#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Includes two new essays! NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE
YEAR BY MICHIKO KAKUTANI THE NEW YORK TIMES • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
BUZZFEED THE GLOBE AND MAIL AND LIBRARY JOURNAL For readers of Nora Ephron Tina Fey and
David Sedaris this hilarious wise and fiercely candid collection of personal essays
establishes Lena Dunham-the acclaimed creator producer and star of HBO's Girls-as one of the
most original young talents writing today. In Not That Kind of Girl Dunham illuminates the
experiences that are part of making one's way in the world: falling in love feeling alone
being ten pounds overweight despite eating only health food having to prove yourself in a room
full of men twice your age finding true love and most of all having the guts to believe that
your story is one that deserves to be told. Take My Virginity (No Really Take It) is the
account of Dunham's first time and how her expectations of sex didn't quite live up to the
actual event (No floodgate had been opened no vault of true womanhood unlocked) Girls & Jerks
explores her former attraction to less-than-nice guys-guys who had perfected the dynamic of
disrespect she found so intriguing Is This Even Real? is a meditation on her lifelong
obsession with death and dying-what she calls her genetically predestined morbidity. And in I
Didn't F*** Them but They Yelled at Me she imagines the tell-all she will write when she is
eighty and past caring able to reflect honestly on the sexism and condescension she has
encountered in Hollywood where women are treated like the paper thingies that protect glasses
in hotel bathrooms-necessary but infinitely disposable. Exuberant moving and keenly observed
Not That Kind of Girl is a series of dispatches from the frontlines of the struggle that is
growing up. I'm already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you
Dunham writes. But if I can take what I've learned and make one menial job easier for you or
prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case
you want to run away during the act then every misstep of mine will have been worthwhile.
Praise for Not That Kind of Girl The gifted Ms. Dunham not only writes with observant precision
but also brings a measure of perspective nostalgia and an older person's sort of wisdom to her
portrait of her (not all that much) younger self and her world. . . . As acute and heartfelt as
it is funny.-Michiko Kakutani The New York Times It's not Lena Dunham's candor that makes me
gasp. Rather it's her writing-which is full of surprises where you least expect them. A fine
subversive book.-David Sedaris This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks they
understand the experience of being a young woman in our culture. I thought I knew the author
rather well and I found many (not altogether welcome) surprises.-Carroll Dunham Witty
illuminating maddening bracingly bleak . . . [Dunham] is a genuine artist and a disturber of
the order.-The Atlantic
