic backgrounds (many of of which are also college-educated, etc).
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Summary: A roadmap for men
Review: This book is a must read for men who are trying to better understand their wives, girlfriends, or sisters. It's hard to dismiss the consistent theme from the many women that Peggy Orenstein interviewed: life and life decisions are much more complicated for women than men understand. It was really helpful for me in understanding my wife's feelings, particularly as they relate to issues of career and children. I applaud Orenstein's massive undertaking, and the clarity with which she conveys her message.
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Summary: Such an amazingly insightful book!!
Review: This book is a wonderful contribution to the world. It has become required reading for many of my female friends and their husbands/boyfriends. It has helped spark internal and external discussions that many of us know we need to have, but haven't known where to begin. As I reached the end of the book, I found myself wanting more -- I'd love to read the full transcripts of some of the interviews with the women I identified most with. I've become an evangelist for this book, and I'm recommending that all of the women I know (including my mom, sister-in-law, friends) read it as soon as possible.
Rating:
Summary: You Can't Have It All
Review: This book is an insightful study of the issues and challenges faced by women at the turn of the 21st century. This important book, which should be read by both men and women, touches upon many spheres of a woman's life, including education, career, and family, the ways in which these spheres interconnect, and the choices that women must make in order to navigate through them. Without providing specific answers, the book poses many provocative questions that each woman should answer for herself and raises important issues that should be addressed by our society as a whole.
The book is based on the many conversations that its author, Peggy Orenstein, had conducted with a number of women over the course of a couple of years, as well as some of her deeply personal experiences. The book is divided into three parts, each focusing on a distinct period in a woman's life: "The Promise" (women in her twenties, still contemplating what their future will be like), "The Crunch" (women in their thirties, facing the realities and the choices of marriage, family, and career), and "Reconsiderations" (women in their forties and beyond, rediscovering themselves after the pressures of biological clocks and life decisions have subsided). The author illustrates how the different women choose to navigate the different stages of their lives. Each of the women has her unique perspectives and challenges; however, many common threads and patterns emerge that define their experiences.
Reading this book can be frustrating and enlightening at the same time. The frustration partially comes from acknowledging the issues faced by most women in our society. It also arises from the naïveté of many of the young women who expect to "have it all" without thinking about the inevitable tradeoffs. The enlightening part of the book is also its key takeaway: the fact that there is no single, one-size-fits-all answer, and that each of us needs to be more thoughtful and deliberate in making the important decisions that have an impact on the rest of our lives, and not just be blindly led by tradition and society's expectations.
The book also has its limitations. For one, it is focused rather narrowly on a specific type of woman: white-collar, highly educated, accomplished, career-minded. While this is not necessarily a drawback, it does limit the audience for whom this book is intended. Second, in providing us with examples, the author still shows primarily "traditional" families. It would have been truly enlightening, for example, to see a family where the husband makes significantly less than his wife and how he manages the choice to either continue working or stay home. Finally, I couldn't help but feel that some of the issues in the book are slightly over-dramatized. It leaves one with a rather unsettled feeling and not a lot of optimism for the future. While all of the issues in the book are absolutely true, when presented together they can be quite overwhelming and discomforting - but perhaps, this is precisely what the author intended.
In summary, I would recommend this book without hesitation to anyone (women and men) who is considering the choices concerning family and career, and especially to every young person about to embark on his or her life's journey.
Rating:
Summary: Must-read for those pondering parenthood
Review: This book should be read by both men and women, though women are its obvious audience. The author skillfully weaves together personal experience, interviews and voluminous research. She uses these to detail women's lives and the choices and pressure they face in relationships, work and family. Her conclusions are too numerous to list, but even when the author seems to be stating the obvious, she offers examples of those who are overlooking the obvious because of internal or external pressure. The book is not quite representative because it focuses mostly on women of medium to high income, but the author does include a wide range of subjects. What I found most useful were the insights from the different age groups. It's clear that while professional mentoring between women of different ages is common, there aren't similar support relationships for women of different ages and life stages to frankly discuss non-work choices. This book helpfully fills in this gap in the conversation.
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