Black women have been balancing the competing demands of work and home since before women even won the right to vote. But black voices and experiences are barely acknowledged in the mainstream "mommy wars" dialogue. Lonnae O'Neal Parker is about to change all that, in this uncommonly smart and often witty examination -- part memoir, part reportage -- of how today's black women meet the challenges of marriage, motherhood, and work. On the surface, Parker has the ideal life: she's a reporter for the Washington Post and has three adorable children and a doting husband. Yet behind the perfect persona is a woman on the verge of a breakdown from the stresses of trying to have it all. Only a pantheon of voices -- from spectral slave women and ancestors who speak to her across time to her favorite pop cultural icons -- keeps her sane and helps her to navigate the complex waters of being a woman in the modern world. With an intelligence and range that recalls Anne Lamott and Paula Giddings, Parker proves herself not only a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion of race and gender in America but an astute cultural critic. Parker, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter with the Washington Post , intersperses historical context, her newspaper commentaries, and current observations in this sharp perspective on black womanhood. Parker grew up on the South Side of Chicago, watching the progress of generations beginning with her grandmother; she sees a widening of possibilities tinged with a history of limitations for black women. She recalls stories of black women making do and creating space for themselves, bringing glamour to the dismal and peace to the turbulent. Contrasting the struggles of black women to those of middle-class white women, Parker maintains that black women--with a longer, more complex history of balancing work and family--have broader skills for coping with demands while finding and securing joy in life. Throughout, Parker notes that whenever she is overwhelmed by the responsibilities of a journalism career, marriage, and motherhood with three children, she thinks of slave women with backbreaking dawn-to-dusk demands, and she is renewed. A heartfelt and probing look at issues of race and gender. Vanessa Bush Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Equal parts memoir, history lesson and cultural critique [this book] takes a sometimes wrenching, sometimes joyful look at black motherhood.” - New York Times “A heartfelt and probing look at issues of race and gender” - Booklist “A provocative new book that takes a modern-day approach to Black motherhood.” - Essence ―“Adds gratifying complexity to the current literature about the experiences of American women of color.” - Naomi Wolf “Sharp insights into balancing the multiple roles that engage contemporary women.” - Publishers Weekly “Brilliant, humorous, and painfully honest….With pitiless self-examination and analytical acuity, Lonnae O’Neal Parker offers us a searing portrait of the demanding, yet rewarding, lives of black women. - Michael Eric Dyson Black women have been balancing the competing demands of work and home since before women even won the right to vote. But black voices and experiences are barely acknowledged in the mainstream "mommy wars" dialogue. Lonnae O'Neal Parker is about to change all that, in this uncommonly smart and often witty examination -- part memoir, part reportage -- of how today's black women meet the challenges of marriage, motherhood, and work. On the surface, Parker has the ideal life: she's a reporter for the Washington Post and has three adorable children and a doting husband. Yet behind the perfect persona is a woman on the verge of a breakdown from the stresses of trying to have it all. Only a pantheon of voices -- from spectral slave women and ancestors who speak to her across time to her favorite pop cultural icons -- keeps her sane and helps her to navigate the complex waters of being a woman in the modern world. With an intelligence and range that recalls Anne Lamott and Paula Giddings, Parker proves herself not only a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion of race and gender in America but an astute cultural critic. Lonnae O'Neal Parker is a Pulitzer Prize–nominated reporter for the Washington Post and a contributing editor to Essence . She lives in Prince George's County, Maryland. This could have been a marketing ploy, a filling of a niche. After all, search an online bookstore for "working mothers," and you might get 750 hits, reports Lonnae O'Neal Parker. Add the word "black," and you get only seven. But as a black working mother herself, Parker knows there are many women like her out there and have been for a long time -- surely long enough to have a few more books on the shelf. With I'm Every Woman, Parker claims a spot on the shelves for her perspective on what it is to be a married, professional, black, middle-class mother. And her book -- part memo