Telling: Confessions, Concessions, and Other Flashes of Light

Combining the insight of Anna Quindlen and the comic storytelling of Garrison Keillor with her own singularly outrageous humor, a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered takes us on a tour of the minefield of chance and circumstance that make up a life.

"Winik's voice is so true and clear and compassionate, we're happy to listen to any story she wants to tell." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Along the way, she offers razor-sharp takes on everything from adolescence in suburban New Jersey ("Yes, I wanted to be a wild teenage rebel, but I wanted to do it with my parents' blessing") to hellish houseguests and bad-news boyfriends; from the joys of breastfeeding in public to the sometimes-salvation of motherhood.

Candid, passionate, and breathtakingly funny, Marion Winik maintains an unshaken belief that following one's heart is more important than following the rules—and a conviction that the secrets we try to hide often contain the deepest truths.

"A born iconoclast, an aspiring artiste, a feminist vegetarian prodigal daughter, from early youth I considered myself destined to lead a startling life far outside the bounds of convention. I would be famous, dangerous, brilliant and relentlessly cool: a sort of cross between Emma Goldman, Jack Kerouac, and Georgia O'Keeffe.... So where did this station wagon come from?" —from Telling

MARION WINIK's personal essays are heard regularly on National Public Radio's All Thing Considered and appear in periodicals ranging from Parenting to Playgirl to The Utne Reader.  She lives in Austin, Texas, with her two sons.