cover image Life as We Know It: A Collection of Personal Essays from Salon.com

Life as We Know It: A Collection of Personal Essays from Salon.com

. Washington Square Press, $22.95 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-7434-7686-7

This brazen and confidant collection from Salon.com's""Life"" column features revealing expositions on the complexities, tensions and nuances of contemporary life. Writers share their personal experiences and ruminations with an emotional and intellectual honesty and aplomb, creating the feeling that one is sneaking a peek in some stranger's diary. Hank Pellissier relates, with touching humor, the story of impregnating both his wife and a lesbian friend and the emotional turbulence the pregnancies evoke. In""Saucy Soccer Moms,"" Matthew DeBord divulges his secret longings not for the stick-thin supermodels most men desire, but for the middle-aged mom who spends her days driving her kids to after-school activities and striding purposefully down the aisles of the local supermarket. The authors express themselves eloquently and passionately; even those readers who don't share the everything-goes attitude expressed in these 39 essays will appreciate their honesty and intelligence.