CAMP 2015: Celebrate JAWS authors at Books & Browse

By Michele Weldon, CAMP Books & Browse Coordinator

What has 12 legs, six books, thousands of pages and an hour devoted to it on the JAWS Conference and Mentoring Project (CAMP) schedule Friday night? Books & Browse is the heralded tradition at CAMP when you can chat with JAWS authors and have them sign their books. This year, B&B will follow the Friday night dinner and come before the throwback to 1985 party.

Veteran JAWS members Jane Isay, Jeannie Morris, Caryl Rivers and myself will be talking truth in recently published books about secrets, relationships, politics, gender, work, media, parenting and more. We will also have a spot for veteran members Mary C. Curtis and Lisen Stromberg to discuss their contributions to an upcoming book on Hillary Clinton.

Below is the rundown of the latest books.

Jane Isay

• “Secrets and Lies: Surviving the Truths That Change Our Lives”

When we learn a big secret, it feels like Life Interrupted. Learning the truth about parents, spouses and life history is shocking and painful to the Finder, but clarifies misty parts of our past. Still, you can make the truth your friend, no matter how impossible that seems at first.

• “Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents”

Parents of grown children have difficulty navigating a new way of being with their kids, and they are afraid of losing them. But here’s good news: Grown children love their parents, and are grateful to them, even if they don’t return their phone calls.

• “Mom Still Likes You Best: Overcoming The Past and Reconnecting With Your Siblings”

We come to recognize that brothers and sisters matter more as we get older, and it’s possible to shed old antagonisms and grow together — they are the only people who remember the name of the first dog and the words to the songs we sang in the back of the car. We need them more than we think.

Jeannie Morris

• “Behind the Smile: A Story of Carol Moseley Braun’s Historic Senate Campaign”

The newest book from Emmy-award winning journalist Jeannie Morris is a riveting campaign-trail memoir. Jeannie recounts the victorious campaign of Carol Moseley Braun — the first and only African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate — and her ultimate political downfall.

Caryl Rivers

• “The New Soft War on Women”

In the workplace today, women are stalling out. A whole network of landmines is exploding women’s progress as they try to move ahead. Discrimination is not dead —  it’s just gone underground. The book Caryl co-authored with Rosalind Barnett explains why women are flailing in the boardroom, falling behind in lifetime salaries, don’t get second chances the way men do, are judged unlikable if they are seen as too competent, and are penalized when they ask for more money — while men are rewarded.

Michele Weldon

• “Escape Points: A Memoir”

In her fifth book, award-winning journalist Michele Weldon provides a potent antidote to the harried single mom stereotype in this beguiling memoir of raising three sons alone in the face of cancer, an ambitious career and the shadow of her ex.

These authors are available to chat, and their books are available for pre-order:

Mary C. Curtis  and Lisen Stromberg

• “Love Her, Love Her Not: The Hillary Paradox”

As we know from the 2008 presidential campaign and its outcome, Hillary Clinton evokes extreme and varied emotions among voters in a way no other candidate in recent memory has. But why? In this timely collection, editor Joanne Bamberger gathers a unique and diverse group of writers to provide the narrative framework through which to view the history that’s led us to this moment in time.

JAWS member Stephanie Steinberg has a new book out, but is unable to attend CAMP.

• “Editorial Freedom: 125 Years at the Michigan Daily”

In celebration of the Daily’s 125th anniversary, the book is a collection of first-person stories written by 40 alumni who went on to pursue journalism at the top media outlets in the country, including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Detroit Free Press, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and more. Read more about it on the U of M Press website.