You Don't Look Your Age...and Other Fairy Tales Hardcover – May 2, 2017

Oh, what a fun and fabulous book. It's prescient, insightful, and oh-so shrewd. With one caveat: You must be a woman of a certain age to fully appreciate it. Everyone else will probably roll their eyes or frown in absolute confusion or even disdain.Young women and men should read something else. If that's who you are, just go away now while we readers for whom this book was intended laugh and nod about our hot flashes, grown-up children, frenemies, dental work, little blue pills, interrupted sleep, and smart tales of what it was like then when we were the first women in a male-dominated workplace…well, you get it.Written by Emmy Award-winning documentary producer Sheila Nevins, this is a hilarious and wise collection of essays, short stories, and poetry depicting what it's like to be an older woman who still wants to be relevant in a world where she finds herself largely invisible.So if you're a woman of a certain age, read it and know you are part of a bold and powerful sisterhood.

Summary: The author is a TV and documentary producer and has written a collection of short stories and poems. Some are about her personal experiences with moving up within the media world, while others are stories about getting older (menopause, aging and maintaining a beauty standard). Some stories are observations of people (conversations overheard), our society (her love of paper books), and even a child’s diagnosis with Tourette’s. Each story is short but interesting and entertaining.Review: Although I have seen the author’s work, I had never associated it with her. Honestly the title and cover caught my eye when the book was released and as I age myself, I was interested to see what she would say about it. The stories present personal struggles that many women experience (I especially was interested in the stories about women aging and gaining weight [and not being a size 8 anymore], wanting to wear what they felt comfortable in but feeling the need to fit in to their profession, and moving up in the business world). The stories about a family member with dementia and the son with a neurological disorder definitely hit home for me. And the story about Working Mom (WM) vs. the stay at home moms and the cookie sale had me laughing. There are a lot of different stories in here that will make you experience different emotions. Some are very short and remind you of things that may have happened to you, while others are longer and may not be something you’ve experienced yet. The collection was entertaining, but I honestly wasn’t drawn to the book. I sat down daily to read some but didn’t feel the compulsion to continue reading into the night. If you enjoy short stories about women’s experiences, then definitely check this out. You may find yourself in the pages.

More choppy and uneven than I expected. From the blurb I thought it would be vignettes. Some of the chapters just seemed to be rambling. I didn't see the point of many. There were still some great moments like when she was visiting the home of her WASP boyfriend and the mother asked her why she wasn't dating a nice Jewish boy. The point that sometimes your best mentors in life aren't those that like you was vividly driven home. I also thought her chapter about buying something for a bake sale was salient and rational--it served to illustrate the other completely ridiculous behaviors that some white and privileged mothers get up to. We often forget the point of being a mother which is not to please other people but to help our kids grow up.

This isn't for everyone but than what book is? Nevins has a built in audience for her first effort at personal writing - she's a very famous, respected documentary producer. She won't have any trouble selling her book - which requires the reader to be unflinching emotionally because Ms Nevins takes no prisoners in how we humans lie to ourselves and to others - to keep our ego and fears in check and ourselves from going nuts in this strange experience called life. If you have the guts, buckle your seat belt and prepare to look in the mirror. Sometimes, it ain't so pretty. Thank you, Ms Nevins. I enjoyed every essay.

A powerful and poignant story of how Sheila Nevins got to and stayed at the top of the entertainment industry and what motivated her. In poetic and funny vignettes, she admits to having had to bring the coffee, shoulder the condescension, take the backstabbing of so-called work friends, engage in strategic sex (‘it worked’), maintain looking gorgeous (‘enough botox to detonate Iran’), and one thing she may have regretted – not baking cupcakes for her son’s school fest. Spurred on by an underprivileged background and the class and anti-Semitic rejection she endured, Nevins in the end prevails, remains an absolute original, a brilliant documentarian who still wins umpteen awards, maintains her humor and keeps her nerve. Without political correctness or feminist homilies, her story encourages every aspiring woman to be brave, express her talents, face down challenges, and seek top of the heap success. -- Roberta Cohen

I wasn't sure how to read these stories - one after another, or with long breaks between each so as to absorb their poignancy? I did both, with the assurance in the back of my mind that once I tasted them all, I can go back anytime to savor each, one at a time, in any order. A truly honest collection of thoughts, memories, indulgences, and confessions that remind us of our human experiences, as they are and as they define us.

You Don’t Look Your Age and Other Fairy Tales”, is great ride and a godsend for women grappling with the challenge of making their way in a word where a woman’s right to succeed is never guaranteed. Touching, at times laugh out loud funny – often searing – and whip smart from start to finish, it’s an illuminating, engaging and, above all, honest look at the struggles all women face, as told by a woman who has spent a lifetime fighting her way to the top of the male dominated documentary film industry. It’s the kind of book that still whispers to you like an old friend long after you’ve finished it. I would urge all women to read it. And maybe a few men as well! Enjoy!

Honest, poignant and sometimes hilarious--a more literary approach to a memoir touching so often on our shared fears, hopes, sorrows, disappointments and blessings.

In order preserve anonymity the author's narrative is so weakened that some stories lack direction and meaning. Some stories are non stories.