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Sharp, candid and very funny essays from the broadcasting legends, updated with an exclusive new chapter.
About the author
Kristin van Ogtrop is the author of
Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom. The former longtime editor-in-chief of
Real Simple and “The Amateur” columnist for
Time, she is a literary agent at InkWell Management. Her writing has appeared in countless publications, and the New York Times bestselling collection,
The Bitch in the House. She is a wife and mother of three, but sometimes loves her dogs more than anybody else.
Summary
From the former editor-in-chief of Real Simple, enjoy this hilarious and deeply insightful take on the indignities of middle age and how to weather them with grace: "A pure pleasure to read" (Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone).
Do you hate the term “middle age?” So does Kristin van Ogtrop, who is still trying to come up with a less annoying way to describe those years when you find yourself both satisfied and outraged, confident and confused, full of appreciation but occasional disdain for the world around you. Like an intimate chat with your best friend, this mostly funny, sometimes sad, always affirming volume from longtime magazine journalist van Ogtrop is a celebration of that period of life when mild humiliations are significantly outweighed by a self-actualized triumph of the spirit. Finally!
Featuring stories from her own life, as well as anecdotes from her unwitting friends and family, van Ogtrop encourages you to laugh at the small irritations of midlife: neglectful children, stealth insomnia, forks that try to kill you, t.v. remotes that won’t find Netflix, abdominal muscles that can’t seem to get the job done. But also to acknowledge the things you may have lost: innocence, unbridled optimism, smooth skin. Dear friends. Parents. It’s all here: the sublime and the ridiculous, living together in the pages of this book as they do in your heart, like a big messy family, in this no-better-term-for-it middle age.
Foreword
Sharp, candid and very funny essays from the broadcasting legends, updated with an exclusive new chapter.
Additional text
If their radio incarnations are sensible and restrained, and their podcast selves freewheeling and prone to corpsing, the tone here lands somewhere in between. There is fluency and professionalism, but also intimacy and silliness that makes their podcast such a delight. To spend time with these two is to eavesdrop on a slightly sozzled, bracingly candid conversation between pals.
