June 5, 2007

Ladies First

“Throw Like a Girl,” by Jean Thompson

Girls just wanna have fun. (Give it up for pajama parties and pillow fights.)

But they also want meaningful lives full of introspection and the desire to make a difference, right? (Freud, we’ll turn this one over to you.)

Author Jean Thompson goes after this question in her latest collection of short stories, Throw Like a Girl. The National Book Award finalist examines what female existence is really about by voicing everything from hope to passion to rage through characters like a housewife who joins the army; a bratty junior high student; and one hard-drinking single mom.

The twelve funny and provocative tales — all endorsed by David Sedaris — are as much about possibility as they are about chances not taken. In “The Five Senses,” a girl runs off with a deadbeat boyfriend who may have killed her family. And in “A Normal Life,” a woman vows to mend her broken marriage after taking an international journey alone.

It’s like a women’s studies course in less than 300 pages. Only way more fun.

Available online at amazon.com.