New Books: "Women Confidential: Midlife Women Explode the Myths of Having It All"

Newsday has a short review of "Women Confidential: Midlife Women Explode the Myths of Having It All," a new book from Globe and Mail (Toronto) columnist Barbara Moses. The paper's Kristin Taveira says:

Ladies, if you've ever longed for a wise older sister to guide you through the most scary, exhilarating or gut-wrenching moves women have to make, you'll find a worthy substitute here. ... The wealth of life experiences shared here, ranging from career choices to motherhood to extramarital affairs, will give women abundant opportunities for what she calls "social comparison" - it's like a barometer to see if what you're going through is normal. Moses crystallizes the feedback from her questionnaire into a frank yet nonpreachy essay, which does, as the title says, explode the myths of having it all.

Publisher's Weekly is not so enthusiastic, but agrees that the book is useful as a compendium of voices:

Moses tills no new ground ... nor does she offer solutions except for such overworked directives as “know and act on what is really important to you” and “cherish and grow your friendships.” What Moses (Career Intelligence) does is give voice to ... women who find themselves at midlife shaking their heads, muttering, “Wait a minute, is this really what I signed up for?”

For an overview of the points Moses makes in the book, see this piece she wrote for the Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com. In it she summarizes twelve findings from her surveys of college-educated women who were in their late thirties to mid fifties:

• Know yourself
• Act on what is most important to you
• Maintain your integrity
• Distinguish between the big issues and the smaller ones
• Find a mentor and be one
• Don't make work the centerpiece of your identity
• Be able to navigate office politics
• Invest in yourself: Take steps to ensure your employability
• Don't let a lack of confidence deter you
• Don't worry if you don't know what you want to do "when you grow up"
• Think trade-ons, not trade-offs
• Be yourself

You can see more at Amazon here:

"Women Confidential: Midlife Women Explode the Myths of Having It All" (Barbara Moses)