She Made Me Laugh: My Friend Nora Ephron

Nationally syndicated Washington Post columnist Cohen chronicles his 40-year friendship with Ephron, the pop culture icon who died in 2012 of complications from leukemia. Cohen details Ephron's career, from her early days as a Wellesley College reporter and Newsweek mail clerk to best-selling author (Heartburn; I Feel Bad About My Neck) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director (Sleepless in Seattle; You've Got Mail; Julie & Julia). Ephron's glamorous lifestyle, her A-list friends and lovers, and complex family relationships are also described in great detail. Cohen's name-dropping account isn't chronological—it feels more like a series of short essays than a traditional memoir—and narrator Christopher Lane can't give the work a cohesive feel. Ephron's admirers may bristle at Cohen's portrayal of this much beloved superstar as an elitist (and often a bully), but he clearly knew her well and chose to present all sides of his complex friend.