Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s first novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble, was released in June, presumably so that educated mothers might take it with them to the beach. What Fleishman shares with other summer bestsellers trying to appeal to the same readership—Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls, Elin Hilderbrand’s Summer of ’69, and Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything—is a common subject: American society’s treatment and mistreatment of women. 

Read more from Naomi Schaefer Riley at Commentary Magazine.