My Life on the Road

An Amazon Best Book of November 2015: To women of a certain age a euphemism the author of this book would surely abhor the idea that Gloria Steinem is a revolutionary thinker, a wonderful writer and a practical activist is not, perhaps, news. (But there is something joyful in the rediscovery of same.) To those who didn t know or don t remember the Steinem story founding Ms. Magazine, fighting for reproductive rights, waiting to marry until she was in her 60s! -- it might be a revelation. Long before Sheryl Sandberg leaned in at work, Steinem was preaching the gospel of empowered women by, among other things, travelling the country and the world listening to people, gathering stories and insights, offering support of the intellectual and emotional kind. From the very first page in which she dedicates her book to the British doctor who ended Steinem s pregnancy, illegally, in 1957 to the tales of a supposedly shy woman who admitted she wanted to nail their sloppy husband s tossed-anywhere underwear to the floor, Steinem recounts a life well-travelled in every sense. Now 81, the woman who at 40 replied to a compliment about her appearance with this is what 40 looks like, Steinem can still raise consciousnesses, including her own. Sara Nelson