8 Reasons We’re Psyched For Lena Dunham’s New Book

You guys, the day is almost here. “What day?” you ask. In a little over a month (September 30th, to be precise), Random House is going to roll out Lena Dunham’s memoir Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned.’ I’m so excited I don’t even know what to do. It’s like Christmas in September. Because the New Yorker knew I couldn’t wait another INSTANT to devour some of content, this week’s issue contains an excerpt from the book that details her elementary school adventures under the care of a gaggle of Manhattanite therapists (because OF COURSE, Lena Dunham, of COURSE this was your year in the fourth grade). The excerpt reads like a dream and has me SO excited for the actual rest of the book to come out. Below, a list of reasons I’m super-psyched for the book to hit stores.

1. The Cover

I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but that just means you’re not supposed be a mean girl because the cover sucks, right? Like if the cover is awesome times, you’re allowed to be like a LITTLE bit excited, right? And this memoir’s cover IS awesome times, it looks a book that’s supposed to teach girls about menstruation in 1975 and I mean that in the best way possible.

2. The Lineage

We all know that Tina Fey’s 2011 Bossypants blazed the trail for in-front-of-but-also-behind-the-camera female entertainment memoirs being both critically-acclaimed works AND big-time best sellers. Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me was another stellar add to the genre. Dunham’s memoir seems like it’s going to be a worthy contribution to the sub-genre (and then we get Amy Poehler’s memoir in October, eep and more eep!)

3. The Subject

Dunham’s life is all kinds of ripe for memoir, she made feature films in college and got her own HBO show at like, what, 24? She’s the dictionary definition of a wunderkind, and I am supes-interested to hear all about how she got to where she’s gotten to.

4. The Untold Stories

I feel like we’re getting some semi-autobiographical anecdotes via Girls but I’m ready for the uncut stuff. I want to know all the anecdotes, and if the excerpt is any indication, we’re going to get SO many good ones, can it please be the end of September now, please, please?

5. The First-Person Narration

I really do like Girls, but my favorite stuff Dunham has written has been her personal essays. I love her past New Yorker pieces, I love her in magazine interviews and on podcasts, my favorite version of Dunham is the first-person version, so am so excited to get 288 pages of exactly that.

6. The New Yorker Excerpt Really Is Awesome

Go check it out on the New Yorker website, it’s all about Lena Dunham’s history with therapists dating back to elementary school. It begins, “I am eight, and I am afraid of everything”. She goes into that bizarre, under-explored relationship between a child and her (multiple) therapists. She also delves into her obsession with her therapist’s daughter and future bestie, Audrey. She writes: “We bond immediately, more over what we hate than what we love. We both hate lox. We both hate boys in cargo pants. We’re both sick of kids from Long Island saying they’re from New York.” More of that, please.

7. Wonderful writers read the book and loved it

Some of our favorite writers are already eating up the book like, David Sedaris (“full of surprises where you least expect them”), Miranda July (“I read it shivering with recognition”), Judy Blume (“Always funny, sometimes wrenching, these essays are a testament to the creative wonder that is Lena Dunham”) and George Saunders (“smart, honest, sophisticated, dangerous, and charming”).

8. Her introduction is what funny is

Thank you, Amazon, for this little nugget from the lady herself: “If I could take what I’ve learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine was worthwhile. I’m already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse or thinking that it was your fault when the person you are dating suddenly backs away, intimidated by the clarity of your personal mission here on earth. No, I am not a sexpert, a psychologist, or a dietician. I am not a mother of three or the owner of a successful hosiery franchise. But I am a girl with a keen interest in having it all, and what follows are hopeful dispatches from the frontlines of that struggle.”

(Images , via)