Originally published: 2006 (This edition January 2020)

Author: Nora Ephron

Published by: Doubleday

Genre: Memoir

Length: 224 pages

Reading dates: 1 August 2020

* Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.

* If the shoe doesn’t fit in the shoe store, it’s never going to fit.

* When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.

* If only one third of your clothes are mistakes, you’re ahead of the game.

* Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for by the age of forty-five.

This was a short, quick read written with such warmth and humour and I’m now Nora Ephron’s biggest fan! I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman is a collection of short essays written by Ephron for various publications such as The New York Times and Vogue.

Approaching my late 40’s so much of what Ephron says resonated with me and made me smile. How it doesn’t matter how young your face or hair looks, your neck will be the thing that gives away your age (I’ve just started to notice that.) How exhausting the maintenance is that comes with being female: waxing and threading, hair cuts and colour, nails…I have to admit I am pretty low maintenance and I am dreading the day when ageing means I have to start doing more of this stuff!

“…the amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.”

She talks about her age-related failing eyesight and this is something that is a source of amusement between my friends and I – how none of us can read a menu in a restaurant. And about how she hates bags! How some of her friends will covert the latest designer bag but how she’d prefer not to have to carry one at all. How they are just another place to keep all the crap we have in our lives.

Ephron was a talented writer, having written many screenplays including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle but I have to admit I had no idea who she was before reading this book. Her writing in this book is filled with sharp observations, wit and warmth and I loved it! Every woman should have a copy!

Thank you so much to Alison at Doubleday for my #gifted copy.

About the author:

Nora Ephron was an American journalist, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, and blogger.

She was best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally… and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes wrote with her sister, Delia Ephron. She died in 2012.