New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman, a journalist for many years, collects here her recent essays exploring motherhood as an older mom, her life as a reader, her relationships with her parents, friendship, and other topics that will resonate with a large audience. Her voice is wry and relatable, her takes often surprising. Meet the Woman Behind the Books... In this collection of new and previously published essays, New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman offers her take on a woman's life across the decades. Her childhood and school years, her newspaper career, her experiences as a novelist--Lippman finds universal touchstones in an unusual life that has as many twists as her award-winning crime fiction. Essays include: - Men Explain The Wire to Me - Game of Crones - My Life as a Villainess - My Father's Bar - The 31st Stocking These candid essays offer long-time readers insight into the experiences that helped Lippman become one of the most successful crime novelists of her generation.