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"A frank, witty, and dazzlingly written memoir of one woman trying to keep it together while her body falls apart-from the ""brilliant mind"" (Michaela Coel, creator of I May Destroy You) behind Shutterbabe ""Eye-opening, breathtaking, terrifying, enraging, but most of all heartbreakingly funny-I recommend it for everyone I know.""-Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE I'm crawling around on the bathroom floor, picking up pieces of myself. These pieces are not a metaphor. They are actual pieces. Twenty years after her iconic memoir Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken is at her darkly comedic nadir- battered, broke, divorcing, dissected, and dying-literally-on sexism's battlefield as she scoops up what she believes to be her internal organs into a glass container before heading off to the hospital . . . in an UberPool. Ladyparts isCopaken'sirreverent inventory of both the female body and the body politic of womanhood in America, the story of one woman brought to her knees by the one-two-twelve punch of divorce, solo motherhood, healthcare Frogger, unaffordable childcare, shady landlords, her father's death, college tuitions, sexual harassment, corporate indifference, ageism, sexism, and plain old bad luck. Plus seven serious illnesses, one atop the other, which provide the book's narrative skeleton- vagina, uterus, breast, heart, cervix, brain, and lungs.Copakenbounces back from each bum body part, finds workarounds for every setback-she transforms her home into a commune to pay rent,sells her soul for health insurance,turns FBI informant when her sexual harassergets a presidential appointment-but in her slippery struggle to survive a steep plunge off the middle-class ladder, she is suddenly awoken to what it means to have no safety net. Side-splittingly funny one minute, a freak horror show the next, quintessentially Americanthroughout, Ladyparts is an era-definingmemoir."

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9781984855473

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A fierce, caustic, joyful, and deeply courageous account of what it means to go through life in a female body, this book (like women ourselves) is so much greater than the sum of its parts, yet each part, and each page, is truly phenomenal. --Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex Utterly vital. Ladyparts enraged and amused me in equal measure. Deborah Copaken shows what it means to barely survive beyond the hallowed slice of privilege, where moving through the world in a woman's body can be dangerous, absurd, frustrating, beautiful, and sometimes all at once. A wickedly smart, thoroughly investigated, and elegantly written takedown of the gender discrimination and institutional misogyny we have accepted for too long. This book howls for women in a world that too often only allows us a whisper. --Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and What We've Lost Is Nothing This book is a must-read for anyone who knows a woman, loves a woman, or is a woman. Deborah's sharp wit, heartfelt humor, and unabashed honesty turn what could be a tragic tale into a heroic journey of perseverance. Anyone who reads it will walk away feeling inspired. --Katherine Schwarzenegger, New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable Is it fair to comment on a book in which you are a character? Fair or not, I will, because I want every single woman, and every human who has loved (or even met) a woman, to read this essential book. It is a page-turner that makes you scream in empathetic frustration and laugh so hard you have to put the book down. I'm honestly not sure whether I cried more because I was laughing or because I was so very sad. --Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life Every chapter of Deborah Copaken's memoir contains information about women's bodies that I couldn't believe no one had told me before. I was constantly outraged at what she had to endure to learn it all, but the book is so funny, smart, and entertaining that I'm grateful to have her as a guide. Ladyparts is essential reading for all women, and for the people who love them. --Maile Meloy, author of Do Not Become Alarmed Ladyparts is a memoir unlike any I've ever read--it's quite literally visceral, from the unforgettable first moment where Copaken crawls on the tile floor collecting what she takes to be her own bloody organs. With breathtaking candor, Copaken catalogs the calamities of her body, part by part, spinning out a raw, raucous, often hilarious account of herself--with so much insight and generosity that I finished the book feeling remade. --Semi Chellas, award-winning writer/producer, Mad Men and The Romanoffs

Is it fair to comment on a book in which you are a character? Fair or not, I will, because I want every single woman, and every human who has loved (or even met) a woman, to read this essential book. This deeply personal memoir manages to encapsulate in its pages virtually every way society conspires to screw us over, from sexual assault to workplace harassment to the absurd and nearly fatal gender inequities in the healthcare system. And yet it is also warm and compassionate and, yes, hysterically funny. It is a page-turner that makes you scream in empathetic frustration and laugh so hard you have to put the book down. I'm honestly not sure whether I cried more because I was laughing or because I was so very sad. --Ayelet Waldman, author of A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life Every chapter of Deborah Copaken's memoir contains information about women's bodies that I couldn't believe no one had told me before. I was constantly outraged at what she had to endure to learn it all, but the book is so funny, smart, and entertaining that I'm grateful to have her as a guide. Ladyparts is essential reading for all women, and for the people who love them. --Maile Meloy, author of Do Not Become Alarmed Ladyparts is a memoir unlike any I've ever read--it's quite literally visceral, from the unforgettable first moment where Copaken crawls on the tile floor collecting what she takes to be her own bloody organs. With breathtaking candor, Copaken catalogs the calamities of her body, part by part, spinning out a raw, raucous, often hilarious account of herself--with so much insight and generosity that I finished the book feeling remade. --Semi Chellas, award-winning writer/producer, Mad Men and The Romanoffs

Ladyparts is, quite simply, a beautiful book. Equal part harrowing and hilarious, enraging and heartwarming, it's a memoir unlike any other. It will open your eyes to what it means to be female in a male world, older in a society built around youth worship--or just on the wrong side of variance when the lottery of genes and life doesn't turn in your favor. And it will do it all while making you laugh, cry, and scream in turn. I couldn't put it down. --Maria Konnikova, The New York Times bestselling author of The Biggest Bluff and The Confidence Game Ladyparts is a first-rate example of the contemporary memoir: harrowing, sad, funny, revelatory, true. Were you to misconstrue the title, you might think this was all simply anatomy, which would be fine, but as with all the best memoirs what this work really anatomizes is how it all feels--in the mind, in the soul, and in the nick of time. Copaken's memoir is poignant, necessary, and very rewarding. --Rick Moody, author of The Long Accomplishment: A Memoir of Hope and Struggle in Matrimony Reading this terrific book makes you feel like you're Deborah Copaken's pal, and lucky that you're getting to hang out. She lives life with gusto and resilience, appreciates her good luck, learns from her rotten luck, nails the villains along the way--and chronicles it all with breathtaking honesty and screwball good humor as she zigzags through middle age in the general direction of wisdom and contentment. --Kurt Andersen, The New York Times bestselling author of Evil Geniuses and Fantasyland A fierce, caustic, joyful, and deeply courageous account of what it means to go through life in a female body, this book (like women ourselves) is so much greater than the sum of its parts, yet each part, and each page, is truly phenomenal. --Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex The most laugh-out-loud story of resilience you'll ever read, but also one that provides an essential road map for the importance of narrative as a tool of healing: How we tell our stories is just as important--if not more so--as the plot twists we experience. --Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Utterly vital. Ladyparts enraged and amused me in equal measure. Deborah Copaken shows what it means to barely survive beyond the hallowed slice of privilege, where moving through the world in a woman's body can be dangerous, absurd, frustrating, beautiful, and sometimes all at once.This book howls for women in a world that too often only allows us a whisper. --Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and What We've Lost Is Nothing This book is a must-read for anyone who knows a woman, loves a woman, or is a woman. --Katherine Schwarzenegger, New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable

Author Information

"Deborah Copaken is the New York Times bestselling author ofseveral books, including Shutterbabe, The Red Book, and Between Here and April.A contributing writerat The Atlantic, and she was also a TV writer on Emily in Paris, a performer (The Moth, etc.), and an Emmy Award-winning news producer and photojournalist.Her photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, The Observer, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Slate, O- The Oprah Magazine, and Paris Match, among other publications.Hercolumn, ""When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist,"" was adapted forthe Modern Love streaming series.She lives in Brooklynwith her family."

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