No One Tells You This-- is a debut memoir that highlights life of a unmarried single woman without the possibility of a socially expected life that includes a husband and family. Glynnis MacNicol is a full-time writer and co-founder of The List. Her award winning writing has been featured in numerous notable publications including the NYT, The Guardian and Forbes, she lives in NYC.

As a dutiful daughter and sister with too many friends to count, Glynnis led the extremely busy life of a professional woman. Soon after her arrival to help her sister care for her niece and nephew following pregnancy and the birth of a new baby, she flew to Toronto to check on her parents.
It was readily determined that Glynnis mother would require long term nursing care. Fortunately in Canada, this kind of nursing care was available to citizens-- without the extremely complicated and costly process of dealing with the U.S. Medicare system and spend-down requirement. About a year later, Glynnis returned to Toronto to sell her parent’s home, and visit her mother at her nursing care facility. Glynnis father was initially involved in the care of his wife-- until he wasn’t. Curiously, there was no further mention of him in the book.

On a writing assignment, Glynnis flew to Iceland, where her extraordinary trip and writing abilities were showcased. In Iceland, the atmosphere shifted and bubbled constantly, fueled by geo-thermal volcanic energy. Independent farmers built and operated their own mini power stations, bread was left in covered pots marked with small flags and baked on the beach.
On a glacial river raft tour, their vessel “careened wildly” down the rapids. The Australian women placed in the back of the boat, were drenched numerous times, cried and begged to return. At the front of the boat, their tour guide held Glynnis ever so tight (knowing she was single) hoping to get her email address to stay in touch.

In NYC, where Glynnis had lived for years, she moved into a rare apartment vacancy upstairs from one of her best friends. The dating apps were fun to chat with a variety of guys. Glynnis never felt like the stereotypical woman her age: supposedly needy, desperate, seeking a committed relationship to have a baby. A past relationship with a man she referred to as “646” left her wary and hesitant to renter the dating pool. Extracting herself from what little comfort she had with 646 wasn’t easy as she hoped it would be.
When Glynnis decided to drive cross country with a friend to San Francisco, a small Wyoming working ranch they visited opened up another world for her: she and her friend loved the natural beauty of the trees, meadows, hiking trails and wildlife. Returning to the ranch a month later on a writing assignment, she quickly discovered fly fishing in a icy river nearby was not her thing.

It was during a cruise when Glynnis began to fully appreciate her single status. Weren’t single women sometimes viewed with suspicion, associated with metaphorical dangerous beings as witches, furies, sorceresses and harpies? The married women she interviewed weren’t suspicious of her at all, didn’t clutch their husband’s in her presence— in fact, several of the women envied her! The single life was just too good; the freedom she had to come and go wherever she pleased was truly exhilarating! **With thanks and appreciation to Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for the DDC for the purpose of review.

Glynnis MacNicol was about to turn 40, and all-of-sudden, she began to question her life’s purpose. Up to that point, she’d had it all in her mind- a successful career and an exciting life. But should she want more? Should she want what society says every 40 year old woman should have?

This memoir chronicles MacNicol’s 40th year, as she takes a deeply personal journey of self-discovery. It’s a tough year for her emotionally, she has an ill family member, and she has to walk through many highs and lows.

Ultimately, what she discovers about being the master of her own fate is positively empowering. I was grateful for the brave and open way she told her story. No One Tells You This is insightful, bold, and thoughtful. Recommended for fans of memoirs, especially for those that challenge traditional social mores.

Thank you to Glynnis MacNicol, Simon Schuster, and Netgalley for the complimentary copy.

No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol, A Memoir explores the writer’s journey into midlife and a reconciliation with choices she has made. Single and successful and living in New York City, Glynnis MacNicol turns 40 at the start of her memoir and decides to spend it alone on an overnight trip to a nearby beach resort where she is plagued by the question: “If her story doesn’t end with marriage or a child, what then?” Not a feminist manifesto but rather an alternative narrative of modern-day womanhood, Glynnis does some soul searching as a single woman of a certain age, giving a voice to what it’s like swimming against the current of societal norms and cultural expectations. As the reader, I felt like a close friend of Glynnis, a confidant she trusted to lay bare her innermost insecurities, fears, and vulnerabilities. Glynnis doesn’t idealize her age and stage of life but she does reframe a stereotypical way of thinking about middle-age singlehood. Glynnis reminds us all that life is a trade-off and the decisions we make both open doors and close certain paths. I look forward to reading about her next 40 years.

I very much enjoyed this book of a woman seeking to define herself outside the usual, expected societal parameters. It was insightful, well-written and entertaining.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Memoir of the author looking back at fourty. I agree with the comment that this feels like Sex and the City without the sex. Has a bit of Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up in it as well.

Why do I think Sex and the City 2.0 , minus the sex. Lol