The Bitch is Back audiobook

Great book; bad title. Essays from women about finding happiness post-50. It's a sequel to a book about younger women (The Bitch in the House), which I didn't read. But this books stands well on its own. Stories abound of women who decide never to marry, others who decide they will after all, women who have or decide not to have children, women in abusive relationships, women in healthy relationships, women in healthy relationships with men and women in healthy relationships with women. All the topics are covered: money, sex, career, kids, cancer. The stories touch on questions you want to ask, but wouldn't (do couples stay together when one changes sex, and ... how does that WORK?!). And brings up issues you might never have encountered (life as a Muslim whose marriage was arranged ... at age 14!). Some of the essays were very relevant to me; others completely foreign. All were fascinating.

“In short, they, we, ‘difficult’ women, we thinking women, we women who finally have the opportunities and chutzpah to carve and design our own lives, had looked inward to see what was there and what was not, what we could live with or without , and what we still needed. And then we’d adjusted our lives and expectations accordingly.”I can’t quite believe it has been almost fifteen years since Hanauer put together the essay collection, The Bitch in the House. I found those essays maddening, funny and often too close to my own life. When I saw that Hanauer had put together a new collection, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How many of these essays would focus of the parts of life I am struggling with? Well, I am not sure that I related as closely to this collection, but I found most of these essays fascinating. I shared the first collection of essays with my book group and I might do so again. These essays are well written and some are very thought-provoking. There are 25 essays in this book about women living in the 21st century. These 25 women couldn’t possibly write about every aspect of being a woman in the United States, but they do cover a lot of ground. There is humor, tears, triumphs and failures. If you are a woman and like essays, there has to be at least one in here for you. Other readers may also find something of interest, but I feel that the main audience for this book is women.

Recommend it! Strongly encourage checking out this book, a series of essays by women "of a certain age" navigating the waters of life. Stories of love, work, children, infidelity, illness, having "work" done, aging alone, aging bodies and sexuality, second (and third and fourth) chances, etc. Definitely shows that there's no roadmap for life!

Grabbed this one without too much thought. I hadn't read the author's previous The Bitch in the House, but this was clear, honest, and insightful; appreciated reading these pieces; have read several of their books. Good to know!

Summary: These well written life stories from women slightly to very ahead of me in life were endlessly fascinatingThe Bitch is Back is a follow-up to an earlier essay collection entitled The Bitch in the House. Both collections feature essays primarily by women in their thirties. The essays focus on the decisions these women have made in regard to their significant others, their children, and their careers. Essays by women who wrote pieces for the earlier collections included brief introductions, such that I never felt lost because I hadn't read The Bitch in the House first.I was a bit uncertain about how much I would relate to the women in this book. In part, that might be because I think of myself as much younger than people in their thirties, although I'm 27 myself. I think it's more because I still feel like I'm at the beginning of my life though - just out of (grad) school, first job, just married, no plans to have kids. Either way, my fears were unfounded. While I didn't always have experiences of my own that were similar to those described in these essays, every single essay was well written enough to draw me in.I think these essays served an even more important purpose for me than simply being relatable stories. Because these women chose to share their varied experiences, I got to hear from people who had made a wide variety of life choices and hear how that worked out for them. Reading it made me think a lot about my own life and where I want to be in ten years. Even though it didn't cause me to want to make any major changes, I thought it was an incredibly useful collection of essays. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone, but perhaps especially to women my age and older.For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

Much the way Virginia Woolf presented "Stepford Wives" as women who did what they were told to do without any questions in “Angel in the House,” Cathi Hanauer described modern "bitches" in 2002, in her anthology of essays, THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE (William Morrow) as women having had just about enough of doing it all.Now more than a decade later, Hanauer is back with another generation of women, nine of the originals, along with sixteen new voices, sharing fresh thoughts on love, sex, money, work, family, body image, health, aging, all of the important issues in our lives.I remember when THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE was first published. The title captured everyone's attention sending us out to bookstores. It brought many women together creating lively conversation and discussion, which I loved. Reading the new essays in THE BITCH IS BACK (William Morrow) is equally provocative.Today women seem less bitter and resentful and more confident, competent and content in this anthology. The writers reveal how their lives have changed in the past years, whether they've stayed together, left marriages, had affairs; developed cancer or other physical challenges; coped with partners cheating, dying or remaining faithful; became full-time wage earners or homemakers; had an open marriage; remained childless or became parents; or experienced other life transitions.As a "new wave" of feminists begins to take center stage, this timely collection focuses on both past and present, offering understanding and wisdom for modern women’s lives, all the while looking forward toward the exciting possibilities of tomorrow.

What's not to love about this collection of essays, (the sequel to The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage which I loved when it first came out)? I slowly savored this collection, treating it as a palate cleanser between novels, though at times I wanted to gobble it up in one sitting. I discovered many new writers along the way and confess that the essay by Susanna Sonnenberg was my favorite (I was already a fan of her two memoirs so this essay was a special treat.) Just wish Cathi Hanauer had written a separate essay, not just the intro - only because I love her writing and wanted more. Here's hoping for another sequel, perhaps in ten years. I'll be waiting.

I won this through GoodReads and requested to give an honnest review.The Bitch Is Back: Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier by Cathi Hanauer The collection is a follow-up to a book published over ten years ago called The Bitch In the House that I now want to read.“In short, they, we, ‘difficult’ women, we thinking women, we women who finally have the opportunities and chutzpah to carve and design our own lives, had looked inward to see what was there and what was not, what we could live with or without , and what we still needed. And then we’d adjusted our lives and expectations accordingly.”These essays are well written and some are very thought-provoking. If you are a woman and like essays, there has to be at least one in here for you. There are 25 essays in this book about women living in the 21st century.

My Sunday running group picked this book as a discussion book. Unfortunately I will miss the discussion, but I think this would make a great book club book. It's a series of essays written by women in their '40s, '50s and '60s, edited by Cathi Hanauer. Her husband is the NY Times Modern Love editor (my favorite!) and the essays reminded me of Modern Love a bit, except they were all about the experience of being a woman and about finding peace (or not) in middle age. I liked some essays better than others but I found all of them interesting.This quote at the end rang so true to me:"And what's beautiful is being in this sad, messy, lovely world and liking who you are in it - and knowing that the people you love are right here in it with you." - Ann Hood4 1/2 stars

This book of essays by women about midlife is hilarious, insightful, and fascinating. I never read the previous book, _The Bitch in the House_, and I don't think I will because I'm already over the stage of life that book covers (young kids, ten years into marriage etc.). I'm not quite at the stage if life covered in this book. Most of the women with essays in this book are in their early fifties and most of their kids are either out of the house or close to it. The essays discuss marriage, divorce, sex, friendship, health, parenting and career. Reading them feels like you're at a book club with a clever group of women who have a collective great sense of humor. I can't recommend this book enough.

An even better collection than the first. One of the complaints I saw about the 1st book was that so many of the contributors work as writers, a profession that is easier to do part-time, from home, or on a flexible schedule. It’s a valid point, but since I took work from home as a writer and content manager on a flexible schedule, the complaints and frustrations in the 1st book rang true. The second book looked more at reviewing your life and adjusting if necessary. As a woman in my 40s, where I can still look back and look forward, it was another collection that fell into my lap at just the right time, full of essays written by women who are doing or have done the same thing.

I really loved this book, never got a chance to read the first one but boy can I relate to these stories of life. As a single mom of three always feeling alone or judged or disrespected by others while I am just trying to do my best, The bitch is back puts me smack dab in the mid-fifties and reading this help me to see in writing that everything I went thru I wasn't alone. Not everyone is famous but women and men go thru real life every day despite what people see on the outside,inside we all have a story and it's not glamorous. Thank you for a great read and almost feels like justification for everything I have thought or felt over the years.Wendy G.

You will learn a lot about how women, young and older, really think about relationships. Some of the choices these women make you may not agree with, but you will have to agree that they should indeed be free to make them; regardless of the consequences for their lives, as well as the lives of those individuals who are within their respective spheres of influence.I have given this book to two close acquaintances, secure in the knowledge that they would profit from absorbing a little wisdom from the narratives that have been set forth therein.

Better than the first series, the voices of these women are rich, wise, varied, and unequivocal about having found peace with a life/work/relationship balance that works for them, whether it be wholly conventional or radically atypical. I applaud Hanauer for the wonderful job she did in finding these voices and curating their stories to bring this collection to life. I now have a reading list of twenty-some new titles from the authors in this book to whom I've been introduced, and I've purchased a used copy of the book for my own shelves. Bravo!

I am generally a fan of autobiographical essays grouped around a single subject. I have read several over the years, including "The Bitch in the House." It was a pleasure to read most of these pieces, which are follow-ups to the original volume. However, there was a pervasive privilege to a lot of the contributors that ultimately undermined the power of the writing. The best essays veer away from this, but also seemed a bit exploitative.