I'm on My Way Running: Women Speak on Coming of Age

Rating:
Summary: I walk into uncharted waters
Review: I'm On My Way Running is a compilation of thousands of writings about girls and young women through their changes from adolescence into adulthood. The writings include excerpts from novels, diaries, journals, autobiographies, multi-cultural traditional songs and much more, and most are fairly short (1 to 3 pages). They come from all over the world, and there is something from almost every culture and religion, from times dating back several centuries to writings as recent as the 1970's.

The book starts with the start of puberty and each section contains writings from the next age to the next until the newly grown women are now looking back and seeing how much like their mother they really are.

This book deals with every issue imaginable to a woman, and many unimaginable to most men, and I find it very interesting. I see a pattern that seems to stay mostly the same in these writings, whether the young woman is a rebel or traditional, whether she wants to strike out on her own or be a house-wife. That common thread has to do with a set of values that is passed in almost every culture from mothers to daughters - a set of values few men ever see or hear of, but that women expect men to live by as common sense. This was extremely eye opening to me, and allows me to be more patient with the female race as a whole as well as with myself.

I highly recommend this book to all women who seek a kindred spirit - whatever background you have, I am sure you will find one in one of those writers. I also recommend this to every man who thinks he will ever understand women or wants to try. No one will ever understand a woman as well as herself, and often she won't understand herself either. But this will give you patience, I am sure.

Rating:
Summary: I walk into uncharted waters
Review: I'm On My Way Running is a compilation of thousands of writings about girls and young women through their changes from adolescence into adulthood. The writings include excerpts from novels, diaries, journals, autobiographies, multi-cultural traditional songs and much more, and most are fairly short (1 to 3 pages). They come from all over the world, and there is something from almost every culture and religion, from times dating back several centuries to writings as recent as the 1970's.

The book starts with the start of puberty and each section contains writings from the next age to the next until the newly grown women are now looking back and seeing how much like their mother they really are.

This book deals with every issue imaginable to a woman, and many unimaginable to most men, and I find it very interesting. I see a pattern that seems to stay mostly the same in these writings, whether the young woman is a rebel or traditional, whether she wants to strike out on her own or be a house-wife. That common thread has to do with a set of values that is passed in almost every culture from mothers to daughters - a set of values few men ever see or hear of, but that women expect men to live by as common sense. This was extremely eye opening to me, and allows me to be more patient with the female race as a whole as well as with myself.

I highly recommend this book to all women who seek a kindred spirit - whatever background you have, I am sure you will find one in one of those writers. I also recommend this to every man who thinks he will ever understand women or wants to try. No one will ever understand a woman as well as herself, and often she won't understand herself either. But this will give you patience, I am sure.