Miss Understanding

Zoe Rose never quite fit in.

As the only kid in kindergarten with an enormous red afro, Zoe was taunted by the other little girls for refusing to share her "Annie" wig, even when she swore it was her own hair (it was).

In second grade, after seeing her best friend ridiculed for wearing a dirty, pink, polka-dot party dress to school every day, she became obsessed with understanding what makes normal girls tick and why they're so cruel to the girls who never seem to "get it."

And so Zoe begins a lifelong study of girl behavior, and by thirty, finds herself editor of Issues magazine. Determined to raid the locker room of the female psyche and rip open the frilly façade of femininity once and for all, she sets out to reform an entire nation of women, beginning with the readers of the most notorious magazine on Madison Avenue.

It's the feminist vs. the fashionistas.

Can Zoe stop girls from behaving badly toward other girls, and turn them into a strong, united force that can succeed in our male-dominated world? Or will her spectacularly warped sense of humor, pathetic wardrobe, and plethora of psychosomatic illnesses get her eaten alive?

Zoe's willing to risk losing it all, including her mind, but she'll walk away with something she never dreamed she wanted: the little girl hiding inside of her.

"Lessing brings back fictional fashion-forward magazine Issues and its newly minted editorial honcho, sartorially challenged feminist Zoe, sister of She's Got Issues protagonist Chloe Rose. Publisher Dan Princely (aka Chloe's devoted new husband) has gone gaga for Zoe's agenda and gives her a mandate to revamp the magazine's usual fare of shoes, makeup and shopping into a manifesto of female empowerment, decorum and personal growth. Zoe renames the magazine Miss Understanding and gleefully introduces it to the staff as a didactic, humorless instruction manual. The staff, predictably, hate Zoe and are willing to go to any length to sabotage her: they include stylish nasties Sloane and Blaire; perennially drunken promotions department head Ruth; and even Dan's regal, evil mother, Anita. As the antics escalate, Zoe's droning, pompous rants on the evils of style and the necessity of fixing female friendship become longer, angrier and more Dworkin-esque, without being funny. By the time the book devolves into a schematic pitched battle between the united, righteous sisters and the psycho, infantile staff, it's hard to care about who's switching covers on the magazine right before it goes to press or how Zoe's running trials with pregnancy will play out." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Marie Antoinette's perfume allegedly gave her away as she tried to escape her fate. A French scientist who works for a fragrance firm shares this anecdote in an accessible introduction to scientific study of the olfactory sense and how he developed the theory he applies in designing new fragrances. After discussing how perfumes are made and arguing that they do not trigger memories and sexuality, Turin traces the history of theoretical debates in this alluring field. The book contains a few footnoted references. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sample Articles From Issues Magazine:

Why Ugly Girls Make You Feel Dumb

Why Some Girls Eat Their Makeup (See: Trendy Eating Disorders)

Why Girls Get Really Mad When Overweight Girls Want To Borrow their Clothes

Why You're Strangely Attracted to the Bald, Fat Guy Who Just Got Engaged To Your Best Friend

Meet the new Deputy Editor of Issues Magazine, Zoe Rose, a four foot eleven, ninety four pound spitfire on prescription speed with a ferocious mane of long, dark curly hair and an ironic set of 36DDs (another one of nature's cruel jokes)andndash;andndash;who wants nothing more than to rid humanity, once and for all, of girlsandndash;behavingandndash;badlyandndash;towardandndash;girls and band them together as a strong, united force in our male dominated world!

What better platform to reform a nation of women than a beauty/fashion magazine, with millions of readers? There's only problem; Zoe doesn't understand the first thing about being a girl. . . but she'll find out everything there is to know soon enough. . .just in time to have one of her own.

Stephanie Lessing is a former Copy Chief at Mademoiselle, and has freelanced for Mademoiselle, Vogue, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, and Self. Miss Understanding is her second novel.