I Remember Nothing and Other Reflections by Nora Ephron

Part memoir, part opinion, part stand up routine, Nora Ephron's latest collection of essays, I Remember Nothing, feels like a conversation with an old friend. Some of what she says is impressive and memorable; some is stuff everyone knows and believes; some is kind of weird and makes you wonder why it came up. But all of it is fun.

Nora Ephron is a very funny person. Some of us heard her speak at a recent engagement in Dallas. It was one of those huge luncheons--1400 women and a sprinkling of men there to support a worthy cause. Just as lunch ends, the speaker starts talking and about mid-way through the speech, people start drifting out. Except that at this lunch, no one left. No mid-speech ooze back to the office, the dentist's office or tennis game. Everyone of us 1400 or so people sat in the palm of Nora Ephron's hand. She related to us. And in reading this book, you'll relate to her.

I Remember Nothing has great stories of people she met, things she saw and events she's forgotten or was there but missed altogether.  Her career began at Newsweek Magazine in 1962 as a mail girl with a salary of $55 a week and reached its height with screenplays for When Harry Net Sally, Silkwood, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail. Her book of essays, I Feel Bad about My Neck, has been read by almost every book club in the U.S.  This one probably won't fare as well.

This book is a perfect justification for the continuation of lending libraries. It's well worth reading-but not something one needs on the keeper shelf. Some readers have recommended this strategy--pick it up at the local bookstore, buy a cappuccino, find a comfy chair and sit right there to read it. At just over one hundred pages, it's not a big time commitment, and the sticker price of the hardcover book is a shocking $23.00. I was able to borrow a friend's copy and enjoyed it more just knowing that.