No One Tells You This: A Memoir

Macnicol, co-founder of TheLi.st, a networking platform for working women, incisively examines what she wants in her personal life versus what society tells her she’s supposed to want: namely, a partner and kids. In her late 30s, Macnicol was a successful freelance writer for several magazines, but got so burned out by the 18-hour days that she eventually quit. It took two years for her to find her footing again, and she eventually returned to writing and founded her website. She reflects on the path of her stay-at-home mother as well as her own independent, jet-setting life (“I had known early on that I did not want my mother’s life. If anything, I actively unwanted it”). She also looks to her friends who have paired off (some are happy; others confess they should have been less afraid to be single) as well as her sister, who discovered she was pregnant just as she had separated from her husband. Society, Macnicol writes, views single, childless women with pity, yet Macnicol takes pleasure in being a woman in charge of her own life. The self-affirming wisdom Macnicol gained about herself will resonate with countless women and men who wrestle with the same societal pressures. (July)