Patricia Pearson Books In Order

Playing House

Even in a tiny apartment, there were enough rooms for Frannie to get into trouble…

First, there was the bedroom…
where it all began in such a casually romantic way.

Next, the bathroom…
where things took a suspicious turn.

Finally, the living room…
where she picked up the phone and prepared to break the news to the boyfriend she barely knew…

When Frannie Mackenzie got sick all over the sweater section of a major urban retailer, she couldn’t quite believe that this was a reaction to gray being this year’s black. So she went back to her postage stamp sized apartment and took inventory. Jeans tighter? Yes. Bo*obs bigger? Yes. And the absolute proof positive…
the stick had turned blue.

Frannie decides to give up cocktails, late nights, and anything else fun that the big city has to offer. But one thing or rather person she’s not sure she’s going to get to keep is the surprised father in the situation an experimental jazz musician with the improbable name of Calvin, who’d taken off to Europe before Frannie figured out parenthood had awkwardly united them. Falling in love was the last thing that Frannie expected, and the happiest surprise of all.

When She Was Bad..

Our culture believes that women are not naturally aggressive. And yet, every day evidence proves otherwise: women kill their children, their husbands, their lovers, and their lovers’ mistresses. Women join their lovers in torture and killings, women are psychopaths, women are terrorists and violent criminals. In this highly provocative book, Patricia Pearson demonstrates over and over again that the idea ideal? of female innocence is pure myth. She argues that the two main culprits of the tendency to overlook extreme behaviour in women are feminists who have claimed victimhood for women and male society which finds it impossible to see women as powerful. Weaving the stories of violent women from Myra Hindley and Rose West, from a mother who smothered eight of her children, from nurses who murdered their infant charges, to husband beaters with the findings of criminologists, anthropologists and psychiatrists, Patricia Pearson makes a compelling case for redefining the debate about female violence and power.

Area Woman Blows Gasket

Area Women Unite! In this sharp and sophisticated collection of essays, columnist Patricia Pearson takes us on a hilarious tour of our twenty first century obsessions and distractions. Patricia Pearson is a working woman, wife, and mother on the verge. Whether it’s being humiliated by the ‘Beauty Bullies’ at the Lancome counter or failing to live up to the ‘Serene Mother’ ideal, Pearson has had enough of negotiating our present day myths and fads. In fact, she s formed a few opinions on the matter and can t wait to share them with you. In Area Woman Blows Gasket, Pearson plumbs every facet of modern life, marriage, and motherhood, from choosing the right vegan bran hemp diet for your family to confronting your husband s irrational fear of mayonnaise to finding a way to return to work and not turn your child into a contract killer. Adult education clas*ses, therapy, $100 haircuts, the latest news on what causes cancer, Christmas shopping all come into sharp focus with the help of Pearson s comic eye. Her wry brand of wisdom is a refreshing and long awaited release from our confusing and often contradictory world.

A Brief History of Anxiety

A bold new view of anxiety from an unerringly smart and funny writer who has suffered from it her whole life.

The millions of Americans who silently cope with anxiety at last have a witty, articulate champion in Patricia Pearson, who shows that the anxious are hardly nervous nellies with weak characters who just need medicine and a pat on the head. Instead, Pearson questions what it is about twenty first century American culture that is making people anxious, and offers some surprising answers as well as some inspiring solutions based on her own fierce battle to drive the beast away.

Drawing on personal episodes of incapacitating dread as a vivid, often hilarious guide to her quest to understand this most ancient of human emotions, Pearson delves into the history and geography of anxiety. Why are North Americans so much more likely to suffer than Latin Americans? Why did Darwin treat hypochondria with sprays from a hose? Why have we forgotten the insights of some of our greatest philosophers, theologians, and psychologists in favor of prescribing addictive drugs? In this blend of fascinating reportage and poignant memoir, Pearson ends with her struggle to withdraw from antidepressants and to find more self aware and philosophically grounded ways to strengthen the soul.