Bustle

E. Ce Miller

http://www.ecemiller.com/
Bio
E. Ce Miller writes about books for Bustle, covering feminist fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more. Her words have also appeared in Culture Trip, Midwestern Gothic, Sixfold Journal, The Sun Magazine, and elsewhere. She earned her bachelor's degree in Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies and her master's degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University. Currently, you can find her in her backyard quietly eating a sandwich. If you'd like to learn more about her work, visit her at www.ecemiller.com.

What I Learned Re-Reading 'Big Little Lies' After #MeToo

If you don’t know by now, Big Little Lies, author Liane Moriarty’s gut-grinding novel about wealth, motherhood, and domestic violence, was first published in 2014. The HBO adaptation — if you missed it, starring Nicole Kidman, Reece Witherspoon,…
By E. Ce Miller

This Is An Essential New Novel About LGBTQIA+ Identity, Immigration, & The American Dream

Immigration to the United States reminds Patsy of the Rapture. “People would leave ailing parents, spouses, and newborn babies if they have the opportunity to live and work in America,” she thinks, in Nicole Dennis-Benn’s new novel, Patsy. And Patsy…
By E. Ce Miller

15 Ways To Organize Your Bookshelves, For Every Personality Type

As I sit here writing this, just hours away from moving half-way across the country, my own bookshelves look remarkably similar to cardboard boxes. (Because they are.) But prior to The Great Book Boxing Up Of 2019, I had some time to consider how to…
By E. Ce Miller

9 Travel Books That Will Seriously Spark Your Summer Wanderlust

The first official day of summer is just weeks away, and for some people, those long days of warm weather mean just one thing: that the season of wanderlust is in full swing, and it’s time to hit the road. Or the air! Or the sea! (Or, whatever else…
By E. Ce Miller

This Memoir About Postpartum Depression Might Help You Realize It's Not The "New Normal"

Halfway through reading Teresa Wong’s graphic memoir, Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, I turn the page to find a simple, black-and-white drawing of a skull in profile. Wong titled the image "My Depressed Mind." The brain is…
By E. Ce Miller

'Gone Girl' Meets 'The Yellow Wallpaper' In This Novel About Open Marriage

Less-than-traditional manifestations of marriage have become increasingly mainstream in our Puritanically-rooted culture, with mixed results. They’re glorified, politicized, and villainized, to varying degrees. Open marriage is the topic broiling at…
By E. Ce Miller

In This New Book, A "Farm" For Surrogate Mothers Hides Dark Truths

When author Joanne Ramos began writing her debut novel, The Farm, she hadn’t written fiction in 20 years. "I think as an immigrant it just wasn’t in my worldview that I could make a living by making up stories,” Ramos tells Bustle. "It didn’t seem…
By E. Ce Miller

9 Books That Prove Mindfulness Doesn't Have To Be Scary Or Boring

Is it just me, or is "mindfulness" suddenly everywhere these days? From the classroom to the corporate world, mindfulness isn’t just for Tibetan monks and New York yogis anymore — it’s for everyone. And the scientifically-proven benefits of…
By E. Ce Miller

I Finally Read Elena Ferrante In The Midst Of My Postpartum Depression

Bustle's I'm So Jealous series is dedicated to the books, TV shows, movies, podcasts, and more that super fans are so jealous someone else gets to experience for the first time. In this installment, E. Ce Miller celebrates her love of the Neapolitan…
By E. Ce Miller

Despite Their Playful Covers, These Self-Help Books Are Real, Raw & Life-Changing

Her name is Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, better known as the author SARK, and her self-help books are like none you’ve ever read before, guaranteed. Handwritten in primary-colored text, filled with doodles and watercolors and photographs, SARK’s…
By E. Ce Miller

What It's Like To Ghostwrite Books When I Can't Seem To Finish My Own

I started my ghostwriting career as a favor to a family friend — the kind of favor that someone does for you, by pretending they need a favor from you. I was months out of graduate school and desperate for a writing gig; he was well-known in our…
By E. Ce Miller

In A New YA Novel, A Teenager Seeks An Abortion With Help From "Jane" Networks

It’s the summer of 2014 and only 19 abortion clinics remain open in the entire state of Texas. Just one year earlier, House Bill 2 — written with the intent of closing Texas’s abortion clinics — was signed into law. And 17-year-old Camille…
By E. Ce Miller

The Complexities Of Modern Marriage, As Explored By 13 Books

Run an online search for “millennials” and “marriage” and the results will run the gamut from articles charting millennials’ refusal to marry, to others espousing why members of Gen Y are decidedly better at saying “I Do” and sticking to it. The…
By E. Ce Miller

This New Book Is All About Therapy — From The Therapist's Point-Of-View

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 43.8 million adults experience mental illness each year. Yet, according to Lori Gottlieb’s new book — Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, out now — only around 30 million Americans seek therapy,…
By E. Ce Miller

'The Old Drift' Author On The 'Real Joy' Of Using Mosquitoes To Narrate Her Enchanting Novel

At the turn of the 20th century, an Englishman drifts into the heart of the African country that will become Zambia. Three decades later, a baby girl is born with her entire body covered in hair; it won’t fall out and it won’t stop growing. One…
By E. Ce Miller

The 1918 Novel 'What Not' Is A Dystopian Masterpiece — So Why Isn't It More Widely Read?

A media outlet is blamed for igniting nationalistic, populist, right wing ideology. A magazine publisher is rumored to have blackmailed a prominent political figure regarding his secret affair. A novelist is censored by her publisher to ward off a…
By E. Ce Miller

Just 14 Of The 114 Nobel Laureates In Literature Are Women

The Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded twice this year, following a sexual assault scandal within the Swedish Academy that resulted the postponement of last year's award. Now, myself and many other readers are wondering: Will either (or…
By E. Ce Miller

A New Book Proves How Shockingly Sexist Everything Is — From Healthcare To Smartphones

Ever wondered why you always have to keep a spare cardigan in your office, even on days when your male colleagues are comfortable in short sleeved polos? Or how about why the headrest in your automobile never seems to land in quite the right spot,…
By E. Ce Miller

This Book Will Help You Make Sense Of One Of The Most Controversial Feminist Writers Ever

Andrea Dworkin is still misunderstood. To quote Gloria Steinem, "Hardly anybody is as misunderstood as Andrea." But now, a new anthology of her work aims to put the incendiary ideas that Dworkin became known for — her antipornography activism, her…
By E. Ce Miller

A New Anthology Will Totally Change Your P.O.V. On The History Of Women's Suffrage

The 19th amendment turns 100-years-old next August. But women were voting in the United States over a thousand years before the 19th amendment was signed into law. In fact, women have not only been participants in the democratic process, but…
By E. Ce Miller