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Betsy’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at Betsy’s Year in Books. The long, the short—it’s all here.
Betsy Robinson’s Followers (1,160)
2,552 books
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5,001 friends
698 books
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49 friends
941 books
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399 friends
1,966 books
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1,205 friends
2,779 books
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767 friends
170 books
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15 friends
6,939 books
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5,015 friends
4,298 books
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396 friends
More friends…
Betsy Robinson
Goodreads Author
Born
in New York City, The United States
Website
Twitter
Genre
Influences
Member Since
March 2011
URL
https://www.goodreads.com/betsy_robinson
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The Trouble with the Truth
by
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published
2015
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6 editions
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The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg
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published
2014
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5 editions
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Cost of Care
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published
2021
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Plan Z by Leslie Kove
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published
2001
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4 editions
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Conversations with Mom: An Aging Baby Boomer, in Need of an Elder, Writes to Her Dead Mother
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published
2011
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4 editions
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Jakey, Get Out of the Buggy
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Girl Stories & Game Plays: an anthology of stories and plays
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published
2005
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5 editions
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LEARNING TO THRIVE: Begin by Recognizing Your Trauma
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Cats on a Pole
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The Spectators
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WE ALL SMELL
An article by Scott Sayare in the New York Times (June 14, 2024) tells the story of 72-year-old nurse Joy Milne who smelled her husband’s Parkinson’s:
Joy’s had always been an unusually sensitive nose, the inheritance, she believes, of her maternal line. Her grandmother was a “hyperosmic,” and she encouraged Joy, as a child, to make the most of her abilities, quizzing her on different varieties ofRead more of this blog post »
Betsy’s Recent Updates
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Betsy Robinson
has read
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Per his bio: Ira Chaleff is the founder and former president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates and chairman emeritus of the Congressional Management Foundation in Washington, DC, a non-partisan organization helping elected officials on bot ...more |
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Peter wrote: "Congrats Betsy and best of luck with it!"
Thanks, Peter. ...more " |
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Erin wrote: "Loved this so much. Not as good as BEL CANTO, but right up there."
Yes. And thanks for the friend invitation. ...more " |
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Betsy Robinson
added a status update: Pleased to be interviewed on Lori Hettler's The Next Best Book Blog: https://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot....
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Jan wrote: "I am reading American War. How did I miss it when it came out? Wonderful, and Omar El Akkad is a genuinely kind person. I met him at the M
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Will wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Thanks! Will post once you've put on Coots. You are a mensch, Will."
It is now up on Coots" Oh boy, I'll alert the socialsphe ...more " |
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Karen
is 60% done with Small Acts of Courage
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Betsy Robinson
made a comment on
her review
of
Small Acts of Courage: A Legacy of Endurance and the Fight for Democracy
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Karen wrote: "Thanks for your review Betsy. Because of it I was excited to read Velshi’s book and was not disappointed.
This is one will stay with me. ...more " |
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Betsy Robinson
rated a book it was amazing
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Elyse Walters's Facebook review: “Sometimes we hold memories in our bodies that we have no stories for, but feeling the memories is the beginning of feeling better”....more |
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Betsy Robinson
is currently reading
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“Dear Mom,
I'm as tight as a girdle. How do I accept love?
--B
Dear Potato Face,
Just say 'thank you,' then shut up.
--M”
― Conversations with Mom: An Aging Baby Boomer, in Need of an Elder, Writes to Her Dead Mother
I'm as tight as a girdle. How do I accept love?
--B
Dear Potato Face,
Just say 'thank you,' then shut up.
--M”
― Conversations with Mom: An Aging Baby Boomer, in Need of an Elder, Writes to Her Dead Mother
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Edelweiss & Netga...:
What's on your July 2021 TBR List?
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4 | 11 | Jun 25, 2021 11:00PM | |
| Book Nook Cafe: The Book Salon ~~ July 2021 | 223 | 53 | Jul 30, 2021 06:30AM | |
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Cozy Mysteries :
When You're Not Reading a Cozy
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1894 | 652 | Jul 31, 2021 09:13AM | |
| Vampires, Weres a...: July Reading | 124 | 41 | Jul 31, 2021 11:19PM | |
| The Reading For P...: What's On Your Monthly TBR-July 2021? | 37 | 36 | Aug 27, 2021 11:03AM | |
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Aussie Readers:
Share Your Reviews (and Thoughts) Here - 2021
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3359 | 352 | Dec 31, 2021 03:47AM | |
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You'll love this ...:
What are you reading? - 2021
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1104 | 145 | Dec 31, 2021 07:48AM |
“When I see heavy dramas with no comic relief, I don't think they're honest. I don't think people go through life miserable all the time; in fact, if you're very miserable, you giggle a lot at the oddest things."
--Carl Reiner in "The Trib”
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--Carl Reiner in "The Trib”
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“I mean, if you have any idea of any kind of complexity or immensity or destiny, of general order, you're put in a position of nothingness. And I think this is true. I don't think I'm anything; I never have thought that. Whatever it is that activates it is a certain kind of energy that goes on. But the effect is ridiculous; it's absurd."
--Lincoln Kirstein in "The New Yorker”
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--Lincoln Kirstein in "The New Yorker”
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“The longer I am a writer--so long now that my writing finger is periodically numb--the better I understand what writing is; what its function is; what it is supposed to do. I learn that the writer's pen is a microphone held up to the mouths of ancestors and even stones of long ago. That once given permission by the writer--a fool, and so why should one fear?--horses, dogs, rivers, and, yes, chickens can step forward and expound on their lives. The magic of this is not so much in the power of the microphone as in the ability of the nonhuman object or animal to BE and the human animal to PERCEIVE ITS BEING.”
― Living by the Word: Selected Writings, 1973-1987
― Living by the Word: Selected Writings, 1973-1987
“The spiral is a spiritualized circle. In the spiral form, the circle, uncoiled, has ceased to be vicious; it has been set free.”
― Speak, Memory
― Speak, Memory
“You must remember what you are and what you have chosen to become, and the significance of what you are doing. There are wars and defeats and victories of the human race that are not military and that are not recorded in the annals of history. Remember that while you're trying to decide what to do.”
― Stoner
― Stoner
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 246731 members
— last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Comments (showing 41-90)
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Betsy,Thanks for the lovely note. So happy to be friends and looking forward to sharing book together!
Sara
Anne wrote: "Hi Betsy,Well, this is embarrassing. Yeah, I deleted the comment because you don't know me but I have a sense of knowing you based on following your reviews.
Anyway, now that we're GR friends I..."
No problem, Anne. I'm grateful for all Goodreads friends--old, new, and as yet unknown.
Hi Betsy,Well, this is embarrassing. Yeah, I deleted the comment because you don't know me but I have a sense of knowing you based on following your reviews.
Anyway, now that we're GR friends I look forward to chatting books and won't delete anymore comments. :))
Paul wrote: "Hi Betsy,Caught your cameo in Secaucus 7 today. Very cool. I hope you had a good time doing it.
I was surprised that the film held my interest after all these years. Some of the dialogue was awkw..."
Hi Paul, glad you enjoyed it. I had a great time doing it. A bunch of those people were my college time friends.
Hi Betsy,Caught your cameo in Secaucus 7 today. Very cool. I hope you had a good time doing it.
I was surprised that the film held my interest after all these years. Some of the dialogue was awkward but, overall, it came across as more than just a product of its time.
I was also surprised to see an interview with John Sayles on the DVD in which he said that he didn't think that The Big Chill ripped off Secaucus. I always felt that Kasdan took the premise of Secaucus, slicked up the characters, gave them higher financial status, and ran with it.
Paul wrote: "Hi Betsy,Thanks for the friend request. Good to know that we share a love for A Confederacy of Dunces and Percival Everett's books. Our opinions on Stoner differ, but that's ok. A number of my ot..."
Paul wrote: "Hi Betsy,
Thanks for the friend request. Good to know that we share a love for A Confederacy of Dunces and Percival Everett's books. Our opinions on Stoner differ, but that's ok. A number of my ot..."
Thanks for accepting the friend request, Paul. I grew up in Briarcliff Manor, NY, and I have friends around where you are. One of the actors in Secaucus (we share my one scene in that movie--a bar scene; I'm the girl who's not so bright) lives in New Paltz, and he has a new poetry collection out which is pretty good. I'm not a poetry reader, but I liked this little book. It has a sense of humorA Swindler's Grace. I look forward to sharing more Percival Everett with you. --Betsy
Hi Betsy,Thanks for the friend request. Good to know that we share a love for A Confederacy of Dunces and Percival Everett's books. Our opinions on Stoner differ, but that's ok. A number of my other Goodreads friends love it, and that's part of why we're here - to share opinions.
Interesting that you grew up in the Hudson Valley. I've lived in the Hudson Valley for most of my life.
Also, I saw Return of the Secaucus 7 years ago in a theatre in New Paltz and liked it very much. I'll have to watch it again and see what my present day reaction is.
Happy reading (and writing).
Regards, Paul
Big Brother wrote: "Hi Betsy, thanks for the friend invite. Looking forward for the friend-invite. Love the dog in comment 65 below ."We can name the dog "Loki"! Nice to make your acquaintance, Big Brother.
Hi Betsy, thanks for the friend invite. Looking forward for the friend-invite. Love the dog in comment 65 below .
Mike wrote: "Thanks for the friend invite the other day, Betsy. Looking forward to perusing your book shelves and future discussions. Happy reading in the mean time."Same to you, Mike.
Thanks for the friend invite the other day, Betsy. Looking forward to perusing your book shelves and future discussions. Happy reading in the mean time.
James wrote: "Hey Betty,Thanks for the friend request"
Thanks for accepting, James. --Betsy
I've added "Read Book" excerpts to all my books. Just discovered this nifty feature. I'm a little slow.
I took my dead mother, author of
The Trouble with the Truth to BookExpo America this year, and I wrote about it: http://www.fiftyisthenewfifty.com/a-c... 
If anyone is coming to BookExpo America, please visit me. I'll be manning the Editorial Freelancers Assoc. booth on 5/28 from 1 to 5. It's booth # 2732.
I watched an episode of Younger where the protagonist, who works in publishing, takes a book from the slush pile, reads it, likes it, shares a PDF with her book club, who then write about it on Goodreads! Where did the book cover come from? How come nobody asked the author -- whose name does not exist in this plot -- about permission?
Just published an essay on RewireMe.com. My Dogged Life. All about what I learned from my maltese Rosie, who used to be my mother's dog and therefore my sister, but then came to me, so she was my baby. Complicated relationship...
A lovely review for
my mother, Edna Robinson's novel at the Historical Novel Society: http://historicalnovelsociety.org/rev...
From
The Trouble with the Truth: The beachfront was deserted and iridescent under the moon. We could hear our feet slushing through the sand and the soft splash of the water. The sand was still warm from the day’s sun, so I sat down on it and scooped great handfuls, letting it pour languorously through my fingers. Arthur stood, watching me.15% off for first person who uses code MQ2QT5YV126YX at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-t...
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: I slept comfortably on two child’s single beds pushed together, covered by one blue and purple and yellow and orange butterfly quilt. I had lost most of my clothes in Mrs. Mendelson’s fire, so I stored my meager wardrobe in a small maple armoire.
From
The Trouble with the Truth: Sometimes we would have enough room there for all the stuff. But most times, living room chair space was yielded for crates of Dresden china and Danish glassware and stacks of original editions supported by ornate silver candlesticks and clocks and gilt-framed nudes and landscapes and Chinese flowers.
The Trouble with the Truth: It's impossible to hold in one tiny human brain.
I wrote
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg because I needed a good laugh. I got laid off from my editing job when the recession hit, and I needed a story to channel all the emotions I felt: resentment, hurt, anger, etc. Writing this book was completely exhilarating and fun. Here's me when I'm writing.
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: “Yes,” said Don Pedro, looking at me from his doorway.
“How do you do?” said I. And when he didn’t answer, “I have a weight problem.”
“You are very fat,” he said, gesturing for me to come into his house.
The doorway opened into a sunny, plant-filled parlor decorated with earth-toned art that I assumed he had brought from Ecuador. This was not what I had expected.
From
The Trouble with the Truth: When you were dead, you didn’t know you were dead. And then, though we didn’t say so, we both thought of our mother, who neither of us could remember, and all of a sudden we were holding hands.
Q: Zelda McFigg, I understand you are relentlessly promoting your new memoir,
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg. Why on earth should people spend their hard-earned money on fiction?!A: Dearest Idiot, To answer, I will defer to a fellow thespian, auteur, and original thinker, Mr. John Waters:
"Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends’ insane behavior, or better yet, your own. And don’t let me ever hear you say, ‘I can’t read fiction. I only have time for the truth.’ Fiction is the truth, fool! And for goodness sake, read Zelda McFigg."
Now guess which part of that is fiction.
From
The Trouble with the Truth: “Catherine, won’t you please sit down?” my father said. “It may be quite a wait.” She perched on a corner of the sofa, grasping its arm with clawed fingers. Her cheeks looked like cement. “Try to relax, Catherine,” he said more kindly.
"We are the one part of creation that knows what it's like to live in exile and that ability to turn your face toward home is one of the great human endeavors and great human stories." —David Whyte15% discount for first person to enter code RCSFQ1VV9FLTP on http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-l...
25-yr anniversary of Edna's death—from Editor's Note to
The Trouble with the Truth: The visions of my mother perched on a black iron chair with a quilted back, in the upstairs “study” of our custom-designed Ed Barnes house, are burned into my childhood memory. The flat-roofed, square-box, unheatable construction, with huge picture windows, no curtains, and a kitchen the size of a closet bore no resemblance to the traditional homes on our dead-end street.
Life changed, jobs changed, sickness came, and on March 26, 1990, my mother succumbed to leukemia and emphysema. She never got to publish this novel, or the one she was working on when she died. She left all her manuscripts to me…
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: My mother, who was a morning person, never understood my waking fear. As far back as I can remember I’ve had it: At the buzz of the alarm clock, I’d be electrocuted into consciousness, my heart in my mouth.
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: “We have caramelized onion brie en croutes, crab cakes, and lamb kibbeh on warm pita bread,” said Dean Pruitt, pointing to a setting of sterling silver platters on his sideboard. “And please help yourselves to drinks. You must be parched after the drive.” Donny, Templeton, and Peggy crowded around the sideboard filling their plates, while I held back, observing as a mentor should.
From
The Trouble with the Truth: The photograph album of my memory is monotonous: First, me—skinny, stringy-haired at various ages, but always pale with fear—standing in front of some strange woman’s desk, offering a progressively dirtier, more cluttered card of transfer. Then, me—in a party dress, hostess at a birthday party—smiling emphatically into the half circle of my small guests, whose faces I had seen once before in my life. My father’s recipe for blending us quickly into each community was to throw a birthday party for Ben or me, and invite our whole class the day after we joined it. Some years Ben and I celebrated as many as four birthdays apiece. 
All these comments are about the same book and character
:
From
The Trouble with the Truth: As he took a mouthful of the highball Hubert had just delivered, my father’s face went humorless. I invited Louise to come with me to the kitchen to get some ice cream. “Darling, do make it a smallish portion,” her mother called after us. 
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: Walt Edelman was shorter than I, a gnome-like thing with over-sized bleached teeth protruding from a flaccid, ever-flapping behemoth mouth. Imagine that over-rated ingénue Julia Roberts’s mouth on a four-foot boy with an under-sized cantaloupe head, topped by spiky, over-processed brown hair and tortoise-shell eyeglasses. This is what I had to contend with every day in seventh-grade English class. Is it any wonder I lost control? 
From
The Trouble with the Truth: I'd endured one-and-a-half long months of invisibility and discontent when, as the temperature—and I—approached a broiling point, I came to a momentous insight: I knew what was wrong with me. I was almost fifteen, yet still had not experienced a love affair! 
I have always wanted to own a bookstore. I worked in one during high school. I have transcended my bias against the amazonians and have used their tool to finally have my dream: a teeny tiny shoppe.
Betsy's Books
: books by authors who write funny, well, movingly, authentically, or are just plain entertaining
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: Donny was to be at his dean’s residence in Trumbull College at twelve o’clock…“If I’d have known I’d be stuck in a stinky car for five friggin hours, I wouldn’t have come,” announced Peggy as she pushed open the door. “What is this, a friggin castle? Is this where you’re going to live, Donny? Why don’t you get a place off campus so at least we can have some privacy when I visit? God, my skirt is all wrinkled. Where is the bathroom?” 
From
The Trouble with the Truth: When anyone asks me where I’m from, to save time, and because we lived there the longest, I say Winding Hill. We lived in a stark, square, white stone building with twenty rooms—ten huge and ten tiny—set on a plateau halfway up Winding Hill Road, like an enormous headstone.
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: Principal Appleton was also the shop teacher, and his office served for both positions … His desk was an ongoing construction that shop students added to during the first class of each new year. “Watch out for the table saw,” he warned, directing for me to take a seat. 
Some really fun questions in this interview at AndiLit: What role, if any, did books, writing, and reading play in your childhood? What is the hardest writing critique you ever received? How did you respond?
From
The Trouble with the Truth: “The picture had been about a very poor, beautiful maid (Loretta Young—uniforms by Adrian) who falls in love with the very rich, handsome son of her employers (Robert Taylor—referred to three times by other characters as “the scion of a wealthy industrialist”) and the difficulties (there were four of them) they have in readjusting their social inequality. The theme of the vehicle was that Robert Taylor photographed very well smiling, but that Loretta Young looked best smiling through tears.” 
Zelda McFigg, star of
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg, finally attracts the audience she craves! 
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: “I soon learned that job opportunities for ex-temp/ex-thespian/ex-prop mistress persons were few, so, ignoring my antipathy for children, I gratefully accepted the post of part-time hall monitor in the Moose Country Middle School System.” 
From
The Trouble with the Truth: “I whispered that my brother and I, and a sister, had been welded together before our birth. Ben was bigger than I was since our sister and I were so weak from fighting with him to get free, that when we had broken off, we had to be stuffed back into our mother.” 
From
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg: “Posthaste and predawn I vacated my emergency shelter at the Crappy Motel (not its real name), leaving an IOU along with an extremely apologetic note, and I used my remaining funds to purchase a bus ticket to the northern regions where talk was minimal, housing much cheaper, and the main industries were snowmobiles and moose.” 
From
The Trouble with the Truth: “A family of males—dominating or unprotective as they may be—was no blessing to a female intent on magnetizing the attention of other males—males who would value her for who she really was.” 
