Book Description
It happens without warning, and it hits you with devastating force. Your closest girlfriend, the Ethel to your Lucy, the Thelma to your Louise, cuts you off completely. No more late-night phone calls, no more afternoon e-mails, no more catch-up lunches and dinners. She has decided for whatever reason to move on with her life and has left you to figure it out on your own. The experience can be as painful and confusing as a sudden breakup with a significant other, and you replay scenes from the friendship and wonder what you did wrong.
Until now, women had to endure the heartache of losing a friend all alone, without the social support and understanding that accompanies, say, a romantic split-up -- and to make matters worse, they don't even have their best friend's shoulder to cry on. But What Did I Do Wrong? gives you that sympathetic shoulder and a resource -- and some answers -- that you can rely on. After author Liz Pryor had gone through a number of these breakups herself, she set out to discover why they were happening, how to help herself -- and others -- get through them...and how to prevent them from happening again.
Through personal interviews and her popular website, www.lizpryor.com, Pryor collected hundreds of stories of friendships with which you will identify. Now she draws on those stories to explore the dynamics of friendship breakups in a candid, intimate way, revealing the patterns, the warning signs, and some ways to put a friendship right or help it change to meet your or your friend's changing life. She also explains how to end a friendship -- if you find that you need to do so -- in ways that honor both parties' feelings and your history together.
Like the best kind of girlfriend -- one who really will stay friends forever -- Pryor blends plain, old-fashioned, feminine good sense and good humor with genuine empathy for the thousands of women who live with the confusion that lingers after an ended friendship -- for women of all ages, races, and backgrounds. What Did I Do Wrong? validates your feelings and inspires you to be more forthright and compassionate with new and old friends. It might even lead you to reconnect with a lost one. In the end, you will be moved and uplifted by the many stories of strong friendships, broken friendships, and renewed friendships that make this book a treasure of women's wisdom and experiences.
Download Description
It happens without warning, and it hits you with devastating force. Your closest girlfriend, the Ethel to your Lucy, the Thelma to your Louise, cuts you off completely. No more late-night phone calls, no more afternoon e-mails, no more catch-up lunches and dinners. She has decided for whatever reason to move on with her life and has left you to figure it out on your own. The experience can be as painful and confusing as a sudden breakup with a significant other, and you replay scenes from the friendship and wonder what you did wrong. Until now, women had to endure the heartache of losing a friend all alone, without the social support and understanding that accompanies, say, a romantic split-up -- and to make matters worse, they don't even have their best friend's shoulder to cry on. But What Did I Do Wrong? gives you that sympathetic shoulder and a resource -- and some answers -- that you can rely on. After author Liz Pryor had gone through a number of these breakups herself, she set out to discover why they were happening, how to help herself -- and others -- get through them...and how to prevent them from happening again. Through personal interviews and her popular website, www.lizpryor.com, Pryor collected hundreds of stories of friendships with which you will identify. Now she draws on those stories to explore the dynamics of friendship breakups in a candid, intimate way, revealing the patterns, the warning signs, and some ways to put a friendship right or help it change to meet your or your friend's changing life. She also explains how to end a friendship -- if you find that you need to do so -- in ways that honor both parties' feelings and your history together. Like the best kind of girlfriend -- one who really will stay friends forever -- Pryor blends plain, old-fashioned, feminine good sense and good humor with genuine empathy for the thousands of women who live with the confusion that lingers after an ended friendship -- for women of all ages, races, and backgrounds. What Did I Do Wrong? validates your feelings and inspires you to be more forthright and compassionate with new and old friends. It might even lead you to reconnect with a lost one. In the end, you will be moved and uplifted by the many stories of strong friendships, broken friendships, and renewed friendships that make this book a treasure of women's wisdom and experiences.
Customer Reviews:
A Breakthrough in Women's Studies.......2007-10-10
I was pleasantly surprised and gratified to find out about "What Did I Do Wrong? When Women Don't Tell Each Other the Friendship is Over". This is a book I have been waiting to read for a long long time. Bravo to Liz Pryor for addressing a topic that has been completely taboo. Even between the women involved, there is usually NEVER an open or honest discussion about the painful experience of a friendship ending between girlfriends. With a wide range of anecdotal material plus illuminating stories from her own life, Pryor illustrates the possible causes of these "break-ups". Strange misunderstandings, moral judgments, competition, overstepping of boundaries, insecurity and lack of communication seem to be key (all aspects of ego-mind, by the way). Occasionally, but not entirely without angst, both parties agree to end the friendship amicably due to "growing in different directions". In my own experience, a major factor is that old bug-a-boo jealousy, which is mentioned only briefly. Perhaps with her next book Liz Pryor can delve more deeply into the psychological issues that are significant barriers to unconditional love, trust and caring support between women-friends. In my view the number one reason why women treat each other so shabbily stems from an early negative relationship with one's own mother. The mother-daughter relationship becomes the ongoing dysfunctional pattern for how a woman will treat the other women in her life, unless the wound is acknowledged and transformed. Cattiness, pettiness, bitchiness, negative gossip, competition and jealousy between contemporary women is so prevalent these days it almost seems to be the norm, and that is not right. Healed and whole, women are the force of love in the world.
Good effort .......2007-03-29
The author made a good effort but it is missing something, maybe because it is based on her life and I am not in this social class.
For me this book reinforced the idea that Women are bad friends. The stories make me wonder who this author knows - sounds like a self-centered crowd.
The friendships she depicts seem shallow ending over gossip, petty squabbles and my personal favorite my husband doesn't like you. Is this the stone ages where a woman can't be friends unless her husband gives permission? My parents had individual friends and couples they were friends with. Each had individual friends that the other liked and didn't like so based on my experiences with friendship some of her stories seem silly and shallow.
I agree with other reviewers about writing a letter when you are in the midst of a painful end to a friendship is a bad idea. Most people are not going to wait until they have enough emotional distance to write such a letter and sometimes you have no idea what the recipient is going through. I would not want to write a letter to someone when I may not know what is happening in her life. Is she experiencing a deep depression? Is there a recent crisis? Sometimes regardless of the spirit in which a letter is intended the person will still read it though a lens that may be clouded by pain or bad circumstances.
This author is not an expert so in some ways her approach seemed fresh but having an expert voice involved could have made it a much better book.
This book brought me peace..........2007-01-23
After the grief and confusion with my own personal loss of a dear friendship, this book was like a breath of fresh air. The author, Liz Pryor really hit the nail on the head, and tackled a very common, very taboo friendship topic--what to do when a friend basically disappears into thin air. I am so grateful to her for her storylike text and ability to share perspectives from both sides. Through the number of personal interviews and stories within, the reader is truly able to gain some clarity and insight without having to skip chapters only to find what applies to her.
I wanted to give this book 5 out of 5 stars, however--there is an underlying tone that has an air of pretentiousness about it. While I could relate (who's not a little pretentious at times...?) some readers might not be able to connect with the women who are clearly from upper/middle class lives(the author is married to actor Thomas Calabro, from Melrose Place); there isn't much here for women who have more domestic issues or those who come from a different background than many of the women interviewed in this book. Either way, my opinion is that if you can get past that aspect--you easily have a five-out-of-five star book. I highly recommend it to ALL women seeking solace during such a confusing time.
Friendship falling outs.......2007-01-04
This book is good if you have experienced a falling out with a friend. It helps explain alot and makes you feel less alone. Might especially be good for younger women.
Author did everything right.......2006-11-20
Pryor's book exceeded my expectations. I picked it up out of idle curiosity and, midway through, got on the phone to a female friend: "You've got to read this! I have a story..."
And that's the power of What Did I Do Wrong (WDIDW): universal appeal and a compelling "can't put this down" narrative style. Pryor creates a unique genre between self-help and personal essay: she's more like the big sister or mentor, with research and attitude, rather than the expert or ordinary person with an opinion. Not bad.
Pryor focuses on women who have close friendships, lasting several years, with frequent contact and conversation. We learn what happens when one friend says, "Enough! I'm ready to move on." Maybe she's just outgrowing the friendship. Or maybe her friend inadvertently did something that made her see their relationship in a new, ugly light. The "initiator" of the breakup tends to just disappear out of the "receiver's" life, leaving the "receiver" baffled, hurt and angry, often unable to feel closure.
Pryor encourages the "initiator" to talk to the "receiver," either in person or via letter. She has become something of an expert in helping others write these letters, beginning with the straightforward communication question: "What is your objective?"
Before reading WDIDW, I would have said, "Typically these conversations create awkwardness and accomplish nothing." But now I would say, "It can be important to assure the receiver that she didn't do anything horrible." The most painful stories in Pryor's book describe situations when one friend believed a false rumor about the other -- in one case, a woman left her neighborhood after friends dropped her based on a bizarre story spread by one woman's housekeeper.
So I would say the most important confrontation may not be about losing the friendship, but about asking the question, "Is this true? Did you do this?" In fact, if a friend doesn't ask these questions, I'd wonder what else was going on. What kind of friend believes an unconfirmed rumor?
Pryor's lack of credentials (she states clearly on the book jacket, "I'm not a shrink or a Pulitzer prize winner") makes the book fun to read. But a social scientist might encourage us to move to deeper questions, such as, "When are these shifts likely to occur? Are friendship changes correlated with changes in residence, career, economic shifts or marriage?"
My own friendships tend to evaporate following a move, marriage, childbirth, or other family event. When I returned to graduate school for a PhD, friends disappeared because my schedule, interests and sense of direction shifted radically. Pryor's stories mostly came from women who resembled each other in terms of life status, such as "married with children." In one case, a friendship broke up when one woman's husband disliked her friend. This topic might deserve more discussion, especially as more and more of us are single and living alone by choice.
With more casual friends, often a single incident made me say, "I don't want to spend more time with this person." So I think it's important to note that, in today's mobile society, we often assume we're friends when we're merely acquaintances. We need to take time to get to know someone before investing emotional energy in a relationship.
But Pryor doesn't seem focused on teaching us, let alone giving us the "10 tips" we see so often these days. She presents evocative stories that encourage us to ask our own questions, talk to whoever's in our current circle of friends, and ultimately find our own solutions.
Not a book to take with you to a desert island!
Cathy Goodwin (.com)
Book Description
Tom traces his alcoholism back to his British boyhood at Eton College, Englands oldest and most exclusive boarding school, where the boys had to wear tail suits to class and there was a school pub. He delves into his aristocratic familys well-documented fondness for the bottle and covers his own drinking apprenticeship as a trainee journalist on Londons famously alcohol-sodden newspapers. Whether he is getting arrested for drunk driving at the age of 15, climbing naked into his friends and colleagues beds, or simply trying to file an emergency front-page update while reeling from a cocktail of Ecstacy and magic mushrooms, Tom takes the reader on an addictive journey into the insanity of intoxicationall too often followed by a mossy tongue, a dull headache, and one burning question: What the hell did I do last night?
Customer Reviews:
Light-weight Drunkard's Tale.......2007-06-17
I guess that the book was entertaining enough, but woefully absent of any real dramatic tragedy that would surround the life of a hardcore alcoholic. He never woke up in jail or beaten bloody in England or New York. No horror nor any particular insight into the disease of alcoholism or drug addiction. Plenty of Alcoholism light. It gets much much uglier.
"Fear and Loathing" in London and New York.......2007-01-13
Tis is a brilliant book full of hair raising tales and high jinx. Incredibly funny. The author was an alcoholic who managed to wangle a job as the chief night life writer and bar reviewer at the Evening Standard and then the New York Post with disastrous (but hilarious) results.
Highly recommended. Not for the squeamish!
bloody fun and scurrilous.......2006-10-21
Tom Sykes writes without being sentimental or judgmental. This guy is now sober but he used to drink like a fish and race around New York and London misbehaving. His is a cautionary tale, but he writes it with panache and a light touch. Buy this book now and you'll read it in one sitting. Cleverer than Toby Young or Candace Bushnell, most astute than Milan Kundera, as straightforward as Bill Bryson, and as disreputable as Jay McInernery or Brett Easton Ellis. This is a sure-fire hit.
Outrageous !.......2006-10-13
I picked this up and started reading it, and it is a pretty funny autobiographical work on a British guy who really, really liked to party and drink. At one point, he makes the point that if you don't really know what a blackout is, you are not a true alcoholic (that definition is no doubt not the one the medical community in the U.S. gives, but it also is probably pretty accurate). He explains it as like having your "memory chip" for the past (x) hours totally erased. So, he often wakes up on a couch somewhere (Britain and then New York when he moves there), not knowing where he was last night. Hence, the title of the book. I think this book is actually pretty outrageous, in the good and bad sense of that term. I found it very, very honest and compelling. I don't think we need really to go into all the "you shouldn't do what he did" stuff. I think that will be clear to people who read the book. The book is actually very funny, and very outrageous.
Book Description
"I'll Never Do to My Kids What My Parents Did To Me!" A Guide to Conscious Parenting teaches parents how to interrupt negative family relationship patterns, and raise kids with a healthy sense of self. It is not just a cognitive method. Parents learn how to regain their own calmness and presence when they are aroused or upset. Identifying somatic or body reactions is a crucial part of learning how to manage reactions especially anger and frustration. We offer a wholistic system of parent education which teaches child development theory at the same time as teaching skill building. Socialize kids without breaking their spirit.
Customer Reviews:
Essential Reading.......2002-08-24
I'm a parenting facilitator and I think this book is an absolute must for all parents. In fact they should be made to read it before they even decide to have kids.
The writers obviously have a deep understanding of themselves and their relationships.
It really explains how we interfere with the process of our children's natural intelligence with our unresolved childhood pain.
It's not particularly theoretical and deals with self-evident facts and feelings in any given situation.
Book Description
Like the Margaret Mead of the married, Jenny Lee investigates the care and feeding of those extraordinary creatures called husbands. Her Vera Wang gown still warm, she explores the uncharted territory of suddenly being a wife, with a real-life husband and one television remote, and shares the mysteries of:
- How to deal with the freakish occurrence of getting beaten at Scrabble, now that you can no longer retreat to your own apartment
- What to do when you find out that he's using your very, very expensive, very, very hard-to-find shampoo.
- Figuring out who is least inept at handling the money, including how to make it through a weekend when the ATM comes up zeroes
- Confronting dinner duty while staying faithful to your guiding principle: "It's not that I can't cook. I don't cook."
- Plus, the Great American Couple-Off, surviving the Perfect Fight, Date Night, and more.
Before the wedding, the most anyone told Jenny Lee about marriage was that it was "an adjustment," but "nice." So she took it upon herself to write the one book to read before (or definitely after) saying "I do." Hilarious, sharply observed, sweet, feisty, and courageous, it finally answers the eternal nuptial question: Am I really legally bound to a man who leaves mustard-covered knives on clean kitchen towels?
Customer Reviews:
SO HILARIOUS & SO TRUE!!!.......2007-07-10
These anecdotes will have you rolling! Hysterically funny and witty! I'm Korean-American like Lee and even though she doesn't delve too much into the whole racial/cultural issue just the stories about newlywed life are too candid to be made up! The part where she jumps up and says: "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE DOING THIS! YOU'RE SPOILING HIM!" when Lee's traditional mother brings her new son-in-law his favorite drink (lemon-lime Gatorade - just like my own husband!) on a silver tray with a crystal highball glass filled with ice. This is something my own mother has actually done.
The Great Dinner Debate is something we, to this day, still struggle with.
Anyway, this is a fast-paced, endearing, comical read. Once you pick it up you won't be able to put it down!
For Better or for Worse.......2006-11-10
Jenny Lee has provided the wedded and soon-to-be wed communtiy with a hilarious account of what married life is really like. Her hialrious anecdotes and sage advice, marinated in good humor, are thoroughly enjoyable.
why get married?.......2006-07-14
people are very divided on this book, but i wasn't into it. i guess the author is trying to be funny but she is so shallow, petty, and self centered, it seems to me that she wanted a wedding and not a marriage. last time i checked i enjoy hanging out with my husband, don't really care if he beats me at scrabble, or uses my shampoo. because those things don't matter. i guess if the book was funnier or more insightful i could have gotten beyond the whinning. but when you start the book basically complaining that you went to st. lucia, i can hardly relate.
Great for anyone who's newly married.......2006-01-02
I love this book! The first time I read it, I just could not stop laughing. And now, after a year, I am rereading it. It still cracks me up. I can relate to so many of the same experiences which Jenny Lee writes about. It is a very light fun read. Her writing is comical and very easy to read. I just bought her newest book "skinny bitching" and can't wait to start reading it.
I Do. I Did. Now What?! Life After the Wedding Dress.......2005-12-12
While it was a fun book to read, it was not at all what I thought it would be. I was looking for a book to help me with my nerves about my own wedding. The book jacket promises; how to meet other couples, cleaning compromises, and other mysteries solved. I really didn't see what mysteries it solved, nor to it answer any of the other promises. Like I said before it was fun to read, its short and quick, but does it answer any questions, I didn't think so. I also read The Conscious Bride by Sheryl Nissinen. When I looked at it the first couple of times I thought it was a book trying to talk you out of getting married, not so. It really makes you think about different aspects of your engagement and relationship, now that was a helpful book!
Average customer rating:
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What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers , and
Arnold Weinstein
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
| Architecture
| Artists, A-Z
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Drawing
| Fashion
| General
| History & Criticism
| Instructional & How-To
| Museums & Collections
| Other Media
| Painting
| Performing Arts
| Photography
| Reference
| Religious
| Schools, Periods & Styles
| Sculpture
Woodwinds
| Instruments & Performers
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| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Artists, Architects & Photographers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
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| Composers & Musicians
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Similar Items:
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Larry Rivers: Art and the Artist
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Larry Rivers: Painting and Drawings, 1951-2001
ASIN: 1560253193 |
Book Description
What Did I Do? is the testimony of one of America’s finest artists and includes memorable perceptions [and gossip] of friends, lovers, rivals, and the jazz and art worlds: Frank O’Hara, Terry Southern, Leo Castelli, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Clement Greenberg, Tibor de Nagy, Jackson Pollock, Delmore Schwartz, Rudy Burckhardt, Hans Hofmann, W.H. Auden, Miles Davis, Andy Warhol. Born Larry Grossberg in 1923 in the Bronx, NY, Rivers began his career in 1940 as a jazz saxophonist and composer, changed his name and became an American icon to artists everywhere. A great figurative painter, Rivers is also acclaimed as a precursor of pop art; an artist with an unashamed interest in sexuality and the private moment, he is also celebrated for bringing history back into contemporary painting. Candid, thoughtful, and funny, this book is among the finest of artists’ memoirs. This edition includes 16 pages of color and 130 black-and-white illustrations. “What Did I Do? is the harrowingly true tale of a man whose early years were, by his own accounting, governed by often brutal instincts. He responds crazily, rashly to jazz and sex and drugs, and finally to paint, becoming Larry Rivers, one of the most humane and interesting and idiosyncratic visual artists of our time.”—Kurt Vonnegut
Average customer rating:
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I Can Do What Jesus Did
Cindy Goodwin
Manufacturer: Woman's Missionary Union
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1563092050 |
Product Description
"Don't you love me - even a little, Dinny?" "I musn't! We can't!," he whispered. "You are my - sister."
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful insight in this book
- Great book about Marriage
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I do. I did? What now?
Thomas Holman
Manufacturer: Covenant Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Marriage & Family
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Marriage
| Relationships
| Christian Living
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1555036570 |
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful insight in this book.......2002-01-11
It has really helped me get ready for my upcoming wedding. A friend lent his copy to me, and I am going to buy one myself. I only wish I could take a class from Dr. Holman
Great book about Marriage.......1999-02-20
Although I'm not yet married, I do have to say that this book is very good because it uses the experience of real life couples and it's divided into easy to reference topics/chapters. I have to admit that I'm a little biased because my brother-in-law co-authored the book with Mr. Holman. All in all an excellent book on marriage.
Average customer rating:
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The Lives of Roger Casement
B., L. Reid
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Irish
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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General
| British
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
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Gay
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Gay & Lesbian
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| Europe
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| England
| Europe
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19th Century
| England
| Europe
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General
| Ireland
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0300018010 |
Book Description
Knighted in 1911 for distinguished service as a British foreign officer, hanged five years later for high treason to the Crown, Roger Casement is one of the most enigmatic figures in the long history of troubles between England and Ireland. His true character has been a source of mystification and of passionate contention. This new biography, which never loses sight of the suffering human being behind the roles ascribed to him-martyr, traitor, flawed hero, moral degenerate-offers a vivid, compassionate, and conclusive analysis of Casement and of his career. Born in 1864 in Dublin and reared in County Antrim, Roger Casement very early developed an obsessive love for Ireland. After years of consular service for England and after being knighted for his effective campaigns against brutalities inflicted upon tribesmen of the Congo and the Amazon, he resigned to dedicate himself to the cause of Irish freedom. B.L. Reid narrates with mounting drama and tension the events leading to Casement's participation in the Easter Rising of 1916, and his subsequent arrest, trial, and execution. It becomes clear that in a sense Casement engineered his own destruction. A strikingly handsome and romantic figure who had been much admired for his humanitarian public service, Casement went to trial with powerful support for a plea of clemency. This support evaporated, however, when his notorious "Black Diaries," which recorded in detail his life as a homosexual, were circulated by British officials. Although many Irishmen denounced the diaries as British forgeries, Casement went to the gallows. A controversial figure to the end, he was raised to the pantheon of martyred political heroes in Ireland, while in England Madame Tussaud featured him in her Chamber of Horrors. hrough close study of Casement's diaries Mr. Reid demonstrates that they are authentic, that they fit into the total picture of a symptomatic modern man-passionate and courageous, yet deeply divided and confused.
Books:
- Where's The Kitten?/kote Ti Chat La Ye?: English/ Haitian Creole Bilingual (Photoflap Board Books)
- Whistler: A Biography
- Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star
- With Nails the Film Diaries of Richard E
- Woody Allen: A Life in Film
- Working With Available Light: A Family's World After Violence
- You Will Make Money in Your Sleep: The Story of Dana Giacchetto, Financial Adviser to the Stars
- 100 Hikes in Southern Oregon (100 Hikes)
- 70s Fashion Fiascos: Studio 54 to Saturday Night Fever
- A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century
Books Index
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