I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Summary (from the publisher): With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age. Utterly courageous, uproariously funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a scrumptious, irresistible treat of a book, full of truths, laugh out loud moments that will appeal to readers of all ages.

Review: I stinking love Nora Ephron. She's brilliant and witty while at the same time being down to earth and just plain real. As an American woman, I can relate to her. I get what she's talking about when talks about the extensive time women spend on the "maintenance" of their bodies and feel her struggle to figure out where she falls when it comes to clothes, cooking, and decorating styles. I loved her passage on reading; "Each minute I spend away from the book pretending to be interested in everyday life is a misery. How could I have waited so long to read this book? When can I get back to it? [...] Every so often I look up from the book and see a roomful of people waiting for me to make a decision about whether the music is too soft or the thunder is too loud, and I can't believe they don't understand that what I'm doing is Much More Important. I'm reading the most wonderful book."

Much of I Feel Bad About My Neck deals with what Ephron is experiencing as a woman who is aging so I feel that this book would be even more meaningful for me to re-read down the road. But I can't help feeling glad that I read it now so that I can fully appreciate her life advice and to more fully appreciate the joys of youth as Ephron sees it.

Stars: 4