I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Oct 15, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it really liked it

Shelves: biography, non-fiction, humor-and-comedy, ultimate-reading-list, memoir

A blurb from The New York Review calls this collection of 15 essays a "funny, sisterly collection." I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, although it was often smile-worthy--but there certainly were plenty of moments of identification for me to feel I found a sister in Nora Ephron. Hard to imagine a woman who wouldn't recognize herself in "On Maintenance" about all the things women put themselves through to retain a look of youth and beauty: hair washed, blown-dry, dyed and body and facial hair A blurb from The New York Review calls this collection of 15 essays a "funny, sisterly collection." I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, although it was often smile-worthy--but there certainly were plenty of moments of identification for me to feel I found a sister in Nora Ephron. Hard to imagine a woman who wouldn't recognize herself in "On Maintenance" about all the things women put themselves through to retain a look of youth and beauty: hair washed, blown-dry, dyed and body and facial hair bleached, tweezed, waxed and threaded, nails manicured, skin regimens and creams, exercise routines. And many of us I'm sure could see ourselves in her mini-bio through cookbooks in "Serial Monogamy: A Memoir." I felt as if I had found a sister indeed in her essay on reading books in "On Rapture" when she spoke of reading Chabon's Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Wilkie Collins The Woman in White and her love of things Jane Austen. And then there's how we both feel about New York City--from "Where I Live:"

Someone I know once wisely said that the expression "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" is completely wrong where New York is concerned; the opposite is true. New York is a very livable city.

Neither of us could imagine living anywhere else. She even lived for ten years on the Upper West Side very close to where I lived from childhood. Her landmarks are mine: Zabars, La Caridad Chinese and Cuban Restaurant, H & H Bagels (sadly closed some months ago in the economic downturn after being part of the neighborhood for decades), Gray's Papaya. I don't know that I can say I felt sympathy for her lamentations about the end of luxury rental stabilization causing her to move out from the landmark Apthorp building. The dirty secret about New York City rent control and stabilization is how it helps the wealthy and privileged above all. (Don't believe me? Google Congressman Charles Rangel and "rent control" and then get back to me.) Ephron seemed to me to completely miss the connection between how run down her building had been and rent control. But her ode of adoration to my neighborhood in "Moving On"? Right there with her. I loved "The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words" and especially having gotten to know her in this book, I found the final essay on aging and dying "Considering the Alternative" so very sad, even terrifying. All the more knowing she died this year. The collection left me wishing I had known her--but then through this book I almost feel as if I had. ...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Mo rated it liked it

Shelves: 0-dl, cccc-history, cccc-bookclub-pre-mo, short-stories-novellas-essays, biographical-memoir, humor, non-fiction, contemporary, w-bpl, 2014

3 ½ stars

As with any collection of essays, some are better than others. While I enjoyed most of them, I don’t think I LOVED any of them.

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I agree with Nora… you can't go wrong in a black turtleneck!
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Apr 06, 2013 Somdutta rated it liked it

Shelves: uc-davis-library

This book is a collection of epiphanies that Nora Ephron had on life and death, description of the apartments that she lived in New York and why she liked the apartments, why New York is the best place to stay, how your skin and body changes with age and how she dealt with it or was in denial about her age. This book is a light read.

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