Janelle S. Taylor, Linda L. Layne, and Danielle F. Wozniak, eds. Consuming Motherhood. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004. ix + 323 pp. ISBN 0-8135-3429-1, $62.00 (cloth); 0-8135-3430-5, $22.95 (paper).

Motherhood imposes a birth of sorts for the women involved,according to the various authors in this exceptionally wellintegrated and provocative volume of essays. Women are rebornto a new status of ‘mother’ and simultaneously asa new kind of consumer of goods—goods in the form of services,consumer products, and even of babies. This volume weds thestudy of consumerism to the anthropological study of motherhoodand represents a genuine contribution to an array of fields,including     

Vicki Howard. Brides, Inc.: American Weddings and the Business Tradition

Ah, how straight and gay men yearn for the day that they, too,will finally receive their engagement ring. Poring over groom'smagazines, furtively trying on those tuxes in the groom's salonsdespite not even having a partner, much less an engagement—butwhen a man has that gold ring put on his finger, he knows heparticipates in the age-old traditional celebration of .... Oh, excuse me—wrong scenario. Wedding marketers, especiallyjewelers, failed in the 1930s to create the new