Sloan Crosley's
I Was Told There'd Be Cake puts a spin on the familiar territory of a twentysomething working in New York. Crosley's highly original essays cover a wide swath of quirky topics, from her hoarding of plastic toy ponies to baking a cookie in the likeness of her difficult, high-powered publisher boss.
Glamorous careers are a chick lit staple, and writing for magazines such as
Rolling Stone puts Jancee Dunn in the big time.
But Enough About Me follows her meandering path from a pop-culture-saturated New Jersey childhood to a life navigating the trendy world of the Big Apple. What doesn't change is the sense of giddy delight she shares as she interviews celebrities from Bono to Loretta Lynn.
While it may be easy to keep fiction light and frothy, the real world is not always that simple. As
Lopsided begins, Meredith Norton is an American living in Paris with her French husband. While on a stateside visit with her family, she consults a doctor about a pain in her breast. Within days she is told she has inflammatory breast cancer. The author's sharp, unsentimental voice and unflinching eye for detail make this an intense and surprisingly funny memoir of survival.
What would you add to the list?
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6 comments:
What a great idea! I love it. I will have to check out more of these lists. Great job!
Thanks, Emma! I was told there'd be cake is my personal favorite :)
I've heard such great things about Sloan Crosley's book and am glad to hear it's one of your favorites.
The first memoir by a woman that comes to my mind is Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen. I wasn't sure I would be able to identify with the author given how different our lives were, and yet I did. I really enjoyed reading it.
I've heard of Cohen's book, but haven't read it yet. Thanks for the suggestion.
I have Sloane Crosby's book on the shelf to be read. I am not sure they would appreciate the name "chick" (although they might!), I liked the memoirs of Katherine Graham and Madeline Albright. Both were women ahead of their times.
Lopsided is one of the best books I've read and I sent it to a friend who is a cancer survivor and she LOVED it. I'm going to add Sloane Crosby's book to my TBR list.
I really like your theme idea. It's great.
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