A Boob’s Life
“When I was a little girl dreaming of having breasts, I had no idea about the non-stop ogling and boob worship I was in for as a woman in America. Leslie Lehr explains it all in this funny, passionate, upbeat book. You’ll never look at yourself in the mirror the same way again!”
Leslie Morgan Steiner, New York Times bestselling author
A Boob’s Life explores the surprising truth about women’s most popular body part with vulnerable, witty frankness and true nuggets of American culture that will resonate with everyone who has breasts—or loves them.
Author Leslie Lehr wants to talk about boobs. She’s gone from size AA to DDD and everything between, from puberty to motherhood, enhancement to cancer, and beyond. And she’s not alone—these are classic life stages for women today.
At turns funny and heartbreaking, A Boob’s Life explores both the joys and hazards inherent to living in a woman’s body. Lehr deftly blends her personal narrative with national history, starting in the 1960s with the women’s liberation movement and moving to the current feminist dialogue and what it means to be a woman. Her insightful and clever writing analyzes how America’s obsession with the female form has affected her own life’s journey and the psyche of all women today.
From her prize-winning fiction to her viral New York Times Modern Love essay, exploring the challenges facing contemporary women has been Lehr’s life-long passion. A Boob’s Life, her first project since breast cancer treatment, continues this mission, taking readers on a wildly informative, deeply personal, and utterly relatable journey. No matter your gender, you’ll never view this sexy and sacred body part the same way again.
“When I was a little girl dreaming of having breasts, I had no idea about the non-stop ogling and boob worship I was in for as a woman in America. Leslie Lehr explains it all in this funny, passionate, upbeat book. You’ll never look at yourself in the mirror the same way again!”
Leslie Morgan Steiner, New York Times bestselling author
“Novelist and screenwriter Lehr blends memoir, history, and cultural criticism in this witty and incisive look at American attitudes toward women’s breasts…Lehr’s engrossing and empathetic account will appeal to women of all ages.”
Publishers Weekly
“A serious and provocative book with enough lightness to keep the pages turning.”
Kirkus Reviews
“As women we are always asking ourselves, are we enough? Witty, wise, and sometimes heartbreaking, A Boob’s Life, uses our relationship with breasts, and the ways others define us through them, to explore what it means to live in a woman’s body. Original, thought-provoking, and written with an elegant sense of humor, A Boob’s Life is a must-read.”
Salma Hayek
“Poignant, powerful, and ultimately, hopeful—who would think a breast could properly capture the history of women in our country? A Boob’s Life makes you realize women in America have been through a lot. That you have been through a lot. Equality must be the next wave. It can’t come soon enough.”
Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author
“Told with heart, humor, hope, and a whole lot of sassiness. Lehr fearlessly and candidly brings us along on her breast cancer journey and beyond. Have a box of tissues at the ready as you read this deeply personal memoir. You’ll need them to wipe away tears of heartache and laughter.”
Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author
“Brave, honest, and funny, this book will open your eyes, break your heart, and make you reflect on your own life and history.”
Brenda Janowitz, author of The Grace Kelly Dress
“Deeply personal, wisely funny, and moving. This isn’t just a fantastic, intimate memoir about how cancer, survival, and life in general changed Lehr’s entire relationship with her body parts, but an exploration of how our breast-obsessed culture, women’s lib, and men, have shaped our feelings about breasts. Insightful, delightful, and eye-opening.”
Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author
“A powerful emotional chronicle of a young girl’s budding awareness of the power of breasts; a young woman’s negotiations as an object of male desire; a mother’s loving perspective on her children’s food source, and an adult woman’s struggle with a disease that could take her life. An insightful, comprehensive, modern-day manifesto that champions a woman’s totality.”
Hope Edelman, New York Times bestselling author
Leslie Lehr is a prize-winning author, screenwriter, essayist, and story consultant. Her books include the novels 66 Laps, Wife Goes On, and What a Mother Knows, and her essays have been published in the New York Times Modern Love column and the Huffington Post. She is a member of PEN, the Authors Guild, WGA, Women In Film, and the Women’s Leadership Council. She lives in Southern California.