Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move [Hardcover]

Katherine Lanpher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2006

Katherine Lanpher, whose essays have appeared in the New York Times and More magazine, officially moved to Manhattan on a leap day, transferring from a rooted life in the Midwest to a new job, a new city, and a new sense of who she was. But re-invention is a tricky business and starting over in the middle of life isn't for the feint of heart.

Katherine Lanpher's short essay on her first six months in New York--"A Manhattan Admonition" was published last August in the New York Times op-ed page and remained on their list of most e-mailed stories for weeks. Now she has written a book chronicling how her past life and loves have prepared her for unexpected discoveries in her new home. Lanpher looks back on her marriage, her early days in newspapers, and her childhood in the Midwest. And, with startling insight, she examines her new world--how beauty is defined in New York, how the landscape differs from the Midwest, and how good food and books have been constants in her life.

The tone of her essays mixes the emotional depth of Anna Quindlen with the quirky wit of David Sedaris.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Lanpher, a journalist, spins cultural vertigo into comedy after forsaking her native Midwest for New York in 2004, at age 44, to cohost Al Franken's radio show on Air America—a gig that demands the good-natured wit and epigrammatic aplomb on display here. "I came of middle-age in Manhattan," she writes, a city in constant flux that strikes her as a fitting spot to undergo her own transitions. Recently divorced and largely friendless, she readily acknowledges the hurdles she faces in the Big Apple—compounded by the insecurity of living in a younger, slimmer city. But Lanpher finds kindness in the crowds, and her zingers (often flung at her own expense) render her narration upbeat. Though her name is linked with liberalism, her memoir's focus is more personal than political: a reflection on midlife's transition and a cultural comedy of manners, as she marks the rituals of becoming a "true New Yorker," growing savvy about everything from the corner bodega to the wheel-greasing "baksheesh." First flummoxed, then smitten, by Manhattan's "tough-love" demeanor and colorful hordes, she rehashes her "fish-out-of-water" encounters with poignant candor and unconcealed wonder, all in a quest to find a way to call Manhattan home. (Oct.)
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About the Author

Katherine Lanpher was most recently the co-host on "The Al Franken Show." Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and More magazine, as well as several regional newspapers. She hosts "Liberal Arts," a performance and interview show for Air America that features a diverse roster of artists and writers. Before her midlife move she was the host of Minnesota Public Radio's Midday Show.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Springboard Press; 1 edition (October 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821258303
• ISBN-13: 978-0821258309
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,214,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was a few months shy of my 45th birthday and a confirmed daughter of the prairie, a lifelong Midwesterner, when I decided to turn my life upside down and take a job in Manhattan with comedian Al Franken. Before that move, I had been pretty settled in my life as a journalist and public radio broadcaster in St. Paul, Minnesota - but when I moved to New York on Leap Day 2004, more than my address changed. My whole life changed.
I like to tell people that I moved to midlife and had a Manhattan crisis.
I don't think that midlife is necessarily a chronological point in our life; I think it can also be the moment when you realize that our time on the planet really is finite and if there is adventure to be had, we should grab it. That's why I moved to New York and that's why I found myself climbing up a two-story platform at the beginning of "Leap Days'' to take my first flight on a trapeeze.
It turns out I like to leap.
I'm a writer and broadcaster who makes her home in Manhattan now. Among my varied jobs, I'm a contributing editor for More magazine and I recently taped the pilot for a satellite radio show for More.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm always looking for a book like this., November 25, 2006

By 

Elinor Lipman "Elinor Lipman" (Northampton, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move (Hardcover)

I was drawn to this book by its premise--a mid-life move to New York--expecting witty fish-out-of-water anecdotes, and, yes, Ms. Lanpher delivered. But what I also got was a beautifully written, thoughtful, compelling memoir, insightful, funny (yet poignant), foody, and self-deprecating. I really loved this book and have been recommending it to all my friends.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting memoir, November 9, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move (Hardcover)

After spending her entire life in the Midwest, Katherine Lanpher decided to make a clean break and move to New York City to host a radio show with Al Franken. Lanpher had already made a name for herself hosting her own show in Minnesota, where she had built an active--if not completely fulfilling--life with close friends and a husband married to the theatre. Ready to start anew after her divorce, Lanpher was understandably reluctant to leave her home, but she was tempted by the idea of a national radio program and a new life in glamorous New York.

Lanpher moved to New York on leap day and makes good use of the metaphor by starting the first chapter with her trapeze lessons, another example of her attempts to open herself up to new things, no matter how scary they may be. Throughout the book, Lanpher describes her initiation into big city life: hailing and keeping a cab, cooking for one, befriending the local butcher. Her writing is candid, and she expresses an emptiness that anyone who has ever left home can understand.

In addition to her homesickness, Lanpher finds herself feeling remarkably insecure around the gaggles of young, beautiful women on every street corner. Both of these feelings Lanpher leave her wondering if she can ever fit in. Fortunately, she has a few friends to keep her connected to the frantic world around her, each one willing to dole out advice.

But Leap Days isn't just about Lanpher's life in New York. It's also about the things that have made her the person she is today: the strength and love of her parents, the sudden death of her brother, the struggle to be a serious journalist when men controlled the field, the end of a marriage but subsequential rebirth of a lifelong friendship. Lanpher examines her life thus far, accepting both the good and the bad of what got her there. And then she considers where she is going, knowing only that she has gotten closer to becoming a New Yorker and farther from the life she left behind.

Armchair Interviews says: Good story of a Midwesterner's move to NYC!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pilgrim's Progress, November 16, 2007

By 

Biggest Fan "DMD" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move (Hardcover)

If Katherine Lanpher's touching, funny, brave and darling book doesn't quicken your heart and make you want to add her to that imaginary list of dinner guests - seated right between Einstein and Cary Grant (or is it Wallace Shawn and Paul Lynde?), then I suspect you're not old enough to vote and you've probably never risked anything bigger than a bagel.

Katherine's move to New York from the Midwest at Midlife has a pioneer spirit that could stand up to anyone's idea of a covered wagon on a trip to the Promised Land. I am a born and bred New Yorker and my family has barely moved more than 200 blocks in nearly 400 years, but that journey loomed large in our family story and I believe I recognize a Pilgrim when I see one; where the limb you climb out on may, indeed, be your only reward, but also, the only reward you really want.

Let me take a moment to cheer,"Buy this book!" --- for everyone you know who's frightened of the road ahead; or brave and daring and not looking down; or settled snug, perhaps forgetting that their journeys may not have flown over miles but over roadblocks that appeared on the maps of their own imaginations. And buy it for yourself. You won't regret a page you spend with her.