Elizabeth Benedict

Ask a woman about her hair, and she just might tell you the story of her life. Ask a whole bunch of women about their hair, and you could get a history of the world. Surprising, insightful, frequently funny, and always forthright, the essays in Me, My Hair, and I are reflections and revelations about every aspect of women’s lives from family, race, religion, and motherhood to culture, health, politics, and sexuality. They take place in African American kitchens, at Hindu Bengali weddings, and inside Hasidic Jewish homes. The conversation is intimate and global at once. Layered into these reminiscences are tributes to influences throughout history: Jackie Kennedy, Lena Horne, Farrah Fawcett, the Grateful Dead, and Botticelli’s Venus. The long and the short of it is that our hair is our glory—and our nemesis, our history, our self-esteem, our joy, our mortality. Every woman knows that many things in life matter more than hair, but few bring as much pleasure as a really great hairdo. "A terrific read for those of us who obsess about our hair. Or those who live with those of us who do. A collection that’s, I dare say, a cut above the rest.” —Mary Morris, author of The Jazz Palace

Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession

Me, My Hair, and I

A View of My Own

Rewriting Illness

In What My Mother Gave Me, women look at the relationships between mothers and daughters through a new lens: a daughter’s story of a gift from her mother that has touched her to the bone and served as a model, a metaphor, or a touchstone in her own life. The contributors of these thirty-one original pieces include Pulitzer Prize winners, perennial bestselling novelists, and celebrated broadcast journalists. Whether a gift was meant to keep a daughter warm, put a roof over her head, instruct her in the ways of womanhood, encourage her talents, or just remind her of a mother’s love, each story gets to the heart of a relationship. Rita Dove remembers the box of nail polish that inspired her to paint her nails in the wild stripes and polka dots she wears to this day. Lisa See writes about the gift of writing from her mother, Carolyn See. Cecilia Muñoz remembers both the wok her mother gave her and a lifetime of home-cooked family meals. Judith Hillman Paterson revisits the year of sobriety her mother bequeathed to her when Paterson was nine, the year before her mother died of alcoholism. Abigail Pogrebin writes about her middle-aged bat mitzvah, for which her mother provided flowers after a lifetime of guilt for skipping her daughter’s religious education. Margo Jefferson writes about her mother’s gold dress from the posh department store where they could finally shop as black women. Collectively, the pieces have a force that feels as elemental as the tides: outpourings of lightness and darkness; joy and grief; mother love and daughter love; mother love and daughter rage. In these stirring words we find that every gift, ?no matter how modest, tells the story of a powerful bond. As Elizabeth Benedict points out in her introduction, “whether we are mothers, daughters, aunts, sisters, or cherished friends, we may not know for quite some time which presents will matter the most."

Thirty-one Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most

What My Mother Gave Me

Finalist for the National Book Award: A sassy, cynical professional woman’s notions of love—and its apparent impossibility—are thrown into question by a man who challenges everything she thought she knew Though a talented young immigration lawyer, Lexi Steiner is in trouble. The legal organization where she works in Los Angeles may soon go under. Her habit of engaging in daring flings with charming—and sometimes not-so-charming—men is losing its luster. And her most intimate relationship of all, the one with her college best friend, Nell, is about to be threatened by two men: Nell’s serious new lover, and Lexi’s: a divorced investigative reporter who does the unthinkable and falls in love with her. A fast-paced, sexy, and very serious novel about love and ambition, about bicoastal best friends and enduring lovers, Slow Dancing is a captivating look at lives and hearts in transition, moving forward one tentative step at a time.

A Novel

Slow Dancing

Offers writers advice on handling human sexuality in their fiction, tells how to write about specific situations, and shares examples of good writing.

A Guide for Fiction Writers

The Joy of Writing Sex

This smart psychological thriller about a therapist who marries the wrong woman is “a lot of wicked fun” (Alan Cheuse, NPR’s All Things Considered). When Eric Lavender meets the attorney Colleen O’Brien Golden, his position as one of Manhattan’s chic psychotherapists and most eligible bachelors suddenly loses its appeal. The sexy, stylish Colleen lures him to live with her and her young daughter in the exclusive suburb of Scarsdale. To his amazement, Eric is besotted and soon settles into the unexpected bliss of marriage and domesticity with their new baby and his loving stepdaughter. He even becomes a local hero when the police turn to him for help in resolving a hostage crisis. But Eric’s transformation comes to an abrupt halt when the police knock on his door again—this time with handcuffs. He and Colleen are caught up in an explosive conflict of interest involving their clients. When Eric discovers that Colleen has gone to extreme lengths to conceal her secret past, she retaliates with horrendous charges against him. Eric must uncover the truth before his children, his career, and his freedom are taken from him forever. As she did in her bestseller Almost, Elizabeth Benedict navigates the turbulent waters of love, law, psychology, and ethics with biting wit and penetrating insight. The Practice of Deceit is a razor-sharp novel of marriage—and divorce—gone awry.

The Practice of Deceit

New York Times Bestseller: “A winning collection” of essays by daughters including Elinor Lipman, Margo Jefferson, Jean Hanff Korelitz, Lisa See, and more (Kirkus Reviews). Each of these thirty-one “beautifully crafted” essays (Publishers Weekly) is a story about a mother’s gift to a daughter—one that touched her, taught her something, or symbolized a unique bond. Whether a gift was meant to keep a daughter warm, instruct her in the ways of womanhood, encourage her talents, or just remind her of a mother’s love, each story gets to the heart of a relationship. Rita Dove recalls the box of polish that inspired her to paint her nails in the stripes and polka dots she wears to this day. Lisa See writes about the gift of writing from her mother, Carolyn See. Cecilia Muñoz remembers the wok her mother gave her and a lifetime of family meals. Judith Hillman Paterson revisits the year of sobriety her mother bequeathed to her when Paterson was nine, the year before her mother died of alcoholism. Abigail Pogrebin describes her middle-aged bat mitzvah, for which her mother provided flowers after a lifetime of guilt for skipping her daughter’s religious education. Margo Jefferson writes about her mother’s gold dress from the posh department store where they could finally shop as black women. Collectively, the pieces have a force that feels as elemental as the tides: outpourings of lightness and darkness; love and rage; joy and grief. From literary prize winners, bestselling authors, and other celebrated women, they are “as varied and unexpected and eloquent and moving as mother love itself” (Cathleen Schine, New York Times-bestselling author of The Grammarians).

Thirty-One Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most

The author of Almost chronicles a particularly nasty divorce that pits a quintessential "nice guy" against his ex-wife, a manipulative lawyer who will stop at nothing to conceal her own sordid past and destroy his credibility. Reprint.

Thirty writers look back at the the people, events, and books that launched their literary lives.

30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives

Mentors, Muses & Monsters

Ann Patchett

Maggie O'Farrell

Jenna Blum

Molly Gloss

Nicole Mones

Six novels in one volume by today’s most outstanding female writers—includes The Magician’s Assistant, Those Who Save Us, and more. From the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Commonwealth and Bel Canto, to the multiple award-winning author of This Must Be the Place, this collection gathers a half-dozen top-notch literary talents in a treasure trove for fiction lovers. Included: Almost by Elizabeth Benedict chronicles the attempt of writer Sophy Chase to come to terms with the death of her almost ex-husband—who may have committed suicide on the New England resort island where she left him just months before. Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum follows Trudy, a professor of German history, as she investigates her mother’s past in WWII Germany, combining a passionate, doomed love story; a vivid evocation of life during the war; and a poignant mother/daughter drama. The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss is a heartwarming story of a young woman with the rare talent of “gentling” wild horses, and the unexpected and profound connections between people and animals. The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones takes readers inside the hidden world of elite cuisine in modern China, through the story of an American food writer in Beijing who discovers that her late husband may have been leading a double life. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell is a gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth. The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett tells the story of the death of a secretive magician—and how it sets in motion his partner’s journey of self-discovery.

Six Novels

Best Contemporary Women's Fiction

A New York Times Notable Book: “The most engrossing novel I’ve come across in a long time.” —Newsweek Fortysomething Sophy Chase has just begun her new, lighthearted, romantically adventurous life in New York City. But it comes to a screeching halt when she learns that her ex-husband—or technically, her almost-ex-husband, who is also an ex-CIA agent—has been found dead, on the island off of Massachusetts where she left him just months before. Lured back to New England by feelings she thought she’d left behind, Sophy must navigate her grown stepdaughters; a former lover who is now a celebrity lawyer; the mystery of her husband’s death—and her own darkest impulses—in a “novel about death, divorce, exes, lovers and surrogate children on and off a snooty East Coast island. . . . Page-turning suspense that doesn’t skimp on characterization or intelligence” (Publishers Weekly). “Benedict captures finely tuned calibrations of feeling. . . . [She] seems to understand humor’s real function . . . to get us through the day.” —Newsday

Elizabeth Benedict

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