Microthrills: True Stories from a Life of Small Highs

Microthrills: True Stories from a Life of Small Highs

Microthrills: True Stories from a Life of Small Highs

Microthrills: True Stories from a Life of Small Highs

Audio CD(Unabridged Edition)

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Overview

Raised in Manhattan by her tiny sex-therapist mother and her two eccentric grandparents, Wendy Spero has always sought excitement in "microthrills," the small, strange highs that give her life meaning. Her story begins in the one-bedroom, Upper East Side apartment she shared with her overly protective mother, where, as a little girl, she passed the time gnawing on strawberry-scented erasers, breaking up arguments between her imaginary friends, and being subjected to cut-throat nursery school applications

Eventually, Wendy broke out on her own - but continued to be admonished by her mother for not having enough quality orgasms. After a stint of door-to-door knife-selling, she began her first (and last) office job, where she formed an unusual relationship with her big-time executive boss - one that involved as much pot smoking and gold glitter as it did mentoring. Now, a comedian living in L.A., Wendy grapples with such grown-up issues as trying to kick her addiction to eating candy in bed, parenting dozens of high-maintenance stuffed animals, and finally learning how to drive.

Sure to be loved by fans of David Sedaris and Laurie Notaro, this hilarious, offbeat, and, at times, touching book marks the debut of a fresh, new nonfiction voice, and one that won't soon be forgotten.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780143058908
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publication date: 08/03/2006
Edition description: Unabridged Edition
Pages: 1
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 5.72(h) x 0.82(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Wendy Spero is an award-winning comedian and actress, and author and performer of the acclaimed one-woman show Who's Your Daddy?. She has been featured on NPR, Comedy Central, VHI, and NBC, and in The New Yorker. She has written for Esquire and The New York Times.

Table of Contents


Welcome to the Microcosmos     xi
Shoulder Padded Muuutual Masturbation     1
Einstein, the Filmmaker     8
Live-in Sidekicks     24
E.T. and OCD     41
A Day in the Life of a Spero Hydra     52
Me, Mom, and Him     67
An Emotional Outlet     75
Vertical Halloweens     83
The Hippo and the Tortoise     92
The Traveling Monchhichis     102
Leaving the Lower Math Group     108
The Pull of Lycra     118
Molly Ringwald or Ally Sheedy?     128
Neopragmatic Hegemonic Paradigms     134
Free Spatulas     143
Apt. 6C     151
How Cool Is My Mom?     163
Why I Ended Up Buying the Most Hideously Bulbous Down Jacket of All Time     167
It's Not You, It's Me     177
Sticky Affairs     182
A Wedding Announcement     190
Stranger Bonding     195
Mom's Big Break     202
Gary     206
Mini Driver     221
Acknowledgments     237

What People are Saying About This

Jill Soloway

MICROTHRILLS was a series of micro-orgasms for me, not only in my funny bone, but throughout my brain. I love the magical minutiae of the way Wendy Spero's mind works. This book will be loved, loved, loved by all. (co-executive producer, Six Feet Under; author, Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants)

Ed Helms

Spero takes you inside her tiny, hilarious world with a brazen vulnerability that is the rare province of truly great humorists.... David Sedaris watch your back! (Ed Helms, The Daily Show)

Sarah Silverman

Reading MICROTHRILLS is like breathing air -- it feels natural. You don't feel yourself reading. Wendy Spero paints a world both familiar and unique -- so specific that you feel implanted in her moments. What I'm trying to say is I really liked it. And I'm trying to say it in a hoity-toity way.

A. J. Jacobs

Funny and touching and insightful. Microthrills is all about the little highlights of life—and by the first chapter, I knew it was going to be a highlight of my reading year. (A. J. Jacobs, author, The Know-It-All)

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