"I Feel Bad About My Neck, And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" by Nora Ephron - audiobook review

I ordered this audiobook for Fran and thought I'd listen to it myself because I quite enjoyed Heartburn and I'm a big fan of When Harry Met Sally…. As the title suggests, these are a series of comical essays about being a women, from trying to hide your neck when you get older to the tedium of "maintenance", and her various relationships (real and imagined) with chefs and authors of cookbooks. It was quite short and also, at times, a little dated (first published in 2006 but written about the 70s, 80s, and 90s). The audiobook version is narrated by Nora Ephron herself and she's delightful company. There are many parts of her personality that remind me (affectionately) of Fran. But, as with Heartburn, there are other parts of her worldview that I find more challenging, and which made me a little sad: sad about all the shit some women have to deal with; sad that couples philander and break up; sad that some women care so much about handbags or wear shoes that don't actually fit them and actively harm their feet; sad that people have plastic surgery to try to hide the inevitable fact of ageing. I'm not saying Nora Ephron is into all of these things (she's not). I don't really know what I'm saying. So maybe I should stop. The point is: it made me a little uneasy at times. But maybe that's a good thing. I guess I was hoping for more of a comfort read.

"Inciting Joy: Essays" by Ross Gay - book review

This was a Jolabokaflod present from Fran, which I started reading straight away on Christmas Eve. It deals more with grief than The Book of Delights but is still full of delights. My favourite essay was "Dispatch from the Ruins (School: The Eleventh Incitement)", which blew my tiny mind. It's about his views on university education and teaching; capitalism; bullshit jobs; and starts with an account of a faculty meeting in which students are referred to as "units". It reminded me of some of the philosophies of Sir Ken Robinson, the creativity expert and educationalist; The Cancer Stage of Capitalism; and A People's History of the United States. Gay describes how he runs some of his classes: giving everyone an A grade at the start to get that worry off the table; joining in the creative challenges he sets his students. It's hard to describe and I don't want to. Just read it.