Landmark fiction, biography & social analysis--a perfect gift package, or for your own collection.

The End of Men by Hanna Rosin.

Men have been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. And yet, as journalist Hanna Rosin discovered, that long-held truth is no longer true. At this unprecedented moment, women are no longer merely gaining on men; they have pulled decisively ahead by almost every measure. Already "the end of men"--the phrase Rosin coined--has entered the lexicon as indelibly as Betty Friedan's "feminine mystique," Simone de Beauvoir's "second sex," Susan Faludi's "backlash," and Naomi Wolf's "beauty myth" have.

This landmark, once-in-a-generation book will take its place alongside the works of those authors, forever changing the way we talk about men and women and what happens between them. Rosin reveals how the new world order came to be, and how it is dramatically shifting dynamics in every arena and at every level of society, with profound implications for marriage, sex, children, work, and more.

I Hate Everyone...Starting With Me by Joan Rivers.

Here, uncensored and uninhibited, Joan says exactly what's on her mind. And HER mind is a terrible thing to waste. She proudly kicks the crap out of ugly children, dating rituals, funerals, and lousy restaurants. She nails First Ladies, closet cases, and hypocrites to the wall. She shows no mercy towards doctors and feminists, and even goes after Anne Frank and Stephen Hawking. Joan lets everyone, including herself, have it in this one hundred percent honest and unabashedly hilarious love letter to the hater in all of us.

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman.

In 1913, little Malka Treynovsky flees Russia with her family. Bedazzled by tales of gold and movie stardom, she tricks them into buying tickets for America. Yet no sooner do they land on the squalid Lower East Side of Manhattan, than Malka is crippled and abandoned in the street.

Taken in by a tough-loving Italian ices peddler, she manages to survive through cunning and inventiveness. As she learns the secrets of his trade, she begins to shape her own destiny. She falls in love with a gorgeous, illiterate radical named Albert, and they set off across America in an ice cream truck. Slowly, she transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, "The Ice Cream Queen" -- doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated television personality.

The Next Best Thing, by Jennifer Weiner.

At three years old, Ruth Saunders miraculously survives the car crash that takes her parents' lives on the icy Massachusetts Turnpike. Her eccentric grandmother, who comes out of Florida retirement to care for young Ruth, nurtures her through years of surgeries, feeding her home-cooked meals, dispensing irreverent wisdom, and telling Ruth she's beautiful, even though her scars will stay with her forever.

After college, Ruth pursues her dream of writing to Hollywood, heading west with her grandmother in tow, hoping to make it big in the world of TV. After years of failure and a badly broken heart, Ruth gets The Call:her show has been green-lit.

But Ruth's happy ending is only the beginning, as she struggles with how television gets made: terrified (and terrifying) executives and actresses with their eyes on bigger prizes than Ruthie's show. Add in an unrequited crush on the man who has been her mentor. Add to that her grandmother's impending nuptials, and Ruth's big break might just break her.

The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman.

Does confidence come from our genes or can we learn it? Is it best demonstrated by bravado or is there another way to be confident? Is confidence more critical for success than competence? Why do so many women, even the most successful, seem to struggle with feelings of self-doubt?

In The Confidence Code, journalists Shipman and Kay travel to the frontiers of neuroscience on a hunt for the confidence gene and reveal surprising new research on its roots in our brains. Their investigation leads them to do their own genetic testing, with unexpected results. They visit the world¿s leading psychologists who explain how we can all chose to become more confident simply by taking action and courting risk, and how those actions change our physical wiring. They interview women leaders from the worlds of politics, sports, the military and the arts to learn how they have tapped into this elemental resource. They examine how a lack of confidence impacts our leadership, success, and fulfillment.

Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte.

Can working parents in America--or anywhere--ever find true leisure time?

Overwhelmed is a map of the stresses that have ripped our leisure to shreds, and a look at how to put the pieces back together. Schulte speaks to neuroscientists, sociologists, and hundreds of working parents to tease out the factors contributing to our collective sense of being overwhelmed, seeking insights, answers, and inspiration. She investigates progressive offices trying to invent a new kind of workplace; she travels across Europe to get a sense of how other countries accommodate working parents; she finds younger couples who claim to have figured out an ideal division of chores, childcare, and meaningful paid work. Overwhelmed is the story of what she found out.