Elinor Lipman

Elinor Lipman presents two new books: Her new novel The View from Penthouse B and her new book of essays I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays

Elinor Lipman's latest novel, The View from Penthouse B, tells the story of a season in the life of recently widowed Gwen-Laura, now living with her sister Margot. Their household grows to include Anthony, a young, hip gay man and occasionally his sister, not to mention Margot's ex-husband, a philandering gynecologist newly released from prison. They become Gwen's cheering section as she emerges from mourning and ventures back into the dating scene. This is vintage Lipman, a pure pleasure to read.

I Can't Complain is Elinor Lipmans' debut essay collection. Here are essays on her mother, her husband, her son, on writing and religion. She brings her trademark wit, wry irony, and sharp eye to her own experience, and in the process illuminates our own.

Location: Street: 247 Main St City: Northampton, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 01060-3122 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Elinor Lipman reads from and signs her two new books; the novel The View from Penthouse B and the essay collection I Can’t Complain. The View from Penthouse B Unexpectedly widowed Gwen-Laura Schmidt is still mourning her husband, Edwin, when her older sister Margot invites her to join forces as roommates in Margot's luxurious Village apartment. For Margot, divorced amid scandal (hint: her husband was a fertility doctor) and then made Ponzi-poor, it's a chance to shake Gwen out of her grief and help make ends meet. To further this effort she enlists a third boarder, the handsome, cupcake-baking Anthony. As the three swap money-making schemes and timid Gwen ventures back out into the dating world, the arrival of Margot's paroled ex in the efficiency apartment downstairs creates not just complications but the chance for all sorts of unexpected forgiveness. A sister story about love, loneliness, and new life in middle age, this is a cracklingly witty, deeply sweet novel from one of our finest comic writers. I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays In her two decades of writing, Elinor Lipman has populated her fictional universe with characters so utterly real that we feel like they're old friends. Now she shares an even more intimate world with us—her own—in essays that offer a candid, charming take on modern life. Looking back and forging ahead, she considers the subjects that matter most: childhood and condiments, long marriage and solo living, career and politics. Here you'll find the lighthearted: a celebration of four decades of All My Children, a reflection on being Jewish in heavily Irish-Catholic Lowell on St. Patrick's Day, a hilariously unflinching account of her tiptoe into online dating. But she also tackles the serious and profound in eloquent stories of unexpected widowhood and caring for elderly parents that use her struggles to illuminate ours. Whether for Lipman's longtime readers or those who love the essays of Nora Ephron or Anna Quindlen, I Can't Complain is a diverting delight. Elinor Lipman is the author of ten novels, including The View from Penthouse B, The Inn at Lake Devine, My Latest Grievance, and The Family Man; one essay collection, I Can’t Complain; and Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. She lives in Massachusetts and New York City.

Location: Street: Porter Square Shopping Center Additional: 25 White Street City: Cambridge, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 02140 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Because of the storm, this event is cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience.

"Devilishly and deliciously witty. We could all use a laugh a day and Elinor Lipman has given me that." Judy Blume

"A devotion of fearless, sassy, sublime insights, that should be carried into the voting booth of our daily lives—each poem read again and again—before any lever is pulled." Nikky Finney, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry

"First I laughed my way through Elinor Lipman's book of political tweets. Then I put my ear to the ground and listened to Molly Ivins guffawing from the grave. Lipman is a piquant poetic rock star!" Wally Lamb

Elinor Lipman is the author of nine novels, including The Inn at Lake Devine, Then She Found Me, and, most recently, The Family Man. Follow her on Twitter: @elinorlipman.

Location: Street: Porter Square Shopping Center Additional: 25 White Street City: Cambridge, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 02140 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus

Beacon Press

Since June 2011, beloved novelist Elinor Lipman (The Inn at Lake Devine, Then She Found Me) has faithfully recorded the ups and downs of the election season every morning in the form of one 140-character rhyming poem. The resulting tweets became widely popular with her followers and even received the attention of some of her subjects. (Barney Frank was delighted.) Praised as “John Stewart in 140 characters,” Lipman’s wry and clever Tweets have now been collected in a single volume for all to enjoy, including this tweet from 6/6/11:

Bye-bye Paycheck Fairness Act,

Women once again get smacked.

The GOP all voted nay.

Good luck, you guys, election day.

Location: Street: 5233 N. Clark St. City: Chicago, Province: Illinois Postal Code: 60640-2122 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Elinor Lipman, author of half a dozen delightful novels including Family Man, Then She Found Me, and The Inn at Lake Devine, brings her trademark elegant wit to bear in a very different domain: the Twitterverse, and on very different material: the 2012 presidential campaign. In irresistible verse that's been compared to Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker, Lipman calls the political landscape as she sees it--all in 140 characters. Welcome refreshment for the campaign-weary.

Location: Street: 247 Main St City: Northampton, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 01060-3122 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Elinor Lipman reads from The Family Man.

Lipman and Lippman are together for the first time with the paperback releases of their latest novels. Elinor Lipman is the author of eight previous novels, including The Inn at Lake Devine and My Latest Grievance, winner of the Paterson Fiction Prize. In 2001, she won the New England Book Award for Fiction. The film Then She Found Me, directed by and starring Helen Hunt, is based on her first novel. In her latest novel, The Family Man, a hysterical phone call from Henry Archer’s ex-wife and a photograph upend his well-ordered life and bring him back into contact with the child he adored, a short-term stepdaughter from a misbegotten marriage. Laura Lippman was a Baltimore Sun reporter for 12 years. Her Tess Monaghan books, By a Spider’s Thread, The Last Place, The Sugar House, Baltimore Blues, Charm City, Butchers Hill, No Good Deeds, and In Big Trouble, have won every major mystery prize, including the Edgar, Shamus, Agatha, Anthony, and Nero Wolfe awards. In her latest work, Life Sentences, Lippman exhibits the keen psychological insight that is her trademark and gives a deeply satisfying story that explores the complexities of friendship, the pitfalls of passion, and the blurry lines that separate memory from myth and self-delusion. (lemontwist)… (more)

Elinor Lipman discusses The Family Man.

From the store site: You might know Elinor Lipman as the bestselling, award-winning Northampton-based writer behind any number of books including The Dearly Departed, The Ladies’ Man and Then She Found Me (made into a movie starring Helen Hunt). She’s in town to read from her newest book, The Family Man, the screwball saga of a gay lawyer reunited with his long-lost stepdaughter. (sweeks1980)… (more)