Editor Sims (Can Somebody Shout Amen!) assembles the work of 20 writers in this broad anthology of long-form journalism by women. It provides a who’s who of magazine journalism over the past half century with plenty of famous names but few surprises. The anthology includes Joan Didion’s seminal essay “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream,” about a woman in California convicted of killing her husband, originally published in 1966, as well as Gerri Hirshey’s 1998 profile of blues legend B.B. King for Rolling Stone and Susan Orlean’s 2004 profile of Spanish bullfighter Cristina Sánchez for Outside magazine. The book skews heavily toward works published in the New Yorker, including Melissa Fay Greene’s “Wonder Dog,” Suzannah Lessard’s “The Split,” and a handful of Lillian Ross’s “Talk of the Town” pieces from over the years. In the introduction Sims praises all 20 writers for their “meticulous research and reporting, careful attention to detail, and talent for choosing the perfect noun or verb,” but she offers little insight into the individual articles or how they relate to the work of women journalists at large. The articles are entertaining but the selection is narrow and there’s no clear message about women or their role in journalism or as journalists. (BookLife)