Are single women happy individualists? Neurotic man-hunters? Crazed cat ladies? Are they confused, or content? Bitter, or better off?

No one seems to know. The popular media gives us shoe shopaholics, ditzy desperados, wannabe brides forever making cow eyes at The Bachelor. But what do single women have to say about their own lives?

With sass, humor, and style, Single State of the Union paints a provocative, playful, and complex portrait of today's single woman, taking on such topics as:

• sex and the single girl
• single motherhood
• buying a house without a spouse
• faux boyfriends
• cohabitation hesitation
• single women in the media

Written by an impressive roster of single (and some formerly single) women, this collection portrays single women as individuals whose lives extend well beyond Match.com and Manolo Blahniks.

So listen up, Carrie. Attention, Bridget. It's time for the rest of us to be heard.

"Most popular media portrayals depict single women in one of two states: single-and-loving-it or single-and-desperate. Single women strike back in this compilation of essays, edited by author and freelance writer Mapes (How to Date in a Post-Dating World), in which they discuss with candor and courage their own experiences outside of the domestic partnership paradigm. Unfortunately, for every poignant, well-written highlight-such as Chelsea Handler's 'Thunder,' Sasha Cagen's 'How I Dodged a Reality Show Bullet' and Kay Trimberger's 'Can a Single Woman Really Be Happy Without a Soulmate?'-there are two or three pieces that grate, either through self-indulgence or sheer volume. In one particularly edit-worthy tale, a sex-columnist debates the merits of her single life versus her married life in a manner not unlike a rambling 'confessional' on braindead reality series The Real World: unstoppable and irrelevant. The myriad states of singularity-secure-in-your-fluxing, single-for-life, widower, etc.-that the book brings to light are interesting but, in these essays, fail to intrigue; overall, the collection reads more like excerpts from a support group meeting than a collection of professional work." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"The empty side of the bed does not fart in its sleep." Laurie Notaro

"It's not the concept of marriage I have a problem with. I'd like to get married, too. A couple times. It's the actual wedding that pisses me off." Chelsea Handler

"I was happy being single, but not happy alone. I needed someone to love and I was ready. But not ready enough for another dog. To his credit, Jim later said. 'I knew my days were numbered when you got the rat.'" Rachel Toor

"In a world where everyone was in a rush to get the picket fence and 2.673 kids, I stood out a like an unmown, dandelion-riddled lawn with a rusted-out muscle car on cinderblocks smack dab in the middle. Because I've never gotten engaged or hitched within three weeks of meeting someone, friends called me immature, commitment-phobic, a late bloomer, a player, a childhood-divorce casualty, or sometimes 'a total freaking guy.'" Michelle Goodman

Diane Mapes is the author of How to Date in a Post-Dating World (Sasquatch, 2006), a funny journalistic take on the traditional dating manual. Her satire and reported essays on dating, singles' rights, television, travel, freak magnets, naked sushi, swingers, and more have appeared in Bust, Christian Science Monitor, Health, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC.com, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Times, and the Washington Post. Happily single, she lives in Seattle.