Great book for every woman in the process of "becoming herself." This is a how-to guide to womanhood by women who have walked the walk and are speaking from personal experience. Loved the intimate stories in this book that reveal the most personal lives of great women with autobiographical essays by JK Rowling, Kate Winslet, Maya Angelou and many others, aged 24 (Jamie Lynn Sigler) to 94 (Kitty Carlisle Hart). Contributors focus on personal subjects we all share: family, emotional growth, joys and sorrows. I read the book in random order: just opening it anywhere and reading the story on that page. I love being able to 'browse' through a book like this. The pieces are really diverse which gave me the feeling of 'sitting around a kitchen table' with friends ... some share a lot, some a little. Some are more eloquent, some less. But all feel safe enough to reveal the tender realities of life that are usually held private. Since reading it, the voices of the women come to mind when I least expect it, tapping me on the shoulder with words of wisdom. Great graduation gift or "any time" gift to for women of all ages.

It took me a week after reading this book to process my thoughts on it. It was a good book, definitely a great present for a young woman, but I ended up being disappointed by the book overall. I couldn't help feeling that the editor of this book did a real slash job on some of these essay to keep them at the 2-4 pages alloted each author. Many of them, including some from writers whose style I am familiar with, seemed very disjointed and thrown together. Many of the paragraphs seem completely unrelated, jumping from one idea to the next without any connection. It made it difficult to read, and took away from the essays.

There are some good essays in there, Joyce Carol Oates' and surprisingly Julia Stiles' were two of my favorites out of the whole book.