A luminous and insightful novel that considers the moral complexities of scientific discovery and the sustaining nature of love. A young researcher at MIT, Jane Weiss is obsessed with finding the genetic marker for Valentine’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. Her pursuit is deeply personal—Valentine’s killed her mother, and she and her freewheeling sister, Laurel, could be genetic carriers; each has a fifty percent chance of developing the disease. Having seen firsthand the devastating effect Valentine’s had on her parents’ marriage, Jane is terrified she might become a burden on whomever she falls in love with and so steers clear of romantic entanglement. Then, the summer before her father’s second wedding, Jane falls hard for her future stepbrother, Willie. But Willie’s father also died from Valentine’s, raising the odds that their love will end in tragedy.
When Willie bolts at a crucial moment in their relationship, Jane becomes obsessed with finding the genetic marker to the disease that threatens both their families. But if she succeeds in making history, will she and her sister have the courage to face the truth this newfound knowledge could hold for their lives? A Perfect Life is a novel of scientific and self discovery, about learning how to embrace life and love, no matter what may come. Eileen Pollack conjures a thought-provoking, emotionally resonant story of one woman’s brilliance and bravery as she confronts her deepest fears and desires—and comes to accept the inevitable and the unexpected.

A Perfect Life: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Pollack, Eileen

United States

Ecco

A luminous and insightful novel that considers the moral complexities of scientific discovery and the sustaining nature of love. 
A young researcher at MIT, Jane Weiss is obsessed with finding the genetic marker for Valentine’s Disease, a neurodegenerative disorder. Her pursuit is deeply personal—Valentine’s killed her mother, and she and her freewheeling sister, Laurel, could be genetic carriers; each has a fifty percent chance of developing the disease. Having seen firsthand the devastating effect Valentine’s had on her parents’ marriage, Jane is terrified she might become a burden on whomever she falls in love with and so steers clear of romantic entanglement. Then, the summer before her father’s second wedding, Jane falls hard for her future stepbrother, Willie. But Willie’s father also died from Valentine’s, raising the odds that their love will end in tragedy.
When Willie bolts at a crucial moment in their relationship, Jane becomes obsessed with finding the genetic marker to the disease that threatens both their families. But if she succeeds in making history, will she and her sister have the courage to face the truth this newfound knowledge could hold for their lives? A Perfect Life is a novel of scientific and self discovery, about learning how to embrace life and love, no matter what may come. Eileen Pollack conjures a thought-provoking, emotionally resonant story of one woman’s brilliance and bravery as she confronts her deepest fears and desires—and comes to accept the inevitable and the unexpected.

PERFECT LIFE

EccoPress

Stories deal with a woman whose town has been invaded by rock fans, a young rabbi who has to cope with her ultra-Orthodox predecessor who refuses to move out of the house, and others who must come to terms with the beliefs of their youth

The Rabbi in the Attic and Other Stories

Delphinium Pr

A bracingly honest exploration of why there are still so few women in the hard sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer science In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women, even today, achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. A successful fiction writer, Pollack had grown up in the 1960s and ’70s dreaming of a career as a theoretical astrophysicist. Denied the chance to take advanced courses in science and math, she nonetheless made her way to Yale. There, despite finding herself far behind the men in her classes, she went on to graduate summa cum laude, with honors, as one of the university’s first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, starved for encouragement, she abandoned her ambition to become a physicist. Years later, spurred by the suggestion that innate differences in scientific and mathematical aptitude might account for the dearth of tenured female faculty at Summer’s institution, Pollack thought back on her own experiences and wondered what, if anything, had changed in the intervening decades. Based on six years interviewing her former teachers and classmates, as well as dozens of other women who had dropped out before completing their degrees in science or found their careers less rewarding than they had hoped, The Only Woman in the Room is a bracingly honest, no-holds-barred examination of the social, interpersonal, and institutional barriers confronting women—and minorities—in the STEM fields. This frankly personal and informed book reflects on women’s experiences in a way that simple data can’t, documenting not only the more blatant bias of another era but all the subtle disincentives women in the sciences still face. The Only Woman in the Room shows us the struggles women in the sciences have been hesitant to admit, and provides hope for changing attitudes and behaviors in ways that could bring far more women into fields in which even today they remain seriously underrepresented. Named one of the notable nonfiction books of 2015 by The Washington Post

The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Beacon Press

This book restores a little-known advocate of Indian rights to her place in history. In June 1889, a widowed Brooklyn artist named Catherine Weldon traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota Territory to help Sitting Bull hold onto land that the government was trying to wrest from his people. Since the Sioux chieftain could neither read nor write English, he welcomed the white woman’s offer to act as his secretary and lobbyist. Her efforts were counterproductive; she was ordered to leave the reservation, and the Standing Rock Sioux were bullied into signing away their land. But she returned with her teen-age son, settling at Sitting Bull’s camp on the Grand River. In recognition of her unusual qualities, Sitting Bull’s people called her Toka heya mani win, Woman Walking Ahead.
Predictably, the press vilified Weldon, calling her “Sitting Bull’s white squaw” and accusing her of inciting Sitting Bull to join the Ghost Dance religion then sweeping the West. In fact, Weldon opposed the movement, arguing that the army would use the Ghost dance as an excuse to jail or kill Sitting Bull. Unfortunately she was right. 
Up to now, history has distorted and largely overlooked Weldon’s story. In retracing Weldon’s steps, Eileen Pollack recovers her life and compares her world to our own. Weldon’s moving struggle is a classic example of the misunderstandings that can occur when a white woman attempts to build friendships across cultural lines and assist the members of an oppressed minority fighting for their rights.
“A wonderful poignance, a bittersweetness, the haunting loneliness of the plains hangs over this ‘search’ . . . a fascinating project.”--Peter Nabokov
“A fascinating story, well told and engaging. It will be eagerly embraced in the area of women’s studies and will find interested readers in history and anthropology, as well as a large general audience.”-Raymond DeMallie

Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull

University of New Mexico Press

CREATIVE NONFICTION thoroughly explains the processes that creative writers of nonfiction use in approaching their topics so students can use the techniques in many different writing situations--from first-year composition or service-learning courses to creative writing workshops, feature writing, and memoir writing. Part I covers the essentials of style, content, and form. In Part II, each chapter introduces a new form of creative nonfiction and offers samples drawn from a diverse array of essays. Exercises and prompts help students use this form in their own writing. Part II guides students in revising their drafts, both individually and collaboratively. Throughout the text, the author speaks to the reader as a fellow practitioner and coach, offering insight into what it is like to write professionally in a variety of situations.

Creative Nonfiction: A Guide to Form, Content, and Style, with Readings

Literary

Cengage Learning'

This book restores a little-known advocate of Indian rights to her place in history. In June 1889, a widowed Brooklyn artist named Catherine Weldon traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota Territory to help Sitting Bull hold onto land that the government was trying to wrest from his people. Her efforts were counterproductive; she was ordered to leave the reservation, and the Standing Rock Sioux were bullied into signing away their land. But she returned with her teenage son, settling at Sitting Bull's camp on the Grand River. In recognition of her unusual qualities, Sitting Bull's people called her Toka heya mani win, Woman Walking Ahead.Predictably, the press vilified Weldon, calling her "Sitting Bull's white squaw" and accusing her of inciting Sitting Bull to join the Ghost Dance religion then sweeping the West. In fact, Weldon opposed the movement, arguing that the army would use the Ghost dance as an excuse to jail or kill Sitting Bull. Unfortunately, she was right.Up to now, history has distorted and largely overlooked Weldon's story. In retracing Weldon's steps, Eileen Pollack recovers her life and compares her world to our own.

Arts & Literature

Tantor Media, Inc.

Trying to keep her family's Catskill resort solvent, Lucy Appelbaum copes with interference from her family, incensed at her love for a black handyman, from a nearby Hasid, from elderly Communists leading a hotel strike, and from her opinionated staff. UP.

Paradise, New York: A Novel

Temple University Press

Paradise, New York

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pollack, Eileen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pollack, Eileen

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pollack, Eileen. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Perfect Life: A Novel

PERFECT LIFE

The Rabbi in the Attic and Other Stories

The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club

The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club

Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull

Creative Nonfiction: A Guide to Form, Content, and Style, with Readings

Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull

Paradise, New York: A Novel

Paradise, New York