Books by Jennifer Traig
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood
by General Jennifer Traig, Jennifer Traig
A woman who suffered from an undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder in her childhood recounts how her overzealous drive for perfection and incessant hand-washing rituals compromised her daily life and strained her relationship with her good-natured parents. 40,000 first printing.
Copies
No copies available.
Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood
by General Jennifer Traig, Jennifer Traig
Jennifer Traig's memoir Devil in the Details paints a portrait of a well-meaning Jewish girl and her good-natured parents, and takes a very funny, very sharp look back at growing up with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Recalling the agony of growing up an obsessive-compulsive religious fanatic, Traig fearlessly confesses the most peculiar behavior like tirelessly scrubbing her hands for a full half hour before dinner, feeding her stuffed animals before herself, and washing everything she owned because she thought it was contaminated by pork fumes. Jennifer's childhood mania was the result of her then undiagnosed OCD joining forces with her Hebrew studies-what psychiatrists call scrupulosity
While preparing for her bat mitzvah, she was introduced to an entire set of arcane laws and quickly made it her mission to follow them perfectly. Her parents nipped her religious obsession in the bud early on, but as her teen years went by, her natural tendency toward the extreme led her down different paths of adolescent agony and mortification.
Years later, Jennifer remembers these scenes with candor and humor. In the bestselling tradition of Running with Scissors and A Girl Named Zippy, Jennifer Traig tells an unforgettable story of youthful obsession.
Copies
No copies available.
The Autobiographer's Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir
At last―the contemporary masters of memoir have come together to reveal their strategies and impart their advice. This book contains an unprecedented wealth of knowledge in one place.
In The Autobiographer's Handbook, you're invited to a roundtable discussion with today's most successful memoirists. Let Nick Hornby show you how the banal can be brilliant. Elizabeth Gilbert will teach you to turn pain into prose. Want to beat procrastination? Steve Almond has the answer. Learn about memory triggers (Ishmael Beah: music) and warm-up exercises (Jonathan Ames: internet backgammon). These writers may not always agree (on research: Tobias Wolff, yes, Frank McCourt, no) but whether you're a blossoming writer or a veteran wordsmith, this book will help anyone who has ever dreamed of putting their story on paper, on writing themselves into existence.
Featuring: STEVE ALMOND • JONATHAN AMES • ISHMAEL BEAH • ELIZABETH GILBERT • NICK HORNBY • A. J. JACOBS • MAXINE HONG KINGSTON • PHILLIP LOPATE • FRANK MCCOURT • DAVID RAKOFF • ESMERALDA SANTIAGO • JULIA SCHEERES • ART SPIEGELMAN • ANTHONY SWOFFORD • SARAH VOWELL • SEAN WILSEY • TOBIAS WOLFF • AND MANY MORE
Copies
No copies available.
Crafty Girl: Hair: Things to Make and Do
What puts the bounce in a crafty girl's curls? Handmade headbands, beaded barrettes, and sweet-smelling shampoos, all from Crafty Girl: Hair, the latest in our top-selling series for tweens and teens. Uber-crafty girl Jennifer Traig goes big with this complete guide to dazzling tresses. Her handy Product Primer unlocks the mysteries of the beauty supply store, shares styling techniques that would make a hairdresser jealous, and offers up tips on how to keep locks shiny and full. The High-Style How-to's section includes simple instructions for 16 fabulous looks, from the feathery Farrah to the Frou Frou French Twist. The Hair Jewels chapter provides 15 project recipes for sparkly barrettes and other bijoux to embellish those new 'dos, and Hair Potions is filled with recipes for homemade shampoos, rinses, and even temporary hair color. More fun and a lot less money than a trip to a fancy salon, Crafty Girl: Hair is all a gal needs to create looks she'll love.
Copies
No copies available.
Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria
Traces the author's personal struggles with hypochondria as well as the condition's history and broader cultural context, in an account that describes current misunderstandings about hypochondria, the non-threatening health challenges that fed her paranoid self-diagnoses of more dire illnesses, and her efforts to embrace a healthier outlook. 40,000 first printing.
Copies
No copies available.
Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria
The hilarious first-person account of life as a hypochondriac-from the critically acclaimed author of Devil in the Details.
Jennifer Traig does not suffer from lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's Disease, or muscular dystrophy. Nor does she have SUDS, the mysterious disorder that claims healthy young Asian men in their sleep. What she does have is hypochondria. In Well Enough Alone, Traig provides an uproariously funny inquiry into her ailment, as well as a well-researched history of the disorder. While chronicling her life as a hypochondriac and the minor conditions that helped to fuel her persistent self-diagnosis, she offers a literary tour of the disorder's past and present. And by the end, her journey leaves her more knowledgeable, a little less neurotic, and-one might say-healthier.
Copies
No copies available.
Embrace the Merciless Joy: The McSweeney’s Internet Tendency Guide to Rearing Small, Medium, and Large Children
by Jennifer Traig, Chris Monks
Are you the world’s worst parent? Could be, but you won’t know for sure till your child starts writing confessional poetry, asks to speak to the manager at an Applebee’s, or launches a YouTube channel. In the meantime, let the humorists of McSweeney’s guide you through every step of parenthood, from IVF to empty nest. This practical anthology collects the most popular parenting humor writing from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, plus loads of brand-new quizzes, lists, musings, questionable advice, harangues, primal screams, and more. An essential handbook for aspiring helicopter moms, disaffected soccer dads, and hovercrafting basketballing aunts/uncles/cousins―or anyone else who needs something to read while holed up in the bathroom for some “me” time.
Includes: Nihilist Dad Jokes Are You the Worst Fucking Parent? Decoding Your Teenager’s Glares: A Comprehensive Guide “We're Pregnant,” Said a Man Romantic Tips to Help Spice Things Up for Couples With Four Children and Two Full-Time Jobs Hello, I’ll Be Your Toddler Tour Guide For This Trip Out The Front Door Our Daughter Isn’t a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn’t Read Atlas Shrugged Please Let Me Put My Disease-Riddled Hands All Over Your Baby! Why I Decided Not to Have an OBGYN and Let Wendy From Work Handle My Prenatal Care Instead In Retrospect, the Theme for Chad’s 4th Birthday Party Should Not Have Been “Stanford Prison Experiment” Hey, Mom and Dad, I Made a Delicate, Structurally Unsound Craft That You Get to Carry Home In the Rain Your School District's Reopening Survey I’m The World’s Best Dad Because Once I Watched My Kid When My Wife Wasn’t Around How to De-Feralize Your Children for Back-to-School I Don't Know What the Big Deal About Having a Baby Is
Copies
No copies available.
Act Natural: A Cultural History of Misadventures in Parenting
From a distinctive, inimitable voice, a wickedly funny and fascinating romp through the strange and often contradictory history of Western parenting
Why do we read our kids fairy tales about homicidal stepparents? How did helicopter parenting develop if it used to be perfectly socially acceptable to abandon your children? Why do we encourage our babies to crawl if crawling won’t help them learn to walk?
These are just some of the questions that came to Jennifer Traig when—exhausted, frazzled, and at sea after the birth of her two children—she began to interrogate the traditional parenting advice she’d been conditioned to accept at face value. The result is Act Natural, hilarious and deft dissection of the history of Western parenting, written with the signature biting wit and deep insights Traig has become known for.
Moving from ancient Rome to Puritan New England to the Dr. Spock craze of mid-century America, Traig cheerfully explores historic and present-day parenting techniques ranging from the misguided, to the nonsensical, to the truly horrifying. Be it childbirth, breastfeeding, or the ways in which we teach children how to sleep, walk, eat, and talk, she leaves no stone unturned in her quest for answers: Have our techniques actually evolved into something better? Or are we still just scrambling in the dark?
Copies
No copies available.
ACT NATURAL
From a distinctive, inimitable voice, a wickedly funny and fascinating romp through the strange and often contradictory history of Western parenting
Why do we read our kids fairy tales about homicidal stepparents? How did helicopter parenting develop if it used to be perfectly socially acceptable to abandon your children? Why do we encourage our babies to crawl if crawling won’t help them learn to walk?
These are just some of the questions that came to Jennifer Traig when—exhausted, frazzled, and at sea after the birth of her two children—she began to interrogate the traditional parenting advice she’d been conditioned to accept at face value. The result is Act Natural, hilarious and deft dissection of the history of Western parenting, written with the signature biting wit and deep insights Traig has become known for.
Moving from ancient Rome to Puritan New England to the Dr. Spock craze of mid-century America, Traig cheerfully explores historic and present-day parenting techniques ranging from the misguided, to the nonsensical, to the truly horrifying. Be it childbirth, breastfeeding, or the ways in which we teach children how to sleep, walk, eat, and talk, she leaves no stone unturned in her quest for answers: Have our techniques actually evolved into something better? Or are we still just scrambling in the dark?
Copies
No copies available.