13: Daring: My Passages: A Memoir by Gail Sheehy...the inscribed and signed copy that I purchased in 2014, likely, most likely--the year it came out and my first time attending the Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison. I have been looking forward to reading it ever since. I'm not totally certain what prompted me to pull it off the shelf to take on now, but I am just so glad that I did. I really enjoyed this read. And I very much enjoyed reading it exactly when I did. The portion of Sheehy's story that takes place in the 1960s is what I was reading prior to State Competition and its focus on the 1960s, content-wise, so I felt I was just completely in the right mindset and thinking throughout that time. There are many similarities and even cross-overs, really, between Sheehy's story and the one that Katharine Graham tells in her Personal History, as Sheehy and Graham are not only living at and writing about the same times but also are friends and work in the same industry, so I found that to be a very interesting aspect of this read, having not so long ago read Graham's book. I appreciate Sheehy's honesty and sincerity in storytelling and completely appreciate the work she has done through a lifetime of journalism and writing work to help not only women but everyone through these "passages" in their lives. She is smart, insightful, has done deep research, and yet tells very clearly, too, how important it is to LIVE each day the best that you can. I love the value that she gives to simple things like meals with friends, gardening, yoga and tai chi and meditation...to people and relationships, valuable friendships. I feel stronger as a woman on this Thursday due to having lived all of that life, with its peaks and valleys, right alongside Ms. Sheehy for the past several days. She taught me well! (Read it!)

Gail Sheehy's break-through book about adult life, Passages, was published as I was becoming an adult. I remember it being the talk of the adult world at the time. Her book, Passages of Care-Giving, has been very helpful to friends caring for family members. Until reading this ARC of her memoir, I didn't realize how prolific she has been. This is the memoir of an ambitious woman whose career flourished alongside the women's movement. As I was reading, I kept thinking that there was a lot of name-dropping in the book. On the other hand, her life has been spent among names. If you 'grew up' with Gail Sheehy, you'll enjoy this memoir of a full life.

It started out great, very interesting about her early career. Then it turned into to all about Clay Felker.

Read my full thoughts over at Read.Write.Repeat.

Before reading this book, I had never heard of Gail Sheehy or even her best-selling book Passages. Now that I've read her memoir and know more about her life and advances in journalism, I'm more than a little ashamed that I had no knowledge of this pioneer woman.

Once again, I feel properly schooled in an area of recent history I knew very little about. Those decades surrounding my birth seem, at times, like dark holes of ignorance in my life. Only now are people such as Sheehy really looking back at those years and writing comprehensive memoirs. In this case, I'm grateful I was given a chance to look into Sheehy's life and, now, speak intelligently about her experiences and advances, specifically for American women.

Interesting memoir by bestselling author Gail Sheehy author of a great number of bestselling books and culture-defining articles. A bonus for publishing historians is the inside look at the height of new journalism and the age of the magazine through her relationship with Clay Felker.

I read this book for the second time to update and expand the terrible Wikipedia article on Sheehy. She is important and deserved better coverage. I hope I've fixed that now.

Gail Sheehy has led one amazing, amazing life. This book was intense and really, really long, but I never wanted to stop reading it. It is SO well-written and I was hanging on to every word. It's a book you have to invest a lot of time into, but it's well worth it.

To be honest there are simply too few public facing female intellectuals to admire, Sheehy is one. My only lament about her amazing body of work and life is her disinterest in claiming the label feminist. In many respects she doesn't have to bang a drum, she lives the life of a feminist.