“Thank you to Sheila Nevins for putting all this down for posterity. Women need this kind of honest excavation of the process of living.” –Meryl StreepAn astonishingly frank, funny, poignant book for any woman who wishes they had someone who would say to them, “This happened to me, learn from my mistakes and my successes. Because you don’t get smarter as you get older, you get braver.”Sheila … you get braver.”
Sheila Nevins is the best friend you never knew you had. She is your discreet confidante you can tell any secret to, your sage mentor at work who helps you navigate the often uneven playing field, your wise sister who has “been there, done that,” your hysterical girlfriend whose stories about men will make laugh until you cry. Sheila Nevins is the one person who always tells it like it is.
In You Don’t Look Your Age, the famed documentary producer (as President of HBO Documentary Films for over 30 years, Nevins has rightfully been credited with creating the documentary rebirth) finally steps out from behind the camera and takes her place front and center.
In these pages you will read about the real life challenges of being a woman in a man’s world, what it means to be a working mother, what it’s like to be an older woman in a youth-obsessed culture, the sometimes changing, often sweet truth about marriages, what being a feminist really means, and that you are in good company if your adult children don’t return your phone calls.
So come, sit down, make yourself comfortable, (and for some of you, don’t forget the damn reading glasses). You’re in for a treat.
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You Don’t Look Your Age: And Other Fairy Tales is a fantastic collection of 45 memoirs/personal essays written by Sheila Nevins. They are incredibly honest, with some being highly emotional but most just flat out hilarious. This is a collection I will be re-reading anytime I need some validation from a strong woman about aging, the various roles we fill, or life in general. Seriously, check it out!
Note: I listened to the audiobook version of You Don’t Look Your Age: And Other Fairy Tales and it was superb. Listed below are the titles of each short-story/essay and the audiobook narrator. You may recognize a name or two 😉
1-Facing Face-lifts read by Judith Light
2-Chills in the Hot Sun read by Marlo Thomas
3-Heartbreak read by Edie Falco
4-Expensive Clothes read by Kathy Bates
5-The Elephant in the Room read by Gloria Vanderbilt
6-Separate Bedrooms for Marcia and Larry read by Cynthia Adler and John Henry Cox
7-From Cosmo to Ms. read by Lena Dunham
8-Chocolate Chemo read by Marlo Thomas
9-The Giant Named Tourette’s read by Rosie O’Donnell
10-Little Blue Pill read by Blythe Danner
11-Jeremy Hit Rock Bottom read by Ellen Burstyn
12-The Dictator, the Farmer, and the Professor read by Bob Balaban
13-To Sleep or Not to Sleep read by Martha Stewart
14-The Art of the Faux Pas read by Glenn Close
15-Eavesdropping on Adultery read by Audra McDonald
16-Par for the Course read by Alan Alda
17-Trudie Foodie read by Gayle King
18-Her Disappearing Act read by Jean Richards
19-Mammogram Day read by Sandra Lee
20-Labor Day Weekend Labors: A Hateful Three Days read by Lily Tomlin
21-A Dog’s Dying read by Glenn Close
22-First Kiss read by Gloria Vanderbilt
23-I Hated Teddy and Teddy Hated Me read by Lily Tomlin
24-The Humble Beginnings of My Somewhat Spiritual Self read by Diane Lane
25-Picture Perfect (Almost) read by RuPaul
26-To Lose a Child read by Gloria Vanderbilt
27-The Larry Kramer read by Christine Baranski
28-Melissa Van Holdenvas read by Janet Mock
29-A Day at Will read by Glenn Close
30-Frenemy read by Gayle King
31-Letter to a Dead Great-Aunt: A Personal Memoir read by Tovah Feldshuh
32-A Million-Dollar Smile read by Jenna Lyons
33-Eunice’s Period. Stopped. read by Gloria Steinem
34-Did You Ever See a Book Cry? read by Katie Couric
35-Advice to Women in a Male-Dominated Workplace read by Martha Stewart
36-Do You Believe in Santa Claus? read by Audra McDonald
37-The Cookie Wars: W.M. vs. Mrs. Spatz read by Edie Falco
38-Mentor Not ready by Tovah Feldshuh
39-The Day She Lost Her Jealousy at Barneys read by Diane von Furstenberg
40-Imaginary/Real read by Whoopi Goldberg
41-What’s in a Name? read by Blythe Danner
42-A Man with a Scythe Rang My Doorbell read by RuPaul
43-+1.75: An Insight read by Liz Smith
44-Gliding Gracefully into Gravity read by Lesley Stahl
45-The Wrong Kind of Hot read by Meryl Streep
great audiobook because famous people read the stories
This book is an eclectic mix of short stories and poems. The stories take you through a variety of emotions , from laughing out loud to crying and everything in between. I did enjoy some of this book. It was well written, and I feel it was honest. I can’t relate to most of it though, as I have not experienced, some of these things, and am quite certain that some of them I never will experience. Overall the bad outweighed the good. That is why I gave it 3 stars.