The Most of Nora Ephron: The ultimate anthology of essays, articles and extracts from her greatest work, with a foreword by Candice Carty-Williams

excellent

I read Heartburn and found it brilliant - funny, sad, original and whilst set in a specific time and place still resonated. I thought Ephron had a good 'voice' - someone you'd want to be friends with and also loved when Harry Met Sally so I got this book hoping for more of Heartburn.Unfortunately this book didn't do it for me. A lot of the book relies on the reader having a good understanding of America, and American politics through the 60s so the early 2000s. A lot of her writing is, I'm sorry to say, a bit outdated with regard to women's rights/priorities/interests. One cannot penalise Ephron for this as she was obviously writing in such a time, but considering the book was complied much later I don't know, I felt it just could have been updated or come with more modern comments from Ephron on how things have changed (or not). The worst though is a lot of the extracts are just boring. If you don't know the people she refers to (I guess you would if you were American and or from a certain time?), it's all a bit meaningless - I often skipped pieces because I had no idea who she was talking about and therefore found it uninteresting (hence her insights/wit probably being lost).I think the best section is the last 150 odd pages - called 'personal'. This is where we get those brilliant gems and wit on things like breasts, hair, handbags, emails, forgetting things. It's a shame there wasn't more of this 'universal' content (which doesn't rely on knowledge of American culture/history). Ok, maybe the book wouldn't have been a comprehensive overview of Ephron's life and work and this is the 'most' of Ephron, but I'd rather have the 'best' of Ephron.Unfortunately I can't really justify keeping a 600 page book for only 150 words which are worthwhile. If you're a huge Ephron fan this book is good value as it does have a lot of content. However I will stick to Heartburn, and perhaps check out 'I feel bad about my neck' and 'I remember nothing' which seem to overlap somewhat with this book, but have more of that personal, insightful, universal content I thought this book would give me.As an aside, I feel the book cover really could be designed better (this looks amateur and kitsch) and the paper quality is one of the worst I have come across - it is practically grey and feels coarse and horrid.Also whilst I hate to categorise literature into 'male' and 'female', this is definitely something for women - I feel men would be completely disinterested in this book.

I had just finished reading Heartburn, which I loved and wanted more of Ephron's writing. This is exactly that. It's a behemoth with a huge selection of her journalism, her scripts, her blog posts and some of her essays and bits of her books. In hindsight I should have bought another slim volume before launching into this. The largest section of the book deals with her political journalism, which I am sure if you are American or interested in American politics would be absolutely on the nose, but for me it was largely a chore to get through. I know some of the people she talks about and what was going on at the time at the broadest level, but so much was lost on me. Her food writing absolutely shines and I really enjoyed the section where she talks about script writing using When Harry Met Sally as an example. There are nuggets of joy here, but the whole thing was rather indigestible.

I'm a fan of Ephron's work and did not need convincing to read this! However, I like how it does not really have a unifying subject matter except that every story or article reveals a slice of her perspective on herself, life and the world. It's perfect for reading a chapter/article at a time while in the supermarket queue (especially now during lockdown), while sunbathing in the garden, in the bath or in bed!

A collection of Nora Ephron's writings is the perfect antidote to life's trials and tribulations. Sharp, witty and deserving of many return visits

I love this fabulous collection. The best of Nora is here - funny, fascinating and endlessly readable. This is a book you can return to again and again - there is something inspiring and wise in it for every stage of your life. Buy it and read it - you won’t regret it! Ever!