Have You Read Nora Ephron Yet?

Hi Readers! I am completely determined & have worshiped myself to reading these days. I have read 4 books so far in May. And two among them are written by Nora Ephron. I am always looking for new books to read. So, I essentially ignore the unread books which stare at me from my bookshelf, to go online & download other books. It's so good that I don’t have this attitude in real life, haha!

So, among one of my surfing sprees, I found a list of books to read among which there was this book named ‘I Remember Nothing’ by Nora Ephron. What caught my attention was the description which read, ‘If you read this in a train, then people will give you weird glances because you will be laughing all the time!’ So, of course I had to read it. Who doesn’t love laughing in a train while reading a book & freaking people out? So, here we go!

~~NORA EPHRON~~

When I started reading the book, I came across her other work & then I realized why the name was so familiar. She has written scripts for movies which are my favourites – ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ & ‘You’ve Got Mail’. Now that I have your attention (because it’s impossible for anyone to not LOVE these movies), let’s talk about her more, shall we?

These two books are essentially essay collections relatable mostly to women of any generation. Some are hands down the funniest stories you might have read. While a few others are more simple like something we talk about over dinner. From Nora’s writing, you can understand that she is quite funny & all too relatable. I cannot stress this enough. Relatable. Relatable. Relatable. In both her books, she talks about her personal life in such a way that you will go… “ME TOO!!” or “This is like reading my own story!” or “Hahahahaha!” Narrowing it down to her books now.

~~I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK: AND OTHER THOUGHTS ON BEING A WOMAN~~

This is the first book of essay collections written by Nora which was amazingly well-liked. I read this book after I read the second one. It definitely has more stories about her personal life & lessons she has learnt.

She has written about common problems that females face, such as how the neck doesn’t hide your age & the struggles of carrying around a purse & hair dye & having all clothes in the colour black & being high-maintenance! She talks about the impact of infidelity in marriage. She talks about 2 divorces & finding love a third time. She talks about parenting & all the struggles of it & also the realities. She fondly expresses her love for her apartment & also talks about the heartbreak when that one recipe from that one tiny restaurant which suddenly disappears leaving her bereft. How can anyone not laugh at such close-to-heart incidences? Some time or the other, we all have faced such things! And, to know someone else has to & has turned it into a humorous narrative is more than I can ask for!

~~Some lines from the book~~

About Hair-

“Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.”

About Love-

“Years pass and you say to yourself, was I really in love, or was I just kidding myself? Was I really in love, or was I just pretending he was the man of my dreams? Was I really in love, or was I just desperate?”

“It’s much easier to get over someone if you can delude yourself into thinking you never really cared that much.”

About Books & Reading-

“I read these novels in a state of suspense so intense that you would never guess I have read them all at least ten times before.”

“Every so often I look up from the book and see a roomful of people waiting for me to make a decision about whether the music is too soft or the thunder is too loud, and I can’t believe they don’t understand that what I’m doing is Much More Important. I’m reading the most wonderful book.”

About the Truth:

“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.”

“We know in one part of our brains that we are all going to die, but on some level we don’t quite believe it.”

~~I REMEMBER NOTHING: AND OTHER REFLECTIONS~~

This was the first book I read by Nora Ephron. She has written this in her late years when she is old & doesn’t remember things. She writes about forgetting names of people in such a way that you do feel bad for her, but on the other hand the sequence of the story is so funny that you have to laugh at the whole thing!

She also talks about the early stages of her career in journalism while hinting at vast gender inequality which prevailed in 1900s. She talks about marriage & divorce. She opens up about her flops. She expresses her opinions about the boom of technology. Some chapters are filled with her personal stories while some others are little stories. I think my favourite chapters are the ones which involve food – ‘My Life as a Meat Loaf’ & ‘Christmas Dinner’. The writing is such that it has a subtle underlying sense of humour.

I liked this one more than the first one. It was simply funnier & more relatable. I honestly need to question myself on how is it possible that I relate to a 70-year old lady.

Both of them are pretty straight forward and don’t have a lot of direct humour. It’s just an underlying humour which translates the tragic every-day events into something funny & relatable. I have given both the books a 3.5/5 on Goodreads.

~~Some lines from the book~~

About Gender Inequality-

“If you were a college graduate (like me) who had worked on your college newspaper (like me) and you were a girl (like me), they hired you as a mail girl. If you were a boy (unlike me) with exactly the same qualifications, they hired you as a reporter and sent you to a bureau somewhere in America.”

About Desserts-

“Here’s the thing about dessert- you want it to last. Dessert is so delicious. It’s so sweet. It’s so bad for you so much of the time. And, as with all bad things, you want it to last as long as possible. But you can’t make it last if they give you a great big spoon to eat it with. You’ll gobble up your dessert in two big gulps. Then it will be gone. And the meal will be over. Why don’t they get this? It’s so obvious. It’s so obvious.”

About the Truth-

“It’s my experience that no one but your very close friends is truly interested in your children.”

About Love & Pain-

“I remember the pain. What you really forget is love.”

I hope I have inspired you all to pick these books up, especially all the ladies out there! If you know of any similar books which are possibly more funny then let me know in the comments below!!

And, I promise, Kochi will be up next! Very soon!!

Until next time,