Not that bad Dispatches from rape culture

TO END A PRESIDENCY By Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz. (Basic, $28.) Should a president be impeached? And if so, how do you go about it? Tribe and Matz, both highly respected legal scholars, play out various scenarios, bringing to bear a sense of history and a deep knowledge of constitutional law. when life gives you LULULEMONS By Lauren Weisberger. (Simon & Schuster, $26.99.) From the author of "The Devil Wears Prada" comes a sequel featuring Emily Charlton, ex-assistant to the fashion editor Miranda Priestly. Charlton is now living in the Connecticut suburbs and her career as a Hollywood image consultant has suffered a number of blows, ft's time for an uplifting comeback. the origins of cool in postwar America By Joel Dinerstein. (University of Chicago, $40.) Exploring the intersection of all those midcentury markers of hipness - from film noir to jazz to existential literature - Dinerstein maps out a grand unified theory of "cool," as the concept that came to define the postwar era. not that bad Edited by Roxane Gay. (Harper Perennial, paper, $16.99.) What does it mean to live in a world in which women are, as one essay in this collection puts it, "routinely secondguessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked" simply for speaking their minds? Gay gathers a group of feminist writers who offer answers, ruthless tide By Al Roker. (William Morrow/HarperCollins, $28.99.) The "Today" show co-host and weatherman writes a narrative history of the 1889 Johnstown flood, the deadliest in American history, immersing himself, for a change, in the weather of the past. & Noteworthy "En route to my 20 th college reunion, 1 started reading Elif Batuman's the idiot. Its clever, awkward, insecure protagonist, Selin, is an unforgettable character. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, is a lovelorn Slavicist entering Harvard in 1995, when email was becoming ubiquitous but smartphones were far in the future. The novel is a terrific satire, because it comes from a sympathetic place, (ft even helped relieve my anxiety about the reunion, which turned out to be fun.) One memorable nonfiction book 1 just finished is Lauren Hilgers's patriot number one, a richly reported account of a Chinese dissident who settles in Flushing, Queens, the neighborhood where 1 grew up. ft's the second book I've read about Flushing lately - the other is Atticus Lish's debut novel, preparation for the next life. From radically different narrative perspectives, both books offer compelling portraits of the hopes and disappointments that exist in one of New York's fastest-growing immigrant communities." -SEWELL CHAN, INTERNATIONAL NEWS EDITOR, ON WHAT HE'S READING.

Rape culture is examined in this stellar collection edited by National Book Critics Circle finalist Gay (Hunger; Bad Feminist) because as a society we use the term often but rarely engage with it. What are the effects of being taught to downplay sexual violence, to convince yourself it's not that bad? A recurring topic among contributors is whether to use the term victim or survivor; writer AJ McKenna says, "If I say I have survived, I'm fooling nobody. I didn't." Actress Ally Sheedy discusses decades-long sexism in Hollywood, educator and writer Sharisse Tracey takes on the myth of the perfect black family, actress Gabrielle Union navigates explaining consent to her stepsons, and author Amy Jo Burns revisits the cost of staying silent. Particularly insightful is writer Michelle Chen's exploration into the safety of women in migrant camps. Some share experiences of street harassment or witnessing public masturbation and the mind-set that it's an honor to be objectified. Gay succeeds in bringing men's and women's voices to the conversation, showing the broad influence of sexuality, race, and faith. VERDICT A standout collection on a crucial topic. That some parts may be difficult to read owing to details of sexual violence makes these essays even more necessary.-Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Though her gang rape at age 12 was devastating, author Gay minimized her pain after talking to other women who had faced harassment, rape, and sexual assault. "What I went through was bad, but it wasn't that bad," she attempted to convince herself. The incisive essays she has compiled by artists, journalists, actors, and others cover a range of experiences yet all speak to the power of rape culture: yes, it is that bad. These deeply personal pieces lay bare the forces that allow sexual violence to flourish: society's expectation that women internalize blame, men's entitlement to women's bodies, and the normalization of assault. Sharisse Tracey describes the pressure from her community to forgive her father for raping her when she was a teen; V.L. Seek's probing "Utmost Resistance" examines the burden of studying rape cases in law school as a survivor. Several contributors emphasize that groping, cat-calling, and indecent exposure are acts of violence, too, making the book potentially eye-opening to readers who may see such experiences as unpleasant yet acceptable. VERDICT This potent volume slowly but surely chisels away at rape culture. A must for YA collections.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.