O

Good bye,
Mrs.
Clean

Working Mothers 101, by
Katherine Wyse Goldman
(published by Harper Peren-
nial)
Katherine Wyse Goldman will
speak at the Book Fair at 3 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 8.

Glance
through any
magazine from
the 1950s
and, gosh darn
it, don't those
women just
look so happy
to have a
sparkling, clean
floor? All right, so the curtains are a
gaudy orange-and-brown pattern,
all the dishes are turquoise and din-
ner is yet another version of the all-
popular gelatin mold. But you could
count on it: a clean mom was a
happy mom!
Life today is, well, a little different.
Where advice books of 40 years
ago told women new ways to
• scrub, author Katherine Wyse Gold-
man suggests that working moms
either hire a cleaning service — or
just let that floor go.
"I used to come home from work
and clean the house," recounts one
woman in Ms. Goldman's Working
Mothers 101. "It would make me
mean. For my sanity, I had to lower
my standards. Now I don't even
see the kitchen floor. I know it's
dirty, but I can't notice it. My sheets
are changed when I have a
minute."
Ms. Goldman's book is more than

Tell Me A Story

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mere comfort for working mothers
everywhere, though. It offers practi-
cal ideas on everything from plan-
ning a child's birthday party to find-
ing the best day care.
A central theme, nicely explained
in the first chapter and echoed
throughout the book, can be
summed up in two vital words: be
organized.
Ms. Goldman recommends get-
ting a planner and making lists, but
she also provides a thoughtful list of
questions everyone should consider
before getting organized. These
include:
* How ambitious am I?
* How many of those business
dinners do I really have to go to?
* How active do I want to be in
my children's school?
* How many evenings a week
am I willing to work late?
Other chapters cover how to dele-
gate, finding time for yourself and
signing your child up for those thou-
sands of lessons and activities he
insists he can't live without.
Has all this worked for the author
herself? Apparently. She has two
children, has written two books in
addition to Motherhood 101,
works in advertising and lives in the
city that would drive most people
permanently insane, New York. ❑

Seeds From
Our Past:
Planting for
the Future,
edited by
Corinne
Stavish (Pub-
lished by
B'nai B'rith
Center for Jewish Identity)
Southfield resident Corinne Stavish
will speak at the Book Fair at 1
p.m., Sunday Nov. 15

pillowcase and go and gather up
all the feathers and bring back the
new pillowcase, filled with them."
Of course, the woman quickly real-
izes her task is impossible: "Feath-
ers are everywhere making the vil-
lage ugly, but I could not retrieve
most of them," she cries. "Almost all
of them flew away."
And so it is with the woman's
harsh words, the rabbi explains,
"You have no idea where those
words travel or what damage they
do. You also can never find them to
The storyteller's kingdom is one
take them back."
where anything can happen: Fish
The collection includes tales that
and gold can speak; mother birds
teach about honoring the elderly,
can learn valuable lessons from
self respect, humility and the impor-
their little ones; princes can believe
tance of family, among others. In
they are roosters; harsh women can
her introduction, Ms. Stavish offers
change because of
a twist on the
feather pillows,
famous Einstein
and rings can be
quote, "Imagina-
magic.
tion is more impor-
In Seeds From
tant than knowl-
Our Past: Planting
edge." Instead,
for the Future,
she says, imagina-
Corinne Stavish
tion is "more pow-
offers a collection
erful" than knowl-
7 ,t
of more than 30
edge.
"In our stories
Jewish stories and
I.
folktales which
we find essential
THE
begin with a seed,
human relation-
ships and truths.
the story, and end
JEWISH STORIES
with a budding
They are our col-
AND FOLKTALES
flower: the moral.
lective human con-
.11 Vir0=2.
EDITED
BY
ccoNNE
CrAM
science and con-
"Feathers" is a
I DINTTY
ci.NTIR TOR
sciousness, the
traditional tale of a
teaching instru-
woman who has
ments used by rabbis and sages for
nothing but unkind comments for
millennia," she writes. "Jewish sto-
everything and everyone. The rabbi
ries reflect our social, religious and
finally cautions her to think carefully
human values. They are our cultural
before she speaks. Words, he tells
history."
her, can wound. The woman does-
In addition to the stories, many of
n't believe it. So the rabbi asks her
which are based on traditional
to go home and release all the
sources, Ms. Stavish includes in her
feathers from the largest pillow she
book a discussion guide and a bib-
can find. She does so, then returns
liography of useful storytelling and
to the rabbi.
Jewish story resources. ❑
"Now," he tells her, "get a new

1
i , i SEEDS FROM
1 \ OUR PAST:
It PIA
"---. 14 i FOR

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