APW Book Tour: Washington, D.C.

The Amazing Wonderful Fabulous & Kind Team—Photographers: Hart & Sol West * Event Coordinator: Elaine from One More Page BooksDessert: Made by Rachel! * Extra thanks: to Rachel & Jenny for making this event possible! *


And then, just two days after the blowout Brooklyn APW book event, the DC event happened. I was hoping no one would notice how totally exhausted I was, but long time reader Ellie said to me afterwards on Twitter, “Truthfully, you totally looked like a politician who’s in the last stages of the campaign—exhilarated but exhausted.” Which sort of nailed it.

If you can believe it, the bookstore was just as packed as the Brooklyn event. Or, really, more packed. Because, you see, it turns out that the big bookstores in DC proper only like to take events for political books. And as much as I adore politics, that’s not the book I wrote… so… we ended up getting totally lucky. One More Page Books in Arlington, VA agreed to take us in, and they were profoundly kind and a great store (with wine!). They were the only bookstore of the whole tour, who believed us when we told them what turnout would be like, and they PREPARED for the oncoming storm. And what a lovely lady storm it was. We literally packed the bookstore so full that the people by the door were smashed in New York City subway style, and not another person could fit inside.

And then we chatted. It was my first event with no microphone, so as you can see, I made up for it with huge hand gestures. I’ve said that each talk has a different tone from the last, and that fact continues to amaze me. The D.C. talk had a sort of long emotional essay form style. We talked about personal and emotional stuff: why you fight during wedding planning, where we culturally lost the plot on what being a wife means, and where modern feminism is and where it should be. And then at the end, someone’s mother stood up, and said the one thing that always needs to be said. She talked about how her generation (my mom’s generation) had fought really hard for all of us to be able to make choices. They’d fought for us to have the option to work or stay home, to change our names or not. And that she wanted to see our generation using those choices without guilt. That feminism wasn’t stopping you from staying home with your kids, that in fact they’d fought and sacrificed to give us those choices. So, she hoped we used them well, and created the lives and marriages we needed. Amen to that.

Afterwards, I asked who didn’t consider themselves a feminist, and it was dead silent. I think sometimes we all need that reminder. No make good choices, empowered choices, with no guilt. Now go forth, and do.

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