The Fixed Stars

Powell's Picks of the Month

Hot new releases and under-the-radar gems for adults and kids.

Molly Wizenberg’s memoir of discovering a shifting sexual identity as an adult is a remarkably candid reckoning with internal uncertainties. The Fixed Stars is infused with a very welcoming, well-informed confusion that is deeply recognizable and revealing. Recommended By Keith M., Powells.com

Memoirist and food writer Molly Wizenberg has been married to the same man for nearly a decade, and has always thought of herself as a straight person, when a chance encounter at jury duty (of all places) develops into a crush. Deeper feelings soon emerge — feelings she is unwilling to dismiss and unable to ignore. This insightful memoir follows Molly as she realizes that gender, sexuality, and love are much more fluid and expansive than she’d ever imagined. Recommended By Adam P., Powells.com

One doesn't need to be familiar with Wizenberg's earlier memoirs to be both crushed and elated by her newest, in which she recounts how she fell in love with a woman after 10 years of marriage. Her thoughtful reflections on the fluidity of gender, love, sexuality, motherhood, and self shows how successfully she's transitioned to the role of author and reminds me how important bloggers are: they chronicle ordinary stories in extraordinary ways and show us that our own lives, too, are beautiful and worth celebrating. Recommended By Eva F., Powells.com

From a bestselling memoirist, a thoughtful and provocative story of changing identity, complex sexuality, and enduring family relationships

At age 36, while serving on a jury, author Molly Wizenberg found herself drawn to a female attorney she hardly knew. Married to a man for nearly a decade and mother to a toddler, Wizenberg tried to return to her life as she knew it, but something inside her had changed irrevocably. Instead, she would discover that the trajectory of our lives is rarely as smooth or as logical as we'd like to believe.
 
Like many of us, Wizenberg had long understood sexual orientation as a stable part of ourselves: we're "born this way." Suddenly she realized that her story was more complicated. Who was she, she wondered, if something at her very core could change so radically? The Fixed Stars is a taut, electrifying memoir exploring timely and timeless questions about desire, identity, and the limits and possibilities of family. In honest and searing prose, Wizenberg forges a new path: through the murk of separation and divorce, coming out to family and friends, learning to co-parent a young child, and realizing a new vision of love. The result is a frank and moving story about letting go of rigid definitions and ideals that no longer fit, and learning instead who we really are.

"An essential addition that will resonate with fans of Wizenberg's earlier memoirs and anyone probing the complicated ways that sexuality and traditional family life overlap or diverge." Library Journal

"This is a spirited, terrifyingly courageous, and searingly honest memoir of discovering sexual identity and strength." Booklist

"Wizenberg's book not only offers a glimpse into the shifting nature of selfhood; it also celebrates one woman's hard-won acceptance of her own sexual difference. A courageous and thought-provoking memoir." Kirkus Reviews

"Wizenberg writes with a remarkable openness about being true to herself and to others....This honest and moving memoir will enlighten and educate those seeking to understand their true selves." Publishers Weekly

Molly Wizenberg is the author of two bestselling books, A Homemade Life and Delancey, and the James Beard Award-winning blog Orangette. She has written for the Washington Post, the Guardian, Saveur, and Bon Appétit, and she also cohosts the podcast Spilled Milk. With chef Brandon Pettit, Wizenberg cofounded the award-winning Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex.