Not June Cleaver


Book Description

In the popular stereotype of post-World War II America, women abandoned their wartime jobs and contentedly retreated to the home. This work unveils the diversity of postwar women, showing how far women departed from this one-dimensional image.







Long Days, Short Years


Book Description

How parenting became a verb, from Dr. Spock and June Cleaver to baby whispering and free-range kids. When did “parenting” become a verb? Why is it so hard to parent, and so rife with the possibility of failure? Sitcom families of the past—the Cleavers, the Bradys, the Conners—didn’t seem to lose any sleep about their parenting methods. Today, parents are likely to be up late, doomscrolling on parenting websites. In Long Days, Short Years, Andrew Bomback—physician, writer, and father of three young children—looks at why it can be so much fun to be a parent but, at the same time, so frustrating and difficult to parent. It’s not a “how to” book (although Bomback has read plenty of these) but a “how come” book, investigating the emergence of an immersive, all-in approach to raising children that has made parenting a competitive (and often not very enjoyable) sport. Drawing on parenting books, mommy blogs, and historical accounts of parental duties as well as novels, films, podcasts, television shows, and his own experiences as a parent, Bomback charts the cultural history of parenting as a skill to be mastered, from the laid-back Dr. Spock’s 1950s childcare bible—in some years outsold only by the actual Bible—to the more rigid training schedules of Babywise. Along the way, he considers the high costs of commercialized parenting (from the babymoon on), the pressure on mothers to have it all (and do it all), scripted parenting as laid out in How to Talk So Kids Will Listen, parenting during a pandemic, and much more.







I Am Not A Serial Killer


Book Description

John Wayne Cheever keeps his obsession with serial killers in check by a set of rigid rules that he lives by, hoping to the prevent himself from committing murder, but when a body turns up at a laundromat, must confront a danger outside himself.




June Cleaver: Sexual Deviant


Book Description

An absurdest comedy spoof about the American Television Matriarch, her Nuclear Family, and the nature of motherhood and women's' rights from the 1950s to the present.




A Woman of Intelligence


Book Description

"Captivating." ––The Washington Post Named a Best Book of Summer by Good Morning America • BuzzFeed • PopSugar • BookRiot • LifeSavvy • CT Post From "a master of historical fiction" (NPR), Karin Tanabe's A Woman of Intelligence is an exhilarating tale of post-war New York City, and one remarkable woman’s journey from the United Nations, to the cloistered drawing rooms of Manhattan society, to the secretive ranks of the FBI. A Fifth Avenue address, parties at the Plaza, two healthy sons, and the ideal husband: what looks like a perfect life for Katharina Edgeworth is anything but. It’s 1954, and the post-war American dream has become a nightmare. A born and bred New Yorker, Katharina is the daughter of immigrants, Ivy-League-educated, and speaks four languages. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace—and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time. Now the wife of a beloved pediatric surgeon and heir to a shipping fortune, Katharina is trapped in a gilded cage, desperate to escape the constraints of domesticity. So when she is approached by the FBI and asked to join their ranks as an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle. Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job. Navigating the demands of the FBI and the secrets of the KGB, she becomes a courier, carrying stolen government documents from D.C. to Manhattan. But as those closest to her lose their covers, and their lives, Katharina’s secret soon threatens to ruin her. With the fast-paced twists of a classic spy thriller, and a nuanced depiction of female experience, A Woman of Intelligence shimmers with intrigue and desire.




Immediate Fiction


Book Description

Covering the entire process from story building to manuscript preparation and marketing, Jerry Cleaver shows the novice and experienced writer how to start writing and how to get immediate results. Readers will find everything they need to know about managing time, finding an idea, getting the first word down on the page, staying unblocked, shaping ideas into compelling stories, and submitting their work to agents and publishers. Immediate Fiction goes beyond the old "Write what you know" to "Write what you can imagine." Filled with insightful tips on how to manage doubts, fears, blocks, and panic, Immediate Fiction will help writers develop their skills in as little minutes a day, if necessary. Believing that all writing is rewriting, Cleaver says, "You can't control what you put on the page. You can only control what you leave on the page." With this book Cleaver shows how to get that control and produce results.




The Devil's Only Friend


Book Description

It is the fall of 1943, and the city of Detroit is doing its best to recover from the explosive race riots that marked the recent summer. The police are working overtime to protect the auto plants and ensure that their massive machinery continues to churn out the steel that comprises America's lifeblood overseas. Pete Caudill, late of the Detroit detective squad, is passing the time sitting on the fire escape of a squalid rented room, consumed by the ghosts of his past, including the black teenager he shot and killed years ago and a similar boy whose life he saved in the recent riots. When a young woman distantly connected to Caudill is murdered, her blood threatens to stain the reputation of the Lloyd family, scions of Detroit's all-powerful auto industry. Caudill himself has a certain reputation with the Lloyds, plus a direct link to the complicated man who runs the company and, some say, the city of Detroit itself. As a desperate investigation unfolds and the war effort rages on, the tentacles of a menacing conspiracy reach deep into the soul of the powerful Lloyd family and threaten to squelch the very heart of American patriotism beating within. It's up to Pete Caudill, using whatever meager resources he can assemble, to put down the sinister forces working against the Lloyds, perhaps in the process preserve America's chances in the war—and discover an unexpected second chance at his own life.




Know My Name


Book Description

The place of gay men and women in the community of faith has become one of the most divisive debates in the church today. Writer and activist Richard Cleaver takes a fresh approach to this issue by examining the struggles of gay men and lesbians in the church through the lens of liberation theology. He offers a "gay" reading of scripture, but one that is also spiritually challenging to all readers. Cleaver interweaves biblical reflections with historical, social, political, and personal commentary. He discusses personal identity issues and "coming out," the development of class consciousness as members of an oppressed group, and solidarity with other oppressed groups. This provocative book brings a new voice to the debate about the place of gays and lesbians in our churches.