Name: All the Women in My Brain
ISBN: 9781250795786

Betty Gilpin

And Other Concerns

All the Women in My Brain

Then she did the facial equivalent of my family crest. She crossed her eyes. I laughed in happy shock. A fellow fucking jester. I crossed mine. I took the other handle of the heavy cooler she'd been tasked with carrying as punishment for her innovative scrimmage tactic of sitting down on the ball. I taught her the word "horny." I held her when the captain of the lacrosse team microwaved her hamster. I called her last week to sing "Happy Birthday" in Korean to her second child. 

The dormant inherited darkness in me had sat patient for its entrance excuse, and Anthony Moretti breaking my heart was its 

. I plummeted into a sea of wanting to be dead, a sea that took me a long time to realize was not a reaction but a preexisting condition. Women's darkness is so much more inevitable and interesting than a broken heart; it's just sometimes the thing that gets us there. 

I had all these ideas but so much noise in the way.

My favorite kind of art is when someone tries their dark, silly, weird ideas. Those ideas will die in you if the loudest idea in your brain is: I should shut up.

Sex is gross and dirty. Good sex requires a rabid fascinations with the other person's body. Selfies are sterile and deceptive. They require a rabid fascinations with your 

 body. I picture the waste that must be the Adonni of LA having sex with each other, grossed out by each other's fluids, staring down at their own abs. 

This book definitely grew on me. The beginning was a bit too much, almost... annoying? Sorry Betty! It must be very exhausting to be inside her head. I do think the metaphors calmed down as I went (or maybe I just got used to them?) and hearing more of her philosophical thoughts was cool. It also inspired me to watch her movie The Hunt, which was very goofy. 

Abbie Duggan

I enjoyed this book and Betty Gilpin’s writing style; an added bonus of having her narrate the audio version that I listened to. Three stars because it dragged with some repeating themes in the middle, but I’d recommend if you’re looking for an easy, laugh out loud funny memoir.

Jenn Doan 

I didn't know Betty Gilpin before reading this but I finished her collection of essays feeling nothing but love for her and her writing style. So funny and self depreciating and heartbreaking in all the right places 😭

All the Women in My Brain And Other Concerns

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