Was Barbie the first feminist doll? She always worked in interesting positions, never married, never had a child, and never did house work. Yet today, many women who played with Barbie when they were children consider her to be an inappropriate role model, although these same women often have interesting Barbie stories to tell.In Forever Barbie, cultural critic, investigative journalist, and first generation Barbie owner M.G. Lord tells Barbie's own story with clarity and ...

Movie stars establish themselves as brands--and Taylor's brand , in its most memorable outings, has repeatedly introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas. In her breakout film, "National Velvet" (1944), Taylor's character challenges gender discrimination,: Forbidden as a girl to ride her beloved horse in an important race, she poses as a male jockey. Her next milestone, "A Place in the Sun" (1951), can be seen as an abortion rights movie--a cautionary tale from a time before women had r...

Barbie is a strong, independent doll. But is she a feminist icon? It’s complicated.Since her introduction in 1959, Barbie’s impact has been revolutionary. Far from being a toy designed by men to oppress women, she was a toy invented by women to teach women what was expected of them, for better or for worse. Whether tarred-and-glittered as antifeminist puffery or celebrated as a feminist icon (or, at any rate, an important cultural touchstone in understanding femini...

A daughter's journey to rediscover her father and understand the culture of space engineersDuring the late 1960s, while M. G. Lord was becoming a teenager in Southern California and her mother was dying of cancer, Lord's father-an archetypal, remote, rocket engineer- disappeared into his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, building the space probes of the Mariner Mars 69 mission. Thirty years later, Lord found herself reporting on the JPL, triggering...

Barbie is a strong, independent doll. But is she a feminist icon? It’s complicated. Since her introduction in 1959, Barbie’s impact has been revolutionary. Far from being a toy designed by men to oppress women, she was a toy invented by women to teach women what was expected of them, for better or for worse. Whether tarred-and-glittered as antifeminist puffery or celebrated as a feminist icon (or, at any rate, an important cultural touchstone in understanding feminism), Barbie has undeniab...

New York Times–Bestseller: "A lush picture of the complicated relationship between . . . Jackie Onassis and Lee Radziwill. . . . Gossipy gems are studded throughout." — Vanity FairWhen sixty-four-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackie's thirty-eight-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were left to family members, friends, and employees—b...

Jo Waterstone knows what you should read next. She’s honed the skill of sizing up a person and recommending their next book in the decades she’s worked at Bruebaker’s Books. Her life has been shaped by the store, the bustle of customers exploring the stacks, and managing the eager staff. She can honestly say it’s the best job she’s ever had.Then the store’s elderly owner, Mr. Bruebaker, suffers a stroke, and just like that Jo’s perfect job is on the chopping block. Mr. B’s daughter...

As complex in their own way as their Mitford cousins, Winston and Clementine Churchill’s daughters each had a unique relationship with their famous father. Rachel Trethewey's biography, The Churchill Sisters, tells their story.Bright, attractive and well-connected, in any other family the Churchill girls – Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary – would have shone. But they were not in another family, they were Churchills, and neither they nor anyone else could ev...

A New York Times –bestselling insider's look at tumult, secrecy and schism in the British royal family, by the historical consultant to Netflix's The Crown .An insider account of two intriguing brothers who have fascinated the world since birth—William, the future King of England, and his iconoclastic younger brother, Harry—examining their childhood and family life, their close ...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"[The] rare biography of a public figure that's not only beautifully written, but also shockingly revelatory." -- The AtlanticA vivid biography of former First Lady Barbara Bush, one of the most influential and under-appreciated women in American political history.Barbara Pierce Bush was one of the country's most popular and powerful figures, yet her full story has ...

In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time long ago when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a great deal under one roof.Prompted by interesting tidbits in the newspaper, Rose and Joe Kennedy would pose questions to their nine children at the dinner table. "Where could Amelia Earhart have gone?" "How woul...

"This poignant [Holocaust memoir] does honor to all children bewildered by horrorand injustice." —Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's ListWhen she first saw Schindler's List—to whose premiere in Germany she was invited—Roma Ligocka suddenly realized she was witnessing a part of her own life. She felt instinctively that the little girl in the red coat—the only spot of color in the film—was her. When she had lived in the Krakow ghe...