I'm Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work

Black women have been balancing the competing demands of work and home since before women even won the right to vote. But black voices and experiences are barely acknowledged in the mainstream "mommy wars" dialogue. Lonnae O'Neal Parker is about to change all that, in this uncommonly smart and often witty examination -- part memoir, part reportage -- of how today's black women meet the challenges of marriage, motherhood, and work.

On the surface, Parker has the ideal life: she's a reporter for the Washington Post and has three adorable children and a doting husband. Yet behind the perfect persona is a woman on the verge of a breakdown from the stresses of trying to have it all. Only a pantheon of voices -- from spectral slave women and ancestors who speak to her across time to her favorite pop cultural icons -- keeps her sane and helps her to navigate the complex waters of being a woman in the modern world.

With an intelligence and range that recalls Anne Lamott and Paula Giddings, Parker proves herself not only a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion of race and gender in America but an astute cultural critic.