Famed documentary producer Sheila Nevins is the one person who always tells it like it is, and who will say, "Learn from my mistakes and my successes. Because you don't get smarter as you get older, you get braver." An astonishingly frank, funny, poignant book about the real-life challenges of being a woman in a man's world; what it means to be a working mother; what it's like to be an older woman in a youth-obsessed culture; the sometimes changing, often sweet truth about marriages; what being a feminist really means; and that you are in good company if your adult children don't return your phone calls. -- Adapted from book jacket.

Why she wrote when she wrote -- Facing face-lifts -- Chills in the hot sun -- Heartbreak -- Expensive clothes -- The elephant in the room -- Separate bedrooms for Marcia and Larry -- From Cosmo to Ms. -- Chocolate chemo -- The giant named Tourette's -- Little blue pill -- Jeremy hit rock bottom -- The dictator, the farmer, and the professor -- To sleep or not to sleep -- The art of the faux pas -- Eavesdropping on adultery -- Par for the course -- Trudie foodie -- Her disappearing act -- Mammogram day -- Labor Day weekend labors : a hateful three days -- A dog's dying -- First kiss -- I hated Teddy and Teddy hated me -- The humble beginnings of my somewhat spiritual self -- Picture perfect (almost) -- To lose a child -- The Larry Kramer -- Melissa Van Holdenvas -- A day at will -- Frenemy -- Letter to a dead great-aunt : a personal memoir -- A million-dollar smile -- Eunice's period. Stopped. -- Did you ever see a book cry? -- Advice to women in a male-dominated workplace -- Do you believe in Santa Claus? -- The cookie wars : W.M. vs. Mrs. Spatz -- Mentor not -- The day she lost her jealousy at Barneys -- Imaginary/real -- What's in a name? -- A man with a scythe rang my doorbell -- +1.75 : an insight -- Gliding gracefully into gravity -- The wrong kind of hot.