I Feel Bad About My Neck And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman [Hardcover]

Nora Ephron (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 137 pages
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; 3rd edition (2006)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00161C1X6
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (390 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #452,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Witty, clever but leightweight..., December 15, 2006

By 

Cynthia K. Robertson (beverly, new jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (Hardcover)

Nora Ephron is witty, clever and has her finger on the pulse of American women everywhere in her delightful book, I Feel Bad About My Neck: and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. My only complaint is that at 137 pages (and small pages at that), it's a rather lightweight book.

Ephron writes about so many of the problems we women face: hairstyles, maintenance routines, raising children, empty nesting, reading glasses, cooking, purses, living in New York City, aging, and the death of good friends. Some of her observations are brutally honest. She talks about how a neck is a telltale sign of aging. "The neck is a dead giveaway. Our faces are lies and our necks are the truth. You have to cut open a redwood tree to see how old it is, but you wouldn't have to do that if it had a neck." She has a refreshing list of "What I Wish I'd Known" including "Never marry a man you wouldn't want to be divorced from" and "The empty nest is underrated."

I' m not real big on make-up routines, I wear glasses all the time and love my poker-straight hair. So some of her musings I found funny but didn't necessarily relate. But where Ephron and I see eye to eye is about reading. "Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel I've accomplished something, learned something, become a better person." One of my favorite chapters is "On Rapture," about the state of rapture she feels when she discovers a good book. She also lists some books that changed her life. The chapters where she discusses reading are the best in the book.

I Feel Bad About My Neck got raves from most of the book critics that reviewed this book. While I enjoyed it, I just was expecting more from Ephron.

291 of 320 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enough with denial - embrace it ;-), August 2, 2006

By 

Little Miss Cutey (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (Hardcover)

I've loved Nora Ephron ever since Sleepless In Seattle and You've Got Mail. Heartburn (which she wrote) turned into a hit film, and so I knew when I saw that she wrote another book again, I thought I'd pick it up. It's a collection of amusing essays all about growing older.

She says that there are so many books out there about what to do after menopause etc, but none addressed your neck change as you age so she thought this was a cute and funny title.

She talks about maintenance being a second career because a lot of women are pre-empting age. For example, hair dying, botox etc. She talks about her husbands theory of women either being birds, muffins or horses and that is the shape of your face. If you are a muffin, you can have a zillion face lifts and be fine, but other shaped faces - not so much.

She talks more seriously about reaching 60 and start loosing friends. You have to come to grips with reality and realise that we aren't invincible and won't die - it's getting closer to being on the cards.

She also mentions things she wishes she'd known; You can't be friends with people who call after 11pm, Write everything down, Back up your files etc. She's very funny (a very dry sense of humour) and it shows through this book. It's a good read that is sometimes serious but overall will be thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining. If you are a fan of her movies, you will definately love I Feel Bad About My Neck ...

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Title misnomer, November 5, 2006

By 

Eva Wardlow "seeker" (Houston) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman (Hardcover)

I was ready for some light reading and selected this title because of its allusion to how tiresome it is to put up with the "one down" role women carry in society. It turned out to be a self-centered litany of unfunny situations.