Bring your baggage and don't pack light : essays /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Doubleday, [2021]Copyright date: 2021Edition: First editionDescription: 176 pages ; 20 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780385546157
- 0385546157
- 9780593081686
- 0593081684
- Bring your baggage and do not pack light
- 814/.54 B 23
- PS3555.L5965 Z46 2021
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | 817 ELLIS (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023071942 | |||
Standard Loan | Hayden Library Adult Biography | Hayden Library | Book | ELLIS-ELLIS (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610023199420 | |||
Standard Loan | Liberty Lake Library Adult Biography | Liberty Lake Library | Book | BIO ELLIS ELL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 31421000678285 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with a viciously funny, deeply felt collection of essays on friendship among grown-ass women.
When Helen Ellis and her lifelong friends arrive for a reunion on the Redneck Riviera, they unpack more than their suitcases- stories of husbands and kids; lost parents and lost jobs; powdered onion dip and photographs you have to hold by the edges; dirty jokes and sunscreen with SPF higher than they hair-sprayed their bangs senior year; and a bad mammogram. It's a diagnosis that scares them, but could never break their bond. Because women pushing fifty won't be pushed around.
In these twelve gloriously comic and moving essays, Helen Ellis dishes on married middle-age sex, sobs with a theater full of women as a psychic exorcises their sorrows, gets twenty shots of stomach bile to the neck to get rid of her double chin, and gathers up the courage to ask, "Are you there, Menopause? It's Me, Helen."
A book that reads like the best cocktail party of your life, Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light is chockablock with fabulous characters- cat-lady plastic surgeons and waterpark Adonises; bridge ladies and poker players; platinum medallion fliers and Garage Sale Swindlers; forty-year-old divorcees; fifty-year-old new moms and still-young octogenarians. Alive with the sensational humor and ferocious love for her friends that won Helen Ellis legions of fans, this book has a raw vulnerability and an emotional generosity that takes this acclaimed author to a whole new level of accomplishment.
Grown-ass ladies gone mild -- She's a Character -- Happy birthday, you're still fuckable! -- She's young -- Are you there, menopause? It's me, Helen -- Call me -- The back-up plan -- The last garage dale -- My kind of people -- I'm a believer! -- I go Greyhound! -- There's a lady at the poker table -- I feel better about my neck.
"The bestselling author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code returns with a viciously funny collection of literary essays on love, family, and friendship among grown-ass women"--
In gloriously comic and moving essays, Ellis shares thoughts on friendship among grown women. She dishes on married middle-age sex, sobs with a theater full of women as a psychic exorcises their sorrows, gets twenty shots of stomach bile to the neck to get rid of her double chin, and gathers up the courage to ask, "Are you there, Menopause? It's Me, Helen." -- adapted from jacket
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Ellis (Southern Lady Code; American Housewife) returns with another collection of humorous essays on friendship. This witty volume goes beyond tired old adages to explore what friends will do for one another. In Ellis's stories about being a last-minute birthing partner, supporting a friend through cancer, backdoor plastic surgery, and riding Greyhound buses, she posits that there's no limit on how far a friendship can go. She even explores the joy of being a second-best friend or a backup buddy--less pressure, more benefits! Each of the 12 essays features a revolving cast of Ellis's friends and acquaintances who will leave listeners cackling with delight. The audiobook is enchantingly narrated by the author herself, which lends to its relatability and hilarity. VERDICT This collection manages to be poignant and emotional while still being facetious, dirty, sassy, and laugh-out-loud funny. Perfect for fans of Jenny Lawson and David Sedaris.--Erin Cataldi, Johnson Cty. P.L., Franklin, INPublishers Weekly Review
Novelist Ellis (Southern Lady Code) shines in this collection of essays that lovingly underscores the importance of having a circle of close friends. Ellis begins the collection with "Grown Ass Ladies Gone Mild," an account of a trip to Panama City, Fla., with four of her childhood friends. Though they have been through a lot, when they get together the years fade away: "we see each other like we first saw each other: young." Charming and frank life lessons ensue: "Are You There, Menopause? It's Me, Helen" sees her using humor to laugh through the discomforts of hot flashes and weight gain with a group of friends she calls "The Bridge Ladies." "I Feel Better About My Neck" covers Ellis's experience getting a neck lift after tagging along as a friend got Botox at what seemed like a back-alley operation, while in "She's a Character," she dishes on what it means to be the life of the party. Ellis balances intimacy, humor, and directness: "I was not put on this earth to make strangers take me seriously." The result is a candid, funny reminder that one need not take life too seriously. Agent: Brettne Bloom, the Book Group. (July)Booklist Review
With titles such as "She's Young," "Grown-ass Ladies Gone Mild," and "I Feel Better about My Neck," it's evident aging weighs on the mind and psyche of best-selling humorist Ellis (Southern Lady Code, 2019). Whether she's skewering the indignities of menopause or grappling with the allure of Botox, Ellis tackles these annoyances as she does whatever else life tosses her way, with a simmering sense of "what the heck?" tempered by a bubbly dose of "why the heck not?" Growing older may be getting under her distressingly sagging skin, but soldiering on is made so much sweeter through treasured friendships, old and new, and embracing the healing power of kindred spirits. With the ongoing pandemic, many are in need of a good laugh. Thankfully, Ellis' essays deliver hilarity on every page, providing the perfect way to get one's socially distanced jollies. A seasoned Manhattanite by way of Alabama, Ellis entertains with a spicy blend of good-ol'-gal snark and seasoned urban savvy, disarming folks with her tongue-in-cheek Southern belle charm and shocking the unsuspecting with her flinty, no-nonsense persona.Kirkus Book Review
The author of American Housewife and Southern Lady Code cuts loose with uproarious observations on friendship, middle age, and her own life. In this essay collection, Ellis considers her everyday world from the perspective of a quirky midlife Southern woman who sees the lighter side of everything, including dire situations. In the first piece, "Grown-Ass Ladies Gone Mild," the author recounts a series of excursions with childhood friends. Just before the first trip, one friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. Through quasi-adolescent hijinks--including zany water park rides, an evening at a Smoky Mountain theater watching Long Island Medium Theresa Caputo, and a text-message celebration of the friend's new breast implants--Ellis and her friends strengthened their "lady gang" bonds in defiance of death. Another essay, "Are You There Menopause? It's Me, Helen" satirizes Judy Blume's classic, Are Your There God? It's Me, Margaret. Ellis observes how the unpredictable, sometimes embarrassing bodily changes brought on by the climacteric are just like puberty. The only difference is that women, rather than boys, are "the ones who get a mustache." Other essays showcase the author's deadpan humor, such as the mock-manifesto "I'm a Believer!" There, Ellis lets her "freak flag" fly and writes, "I believe in what goes around comes around, reincarnation, and time travel, so my idea of heaven is being Betty White on Match Game." In "There's a Lady at the Poker Table," Ellis cheerfully details how the same Southern lady "primness" she undercuts throughout the book helped make her a formidable opponent in the all-male world of high-stakes poker. This smart, sassy, page-turning collection will appeal to fans of the author's work as well as anyone who enjoys the quick-witted jocularity of a singular Southern woman who refuses to let anything--or anyone--get her down. Like her previous books, this one is darkly hilarious and nearly always on-point. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.Author notes provided by Syndetics
HELEN ELLIS is the author of Southern Lady Code, American Housewife and Eating the Cheshire Cat. Raised in Alabama, she lives with her husband in New York City. You can find her on Twitter @WhatIDoAllDay and Instagram @HelenEllisAuthor.There are no comments on this title.