Why don’t you have children? This "mother of all questions" is persistently posed to Rebecca Solnit by journalists who are more interested in her womb than her books. Why is motherhood still considered the key to female identity? The author finds the answer in the ideology of happiness and advocates for striving for meaning rather than happiness. Additionally, she explains in her essays why the history of silence is inextricably linked to the history of women, why five-year-old boys prefer to forgo pink toys, and names 80 books that no woman should read. She writes about men who are feminists and men who are rapists, and she stands against any kind of stereotyping. Her previous work, Men Explain Things to Me, caused a stir worldwide - in her new essays, Rebecca Solnit continues with the same keen insight.