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I Totally Meant to Do That
by
Jane Borden
Jane Borden is a hybrid too horrifying to exist: a hipster-debutante. She was reared in a propert Southern home in Greensboro, North Carolina, sent to boarding school in Virginia, and then went on to join a sorority in Chapel Hill. She next moved to New York and discovered that none of this grooming meant a lick to anyone. In fact, she hid her upbringing for many years--it
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Paperback, 240 pages
Published
March 1st 2011
by Three Rivers Press
(first published January 1st 2011)
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
I'm having a bit of a hard time with the rating system - when I first joined Goodreads, I generally used the 3 stars for anything I was meh on, and 2 for things I didn't much like. But then I found I needed the 3 for things I liked but didn't love, so meh moved to 2, which feels low. All of this to say that 2 stars feels like I'm being quite negative about a book that I was perfectly happy to finish, but that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
About the book: I thought it was going to be one of thos ...more
About the book: I thought it was going to be one of thos ...more
I Totally Meant to Do That is Jane Borden’s transformation from southern belle to Brooklyn hipster,” says book publicist and RIF staffer Justina Batchelor, “it’s about being a southerner in the city, which I can relate to because I am one myself. So I passed this book on to all the other southerners in the city I know. But because Jane is like a female David Sedaris, I think anyone with a sense of humor can really appreciate this book.”
Jane Borden is a southern Debutante who moved to New York City after college and eventually ended up living there for over ten years. Her family members back in North Carolina, and her upbringing there, are the ultimate stereotype of genteel southerners. I Totally Meant To Do That is Borden's part memoir part commentary on her experiences straddling these two very different cultures and as she contemplates, after a decade of living in NYC, if 1) she can officially be considered a New Yorker (aft
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You don't have to be rich or Southern to appreciate Jane Borden's book, but don't expect her to apologize for being those things. Despite these two obstacles, Borden writes about a New York City that is highly recognizable to someone who actually lives here. Jane's day with the Sanchez Brothers, moving apartments? Substitute Uzbeks for Puerto Ricans and I've lived the same day (plus re-enacted abbreviated versions of this scene with every West African and Rastafarian Gypsy cab driver I've ever r
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Maybe my hopes were too high? There were obviously shining moments, but overall, I was disappointed. A lot of the essays read like unpolished notes for a stand-up set. Paragraphs started whole other stories or jokes that were absolutely tangential to the thrust of the story, like a constant "that reminds me of the time..." approach to storytelling. There was a total lack of flow I found jarring, and then once I started to feel comfortable with stream-of-consciousness, she'd wrap up the essay by
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Meh.
So, my friend Karalyn pressed this on me, and I thought, despite the fact that this is a book about a southerner in New York, and here I am, a southerner in New York, I'm only reading this to be polite. But imagine my surprise when I found cynical self enjoying the damn thing. See, here's the deal. Karalyn and I went to high school together, and now we live twenty blocks apart. Here are two interesting anecdotes about our upbrining. The first: So there I was in the lunch line. Lunch was green be
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***From the back of the book***
Jane Borden is a hybrid too horrifying to exist: a hipster-debutante. She was reared in a proper Southern home in Greensboro, North Carolina, sent to boarding school in Virginia, and then went on to join a sorority in Chapel Hill. She next moved to New York and discovered that none of this grooming meant a lick to anyone. In fact, she hid her upbringing for many years - it was easier than explaining what a debutante "does" (the short answer: not much).
Anyone who ha ...more
Jane Borden is a hybrid too horrifying to exist: a hipster-debutante. She was reared in a proper Southern home in Greensboro, North Carolina, sent to boarding school in Virginia, and then went on to join a sorority in Chapel Hill. She next moved to New York and discovered that none of this grooming meant a lick to anyone. In fact, she hid her upbringing for many years - it was easier than explaining what a debutante "does" (the short answer: not much).
Anyone who ha ...more
A friend of mine gave me this book out of the blue, and told me to read it because Jane reminded them a lot of me. After reading her book, I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not. As a sorority girl at UNC-Chapel Hill, and also as a girl who has been "reared" in the South by a "proper" Southern family, I can relate to many of the stories that Jane tells in her book. You might think that many of the anecdotes about the South are untrue or exaggerated, but I can promise that they are not. I d
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Read reviews that she was like a female David Sedaris. I love David Sedaris. She was NOT a female David Sedaris. Some of it was funny but it felt like the same funny bit was repeated over and over in each chapter. No variety. Country girl goes to New York. NY eats her alive. The premise was not original and neither was the writing.
I learned two things when I read this. 1 - whiny people (including this author) annoy me. 2- I am not the type to love a collection essays. I don't recommend this one.
While I sincerely liked Jane Borden’s “I Totally Meant To Do That,” I am still undecided if I should rate the book with 3 stars or 4 stars. Of course, by the time I post this to goodreads it will be a moot point but I have to address it in my review because I am honestly torn with how I feel about the book. On the one hand, I really enjoyed reading Borden’s stories. Jane, as a narrator, was very likeable. I especially enjoyed the chapters that featured Jane’s Aunt Jane. I think I could have read
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I had to dock Borden some stars for being a Tarheel fan, as I was raised staunchly ABC. ABC meaning, for the uninitiated, Anybody But Carolina.
When I saw on the book cover that Borden also hails from North Carolina, I expected to have some serious regional connections with her book. However, it quickly became clear that she and I were raised in very different Souths, despite our hometowns being less than 2 hours apart, and being relatively close in age. Borden grew up in the gentile, moneyed Sou ...more
When I saw on the book cover that Borden also hails from North Carolina, I expected to have some serious regional connections with her book. However, it quickly became clear that she and I were raised in very different Souths, despite our hometowns being less than 2 hours apart, and being relatively close in age. Borden grew up in the gentile, moneyed Sou ...more
This was a really enjoyable beach read for me. I did grow up in NC (far more rural than the author) and have lived in New Haven, CT for five years, and I felt she captured the transitions okay. There were a few things that really stuck out to me -
The chapter titled "Rubber Balls for Weapons" deeply resonated with me (I cried, I'll admit it). The explanation of why Brother Jimmy's is the fake South, the longing for ACC basketball (though it will always be UNC-blue that brings out that desire to r ...more
The chapter titled "Rubber Balls for Weapons" deeply resonated with me (I cried, I'll admit it). The explanation of why Brother Jimmy's is the fake South, the longing for ACC basketball (though it will always be UNC-blue that brings out that desire to r ...more
Jane Borden's I TOTALLY MEANT TO DO THAT is an extremely well written first person memoir about the author's time living in New York City. It is indeed very funny, though the author also does have some purpose behind her quips and jokes, in that she is struggling with her North Carolina southern roots as she tries to fit into the New York City hive.
The author writes in a warm, easy, flowing style that is easy to understand, moving the stories along very well and keeping the reader interested. Sh ...more
The author writes in a warm, easy, flowing style that is easy to understand, moving the stories along very well and keeping the reader interested. Sh ...more
I love love love love this book. It might be my favorite book ever.
The book is more of a compilation of vignettes than anything. The author moves to New York City after growing up in North Carolina and attending UNC for college. She chronicles life in New York City and the perception of southerners in New York and northerners and New Yorkers in the South. I can't even pick a favorite story, there are so many.
The main reason I loved this book so much is that I could really relate to the author on ...more
The book is more of a compilation of vignettes than anything. The author moves to New York City after growing up in North Carolina and attending UNC for college. She chronicles life in New York City and the perception of southerners in New York and northerners and New Yorkers in the South. I can't even pick a favorite story, there are so many.
The main reason I loved this book so much is that I could really relate to the author on ...more
It was ok. The first chapter was really confusing, because she kept jumping from the present to the past to the present to the past. (This continued occasionally throughout the book.) After that I started to enjoy it more. Then after that it just felt meh. I think there's only so much any one book should contain of "New Yorkers do this! New Yorkers don't do that! In New York, you're weird if you (blank)!". I live here and while all those things are true, it's so cliched by now. (New Yorkers don'
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Hilarious! I'm from the South and had a son living in NYC when I read this book. Oh... how I and my son could relate to Jane's book. Such a fun read! Loved it.
I found this book to be entertaining and insightful at times, but occasionally a bit convoluted and distant with regards to keeping my attention. I was intrigued by the author's concept (having grown up in NC and moved to NYC as an adult, she contemplates the disparity among the two locales and her decision to choose one over the other). She weaves in interesting anecdotes and metaphors and delivers funny stories and lines, but I did find myself struggling to finish some sections; at times, the
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(Disclaimer: I lived in New York for the first 17 years of my life and intermittently thereafter, and I've been in NC for the past 19. I believe I'm qualified to review this book.)
I so wanted to like this one. The usual story is the New Yawker who moves down South and is amused, frustrated, and/or horrified by the natives, and I was hoping that this book would turn that cliche' on its head. I wanted to read about how being in NYC changed the author, what maybe wasn't so great about the South, et ...more
I so wanted to like this one. The usual story is the New Yawker who moves down South and is amused, frustrated, and/or horrified by the natives, and I was hoping that this book would turn that cliche' on its head. I wanted to read about how being in NYC changed the author, what maybe wasn't so great about the South, et ...more
So how do you adjust being brought up in a huge, emotionally engaged Southern family, going to a boarding school in Virginia and college at Chapel Hill, and then you move to New York City? Jane Borden tells the story of such a life and it's highly amusing. For example, she thought that she had a medical condition when she first moved to New York because her face hurt so much. Then she realized that she was trying to smile at every person she encountered while walking down a crowded New York Stre
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Borden makes so many genuine, accurate comments about life in NYC, I was literally laughing out loud--because her observations hold true whether someone comes from the south or from Antarctica. Her southern upbringing and her efforts to reconcile it to her new NYC life were amusing, however, and her confusion over which one is her true Home is fully believable and fully relatable to anyone who comes from anywhere other than NYC.
This is certainly a book worth reading for anyone who has moved from ...more
This is certainly a book worth reading for anyone who has moved from ...more
Jane is a stereotype made for television: a wealthy Southern debutante (Virginia boarding school, Chapel Hill sorority) who moves to New York City and finds that all of her southern charm and prep school ways mean absolutely bupkis. (So excited spell check had that word in there!!!) I the end this book gets just an "eh" from me. It was cute. I love her undercover job of closing down the fakes on Canal Street in NYC. The stories were charming, but this whole am I a New Yorker after ten year, or a
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May 29, 2012
Jennifer Annan House
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
20 somethings
Recommended to Jennifer Annan by:
Real Simple Book Club
Part of the Real Simple Book Club pick list for June, 2012, and purchased for that reason...a trip to the east coast and a long plane ride back and forth and finished early.
I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book for the first half. Jane is a twenty something and I kept thinking my daughter would really enjoy and relate to this book more than me (she's a twenty something and has yet to experience New York City). As it turns out, to me, the book was more about the question of "Where is home ...more
I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book for the first half. Jane is a twenty something and I kept thinking my daughter would really enjoy and relate to this book more than me (she's a twenty something and has yet to experience New York City). As it turns out, to me, the book was more about the question of "Where is home ...more
I read this book at the perfect time in my life having just moved to New York myself. In fact it is a bit eerie since I'm from Greensboro myself and could pass for Jane Borden 2.0 (shocker that my grandmother knows her parents and in an Aunt Jane move actually gave me this book). Yes the writing is a bit moody and erratic, but that's the point. Internal struggle isn't polished and there's no reason why you can't roll around in it, poke it with a stick to see if it moves, and laugh all along the
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Completely hilarious!
I stumbled upon this author at a book reading while I was wondering the streets of Asheville last weekend. She was reading at Malaprops and I arrived just 5 minutes before it started.
The cover has cookies on its cover, so I thought "hey, it's gotta be worth a few minutes of listening, eh?"
I'm delighted I stayed, because Jane is funny, warm and pokes fun at my beloved South without being reductionist. As a transplanted Northerner, I found her insights into ginormous weddings ...more
I stumbled upon this author at a book reading while I was wondering the streets of Asheville last weekend. She was reading at Malaprops and I arrived just 5 minutes before it started.
The cover has cookies on its cover, so I thought "hey, it's gotta be worth a few minutes of listening, eh?"
I'm delighted I stayed, because Jane is funny, warm and pokes fun at my beloved South without being reductionist. As a transplanted Northerner, I found her insights into ginormous weddings ...more
This is one of a batch of memoirs I picked up when I went to get an item from my to read list from the shelf instead of putting it on hold. Which is to say, I knew nothing about it (and picked it up despite the pull-quote implying that it was for Southerners and people who wanted to live in New York, which contrary to the probably New York-based publisher's delusion, is not universal.)
In any case, it was a pleasant read, and the universality of liking where you live but not being *of* that will ...more
In any case, it was a pleasant read, and the universality of liking where you live but not being *of* that will ...more
Jane Borden grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, but later moved to New York. I TOTALLY MEANT TO DO THAT is a collection of vignettes relating her often-hilarious experience and comparing the two cultures.
I might not have read this book had my wife not also been from Greensboro and had her family not known the Bordens. Apparently, their grandmothers were best friends.
But I’m glad I did. TOTALLY is skillfully and engagingly written, and the author demonstrates a wonderful sense of humor. I reco ...more
I might not have read this book had my wife not also been from Greensboro and had her family not known the Bordens. Apparently, their grandmothers were best friends.
But I’m glad I did. TOTALLY is skillfully and engagingly written, and the author demonstrates a wonderful sense of humor. I reco ...more
Three-and-a-half stars. A breezy airplane read. Borden is immensely likable and you end up rooting for her throughout. I sometimes get tired of "life in New York" books but her descriptions felt fresh and I related to experiences about moving to a big city (the hive mind section was one of my favorites--"Gorilla? Gorilla? Gorilla?").
I liked her writing best when she was describing a moments or characters, and less so when she was getting philosophical. Perhaps the problem was that the "should I/ ...more
I liked her writing best when she was describing a moments or characters, and less so when she was getting philosophical. Perhaps the problem was that the "should I/ ...more
I can't actually remember how long ago I read this, but I received an ARC for it that I took months to get around to reading. While the back cover gave me a slightly creepy "someone who's not me wrote the story of my life" feeling, the actual book didn't feel as similar to my experiences as I thought it would. I did laugh at loud at a number of things that are probably only mildly amusing unless you grew up in the South and have lived in NYC. All in all I found it to be a light, entertaining rea
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