Laurie Notaro found fame some years ago when she published a collection of short memoir stories bound under the title The Idiot Girls’ Action Adventure Club. Since then she has published several other memoir collections and one fiction novel. If you like humorous and conversational writing, you will adore Laurie Notaro.
My favorite collection of memoirs is titled We Thought You’d Be Prettier. In this book are tales of Notaro and her husband being attacked by baby spiders, dealing with the invasion of a field mouse and exercising sans corrective eyewear at the Y (and mistaking a group of boy scouts for a group of juvenile delinquents in the process).
Another of her books, titled Autobiography of a Fat Bride takes readers from the beginning of her engagement and through her wedding. She writes about a wedding held at a beautiful location that turned out to be right in the path of an airport’s landing strip! She also writes about the ordeals she and her fiancé went through while they searched for a person to perform the wedding ceremony.
I truly enjoy Laurie Notaro’s writing. The fact that she lives two hours down the freeway from where I live has nothing to do with my affections for her—how could it? We’ve never actually met! When I read her essays and memoirs I feel as if we are having a conversation on the phone or hanging out in a coffee shop trying to out-humor each other. Every one of her books has caused me to laugh uproariously.
This post serves just as much to promote Notaro’s previous work as it does to let you know that she has a new book coming out soon—another collection of memoirs, and I am looking forward to it immensely. What can I say? I like writing that makes me laugh and that feels accessible!
