A collection of true vignettes traces the author's misadventures of her mid-thirties, a period marked by her mother's glee over the author's midlife, high-protein diets, and the publication of her first book.

Laurie Notaro has proved everyone wrong: she didn't end up in rehab, prison, or cremated at a tender age. She just went gray. At past fifty, every hair's root is a symbol of knowledge (she knows how to use a landline), experience (she rode in a car with no seat belts), and superpowers (a gray-haired lady can get away with anything). Though navigating midlife is initially upsetting, the cracking noises coming from her new old body, receiving regular...