Today’s review is on a book from one of my most favorite authors, Nora Ephron. Nora was a brilliant journalist, writer, and screenwriter. For those of you who may not be too familiar with Nora’s work, I think you all know two of her hit movies she wrote, When Harry Met Sally, and You’ve Got Mail. My absolute favorite movie was Heartburn, where she wrote the screenplay based on her own life about finding out her husband was cheating on her while pregnant with their second child, while living in Washington where she was unhappy living, having to leave her native New York. Nora had to fight her ex husband to make that movie, played by Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

Nora pulled herself together without much money, and eventually got herself back to New York and then became the famous screenwriter she came to be. She was smart, crafty and worked her way up the writing ladder and became well loved and respected in the world of journalism and Hollywood.

As a nonfiction writer myself, I was drawn to Nora’s writing, and will always remember a beautiful compliment I received from a reader who messaged me after reading one of my books and told me my writing reminded her of Nora Ephron’s style. I will always remember that beautiful comment.

 

I Feel Bad About My Neck

Blurb:

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.

The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally . . ., Sleepless in Seattle, You ve Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do.Oh, and she can t stand the way her neck looks.But her dermatologist tells her there s no quick fix for that.

Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years ( I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at ) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.

Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.”

 

My Review 5 Stars

I love her! I love the way Nora could share her thoughts and reasoning for random subjects which pertained to life. I can well identify with her logic on certain issues, particularly how she justifies an expense by dividing the cost of something into how worthwhile it was to her buy breaking it down into how much it actually cost per day.

Nora was a brilliant woman in life and as a writer. She could take the simple things in life and turn them into stories. She shares her thoughts on everything from her humorous view on aging to cooking and parenting. She doesn’t hold back on voicing her opinions even on some unflattering truths.

Only Nora can take the mundane and give it a comical spin. I love her and will miss her wit and humor from what we will no longer have new from her. As a nonfiction writer myself. I am grateful for her influence.