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I Feel Bad About My Neck
And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman
by Nora Ephron

I Feel Bad About My Neck reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 70 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.5 out of 10
based on 10 reviews
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how did we calculate this?
based on 20 votes
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Author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron offers a series of humorous essays on what it means to be an aging woman.

Knopf, 160 pages
08/01/2006
$19.95

ISBN: 0307264556

Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Essays
Humor

What The Critics Said

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
There's something earnest at the heart of Ephron's writing, always has been, and it's probably the last thing she'd ever want to acknowledge.
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Kim Moritsugu
Ephron's friendly, between-us-women tone -- harder to effect than it looks -- draws readers in, but her talent for shaping random, real-life events into well-constructed stories is what makes her writing satisfy.
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Publishers Weekly Toni Bentley
Ephron's witty riffs on these distractions are a delightful antidote to the prevailing belief that everything can be held up with surgical scaffolding and the drugs of denial. [5 June 2006, p.46]
Kirkus Reviews
One doesn't need to be a post-menopausal New Yorker with a liberal outlook and comfortable income to enjoy Ephron's take on life, but those who fit the profile will surely relish it most. [15 May 2006, p.504]
The New York Times Janet Maslin
Some things don’t change. It’s good to know that Ms. Ephron’s wry, knowing X-ray vision is one of them.
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The New York Times Book Review Liesl Schillinger
This current gatherum of hard and funny truths spares neither the author’s pride nor her audience’s, but it does salve wounds, and many of Ephron’s insights are bound to come in handy.
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Christian Science Monitor April Austin
It is clever enough to qualify as more than just an assemblage of one-liners. Whether you agree with her observations or not, Ephron's perspective as an admittedly high-maintenance, New York-dwelling, successful screenwriter will keep you entertained.
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The Guardian Lionel Shriver
Sweetly packaged in an undersized format, this admittedly slight collection - much of which has been published previously in magazines - imparts a few nuggets of wisdom that you can take to the bank.
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Washington Post Bunny Crumpacker
A kind of retrospective -- wry and amusing, as you'd expect, but also a bit strained and sad. It's a condensation of a life graced with privilege, which can make empathizing with Ephron a bit difficult.
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New York Observer Anna Shapiro
Whether fiction or non-, however, her wonderful, entertaining narratives lose the kick of seriousness when the subject is your pal Nora Ephron, but I suspect it doesn’t have to be that way—if she lives and writes long enough.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this book is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

M P gave it a10:
by the first couple of chapters, i felt a true kinship to Nora Ephron! .. by the end, i decided that Nora Ephron was, indeed, my long-lost quirky but favorite jewish aunt, whose knack for documenting the oddities & humor of life's moments had been genetically passed on to me, her 27 year old african american niece who is also, in fact, in love with New York City! I can't wait to read it again. (I had no idea I am what is called a "Mouse Potato"!) Having said that, from reading some of the other comments, I do believe you have to possess a certain type of sensibility on "life" to really feel so passionately about her book. and i can totally see how a more conventional thinker wouldn't dig it...

Jane D gave it an8:
I really did enjoy this book, just finished it yesterday. Such great insights into aging and many times I felt like she was reading my mind! I am eager to read more of her works.

Anne W gave it a1:
I began reading this book, anticipating laughs and smiles. None came! It was tiring to force myself to fionish th efirst essay and noen of the others held my attention for very long. But I have seen several newspaper and magazine articles about how to smooth neck wrinkles and hide them, so maybe the book wasn't written in "vain".

Susan J gave it a1:
This book was a total disappointment. I expected so much more from such a talented writer. It was an exceptionally boring read and came across as nothing more than a hastily assembled collection of rather depressing odds and ends that have taken place in Ms. Ephron's life. This offering is just a gratuitous cash-in on a talented career that really fails to deliver the goods.

Kathy F gave it a5:
Either I am not old enough or have not done enough to appreciate this book. I have however written down some of the books that did cause "reading rapture".

Mary S. gave it a2:
I received it as a gift. I didn't think very much of it...a waste. From the title, I never would've chose it on my own.

Judy V gave it a10:
I loved this book! Absolutely loved this book! I did not even realize that I could so completely relate to a woman who lives halfway across the world from me, and who is from a pretty different background, but I swear, she and I must be twins. I wish I could move to New York City and be her best friend. Maybe I could have little imaginary conversations with her as I cook meals for dinner parties. Forget that I don't cook at all and never have dinner parties. Maybe I will learn to cook and start to have dinner parties, just so I can have imaginary conversations with her. Maybe I can have imaginary conversations with her about the fact that I don't cook. I'm sure she would say it's all right.

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