Barbara Cooley's Reviews > "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?": Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times

Gina Barreca’s new book, "If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?": Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times is not only laugh out loud funny, it is read out loud funny. I cracked it open the minute I got my hands on an Advance Reader Copy and snorted and laughed my way through the first forty pages, pausing only to read most of it aloud to my husband. He laughed and snorted, too. I then promised him I’d read the remainder to myself and let him read the book for himself afterward. He didn’t have to wait long as I devoured this book like fast food for a starving soul. Unlike fast food, it has substance and nourished my inner being not just with deep belly laughs but also with insights, aha moments, and reassurances that it’s not only okay to be smart, funny and loud, it’s imperative. In a world where women still earn only 76 cents to every male dollar, and where finding and using our own voices still gets us branded as rabble rousers and angry women, Barreca encourages us to own our intelligence as well as our quirks, and braces us for the daily struggle that includes Spanx and probiotics, carrying everything we need to start life in a new state, bad boyfriends at any age, and hearing from women in lofty places who spout elitist platitudes that won’t work for the masses. Barreca’s new book, like life itself, runs the gamut from hilariously and sometimes wryly funny to profoundly moving in the blink of an eye, and leaves one feeling sated, with a deep sense of affirmation and more than a wisp of wisdom. I initially ordered copies of this book as gifts for my friends, who like me, are women of a certain age. I’m now ordering copies for all of the women I know (and a couple of men) who would do well to read this again and again as it contains laughter and wisdom for all ages and occasions. It truly is one size fits all.