NATIONAL BESTSELLER
One of Esquireâs Best Nonfiction Books of the Year
One of NPRâs Favorite Books of the Year
One of the Yearâs Most Anticipated Books: BuzzFeed, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Literary Hub, She Reads
âI've spent my adult life prowling bookshelves for the modern-day reincarnation of my favorite authorsâNora Ephron, Erma Bombeck, Jean Kerr, and Laurie Colwinâall rolled into one...Good news: I have finally found their successor.â âElisabeth Egan, The Washington Post
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 lifeâs to-do list and realized she might need to reinvent the listâand herself.
Mary Laura Philpott thought sheâd cracked the code: Always be right, and youâll always be happy.
But once sheâd completed her lifeâs to-do list (job, spouse, house, babiesâcheck!), 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. Sheâd done everything âright,â but she felt all wrong. Whatâs 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 donât happen just once or only at midlife; reassures us that small, recurring personal re-inventions are both normal and necessary; and advises that if youâre 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 donât 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 youâre not, and where you belong. Who among us isnât 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 youâll 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 onceâand that sometimes doing things wrong is the way to do life right.