Click to view Women in the Material World
by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel
Sierra Club Books

The idea for this book was sparked by the well-known lyric from a Madonna song. But there, the connection with Madonna's material world ends and real life begins. This colorful, and often moving, study gets down to the day- by- day nitty gritty of real women's lives. With a photojournalist team comprised mostly of women, the book's creators turned out the corners of the world from Jordan to Bhutan, Mali to Russia to get down to brass tacks with women about every subject from how long it takes to get to the local gristmill and the price of yams to the best time to circumcise or not circumcise a daughter, love and lovelessness in marriage, education, laundry and God.

This book belongs in classrooms and on coffee tables.