In honor off the 2009 National Women's History Month, Hachette Book Group is sponsoring a Blog Tour of My Little Red Book by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff. There will be guest blogs and giveaways and interviews all week long on the participating blogs.
The Little Red Book is a book about a girl's first period. Rachel questioned everyday working women, young teens, and celebrities to find out what they were doing and what happened when they started their first period. This Little Red Book isn't so little. Its witty, charming, compassionate, and sassy. It also shows us how time has made us grow. Back in the day, it was humiliating to start your first period and scary. I remember when I started mine, I was so humiliate when my mother announced it at Grandma's dinner time. Like she was so proud her little girl "became a woman", and here I was slinking down into my chair, cheeks pinkened in shame. My daughter, recently twelve, started hers, and change has arrived. There is no humiliation. We can talk openly about it, and education offered in the schools has helped us move forward. A definate keeper, guide, and must-have for girls and women!
The author of this wonderful piece of work is Rachel Kauder Nalebuff. She is a normal 18-year old, who ended up writing about periods. She is the editor of My Little Red Book and a recent graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall. Rachel is on a gap year before enrolling at Yale University. After many summers living and working in China, she can speak, even rap, in Chinese. She is also fluent in French and Spanish, and is working on Portuguese. During her gap year, she studied at Catholic University in Rio, earned a degree in Patisserie at the Cordon Bleu (Paris), and volunteered with the NGO Seva Mandir in Udaipur (India) working on a project collecting stories from widows about their struggle to live independently despite the odds.
Below is a Q & A with Rachel
1. What are a few of your favorite books?
A Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius, Tropic of Cancer, The Stinky Cheeseman
2. Do you believe in any of those old wives tales about menstruation ? Example: If a menstruating woman cans fruits or veggies, the produce will rot in the can.
The grandmother in me believes in the theory of “hot and cold” foods (hot being foods like chili, ginger, and cold being foods like avocado and melon) and that you should only have” hot” foods during your period. Could be just because I like ginger.
3. Do men find it off-putting that you are the "period girl"?
And does the nickname bother you in any way?Not the men that matter. (That’s what I’m telling myself) The name has definitely grown on me. It’s sort of empowering.
4. Did you have any interesting experiences where you were researching your book?
Women telling me their stories, everywhere, all the time! Whenever I wanted to have meetings with women to discuss book publicity or the charity aspect, the women would spend half the allotted time swapping stories. Recently, an older woman introduced me in front of a book club by discussing how she had gotten her period earlier that morning for the first time in years and that we should all give a round of applause because she wasn’t menaupausal. That was interesting
5. How many publishers did you send the manuscript to?
Too many to count. But my publisher was the first man to take a look. And he loved it! And I love him!
6. Tell us 3 interesting things about you.
I work in a restaurant as a pastry chef apprentice, I know how to unicycle, I once went to ping pong camp…in China.
7. Were you ever intimidated by the celebrities who shared their stories with you?Totally! When I first approached Gloria Steinem for her story, I was too scared to even say anything. So I just stood there in silence with my manila folder of stories as she walked by. Emailing her later made it a bit easier.
8. Have you started your next book?
Can you tell us a little bit about it?I like the idea of firsts. And I think doing a virginity book would be cool. But that would be very far off. The only writing I’ll be doing for the next while is in my journal and for school papers.
Visit these other great sites to continue the tour!
What a great interview! I hear what you mean about the humiliation. I was 9 and my then 7 year old sister ran outside to tell my dad when he came home from work and the neighbors were outside. :O
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book that I'll have to check out at some point.
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
The Stinky Cheeseman? Well that's certainly an interesting title! Great questions (and answers) :)
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