So Here's the Thing...: Notes on Growing Up, Getting Older, and Trusting Your Gut

by Alyssa Mastromonaco, Lauren Oyler (With)

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? comes a fun, frank book of reflections, essays, and interviews on topics important to young women, ranging from politics and career to motherhood, sisterhood, and making and sustaining relationships of all kinds in the age of social media.

Alyssa Mastromonaco is back with a bold, no-nonsense, and no-holds-barred twenty-first-century girl's guide to life, tackling the highs and lows of bodies, politics, relationships, moms, education, life on the internet, and pop culture. Whether discussing Barbra Streisand or The Bachelor, working in the West Wing or working on finding a wing woman, Alyssa leaves no stone unturned...and no awkward situation unexamined.


Like her bestseller Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?, SO HERE'S THE THING... brings a sharp eye and outsize sense of humor to the myriad issues facing women the world over, both in and out of the workplace. Along with Alyssa's personal experiences and hard-won life lessons, interviews with women like Monica Lewinsky, Susan Rice, and Chelsea Handler round out this modern woman's guide to, well, just about everything you can think of.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538731550
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	784,899
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Alyssa Mastromonaco served as assistant to the president and director of scheduling and advance at the White House from 2009 to 2011 and as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for operations at the White House from 2011 to 2014. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? with Lauren Oyler and a contributor to Crooked Media.


Lauren Oyler is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Baffler, the New Republic, VICE, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

WTF Is Politics Anymore? 5

Susan Rice on How Diplomacy Has Changed (and How Young Women Can Help Shape It) 19

Shits, Giggles, and Medical Marijuana 23

Are You There, God? It's Me, Alyssa 32

When John Kerry Saw Me in My Underwear 40

The Meow Coat Has Claws 44

What to Expect When You're Not Expecting to Ride a Motorcycle for Hundreds of Miles Along the Japanese Coast 50

Oh, the Places You'll Go! (And Be Spied on by Foreign Governments) 61

Why You Should Always Listen to Michelle Obama 73

Dan Pfeiffer on How Platonic Life Partners Help You Avoid Catastrophe 76

"How Do I Get to Be You by the Time I'm Thirty-Five?" 79

Quitters Sometimes Win 93

Ted Chiodo's List of Words AM Uses That You Should Pay Attention To 99

Electric Chocolate Cream Pie Acid Test 102

The Woman in Red Leather Pants 108

"Tell Alyssa She Needs to Get Better at Email" 119

In Praise of Monica Lewinsky 129

Monica Lewinsky on How Not to Be a Jerk on Twitter 136

How Jennifer Aniston Got Me Through My Breakup 139

I Was Wrong About John Mayer 148

The Ones Who Got Away 155

A Note on Sex 164

Altared States 165

What to Expect When You're Not Expecting 175

Victory Over Big Panty 194

How I Became a Crazy Cat Lady 201

Chelsea Handler on My Unhealthy Relationship to Cats 208

Long May You Run (and Not Burst into Flames) 210

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Specifically: Barack Obama and Jennifer Hudson) 219

Acknowledgments 226

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? AND ALYSSA MASTROMONACO:


"Always fascinating and very funny, Alyssa's book is full of juicy stories from one of the world's most glamorous jobs."—Mindy Kaling, New York Times bestselling author of Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) and Why Not Me?

"WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? is everything we've come to know and love about Alyssa over the decade we worked with her: brilliant, funny, grounded, and inspiring. Anyone who's interested in politics - especially young people - should read this book."—Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Favreau, former communications director and speechwriter for President Barack Obama

"Few people have had as much access and influence over national events over the last decade as Alyssa Mastromonaco. No matter how serious the crisis or hard the problem, Alyssa took care of it with great skill and professionalism, and even greater humor. This book tells the story of a young woman succeeding under extraordinary circumstances, and throughout it all, never taking herself too seriously."—Stephanie Cutter, former deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama

"I've often wondered how a woman can be so many things wrapped up in one dynamic package. Alyssa is my fairy godmother: she's wise, resourceful, insanely smart, and makes me laugh in a very special way. Her stories - from the front line of the White House to her kitchen - will entertain, inspire, and humor you for a long time to come."—Amanda de Cadenet

"Alyssa is a force: whip-smart, humble, and funny as hell. Her writing is as fearless as she is."—Sophia Amoruso, founder and CEO of Girlboss

"A candid and charming memoir of her unexpected career in government...The memoir abounds with intimate glimpses of Washington, D.C., celebrities (Biden, Clinton, Michelle Obama, and scores more) and cheerfully dispensed survival strategies. An entertaining look inside the White House."—Kirkus

"When imagining working in the White House, many picture meaningful meetings, glamorous dinners, and high-stakes decision making. It can be all of those things. But as Alyssa Mastromonaco writes in WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?, the reader gets a real and raw peek behind the curtains where Alyssa experiences the good, the bad, the distressing, and the often hilarious. Alyssa has real grit and grace, and her book is her story very well told."—Dana Perino, New York Times bestselling author of And the Good News Is... and Let Me Tell You About Jasper...

"A combination memoir and compendium of very good suggestions about how to get ahead -- very far ahead -- at an early age."—The Washington Post

"[WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA] is brimming with...humorous, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, as well as up-close-and-personal moments with Obama that shed new light on who he is as a leader, man and friend."—People.com

"A moving, funny, and sometimes heart-wrenching look back at the years [Alyssa Mastromonaco] spent in politics and by [President Obama's] side. A must-read for anybody who's even remotely interested in how Washington works, but is worth reading for anyone who enjoys brilliant wit and once-in-a-lifetime stories...you'll probably end up reading it more than once."—PopSugar.com


"This relatable memoir is packed with juicy on-the-road stories and crisis management advice, and presents a strong case for embracing a sense of humor in the face of humbling setbacks."—Esquire.com


"Mastromonaco's memoir successfully avers that a tough, high-profile job is attainable and enjoyable for any woman who is as smart, ambitious, humble, silly, and hard-working as she is. Her book is full of enjoyable storytelling intended as encouragement for women of her generation and younger."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2019-01-21

A self-described "goofball" cheerfully reflects on life.

Taking up from where she left off in her last essay collection, Mastromonaco (Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?, 2017), Barack Obama's former White House deputy chief of staff for operations, gathers essays, random thoughts, and interviews that add up to a merry gloss on politics, campaign work for John Kerry and Obama, her stint in the White House, dating (a guy who collected Beanie Babies, for example) and breaking up, watching Friends and Sex and the City, the health problem—irritable bowel syndrome—she wrote about in the previous book, how social media has changed politics, and many other topics, including Donald Trump. Although she was scolded by Amazon reviewers for TMI, she can't help but return to the IBS theme, warning readers who may not "appreciate knowing the details of strangers' gastrointestinal lives" to skip to her essay on getting her period. "I'm a forty-two-year-old woman with the diet of a picky seven-year-old and the bathroom habits of a seventy-two-year-old. What can I do but talk about it?" She also discusses her long, initially futile search to find comfortable underwear, which ended, happily, with "Gap stretch-cotton hipsters, size large." The essays are interspersed with lists: favorite songs, things you should never say to your boss, what's in her suitcase; and interviews with Susan Rice, Monica Lewinsky (a dear friend), Dan Pfeiffer (her Platonic Life Partner), and Chelsea Handler. The brief conversations are as frothy as the essays. Pfeiffer tells her that "the key to any lifelong friendship/platonic partnership is trust." Rice encourages young women to "do what you are passionate about." Mastromonaco surely has followed that advice, and in looking back on her career, she reflects thoughtfully on her decision not to have a child. Most pieces are funny and many, insightful. "If I've learned anything in my life," she writes, "it's that the line between nonsense and wisdom is very thin."

An entertaining miscellany by a sharp-eyed observer.

Kirkus Reviews

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