Overview

"Acclaimed essayist and bookseller Mary Laura Philpott presents a charmingly relatable and wise memoir-in-essays about what happened after she checked off all the boxes on her successful life's to-do list and realized she might need to reinvent the list--and herself. Mary Laura Philpott thought she'd cracked the code: Always be right, and you'll always be happy. But once she'd completed her life's to-do list (job, spouse, house, babies--check!), she found that instead of feeling content and successful, she felt anxious. Lost. Stuck in a daily grind of overflowing calendars, grueling small talk, and sprawling traffic. She'd done everything ""right,"" but she felt all wrong. What's the worse failure, she wondered: smiling and staying the course, or blowing it all up and running away? And are those the only options? In this memoir-in-essays full of spot-on observations about home, work, and creative life, Philpott takes on the conflicting pressures of modern adulthood with wit and heart. She offers up her own stories to show that identity crises don't happen just once or only at midlife; reassures us that small, recurring personal re-inventions are both normal and necessary; and advises that if you're going to faint, you should get low to the ground first. Most of all, Philpott shows that when you stop feeling satisfied with your life, you don't have to burn it all down and set off on a transcontinental hike (unless you want to, of course). You can call upon your many selves to figure out who you are, who you're not, and where you belong. Who among us isn't trying to do that? Like a pep talk from a sister, I Miss You When I Blink is the funny, poignant, and deeply affecting book you'll want to share with all your friends, as you learn what Philpott has figured out along the way: that multiple things can be true of us at once--and that sometimes doing things wrong is the way to do life right."

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9781508278771

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Reviews

Mary Laura Philpott is the friend you call when you want to cry but need to laugh. What a treat to spend time with her distinctive voice as she plumbs life's quotidian moments to unearth deeper, universal truths. Wry, intelligent, and searingly honest, this book is a joy. -- Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest Infinitely relatable. Beautifully written. I'm ready to read it again. -- Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author Mary Laura Philpott is a writer, artist, and creator of singular spark and delight. I adore her, and I love her work. Thank God she has finally written a memoir! By offering these dispatches from her own life experience, she leaves us thinking about ourselves-where we've been, where we're going, and who we really want to be. -- Elizabeth Gilbert, #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Laura Philpott is relentlessly funny, self-effacing, and charming as she tells the story of living as a triple-A-plus perfectionist. -- Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Mary Laura Philpott is relentlessly funny, self-effacing, and charming as she tells the story of living as a triple-A-plus perfectionist. -- Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Mary Laura Philpott's writing has been featured in the New York Times; the Washington Post; the Los Angeles Times; McSweeney's; the Paris Review; O, The Oprah Magazine; and other publications. She's the founding editor of Musing, the online magazine of Parnassus Books, as well as an Emmy-winning cohost of the literary interview show A Word on Words on Nashville Public Television. She lives in Nashville with her family

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