I Feel Bad About My Neck (And Other Thoughts About Being A Woman), By Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron.... Nora Ephron... where do you know that name from? It sounds familiar...

Remember a few films called You've Got Mail?, Sleepless in Seattle, and When Harry Met Sally? She was behind all of them. (Come to think of it, she's responsible for about half of Meg Ryan's career!)

I Feel Bad About My Neck... is a collection of various essays she's written over the years for various other publications, and they have the same distinctive tone as her films: quiet, amusing while not usually laugh-out-loud, and easygoing. While this made for a vanilla-colored read, it was also a pleasurable and relaxing one that simultaneously took my mind off of any concerns without stirring up any additional stressors. In fact, one of the things I specifically like about collections like this is that they are easy to put down, but also easy to pick right back up.

Ephron's book opens with the title essay, and discusses the full littany of biological woes that come with aging, albeit in a much more humerous and affectionate way than my Great-Aunt Jane did at our Thanksgiving table one memorable year. In fact, affection is a theme that binds the essays together. She discusses her love affair with various cookbooks and chefs, her three marriages, even penning an ode to her former apartment building, with the emotion and self-depreciation that are prominent in her films. Even political relationships are touched upon with a light and tickling pen, not a heavy quill, and she avoids current events entirely, instead focusing on her jilted-lover feelings for Bill Clinton, and her status as the only JFK White House intern to not have had a fling with the king of Camelot. In this election year, her restraint was more than refreshing.

All in all, this was worth a check-out at the local library. It is not something I would refer to time and time again, so I wouldn't recommend a purchase on this one, but if you need to unwind before bed, or if you're hiding in the bathroom from your kids, spending five minutes with Ephron will be an updated form of Calgon. Heck, it's not like many of us are alone in the bathroom, anyway, so you might as well bring someone that will make you smile, and not make comments.

Rating: Three stars out of five: a quick and pleasant jaunt into non-controversial fluffiness