Girls Only: Sleepovers, Squabbles, Tuna Fish, and Other Facts of Family Life

By Alex Witchel

Book Overview

"What I learned from my father was the boys' lesson of dealing in the world -- trust no one and win the first time. What I learned from my mother was the girls' lesson -- trust no one and win the first time, but just in case you don't, come home, eat something, talk about it, have a drink, cry a little, then go back out there and try again."

Armed with these family tenets, Alex Witchel goes soul-searching and shopping with the ever-present help of her mother, Barbara, the "human Swiss Army knife who can do it all," and her sister, Phoebe, Alex's perpetual rival and best friend. These three form a family within a family, and with a passionate unity they offer each other sharp, witty, and (occasionally exasperating) insights on everything from men, pedicures, and careers to sibling rivalry, the challenges of stepparenting, and the pains of aging and loss.

Insightful, poignant, and hilarious by turns, Girls Only is a memoir that celebrates the one thing that remains "for women only"...mother/daughter/sister love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743254929
• ISBN13: 9780743254922
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Lovingly Forthright

I just finished this book, three weeks after losing my lovely mother to old age. The interplay of adult and child-like qualities that we all balance precariously with our birth family has never been more accurately (nor more humorously) depicted as in this book. I wept for my loss, but rejoiced in the remaining relationships I have with my sisters, however complicated they are by birth order, age differences, and our individual devotion to our dear mother. I plan to track down a copy of this book for each of my sisters, to remind us to move on in our relationships, now that we have journeyed beyond the last page of Ms. Witchel's insightful story. I recommend this book to sisters and daughters everywhere, particularly those who can still share it with their mothers. May her memory be eternal.

The bond between a mother and daughter is astonishing.

Witchel has captured the fun between two sisters and a mother with exact sharpness. This story, although a light read, vocalizes feelings I thought I only felt about my mother and sister. Judging by the amount of reviews this isn't a popular read, what a shame. This would be a great gift for any mother, daughter or sister. I think I'll go make a tuna fish sandwich and call my mom.

A captivating examination of life as daughter and sister

American feminism has encouraged women to explore their own lives and listen to their own voices. You need not be a woman, a New Yorker, or a Jew to learn from this extraordinarily well-crafted memoir. Self-deprecating humor is laced throughout this incredibly initmate examination of a journalist's life as daughter and sister. Alex Witchel is as unsparing of her own shortcomings as she is loving and forgiving of both her mother's srtrengths and foibles. An independent, interdependent, and dependent woman, Alex encourages us to examine our own lives though the context of her own. I am completely convinced that "Girls Only" will become a staple of book clubs and soon will become a referent for both male and female feminists.