• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 August #1
  Weiner lays her heart bare in this memoir, a chronologically structured collection of essays that follows her life from childhood to the present day. She explores her lifelong struggle to escape being "Fat Jenny"; the pain of losing her father (first, to divorce and then to a drug overdose after years of estrangement); her mother's coming-out; the struggles she faced as a new mom. She also muses about her unexpected turn as champion of women writers. Some readers may be surprised to learn that Weiner found her feminist voice as she struggled to fit in at Princeton, where she was taught creative writing by Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates. This portion of the book is insightful and affecting and affirms exactly why Weiner is so popular—she is gifted in the ability to write honestly and easily. In one essay, she talks about how reading Nora Ephron is "more like sitting down for coffee with a friend than listening to a capital-A Author deliver pronouncements from on high." The same can be said here, in spades.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Many of the themes in Weiner's memoir will be quite familiar to her legion of fans, because they shape her novels. This only adds to the pleasure of finding out more about Weiner and her life. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen books, including Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, the children&;s book The Littlest Bigfoot, and an essay collection, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing. A graduate of Princeton University and contributor to the New York Times Opinion section, Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.