Making Sense - Hardcover

In a collection of her syndicated columns from the last three years, Goodman takes on a panorama of topics, from such personal observations as the predations of a bluejay in her back yard to a series of considerations on issues raised by the "Baby M" case. With good humor and focused intelligence, she often takes a step back from current affairs to offer an alternative perspective to the prevailing one. She observes that the story told by Sydney Biddle Barrows, the "Mayflower Madam," has less to do with sex than entrepreneurship: "It's about the joy of running your own business. The Story of B." Often reflecting on the roles and status of women in the workplace or at home, Goodman speaks in a consistently well-reasoned voice; she's impassioned but not blinkered, serious, not sober, and never glib when she's funny. Able to envision in co-ed dorms a nurturing place for a comfortable relationship between men and women who will one day work together, she can also worry about the loss of satisfaction for young lovers who, committed to career and personal potential, consider themselves in love "for now," not forever. Reliably witty and original, Goodman proves to have both punch and staying power in these short essays.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is the third collection of syndicated newspaper columns written by Pultizer Prize-winning Goodman, following At Large ( LJ 10/15/85) and Keeping in Touch ( LJ 9/1/81). Perhaps Goodman's musings on the workplace, relationships, and the current events of 1984 to 1989 are a welcome relief after reading the hard news section of the newspaper, but collected here, the columns often seem banal, lacking the satiric bite of a Russell Baker or the poetic writing style of an Anna Quindlen. Goodman maintains a fairly conservative point of view, but her columns are best when she strays from it, such as when she provides a perceptive defense of Jessica Hahn. Recommended for libraries that have Goodman's other books or an extensive journalism collection.
- Judy Quinn, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.