Seven books about the making and unmaking of women politicians

Heidi Pitlor is the author of the novels The Birthdays, The Daylight Marriage, which was optioned for film, and Impersonation.

[The Page 69 Test: The Daylight Marriage; My Book, the Movie: The Daylight Marriage; Q&A with Heidi Pitlor.]

A former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pitlor has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is also the editorial director of the literary studio, Plympton. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She lives outside Boston.

At Electric Lit, Pitlor tagged seven books about women in government managing their public image, including:

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

What if Hillary never married Bill? This absorbing novel offers a kinder alternate reality in which Hillary is given a fair or at least fairer chance at the highest office in our country. What would the world look like from Hillary’s point of view? What would she have thought about her image makers—and about Bill’s?

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue