I Feel Bad About My Neck cover art

I Feel Bad About My Neck

And Other Thoughts On Being a Woman

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I Feel Bad About My Neck

By: Nora Ephron
Narrated by: Nora Ephron, Dolly Alderton
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Now with an introduction from Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love, revealing how a new generation of women can take inspiration from Nora's sharp wit and wisdom about life.

* Never marry a man you wouldn't want to be divorced from.

* If the shoe doesn't fit in the shoe store, it's never going to fit.

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

* If only one third of your clothes are mistakes, you're ahead of the game.

* Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for by the age of forty-five.

'So bold and so vulnerable at the same time. I don't know how she did it' - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

'I give this as a present more than other book. I buy it for people so often that I've been known to give girlfriends two copies, one birthday after another' - Dolly Alderton

'I am only one of millions of women who will miss Nora's voice' Lena Dunham

'Oh how I loved Nora Ephron' Nigella Lawson

'Funny, knowing and smart' India Knight

'The book that most influenced me' Lily Allen

'Nora's exacting, precise, didactic, tried-and-tested, sophisticated-woman-wearing-all-black wisdom is a comfort and a relief' Dolly Alderton

© Nora Ephron 2006 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Aging & Longevity Aging Parents Art & Literature Entertainment & Celebrities Gender Studies Journalists, Editors & Publishers Love, Dating & Attraction Marriage & Long-Term Partnerships Motherhood Parenting & Families Personal Development Relationships Social Sciences Sociology Women Funny

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Critic reviews

The book that most influenced me... It triggered me to write my own book, and ask myself questions about who I was, what kind of woman I am and how the world had shaped me.
Few will troll these droll selections without being charmed to bits... Recall how hard it was last year to find a present for Mother's Day that wasn't yet one more box of chocolate? Remember this book. You'll thank me. It's perfect
What's refreshing about Ephron is that she refuses to entertain any illusions about the terrible fate that awaits us. What's great about her is that she makes the truth about life so funny when it should be so grim
Wildly funny
An uncanny ability to sound like your best friend, whoever you are
Laugh-out-loud
One of the smartest, slickest looks at being a woman growing older... a bit like having your own clever film narrator's voice accompanying you through the sticky bits of life: the grief of a sagging neck, the joy of a good handbag, the unremitting loss of a best friend and the effort of facing up to no longer being 50
Nobody does it funnier
Lots of good jokes, and a wonderfully amusing read
Had me in complete fits of laughter
All stars
Most relevant
Loved Dolly Alderton’s preface and the fact that it was read in the author’s own voice. I’d read this in my 30s and enjoyed it but it resonated so much more clearly on listening to it in my 50s.

Badly edited, in that a part of the chapter on food crops up again in the chapter on books, but that’s an editing problem and not a reflection on the book itself.

Perfect, funny and true.

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I ordered this audiobook for Fran and thought I’d listen to it myself because I quite enjoyed “Heartburn” and I’m a big fan of “When Harry Met Sally…”. As the title suggests, these are a series of comical essays about being a women, from trying to hide your neck when you get older to the tedium of “maintenance”, and her various relationships (real and imagined) with chefs and authors of cookbooks. It was quite short and also, at times, a little dated (first published in 2006 but written about the 70s, 80s, and 90s). The audiobook version is narrated by Nora Ephron herself and she’s delightful company. There are many parts of her personality that remind me (affectionately) of Fran. But, as with “Heartburn”, there are other parts of her worldview that I find more challenging, and which made me a little sad: sad about all the shit some women have to deal with; sad that couples philander and break up; sad that some women care so much about handbags or wear shoes that don’t actually fit them and actively harm their feet; sad that people have plastic surgery to try to hide the inevitable fact of ageing. I’m not saying Nora Ephron is into all of these things (she’s not). I don’t really know what I’m saying. So maybe I should stop. The point is: it made me a little uneasy at times. But maybe that’s a good thing. I guess I was hoping for more of a comfort read.

Good company but not always a comfort read

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This book is excellent but the recordings is bad one story jumps the next is broken and has the last story repeating in the middle and they starts up again .
Buy the book not the audiobook

Great book but the recorded is bad

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Well written and read stories about the author and her life. Stand out ones are the last one about ageing and death. Also, the one about falling in love with a New York apartment.

Very moving essay on ageing.

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Beautifully written, wonderfully insightful, laugh out loud funny and searingly honest. Loved it and the fact that it was read by the author.

Superb

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