Blueprints for Building Better Girls, Elissa Schappell
Blueprints for Building Better Girls, Elissa Schappell
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Blueprints for Building Better Girls

Author: Elissa Schappell

Narrator: Julia Whelan

Unabridged: 9 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/06/2011

Synopsis

Elissa Schappell's book delves into the lives of an eclectic cast of archetypal female characters including the high school slut, the party girl, the reluctant mother, and the anorexic daughter, twisting our pre-conceived notions of who these women are, offering surprising revelations into the nature of female identity, and how it evolves. How the adolescent girl labeled the school slut in 'Monsters of the Deep' will twenty years later become a mother in 'I'm Only Going to Tell You This Once' and, faced with daunting reality of raising a teenage son, be forced to revisit her past. Whether connected by blood, friendship, or necessity, whether living in the same city or in the imagination of others, these women will create a deep and lasting impression.

About Elissa Schappell

Elissa Schappell writes the Hot Type column for Vanity Fair, is a founding editor of the literary magazine Tin House, and co-edited The Friend That Got Away. She received her MFA from the Creative Writing Program at New York University. She has been a senior editor at The Paris Review and has contributed to numerous other magazines. Her first book, Use Me, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kimberly on January 16, 2012

This collection is lit gold. Elissa Schappell writes about contemporary women so successfully. These girls really suffer. And the boys! Schappell's fate hand is cruel and yet these girls/women muster it all: courage, shame, humor, grace, guilt, and compassion. The stories are interconnected and so t......more

Goodreads review by Alex on January 07, 2012

I remember reading Elissa Schappell’s novel “Use Me” back at the end of high school and not liking it; still, when I read such positive reviews of this short story collection, I was ready to dismiss my high school self’s opinion of Schappell because, goodness knows, my tastes were definitely questio......more

Goodreads review by Lauren on September 04, 2011

Daaaaaamnnnn I didn't want this one to end! Schappell's second book, a collection of short stories, is spot-on. Each story, though separate, blends seamlessly into the next, giving readers a comprehensive view of the characters. This is the perfect choice if you only have pockets of time in which to......more

Goodreads review by Jade on November 11, 2013

If I had to describe this book in five words it would be: beautiful, heart wrenching, real, haunting. It has been a long time since I couldn't put a book down without great difficulty. Schappell has written a series of short stories that is so intimately relatable that it's impossible to not feel fo......more

Goodreads review by Meryl on August 09, 2012

Elissa Schappell’s collection of interconnected short stories was one of the best short story collections I have ever read. Each character was distinctly drawn. They were not heroes or antiheroes, but real girls and women struggling with issues that were unique while feeling universal. Her cast of r......more

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