archived reviews for Girls and Sex

“Girls & Sex is for men and women, young and old, and should be a book on everyone’s shelf.” August 27, 2016,  Los Angeles Review of Books

“Orenstein brings levity to this fraught topic…”
—Elle magazine

“The idea of encouraging girls to speak up for themselves—of promoting their ability to ask for what they want and to refuse what they don’t—seems an eminently sensible one.” —The New York Review of Books

“A smart, sobering guide to the sexual lives of young women today.”
—Associated Press

“Fascinating….wise and sharply argued.”
—The Economist

“Buy or Borrow the book. Read it. Then sit down and have that talk that they actually want.”
—Daily Kos

“A Smart, sober guide to the sexual lives of young women today.”
—The Seattle Times

“The idea of encouraging girls to speak up for themselves—of promoting their ability to ask for what they want and to refuse what they don’t—seems an eminently sensible one.”
—New York Review of Books

“Orenstein draws powerful, humane portraits of her interview subjects, self-reliant young women who find themselves trapped by sexist stereotypes about women’s bodies and women’s pleasure. [A] smart, earnest, and timely assessment.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Accessible prose and narrative style will bring the work of many thoughtful experts to a wider audience. Young adults, parents, educators, and activists alike will find this passionate work a timely conversation starter.”
— Library Journal

“An eye-opening study of the way that girls and women in America think, feel, and act regarding sex…. the abundant information [Orenstein] provides will give parents and young girls the power to make informed decisions.”
— Kirkus

ARCHIVED REVIEWS FOR CAMD

“Orenstein uses a friendly, deceptively informal approach to present a well-researched case against fairy-tale-style femininity….As a result, “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” is entertaining as well as useful, not only for parents of daughters.”
— Minneapolis Star/Tribune

ARCHIVED REVIEWS FOR WFD

“Intimate, funny/sad and remarkably self-revealing.”
— Starred review, Kirkus

“Funny, self-knowing and sometimes wise.”
—Chicago Tribune

“What sets this book apart is the way Orenstein uses her reporting skills. When she visits an ex-boyfriend who’s now an Orthodox Jew, she provides a detailed portrait of his life with his wife and their 15 children. When she travels to Japan we get an investigation into the way that culture ritualizes miscarriage. Best of all, she brings her erudition and intelligence to bear on her own experience.”
—  San Francisco magazine

“…a raw, funny and poignant memoir … she writes keenly and with humor about the difficult road her quest takes. By the time I reached the end of the book, I was crying into my latte. Orenstein’s memoir is not just hers; it is the story of a generation of women who dared to wait for motherhood, took risks to achieve it and were brave enough to question their decisions every step of the way.”
— More magazine, February 2007

“Must-read for moms: The story of author Peggy Orenstein’s struggle with infertility is riveting, but what really makes her new memoir, Waiting for Daisy, such a compelling read is her refreshing honesty about the complicated emotions many women face on the path to motherhood.”
— Parenting magazine, February 2007

“Orenstein deftly wipes the Vaseline coating off the lens of modern motherhood and exposes it for the messy business it is….”
— Minneapolis Star/Tribune