Look back on thirty-five years of Vanity Fair stories about women, written by women, in this collection of profiles, essays, and columns edited by Radhika Jones with David Friend. Vanity Fair’s Women on Women (Penguin Press, $30) illuminates icons from Frida Kahlo to Michelle Obama, Emily Post to Tina Fey. The featured writers—including Maureen Dowd, Leslie Bennetts, Jacqueline Woodson, and more—bring larger-than-life celebrities down to earth, humanizing them with memorable quotes, unexpected anecdotes, and palpable descriptions of the interview sessions. At the same time, the writers adeptly contextualize their subjects, illustrating their reverberating cultural impact. The profiled women made history and became history. As Jones reflects in her introduction, “This is a moment for women’s voices.” Women on Women not only captures women’s voices, but in doing so, clarifies what brought us to this moment. Readers of all ages and genders will savor this trip through time, society, and identity, collecting their own favorite stories along the way.
