What It’s About: Mindy Kaling is an Emmy-nominated author and actress on one of my favorite shows, The Office. She’s also a comedian, playwright, and astute observer of what it’s like to be a female in comedy in Hollywood.
Why I Want to Read It: I love The Office, and I love Kaling’s Twitter feed, which makes me think the book will be right up my alley. I’ve been disappointed by some books by young, female essayists (Sloan Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake let me down), but I get sense this will be more astute.
The host for our October nonfiction discussion was the awesome Ash of English Major’s Junk Food who asked about her favorite form of nonfiction — anthologies — and asked us to share some of our favorites.
I have always wanted to be the sort of person that gets into essay collections. I can’t tell you the number I’ve bought over the years, vowing to start reading them right away, that then take a neglected place near the bottom of my unread books shelf. I’m addicted to buying nonfiction anthologies, but can’t seem to actually read them.
What It’s About: In Other Worlds is an exploration of Margaret Atwood’s relationship with science fiction – from her first reading and writing attempts as a child through her studies at Harvard and culminating in her work as a writer and reviewer. The book collects Atwood’s lectures, reviews, and other writing on the topic together in one book.
Why I Want to Read It: MARGARET ATWOOD! SQUEE!
One Sentence Summary: A collection of essays from children who attended the same school as Anne Frank, the 1st Montessori School in Amsterdam.
One Sentence Review: As a stand-alone book, Storming the Tulips feels incomplete; in conjunction with other WWII stories, the essays offer a new perspective.
One Sentence Summary: A collection of David Grann’s previously published essays that cover a range of murder, madness, and obsession.
One Sentence Review: Individually, each of the essays is a lot of fun to read, but the collection as a whole seems a little thematically uneven.
Title: I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman Author: Nora Ephron Genre/Year: Personal Essays, 2006 Two Sentence Summary: Think getting old and being a woman is kinda funny? So does Nora Ephron! One Sentence Review: A solid essay collection, but one that I’m not quite wise enough to totally [...]
I Was Told There’d Be Cake is the debut essay collection by twentysomething Sloane Crosley. The book covers topics as wide-ranging as Crosley’s first job to a terrifying boss to Crosley awkwardly serving as maid-of-honor for a high school friend she hadn’t spoken to in years. Although various reviewers have called Crosley “a new master [...]
I’m a big fan of essays and memoirs, but I know a lot of people who don’t like them because they think an essay or memoir is self-absorbed. While sometimes this is true, the best personal essays that I’ve read end up not being self-absorbed at all. And it’s these fantastic essays that leave me [...]
I had a rocky start with The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. Our reading relationship only got past the cover and first essay because I’d committed to read the book for outside reasons. However, I’m so glad I stuck it out because I ended up enjoying the book. Saunder’s collection of essays presents smart and [...]
