Recently, I finished reading Money, A Memoir: Women, Emotions and Cash (Henry Holt and Co: 2006) by Liz Perle, an SF author/publishing executive who more clearly illuminates the problems women have when cash, and inevitably, emotions enter the room, than any other author I know. I have recommended it to all my broke women friends for the good advice, as well as my writer's group for the good writing. What self-respecting woman hasn't put a relationship with a man first, her money needs second?

Ms. Perle really puts it out there in this book, and her honesty says it all. If you can't say it out loud, then you will probably keep doing it. By laying out her life for us, she helps us all come to grips with the real issues, the ones underneath our self-defeating patterns around money. By acknowledging, but then going far beyond the usual Cinderella myth we all know (and hate!), she goes deeper than any of the personal finance books for women do. This is not a stereotypical approach to women's issues about money, but a brave and personal account we can all learn from.