When Everything Changed

Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and bestselling author, recounts the astounding revolution in women's lives over the past 50 years, with her usual "sly wit and unfussy style" (People). When Everything Changed begins in 1960, when most American women had to get their husbands' permission to apply for a credit card. It ends in 2008 with Hillary Clinton's historic presidential campaign. This was a time of cataclysmic change, when, after four hundred years, expectations about the lives of American women were smashed in just a generation. A comprehensive mix of oral history and Gail Collins's keen research--covering politics, fashion, popular culture, economics, sex, families, and work--When Everything Changed is the definitive book on five crucial decades of progress. The enormous strides made since 1960 include the advent of the birth control pill, the end of "Help Wanted--Male" and "Help Wanted--Female" ads, and the lifting of quotas for women in admission to medical and law schools. Gail Collins describes what has happened in every realm of women's lives, partly through the testimonies of both those who made history and those who simply made their way. Picking up where her highly lauded book America's Women left off, When Everything Changed is a dynamic story, told with the down-to-earth, amusing, and agenda-free tone for which this beloved New York Times columnist is known. Older readers, men and women alike, will be startled as they are reminded of what their lives once were--"Father Knows Best" and "My Little Margie" on TV; daily weigh-ins for stewardesses; few female professors; no women in the Boston marathon, in combat zones, or in the police department. Younger readers will see their history in a rich new way. It has been an era packed with drama and dreams--some dashed and others realized beyond anyone's imagining.

When Savannah Bucca, an up-and-coming fashion designer, wins a coveted summer apprenticeship in Rome, at the House Of Capri—one of the most illustrious fashion houses in the world—she can only imagine how greatly it will impact her career. But as excited as she is to hone her craft and gain much-needed experience in the fashion industry, she is just as eager to put some distance between herself and the frustrating romantic complications at home. She’s known Luca Lalli her entire life. Growing up, they were practically family as their parents emigrated from Italy together as young adults and became the best of friends. As her feelings for him grew, Luca ‘s flirting did too. However, his apparent disinterest and dismissal was infuriating. She just had to accept the fact that he still sees her as nothing more than a little sister. Savannah’s trip to Italy is not just a chance to step into her future as a fashion designer or reunite her with family still living in the old country—it’s a chance to embrace the freedom and excitement of a summer away from home. And with any luck, a summer fling that will finally push Luca Lalli out of her mind, and her heart, for good.

DIV Beautifully written and carefully reasoned, this bold and provocative work upends the conventional wisdom about the American reaction to crisis. Margulies demonstrates that for key elements of the post-9/11 landscape—especially support for counterterror policies like torture and hostility to Islam—American identity is not only darker than it was before September 11, 2001, but substantially more repressive than it was immediately after the attacks. These repressive attitudes, Margulies shows us, have taken hold even as the terrorist threat has diminished significantly. Contrary to what is widely imagined, at the moment of greatest perceived threat, when the fear of another attack “hung over the country like a shroud,” favorable attitudes toward Muslims and Islam were at record highs, and the suggestion that America should torture was denounced in the public square. Only much later did it become socially acceptable to favor “enhanced interrogation” and exhibit clear anti-Muslim prejudice. Margulies accounts for this unexpected turn and explains what it means to the nation’s identity as it moves beyond 9/11. We express our values in the same language, but that language can hide profound differences and radical changes in what we actually believe. “National identity,” he writes, “is not fixed, it is made.” /div

When Everything Changed: My Journey from Physician to Patient is the inspiring memoir of Dr. Sheri Prentiss, a compassionate and quick-witted woman who speaks candidly about the death of her mother, her battle with breast cancer, and her ongoing struggle with lymphedema, all of which have radically changed her life. The transition from physician to patient pushed Dr. Sheri down a vicious spiral toward professional, emotional, and physical death When Everything Changed. Find out how she ended up as an international champion of survival in this inspiring story of pain, loss, and self-discovery. Dr. Sheri has transcended her battle with cancer and become a source of love and inspiration to thousands of women and men still navigating their journey with the disease. She makes the world a better place. —Norm Bowling, Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, Susan G. Komen

Rich in detail, filled with fascinating characters, and panoramic in its sweep, this magnificent, comprehensive work tells for the first time the complete story of the American woman from the Pilgrims to the 21st-century In this sweeping cultural history, Gail Collins explores the transformations, victories, and tragedies of women in America over the past 300 years. As she traces the role of females from their arrival on the Mayflower through the 19th century to the feminist movement of the 1970s and today, she demonstrates a boomerang pattern of participation and retreat. In some periods, women were expected to work in the fields and behind the barricades—to colonize the nation, pioneer the West, and run the defense industries of World War II. In the decades between, economic forces and cultural attitudes shunted them back into the home, confining them to the role of moral beacon and domestic goddess. Told chronologically through the compelling true stories of individuals whose lives, linked together, provide a complete picture of the American woman’s experience, Untitled is a landmark work and major contribution for us all.

From the best-selling author of Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie comes the latest story about ten-year-old Celie and the changes in her life. Celie and her family have moved an hour away from her school and her friends, and the changes don't stop there. At her new school, Celie struggles to make friends, torn between energetic and intriguing Mary Majors Meade and sweet but shy Charlie Larken, two classmates who do not get along. On top of adjusting to her new school, complete with harder homework and friendship troubles, Celie deals with changes at home when her forgetful Granny and a home nurse move into their apartment. When misunderstandings lead to a falling out between Celie's older sister Jo and her boyfriend, Celie is determined to make it right. However, her choices lead to a dangerous situation. Will Celie be able to handle all these new changes in her life? Once more Celie turns to her diary, filling the pages with heartfelt and often humorous entries, notes, drawings, and pages from her top-secret spy notebook.

The New York Times bestseller from Jeff Greenfield, the renowned CBS News senior political correspondent and veteran of CNN and ABC news, offering an alternative history of America. These things are true: * In December 1960, a suicide bomber paused when he saw the young President-elect John F. Kennedy's family come to the door to wave good-bye.... * In June 1968, Robert F. Kennedy declared victory in California, and then instead of heading to another ballroom, as intended, was hustled off through the kitchen.... * In October 1976, President Ford made a critical gaffe in a debate against Jimmy Carter, turning the tide in an election that had been rapidly narrowing. But what if they had gone the other way? In three narratives based on memoirs, oral histories, fresh reporting with key participants, and his own knowledge of the principal players, Jeff Greenfield explores how accidents of fate could have altered the course of history. The scenarios that Greenfield depicts are startlingly realistic, rich in detail, shocking in their projections, but always deeply, remarkably plausible.

In this touching novel, a Boston divorcée buys a Maine B&B where she juggles the demands of a celebrity wedding with being a single mother. When Louise Bessire was living in Boston, she dreamed of another way of life, far from the phony smiles and small-talk of corporate dinners. Now she’s got what she wanted—though not exactly in the way she hoped. Blindsided by her husband’s affair, Louise has used her divorce settlement to buy Blueberry Bay, a picturesque bed and breakfast in Ogunquit. And with a celebrity wedding taking place on the premises this summer, business is looking up. While Louise deals with paparazzi and wedding planners, her sixteen-year-old daughter, Isobel, is falling hard for local boy Jeff Otten. Being singled out by Jeff—nineteen, handsome, and from a wealthy family—almost makes up for her father’s increasing neglect. Yet even in the glow of golden beach days there are sudden, heart-wrenching revelations for both Louise and Isobel. It will be a summer that tests their strength and courage and proves that through every changing season, nothing is as steadfast as a mother’s love . . .