Just Write {10}

Some things I have considered writing about in the last two weeks:

1. I am back to reading bound books.

And I am, like, actually carrying a book in my purse on my commute. It's GLORIOUS. Mind you, bound books are more expensive than the impulsive Kindle purchases I was making to read on my phone, and now I want to spend all my money at a real live book store. But there is really nothing like holding a book in your hands while you read.

2. It is basically May.

S is coming to visit this weekend. I have next weekend totally off. Then I am working at an Arts Summit on 3/29, have a hair appointment on 3/30, my annual fundraiser is on 4/5, I am traveling to Ithaca for a family reunion from 4/12 to 4/19, and traveling to Providence on 4/25-27. See you in May.

3. I have spring fever real bad.

It's the time of year when I feel like I have a ton to do (clean my room, clear out my drawers, rearrange my room, organize my files, write some remarks for my grandmother's memorial), and instead of doing any of them, I try to find one more Academy Award nominated film I can stream online. It's like, with all my free time this weekend, there were too many options for how I could pass my time, so I did none of them.

4. I believe my 30s are going to be about consciously making bad decisions.

I have always been a pretty cautious and calculated person, and I have always been able to let reason and logic and practicality outweigh any impulses or guilty pleasures. But since turning 30, I'm pretty set on doing some things that a previous me would deem unwise. On purpose. For fun. Watch out.

Best of 2013

BOOKS
Flatfoot Vertigo by Jane Doe
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
Five Summers by Una LaMarche
Gulp by Mary Roach
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Divergent by Veronica Roth

MOVIES
Silver Linings Playbook
Pitch Perfect
Skyfall
Man of Steel
The Way, Way Back
Catching Fire

MUSIC
Body Talk by Robyn, especially "Dancing On My Own" and "Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do"
The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
The 20/20 Experience by Justin Timberlake, especially "Mirrors"
Our Version of Events by Emili Sande
"I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift
"Get Lucky" by Daft Punk
"Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke
"Holy Grail" by Jay Z and Justin Timberlake
"Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus
"Hold On, We're Going Home" by Drake
The Blessed Unrest by Sara Bareilles
Pure Heroine by Lorde
"Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey
"Counting Stars" by OneRepublic

THEATER
Sister Act National Tour

Thank you all so much for your continued support, and Happy New Year!

Welp, that month sure went by fast!

August went by in a whirlwind of a trip to New York (the first in years, in which I ate, drank, sang karaoke, drank, played cards, saw Moonrise Kingdom and The Dark Knight Rises, and drank), got a (second) migraine my first day back and work that seemed to be the precursor to a sinus infection that kept me sick and up with a cough for about two weeks (after getting a short course of antibiotics, it was only LAST night that I slept through the night without taking a cough suppressant), leading two big field trips at work (one to Crane Beach and one to Water Wizz near Cape Cod; the second of which I rode all the rides with the kids, including the scariest, most intense water slide I've ever been on--so intense that the wedgie I got while riding it hurt my butthole for minutes afterward), and lots of insane prep for our fall programming.

(Apologies for the terrible grammar in the above paragraph.)

Oh. I also asked for a raise and got one.

So. Go me!

I had an idea this month for a new weekly (monthly?) column. One in which I will write weekly letters to the kids that make the most significant impact on me at work.

This was inspired by Cheryl Strayed, who writes this column, and whom I met at a book signing this month. Her book tiny beautiful things is exquisite. The kind of book you read and then start over right away.

The problem is, I can't decide who to write to first.

It's been an incredibly moving summer, in terms of the young people I work with.

There's the teen who asked me a question in a program I am helping run that made me out my own prejudices in a room of judgmental and convicted other teens. There's the one who heard about this incident and shut me out for weeks until he helped me run the field trip to Water Wizz. There's the teen whom I feel legitimately is my friend, who was duly rewarded with a trip to Disneyworld this summer. There's the teen who helped one of my programs succeed with her great leadership and maturity. There's the 10-year-old who had a super tough spring with me but ended up being the star of the summer and performed in our Extravaganza in four different acts. There's the incredibly creative 9-year-old who seriously excels in everything he does at the club.

I can't pick one to write to as my flagship new column.

Maybe the start of fall program will make it all clearer.

So, here's to another beginning.

Best of 2011

BOOKS
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Room by Emma Donoghue
Bossypants by Tina Fey
A Game Plan for Life by John Wooden
Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman
I am embarrassed that I haven't read a good book since that last one. Maybe the fact that my aunt gifted me her old Kindle(!) will change that! Eep.

MOVIES
Black Swan
Blue Valentine
The King’s Speech
Mother and Child
Only When I Dance
Kick-Ass
Mary and Max
Planet B-Boy
See What I’m Saying
Bridesmaids
Crazy, Stupid Love
Tangled
50/50
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Shame

MUSIC
“Grenade” by Bruno Mars
“Raise Your Glass” and “F*ckin Perfect” from P!nk’s Greatest Hits…So Far!
21 by ADELE, especially Someone Like You
“Edge of Glory” from Born This Way by Lady Gaga
The Archandroid by Janelle Monae, especially ”Cold War”
The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons
4 by Beyonce
“Tighten Up” from Brother by The Black Keys
“Dark Side” from Stronger by Kelly Clarkson
Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine

THEATRE
Psy at Arts Emerson
Porgy and Bess at A.R.T.
I need more theater in my life, dammit!

Thank you, as always for reading! My blog turns 5 in 10 days, so look for a big celebratory post then, if not before.

I have no idea what 2012 will bring, but hopefully, it's not the end of the world.

Happy New Year!

Best of 2010

I know you've been eagerly anticipating this list ALL YEAR LONG.

I did something smart this year and actually kept track of all these things as I read or saw them.

(Keep in mind that not all of these were actually produced this year. This just happens to be the year I discovered them.)


BOOKS

The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Couldn’t Keep it to Myself by Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institute
How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

MOVIES

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Up in the Air
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Crazy Heart
Rachel Getting Married
Every Little Step
Inception
Peter and Vandy
The Cove
The Social Network
Beautiful Daughters

MUSIC

Lungs by Florence + the Machine, especially “Cosmic Love”
For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert
Recovery by Eminem, especially "Love the Way You Lie"
The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, especially “Ready to Start”
“Breakeven” by The Script
“Uncharted” by Sara Bareilles
The Lady Killer by Cee Lo Green, especially “Wildflower”

THEATER

In the Heights National Tour
The Adding Machine at BCA
August: Osage County National Tour
Endgame at Steppenwolf
Circle Mirror Transformation at BCA
This is How and The Golden Lasso at Perishable Theatre

Happy holidays, everyone!!! Thanks for reading!

I am Totally Team Jacob

I'm a bit of a snob.

Theatre snob (I even spell it theatre now, thanks to Emerson), book snob (Jodi Picoult blows, people--she DOES!), grammar snob ("its" is the possessive of it; "it's" is a contraction of it is--yes, really), food snob (except for that occasional McDonald's meal), pop culture information snob (I only read classy things like People.com and EW.com, no Jezebel or TMZ or Perez Hilton for me!).

I am in no way, shape, or form, a wine snob. Give me your swilliest, sweetest, most grape-juicy tasting red wine. In fact, give me two glasses of it.

And sometimes three.

And I'll take any chocolate you might have on hand too.

I'm usually somewhat of a movie snob. Most of that, I think, is because of my training and outright judgement of acting and writing, etc.

However, I've also always called myself a pretty naive spectator. I can be swept away by even the silliest or schlockiest of movies.

Which brings me to my next point.

The Twilight Saga.

I was working with teenagers when the books came out and felt very old because I had no idea what they were about or why they were such a phenomenon. Then, I read some of one of the books over someone's shoulder on the subway once and was appalled. THE WRITING IS TERRIBLE!

"Bella said, 'You're beautiful.' Edward said, 'No. You're beautiful.'"

Monosyllabic sentences. No descriptive words.

I am not a fan.

Then...the movies came out.

And the world exploded with RPattz obsession and questions like "Will Kristen Stewart ever smile in public?"

It took me about a year, but I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about. This happened partly after talking to a good friend about how it's really about obsession and longing and unattainable love. She made it sound mildly interesting.

So, I watched the first film, which was terrible. Poorly acted. Poorly written. Poorly produced.

THEN, all that stuff about TAYLOR LAUTNER'S BODY started popping up. And I took notice, even though (vom!) he's only 18.

So...I watched the second movie.

And...I might be hooked.

Granted, I watched the 2 hour, 10 minute-long movie in about three hours because I could barely get through it. I needed frequent breaks because it was so boring in parts.

But also,
a) Taylor Lautner's body is pretty amazing, and I kind of loved how every time Bella saw it she couldn't help but do a double-take;
b) I also loved how every time Bella saw Edward, she couldn't keep the smile off her face--this seemed the most genuine of the acting between Kristen Stewart and Pasty Pattinson;
c) the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner is exponentially more powerful than her chemistry with Pasty Pattinson;
d) this film was far better produced than the first one.

I totally spoiled the next two movies for myself by reading the book synopses and I still don't plan on actually reading the books...but I might actually plan on seeing the movies.

Judge me, if you must.

Best of 2009

It's time for the THIRD annual [clever title] Best of List!!

BOOKS
A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
The Passion by Jeannette Winterson

MOVIES
Revolutionary Road
Up
The Hangover
17 Again
Away We Go
(Desperately want to see: Precious, Brothers, Up in the Air, Fantastic Mr. Fox.)

MUSIC
“Halo” by Beyonce
“My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson
“Grounds for Divorce” by Elbow
Relapse by Eminem
“Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon
The Fame and The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga, especially “Bad Romance”
"Happy Ending” by Mika
Riot! by Paramore, especially “crushcrushcrush”

THEATER
August: Osage County
In the Heights
Endgame at ART

Stay tuned for adventures in 2010, including:
my last semester of graduate school,
graduation from graduate school,
my return to my summer gig,
my first year of employment with a Master's degree and teaching license!

Happy New Year! Thank you for reading!

Summer Job, vol. VII: the Talent Show edition

Honestly. I don't know where the days go. It's so, so, so strange to not be connected online all day long and to have the first time I do get online be at 11 PM.

Quickly (and I know I'm spoiling you with these daily updates--I'm JUST NOT SURE how much longer I'll be able to do this), today was virtually our last day of training. We have duties and activities and supervision that we must do during the students' free time in the afternoons, so we were informed of those and given a tour of the duties sites and then spent the afternoon dealing with issues of difference and diversity, as they've come up here in the past.

It was cloudy most of the day and then, as the afternoon waned, the sun finally broke out and it was perfect weather. My co and I spent a bit of time preparing dorm tags for the girls, and, literally, within the hour, it was dark and purple out as a thunderstorm arrived. I hadn't been in one in so long!

The evening was training for Main Events, which happen here every evening, and the night culminated with a Staff Talent Show, at which I read this. I wasn't sure what the tone of the evening was going to be or how people would respond to it, but I got several appreciative and genuinely emotional comments, which was lovely.

The show, in general, was apparently the best they've had in years. I actually felt myself getting emotional a couple times during the evening, thinking about a) how intense the rest of the summer will be, b) what good hands these kids will be in, and c) what my summer experiences were like when I was of camp age.

My heart seemed to grow a little bit, and it's only the fourth day.

Word of the Day, vol. IV

Word of the Day: BOOKS
There is a famous picture of me from when I am probably younger than 2. I am reading a book with great intensity. It is upside down.

I remember taking my Sesame Street Dictionaries with me to bed and reading them before I fell asleep. I pored over my children’s books: The Runaway Bunny being a great favorite. Where the Wild Things Are being another. I loved Richard Scarry’s big book of words, especially the food section.

I don’t remember which I became aware of first, The Baby-sitter’s Club books or Judy Blume. I wasn’t a Baby-sitter’s Club fanatic, but I remember reading the ones about Dawn’s makeover (so she can get a date), Stacy’s diabetes (she gets very thirsty and tired on her train ride home to New York to visit her dad), and the superspecial one about the group getting shipwrecked (Claudia finds a piece of glass and is able to make it reflect so that the plane flying overhead finds them) each more than once.

I’m pretty sure I learned about sex from Judy Blume’s book Forever. I was probably too young to read it, since I distinctly remember reading the back cover and not understanding what “the first time” was. Deenie was another favorite—that one’s all about masturbating. As was, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which is all about getting your period. But it was a lesser-known Blume book, Just As Long As We’re Together, that I remember reading every month for a year.

The chapters in To Kill a Mockingbird about Boo Radley kept me up at night. I still think about haints when I walk through a suddenly warm patch of air.

I didn’t read Little Women until I was 22 because I was sure Beth’s death would upset me so much I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I’ve read it again since.

My AP English class was probably the first class I ever had in which I remember loving the books we read: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier were all on our book list.

I’ve read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Sweet and Vicious by David Schickler, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, and On Beauty by Zadie Smith all twice; Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible three times, and Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much is True probably five times.

I have never read one word of the Harry Potter series, the Twilight series, or The Lord of the Rings series.

I have never read any Jane Austen, even though I have been carrying around a copy of Sense and Sensibility for more than 8 years.

I have read everything Suzan-Lori Parks and Amy Hempel have ever published. (I think.)

I have cried on the subway because of the book I was reading.

I have missed my stop on the subway because of the book I was reading.

Three of my favorite people have told me I have to read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, and, for some reason, I refuse.

The best pop culture writing I’ve ever read is an article by Chuck Klosterman, “Bending Spoons with Britney Spears,” in his book IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas.

The best play I have ever read is August: Osage County by Tracy Letts.

I just read The Secret Garden for the first time. It was given to me by my mother’s parents in 1993. I was pleased at how true to the book the musical I know by heart is.

Tori Spelling’s memoir sTori Telling made me sob. Jancee Dunn’s memoir But Enough About Me… inspired me to write a fan letter to her.. Jeannette Walls’s memoir The Glass Castle gave me nightmares because it is about neglected children.

Whenever I move, my books make up most of what I’m packing. I only keep the good ones: the ones with the best cover art, the ones I imagine will be of use one day, the ones that left me breathless or sobbing, the ones that make me ache to write, the ones in which I see myself.

Currently, my bookshelf is overflowing.

They are my prized possessions.

There is the love of another person, and then there is a love of books. These are the two great loves of life. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider knows this.--Charles L. Mee

Required Reading for Life

This is a post that might turn into a column that it has been requested that I write. Because I recently gave my friend PMcC (hahaha!) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay for his 25th birthday, calling it required reading for life, and everyone agreed.

So...

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon:
This truly epic novel sort of snuck up on me, and, shockingly, I don't own my own copy. The two times I have read it, I borrowed it. And, actually, the first time I read it, I think it might have sort of passed me by. I liked it but didn't love and adore it. The second time I read it, I read the last 300 pages in about three hours and sobbed at the end. I initially said it's required reading for every boy in the world, which is true, but really, everyone should read it.

It tells the sweet and complicated story of Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay, cousins who are brought together when Joe escapes WWII-torn Europe and comes to live with Sammy and his mother in New York. The boys eventually fulfill their childhood dreams of starting a comic strip. The book spans from the mid-1930s to decades later, and I'm not doing it any justice by trying to synopsize it. It won the Pulitzer and deserved it.

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz:
I think this may be the only book I've ever read a NYTimes Review of and then bought. Actually, I rented it from BookSwim.com and THEN bought it. This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. It's the heart-wrenching story of an obese, Dominican young man named Oscar, living in New Jersey with his sister and ailing mother. The book reads like a hundreds-pages long slam poem, but in the best way possible. The narrator's voice is strong, sexy, and often sad. when I found out IT had won the Pulitzer, I thought...of course it did. Totally deserved again.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger:
Probably my favorite book of all time. (Well, one of them.) It came highly recommended to me by my brother and totally hooked me on the first line: "Clare: It's hard being left behind." It's the incredibly beautiful and fascinating story of Henry, a young man from Chicago who is "chrono-displaced," which means that he time travels, and the young woman he is meant to be with, Clare. The book is written in a way that allows their long and passionate story to unfold uniquely--we get scenes from Clare's childhood, where Henry visits her from the present, interspersed with scenes from their present together, as they are just meeting. It sounds complicated and confusing, but it's totally worth the read. (It's being made into a movie with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams...I'm not sure how I feel about that.)

Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem:
Another book I say is required for all boys to read. Lethem tells the story of two young men (one black and one white) through their childhoods and close friendship in Brooklyn through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, as Brooklyn changes drastically around them, forcing them to notice and come to terms with the differences between them. The twist here is an incredible element of magical realism, as the children seem to encounter and maybe become superheroes.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer:
My confession is I've never read Everything is Illuminated, Safran Foer's first novel. However, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is another solid favorite of mine. Oskar Schell is a 9-year-old boy trying to make sense of his father's death after 9/11. He finds a key at the bottom of a vase in his father's closet and searches the city, trying to discover what the key might be for. Oskar is an inspired and remarkable young narrator, who bravely traverses a busy, frightening city to try to reconnect with a father he doesn't understand how he lost.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
Perhaps an obvious choice. But I've read this book upwards of five times, and it really is one of those books that means something different in each era in which I read it. I remember writing a book report about it when I was 11 or 12, remarking on how it had a little bit of everything: comedy, drama, horror. I've read it several times since and still believe and appreciate that.

I'll keep thinking...

a not-so-guilty pleasure

I bought Tori Spelling's memoir sTORI Telling with a gift certificate, started reading it late last night, spent 4 hours finishing it today, and cried at the end.

And I'm NOT ASHAMED!

In case you didn't know, I'm moving. Again.

I am currently in a swiftly-emptying room. 6 boxes packed and probably 4-5 more to go. Right now is probably the first time I've felt relieved about the packing job all month. I only have books left to conquer, which of course, is the bulk of it. I've gotten rid of 3 bags of clothes and a big box of books, so I think I'm taking to Boston less than what I brought to Cali. Which is good. A fresh start. I got rid of articles of clothing and books that I've been carrying since high school. And I'm sure I'll get to Boston and be like...where IS that? And then I'll curse the fact that I moved again and had to purge again. Like right now, I'm thinking, I totally got rid of that abridged version of Little Women that I've been carrying around for 15 years. And that sucks. But it's also not the entire book, so it's basically less useful to me than I thought it was when I was carting it from Brooklyn to Cambria to Berkeley to Brooklyn to Soho to Brooklyn to San Luis Obispo. Or the red fleece sweater I've been carrying since high school and wore the first couple years of college. The one that I held onto when I got a wardrobe makeover, despite my friends' insensitive protests. It's hung in like 7 closets unnecessarily. But it's still sad to get rid of it. I feel like I need a ceremony.

I hate this part. It's like a very painful shedding of my skin. And it's also the anticipation of mourning parts of my history and childhood when, one day, I'll really want to have some of those artifacts. To reminisce over. To show my kids. Too bad it's so expensive to get that stuff back across the country.

Update: After I wrote this, I went down to the garage and fished out the abridged version of Little Women. Some things just need to be held onto.

Update, #2: The heaviest box I'll pack will be the one with the memento box of programs I've kept from as far back as The Doll's House and She Loves Me, both seen around 1994.

thought of the moment, 11: everyone should read it

The Time Traveler's Wife is such a good book, I haven't even been listening to my iPod while I read it on the train!

(My brother bought it for me. He thought I'd dig it. He was right.)

who's seen me and you and everyone we know?

Check this fun link out! I think I have to read her book.

Follow-up: I take it back. I'm not into her writing. But you should all still see her movie.

a little fiasco

So I'm reading my old copy of Little Women (which I never finished when I was little because I was afraid Beth's death would give me nightmares). This copy is so old, my 7 or 8 year old handwriting is in the front cover, demanding anyone who finds it to "return if missing."

I am inhaling this book, having loved the movie (and Christian Bale) so much, and getting excited about all the drama to come, weeping almost openly on the subway about Beth's piano and Mr. March's return, when...it suddenly ends after John proposes to Meg. I ONLY HAVE PART ONE!

So, off to Barnes & Noble I went! I wonder what happens next!

SLP has all the answers

Big up to Suzan-Lori Parks. She's the coolest.

From "All the Answers," 365 Days/365 Plays
Ive got all the answers. Heres a selection:
Learn to say no.
Learn to say yes.
Roll with the punches.
Show up but also
know when to go.
Exercise.
Vote!
Celebrate yr birthdays.
(Rest)
Show up.
Work with whatcha got.

But Enough about Me...

I read Jancee Dunn's book and related to it so much, I wrote her a fan letter and sent her this review, hoping to get some attention as a writer.

It didn't work.

But the book is still really good.

A Nobody Finds Herself
--June 2006

I recently had a birthday, and my mother asked me what I wanted. I hadn’t thought about possible answers to that question for years because the answer is always inevitably “money,” as impersonal as that seems. But since, this year, my mom is a little strapped for cash, I gave the question its due attention.

I spend an embarrassing amount of time surfing the web at work. I pore over celebrity news and entertainment blogs, almost as compulsively as I check my personal email. One of these blogs had an announcement about Jancee Dunn’s memoir, “But Enough About Me…a Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous.” It was one of those purchases that I probably never would have been able to justify making myself, but I was eager to read any and all celebrity factoids (since my livelihood and social life are greatly based on useless celebrity trivia), so I added it to the list of things I wanted for my birthday. This list also included My So-Called Life, The Breakfast Club, and Say Anything…on DVD. I figured my mother could make a more educated choice, and I would be more surprised, if I gave her a range of items to choose from.

My birthday arrived and I opened my package from Amazon.com. Inside sat Dunn’s book, and, after I finished the book I had been reading, I eagerly began it and found I couldn’t put it down.

Written as part handbook for young journalists and part memoir, in which the passages dedicated to her parents and her sisters are the most vivid and moving, the book flies by before your eyes. It’s the kind of book that’s perfect for reading on the New York City subway (the same one you imagine Dunn may be riding, once you discover she lives there too!), the kind of book that is so engrossing you almost miss your stop and never hear the music you’re listening to on your iPod while you ride to work in the morning.

We follow Dunn from her awkward and self-deprecating adolescence to her awkward and self-deprecating adulthood. Even her dedication at the beginning of the book declares, through the words of Emily Dickinson, that she is “nobody.” From her mid-teen years in New Jersey, when New York City seemed like a whole other country, to her stumbles through employment at Rolling Stone, MTV, Good Morning America, and New York Magazine in the city that once seemed so far away, and finally to a reconnection with herself and the family she hadn’t even thought to learn more about. It struck me, though, that for someone to have such luck in the writing and entertainment industry, there’s no way she could be as awkward and fumbly as she portrays herself. This woman may be a self-proclaimed geek, but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t cool.

Her first cringe-worthy Q and As at Rolling Stone, with the odd couple of Mary Tyler Moore and Johnny Rotten (not simultaneously, of course) affirm her early admission of geekdom. But the interlude chapters that shed light on how to make the best of sticky interview situations prove that Dunn eventually hit her stride beautifully. It is Dunn’s honesty and earnestness that are undoubtedly the traits these “absurdly famous” respond to. Dunn seems to be a wide open book, eager for connection, and desperate never to make a fool of herself or anyone else. She is on the celebrities’ side. She wants them to look good, and she wants to tell the truth about them, even when she has to ask them about their very public mistakes. She is as relieved as we are when they respond thoughtfully (thank you Robert Downey, Jr.); and she writes honest and generous articles about her subjects (the anecdotes about Loretta Lynn’s and Christina Aguilera’s reactions to her articles about them made me almost weep openly on the subway, as Kelly Clarkson belted “Breakaway” in my ear).

Dunn is not shy about pointing the interrogation lamp at herself. She is brutally honest about the fights she has with her family (about college and money and her need for independence), her unlucky love life (with the abrasive and immature Ritchie, the controlling and dull Sean, and the lazy and irresponsible Trevor), her uncertainties about marriage and motherhood (as she observes her friends and her sisters beginning to settle down and create their own families), and the serious mistakes she makes as she begins to forget who she is in the fog of her “Rock Chick” lifestyle.

In the end, it is her family that holds her up and gets her back on her feet (literally after a severe coke binge, her brother-in-law Patrick carries her to the toilet so she can vomit, after generously making her a grilled cheese sandwich and regaling her with his own pre-sobriety stories). It is her father’s constant cheeriness, her mother’s strength and unexpected vulnerability (another tear-inducing episode on the train), and her sisters’ unfaltering loyalty that remind Dunn who she is and has always been. And the “happily ever after” ending doesn’t hurt either.

“But Enough About Me…” is a veritable blueprint for ambitious writers and young people trying to make it in this potentially crushing city. But the most striking and resonating message I was left with is that, absurdly famous or not, we are all human. And in this culture so fixated on success, when we beat ourselves up because we don’t look like the women in the magazines and haven’t yet made our first million, when we become impatient because we don’t even know what we’re doing with our lives yet, it’s a lovely reminder.