Lisa Kogan has always been one of my favorite writers, partly due to her
unparalleled "real-woman-wit" and partly because of her marksman-like
ability with words. Give her any topic, from any distance, and she
consistently hits a bulls-eye. She may be best known for her wry sense of humor, marrying the ordinary and absurdity of life in observations about everything from mattress quality and late-night television to the often unanswered dilemma of appropriate volumes of lasagna consumption (how much is enough, how much is too much to indicate one has lived well?)
But I personally love her spot-on commentaries about life, both in her O Magazine column and in her new book, Someone Will Be With You Shortly: Notes From a Perfectly Imperfect
Life.
While many (and I mean MANY) of Kogan's quotes have made me stop to laugh out loud over the years, an equal number of them have made me stop and think. Consider the following:
- "You make the choices you make based on what you know about yourself
and what you think you know about the world. And sometimes the world
will turn around and break your heart, but other times...the reality of
what you wound up with will suddenly seem like the only possible choice -
it just couldn't have turned out any other way."
- "Sometimes I think being middle-aged isn't about learning a lot of new
lessons so much as learning the same old ones again and again."
Oh, to be treated to such a memorable combination of laughter and learning. Kogan is truly one of today's great literary sharp-shooters. Consider treating yourself to a copy of Someone Will Be With You Shortly today. And to make the process of learning and laughing even more fun, invite some friends to join you. Download this handy list of book group questions to spark your conversation today!
