I know some ladies that are going to want to read these two books when I'm done with them.

"A beautifully woven tapestry of the perspectives and voices of women on the silences that women still keep, this anthology includes essays that are broad-ranging in their subject matter: vanity, power in the workplace, promiscuity, spirituality. Others are distinctly personal: family secrets, abortion, middle-age lust, the liberating powers of belly dancing."

"The book deals with such difficult topics as loss, depression, disease, widowhood, violence, and coming to terms with death. Several stories address some of the darker sides of motherhood:

A mother describes how, while sleep-deprived and in a miserable marriage, she is shocked to find infanticide crossing her mind
Another woman recounts a memory of her alcoholic mother demanding the children prove their loyalty in a terrifying way
A woman desperate for children refers to the bleak truth as: "Another Christmas of feeling barren." Narrating the fertility treatment she undergoes, the hopes dashed, she is amusing in retrospect and yet brutally honest"