Great Writing, Honest and Unpredictable. This is Sittenfeld at her very best. OMG do I love her writing, her insight, I wish I could express my adoration for this book (and her others) as eloquently as she would.

Short stories are best when they take unexpected turns and reveal how every day life can become surreal in a moment. This collection examines men and women navigating life with the impact of social media, jealously, miscommunication and the weight of western life. Often funny, sometimes deeply embarrassing and at times really touching, this collection of short stories made my commute and nightly reading enjoyable and able to take my own everyday worries less important.

Do love Curist Sittenfeld's writing! Her stories are so compelling and kept me reading until I finished.

My freshman year of high school I crushed on a boy named Tony. After months of in-class flirting and meaningful looks, Tony asked me to go to the movies with him one afternoon after school. My first date! I was thrilled. I don't remember the movie or how it ended, because we kissed for most of the second hour. Pretty innocent stuff, but literally the most exciting thing that had happened to me at age fourteen.
School was out soon after that date and I spent the rest of May and most of June waiting for him to call me. The phone never rang but that didn't stop me from building up an entire fantasy world in which he was on an extended vacation with his family-somewhere with no phones. I was certain that once school resumed, so would our budding romance. This is not what happened. What happened is he made fun of my hair to his friends when he bumped into me at Big Splash Water Park then walked away from me like I was nothing. The romance was over before it really began.
This painful memory is also the sharpest one I have of a time when my carefully tended inner fantasy world was gutted like a dead fish. The story I had concocted-that he was a nice person, that he really liked me-was nothing more than a sand castle washed away with the morning tide. I learned a hard lesson that day about what to do when the world I had pictured vanishes under the weight of someone else's actions.
Characters in Curtis Sittenfeld's latest collection of short stories, You Think It, I'll Say It, learn this lesson too. And they learn how to move on, in tears, in joy, in resignation, and always in the knowledge that there are ways in this world that we will always, inevitably, be alone, whether in relationships or out of them. The women (and one man) of these stories are flawed, hopeful, lonely, observant women at their lives' midpoints, navigating motherhood and marriage and professional success with sex and power and love. Taken together, the tautly written and multi-faceted story collection is a portrait of modern womanhood, albeit one within a bubble of affluence and comfort.
Misunderstandings abound, as Sittenfeld's characters navigate the sticky mess of interpersonal relationships. While misunderstandings can be spun into comedy gold, a la the 1970s and 80s "Three's Company," Curtis Sittenfeld rends them heartbreaking instead. She exposes the essential, silly or delusional truths we tell ourselves, and the internal worlds we create and try to keep intact. What is life, really, but our internal voice spinning the narrative of our lives? If those inner worlds intersect with reality, sometimes we are pleasantly surprised, but more often than not, we are Julie in the story "The World Has Many Butterflies," from which the larger collection draws its title. Julie's marriage has lost its luster, and "for a stretch of several months, whenever Julie had sex with her husband, she pretended he was [her husband's co-worker] Graham." She and Graham had yet to share anything intimate other than a game they played at social engagements to which both couples were invited. At country clubs and dance recitals, they play I'll Think It, You Say It, a game he initiates that allowed him to stand in silence while she dished and gossiped and judged the couples around them. The scene in which she confesses her love for him - at the Four Seasons Hotel - is painful and embarrassing, as he spells out in a "legalistic" manner that he was never romantically interested in her and that worse, she realized that she was never saying what he thought, that he was just listening. Her humiliation from the lunch is not quite over. Julie runs into Graham's wife after their divorce at the Butterfly Center where their children are on a field trip. She learns that Graham had moved in with a co-worker named Beth Brenner, ten years younger, blond and svelte, in mergers and acquisitions. "How embarrassing, in light of the news about Beth Brenner, that Julie had imagined Graham might desire her forty-four-year-old self, even boob-lifted and hair-straightened…Beth Brenner offered rather convincing evidence that he'd said he was never romantically interested in her because he was never romantically interested in her."
Part of Sittenfeld's work is to trace how tenuous our connections to other humans, even those closest to each other, can be. And how commitments like marriage and parenthood are made in a thousand ways each day. In "A Regular Couple," we join newlyweds Jason and Maggie on their honeymoon. Maggie, a successful attorney with a national reputation for defending a famous sports star in a rape case, and her public defender husband encounter one of Maggie's high school frenemies, the then-popular girl Ashley Frye and her husband, also on their honeymoon. The conflict with Ashley Frye, decades-old, exacerbated by Maggie's career choices, comes at a dance club, and causes Maggie to also spill her venom on Jason, who we learn is as much her trophy husband as Ashley is her husband Ed's trophy wife. When Ashley finds Maggie's sore spot and inserts the knife, Maggie's response threatens her new marriage. Insisting that the sports star Billy Kendall "had raped the cocktail waitress" but also using a tone of voice that "she also didn't really care," Ashley's comments goad Maggie into saying "As for Jason being by conscience, I'd say it's more like I'm his gravy train."
Sittenfeld wades into #MeToo territory in the final story, "Do-Over." Told from the point of view of a good-looking, wealthy white male named Clay, we meet Sylvia McClellan, the woman he stole a student council prefect election (prefect, we are told, is a fancy boarding school name for president) a quarter of century ago. Readers of Sittenfeld's debut novel Prep (Random House, 2005) will easily picture these characters in the dorms of Ault. The story opens up, appropriately, with Clay reassuring his fourteen-year-old daughter after the election of Donald Trump as president, crushing her hopes for the first female president. "Progress happens in fits and starts," he texts his daughter, and we learn that that night he dreams of Sylvia. Four months later, he's not surprised when out of the blue she emails him, wanting to meet for dinner. Clay is no Neanderthal, and gets why she may be calling, and this is exactly where Sittenfeld's characterizations are so spot on. We can't hate Clay for the white male privilege he's benefited from, not just as a white male, but as a handsome, athletic one born to money and with little struggle ascended to success in his field. We don't know what he does for a living, but investment banking or lawyering seem like the right fit.
Perhaps the recent election of Donald Trump spurred him to make the comment, as he avers, or maybe it is as a father of a girl about the same age Sylvia would've been at the time he stole the election, but he wades into an apology over dinner. "I guess we'll never know the results of that runoff, but I'd be willing to bet I lost and you won. And even if it was a different time, even if I wasn't the one who came up with the plan, what happened was completely sexist," Clay says. It turns out, however, that this was not her intent for the dinner at all. She was following up on secret crush she'd had for him during that time, a crush that perhaps made her willing to go along with the plan where he assumed the prefect role and she became associate prefect just because he "had more experience." Without ever knowing the actual outcome of the election. Sylvia, it turns out, never voted for herself in the election, a note that rings true to female readers taught that to do so would be "conceited or indecorous."
It's a nuanced version of #MeToo, lacking the gut punch of some of the stories passed around since the movement caught fire last October, but one that many women can relate to. It's the story of women who have ingested messages of inferiority and people-pleasing so deeply that the acting this way has become ingrained. When the time comes to stand up, women like me fail sometimes. We don't trust ourselves. It comes externally, and from inside our heads. How many ways, how deep is our desire to get along and be liked, how willing are we to suppress what we want for the good of the other. "I learned an important lesson from all that, which was to be my own advocate and if I came off as immodest, so be it? And you have to figure that out at some point, right? Or at least if you're a woman, you do, or not a white man," Sylvia tells Clay.
At any rate, it's not why she called him. She is assailed with dissatisfaction in her own marriage, weary of seeing her husband Nelson filling his unemployed days with video games in the same track pants with orange stripes. Sylvia confesses to Clay that she cooked up the whole plan to meet him: "I came here to go on a date with you. You wouldn't know it was a date, but I would," she tells Clay. "I wasn't hoping we'd end up in bed. For one thing, I don't think I could live with the guilt, and for another childbirth wrecked my body." Her awkward confession turns into date sabotage as she asks him if he's ever had an anal fissure "as blasé as if she's asking if he's ever tasted coconut water" before telling him about her own caused by her daughter's birth.
We feel Clay's pain: he's hardly the most sensitive man in the world, but he's trying. He sits with Sylvia, he doesn't bolt, even though "the narrowness of the margin of error allowed here, combined with the high likelihood of his screwing up-it reminds him of marriage counseling." This is a particularly apt of the place that most men find themselves when discussing issues of gender inequality. Sittenfeld has chosen to tell this story from the man's point of view, but still it is Sylvia whose voice shines. "There was this story I told myself, that growing up I'd been the awkward good girl, the responsible student, and I'd missed out socially but in the long term I'd come out ahead…But something came loose inside me, something got dislodged, and I am still that teenager," Sylvia tells Clay.
The reader can take away lessons, too, that the ten stories in this collection provide a snapshot of modern womanhood that is more nuanced than proponents of gender equality may wish to acknowledge. Sittenfeld doesn't tell stories with black-and-white morals or victories of right over wrong. She tells a quieter truth of a loneliness that can persist through marriage and motherhood and professional success. For women who thought they could have it all, the goal remains ever elusive.

'When she’s in a bad mood, she doesn’t hide it, and I’m not sure if I’m jealous or appalled.'

Of all the stories in Sittenfeld’s collection, I loved The World Has Many Butterflies. Julie plays a game, which the title of the collection comes from, with her friend Graham. Who knew sharing snarky comments about the people around them could explode into a flirtation. Where will it lead? It’s too real, too raw and oh the shame. I wish I could go on and on about how funny it was to me, but it would ruin the story. Her characters are perfect, they think inappropriate thoughts, are flawed like the rest of us and either thave wonderful clarity or lose the plot in their own lives. A Regular Couple is fantastic, what makes for a better story than a run-in with an old ‘evil’ girl from your school years? You know that girl, every school had one. The girl everyone adored for her beauty, who walked the halls wreaking havoc in everyone’s lives, who knew how to take power and she did, apparently from Maggie. But Maggie is high-powered herself these days, she is no longer an awkward nor clueless girl and how is it that all those high school memories are coming back? Why is she on the defensive, shrinking again? Ashley brings up the subject of the trial Maggie was involved in, already a ‘touchy’ subject, and Maggie has had enough! Getting called out by feminists is bad enough, but she isn’t going to take being called out by Ashley! Is her Honeymoon with Jason ruined?

Volunteers Are Shining Stars was another story in the collection that I really liked. The word volunteer brings to mind for most people feelings of love, harmony and brotherhood. Frances volunteers with children at New Day House, everything has its rhythm until a new volunteer named Alaina decides to dive in, and make waves. She is crawling under Frances skin in no time with her fresh ideas and her ‘insights’. Strange the how the most innocuous person can make us lose it.

These stories are full of simple interactions that are loaded with taut moments causing undue distress. Some are little humiliations, oh how wrongly we perceive what’s happening to us, so much harder to see with clarity just what is going on beneath the surface when we are in the way. I liked the collection for its mundane periods, the slightest friction and off we go with our emotional chaos. Nothing big has to happen, it’s the little things, isn’t it?

Publication Date: April 24, 2018

Random House

As a fan of Sittenfeld's novels, I was pleased to see that the same voice and writing came through in these stories. YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT doesn't hold back on the complicated nature of human relationships whether between old loves or complete strangers.

You Think It, I’ll Say It is a compilation of ten short stories by Curtis Sittenfield. It will be released on May 3, 2018 and is currently available for pre-order. Each of the stories explores, in some manner or another, the way that we secretly judge others. In “gender studies,” a college gender studies professor makes snap judgments about a taxi driver and, in doing so, exposes flaws in herself; in “Bad Latch” a pregnant woman meets a “purist” mother in prenatal yoga; in “A Regular Couple,” a woman runs into the former popular girl from her high school while they are both on their respective honeymoons; and in “The Prairie Wife,” a woman is obsessed with a woman from her past who has since become famous.

The overarching theme of these stories and the others in the collection is that we, as humans, are very bad at accurately judging each other’s intentions and characters. The part I found interesting, though, is that Sittenfield also explores what these poor judgments say about our own values and how people make life-altering decisions based on incorrect perceptions.

It is a pretty strong collection. Normally I find that short story collections have 2-3 standout stories, and the rest are forgettable. Here, I felt like all of the stories were fairly equal in terms of quality. The characters were believable, and I admit – it was hard not to see myself in some of her stories. I mean, who out there hasn’t made poor judgments about others before? Sittenfield perfectly nailed human nature.

With that being said, I can’t say I absolutely loved the collection. Each story was interesting but had approximately the same theme, so it felt a bit like “more of the same” after a while. Also, I don’t think I am really the target audience for it because, generally speaking, I am not as interested in domestic drama as some other people are. This is another book that I recognize a lot of people will love, but it just didn’t click for me as much as it will for most people. I can see this being a book that fans of authors like Liane Moriarity (authors who explore interpersonal dynamics) will love. I am still glad I read it, though, and definitely consider it a solid four stars.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for letting me read You Think It, I’ll Say It in exchange for an honest review.

This book was not witty. It was not brilliant. It was just depressing. If this is a sophisticated look at current lifestyles I am even more grateful I am not sophisticated. Don't waste your time.

You write it, I’ll read it. Short stories are hard (for me) to read and even harder to review. If they are good, I get so caught up with the characters I am deeply disappointed when the story quickly ends. But that is also the lure, because I want more, so I keep going. Ten short stories by fabulous author Curtis Sittenfeld. She captures the essence of what is going on in the world that affects our daily choices, big and small. Love, friendship, gender, funny, sad, thoughtful. I absolutely loved her last two novels, love her exquisite writing that feels so true and relevant. Highly recommend this quick fix while I patiently wait for more.

You Think It, I'll Say It is a collection of short stories written by the brilliant Curtis Sittenfeld. I don't read a lot of short stories because I prefer full length novels but I enjoyed this book immensely. It's smart, witty, enjoyable, and very relevant. Different stories touch on different important topics, such as womanhood, motherhood, sexuality, love, marriage, and friendship, just to name a few. I loved all the stories, some more than others, and would love to see some of them expanded because I want to see more of the characters.

Highly readable short story collection

In an eclectic mix of subjects and stories, Sittenfeld takes these female-driven tales and gives us a range of modern life topics to consider.

I loved Eligible and American Wife, their author does take the female perspective and give us juicy stories to digest. Here we have ten, each 20-30 pages, none seemingly related though the first and last dovetail the 2016 American election.

Each is fascinating, though one (Plausible Deniability) not one I found as interesting as the others, personally.

To summarise:
Gender Studies - a lost driver's licence causes a chain of events the owner would never have dreamed of
The World has Many Butterflies - the evolution of a platonic friendship between one wife and another husband who play a game called 'You Think It, I'll Say It'
Vox Clamantis in Deserto - a college friendship and beyond, looking back through the mists of time at the changes gone through
Bad Latch - the early days of motherhood and competitive parenting
Plausible Deniability - emails about music
A Regular Couple - a honeymoon bride meets her high school's queen bee and considers taking her down a peg or two
Off the Record - a journalist with a baby interviews a film star who reveals news-worthy gossip
The Prairie Wife - a working mother who knew a TV personality at summer camp reminisces about their relationship
Volunteers are Shining Stars - competitiveness among volunteers at a women's shelter
Do-Over - years after high school, the girl who controversially lost the class presidential election to a boy goes out to dinner with him... and it's on both their minds

Lots of smart women, all living busy lives and dealing with their world. I don't often read short stories as I don't like brief glimpses into characters, but I didn't feel that way at all about Sittenfield's creations. Each story was a perfectly moulded and structured one, complete in and of itelf that didn't require further elaboration to feel 'finished'.

She also peppers her writing with observations that ring true, as a fellow female, like this one I've often noted myself:
(At school drop-off) "lots of mothers did drop-off in expensive exercise wear... then did pick-up in the same; whether they had exercised in the intervening hours wasn't clear..."

Smart, sexy, intriguing and empowering collection of stories.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I was completely captivated by the book. To be honest, I was only familiar with the author from her modern day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, which is called "Eligible." I did enjoy that book, but it wasn't a hit out of the park.

This completely was. There was not a bad story in the bunch. I especially enjoyed the title story, but they all were great. Most stories focused on women who are balancing motherhood, marriage, and the mundane parts of life as they grow older and become someone else instead of an identity tied only to themselves.

I liked that many of the women were flawed and completely believable, and the author has a subtle wit that makes her turn of phrase both fresh and instantly familiar. She does say many of the things we think.

A short story collection as good as you would expect from Sittenfeld. Meaning pretty damn good. I would read any of these if they were expanded into a full novel, Yet I didn't feel they lacked anything from being short. The characters were developed enough that I could have followed them for much longer. Each story very different from the last, but all with a connecting theme of self discovery. Of what kind of person you really are.

I'm not generally a big fan of short story collections and admit that I didn't even realize "You Think It, I'll Say It" was a book of short stories when I picked it up. I chose to read it because I loved Curtis Sittenfeld's "Eligible" and "Prep" and I was excited to see she had a new one out. But I'm happy to say I was almost immediately sucked into her collection and found myself flying through it. In fact, I realized that there's only one other short story collection I truly love -- Lorrie Moore's Birds of America -- and that in many ways, this reminded me of it. Sittenfeld's stories are a little bit quirky, but so incredibly real and relevant. Even if you haven't "been there," you'll somehow find yourself able to relate to all of her characters in some way or another.

The reason I don't usually like short stories? I love getting fully invested in characters and spending extended time with them. I often find that with short stories I'm either left wanting more or I'm just "meh" about the stories and happy to see them end. Sittenfeld's stories somehow have this weird combination where they drew me in and got me invested, but also left me feeling totally satisfied when they ended. Did I want to keep reading about some of the characters? Sure, but I also felt fulfilled with their stories and like she gave me enough.

Many of the stories feature main characters/narrators who are incredibly vulnerable and opening themselves up to readers. In many instances, they're faced with people from their past who have wronged them in some way and now they, as adults, have the chance to get redemption or come to terms with their pasts.

My favorites of the collection include, "A Regular Couple" (on her honeymoon, a woman runs into a girl she went to high school with who had been cruel to her), "Bad Latch" (a new mom keeps running into that "perfect mom" who seems to have it all together), and "The Prairie Wife," (a woman is obsessed with a food blogger celebrity who she went to summer camp with as a teenager and had a fling with). While I, of course, loved some more than others, there's really not a bad story in this book!

A special thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You Think It, I'll Say It is a compilation of ten stories about misperception and how human flaws connect us all. We all misread others, including ourselves. The real challenge is to put yourself in someone else's situation to understand their choices instead of passing judgement.

I can't put my finger on why I don't like short stories. Perhaps it's because I'm left wanting more and feel unsatisfied, or that I don't want to be vested in characters that never fully develop.

This collection however is the exception. All of the narratives work together as a cohesive unit, but as stand-alone stories they are incredibly powerful. The characters are remarkably well developed and relatable, and the plots are engaging. This is an amazing feat given that it takes most authors hundreds of pages to accomplish what Sittenfeld does in a few.

I'm completely blown away with this anthology. So, back to my original statement: I guess short stories really aren't my thing...unless they are written by Curtis Sittenfeld.

This collection of short stories is very entertaining. I can’t believe how quickly I read this book! Each one is based on very current culture. A very fun read! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I've been a fan of the author since Prep and Eligible, and I was so excited to receive this collection of short stories. I found all the characters to be realistic and believable, and I enjoyed the feeling of being a fly on the wall throughout many of their interactions.

I love Curtis Sittenfeld. Two years ago, I read Eligible which is a re-telling of Pride & Prejudice. It was hilarious. So I was very excited to read this new one of hers.
If you also liked Eligible, be aware that these stories are not funny. I was thinking it would be more like American Housewife, which was hilarious. But most of Sittenfeld's stories are day in the life, fairly serious and thought provoking stories. I don't care for the one that came from the book's title but I really liked most of them. The title story is about a married woman with kids who plays a game called You Think It, I'll Say It with a fellow dad at parties or sporting events where she rips on other people and he listens. For some reason she thinks this means they have a connection and she believes she's in love with him. Meh. My favorite one was about this woman who's obsessed with a celebrity and her social media accounts. This celeb is essentially described like The Pioneer Woman. The character is obsessed with her because in their early twenties they had an affair. And yet now, she's married with 3 kids! What a hypocrite. It's a great story.
I love how all of the stories feel well rounded and thought out and you really feel like you know the character and what they're thinking and doing and even what they've been thinking and doing off the page before their story came to you. It's such a great book. Highly recommended.

Curtis Sittenfeld's collection of short stories offers a psychological examination of people whose inner thoughts can feel shockingly familiar or shockingly frightening. Her middle aged characters offer a spectrum of thoughts on aging, self-esteem and self-doubt while younger characters display a need for experience and maturity that will undoubtedly come with age. References to the current president add a cutting and current edge to several of the stories, making them timely and relatable.

A very strong series of short stories with a number of memorable characters and moments - among them a woman who struggled with a behavioral health issue that is impacting her life more than she is aware, a woman who is prepared to throw away her present life for something she has perceived but that isn't reciprocated, and two women who encounter people from their high school years and must address the strong emotions that arise in those meetings.


Sittenfeld has a strong , certain voice that makes for enjoyable and thoughtful reading.

Genre: Adult Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: April 24, 2018

I very much enjoyed the author’s previous novels, “Prep” and “American Wife.” The later was a barely hidden portrayal of President George W. Bush’s wife, Laura. I enjoyed “Prep” but felt that “Wife” was a stellar read. These books are why I wanted to read the author, Curtis Sittenfeld, again. In her newest work, Sittenfeld pens ten short stories that consist of characters who are financially comfortable, all with a female protagonist. The characters' ages range from the college years through middle-age, showing how women with distinctive personalities wrestle with the different challenges that arrive at different times in their lives.

The book’s title comes from the author’s story. “The World Has Many Butterflies.” In this tale, a married woman flirts with a man in their social network. She is unaware that he is homosexual. They play the game of You Think It, I’ll Say It. This is a not so nice game played in pairs. Now, we all have made unfair judgments on people we know. One usually keeps these thoughts to themselves. However, she is trying to impress him with her critical comments on what she assumes he's also thinking about their fellow guests. At first, it is oddly liberating reading about someone who is speaking her true thoughts. That doesn’t last long. There is a nice twist at the end.

"Off the Record" is about a celebrity journalist who is a new single mother. She is assigned to travel to Hollywood to interview a major starlet. The journalist is desperate to jump-start her career with this interview. The starlet over shares regarding her own life and proceeds to ask her interviewer to keep these details off the record. Will she or won’t she? This tale had a surprise ending and some major bitchiness is displayed.

"The Prairie Wife" revolves around a woman with her wife and their two young sons. She is obsessed with a famous woman (think Martha Stewart) who she met as a teen at summer camp. She follows her now famous friend on social media, which she hates doing, but is too addicted to stop. The famous one has a cooking television show where she presents as wholesome down to earth country gal. Her old camp cabin buddy knows she is anything but how she presents. The question here is, will she use her knowledge to ruin the other’s career? She is hoping this will end her addiction and jealousy. Does she or doesn’t she?
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The author writes a thoroughly satisfying collection on human nature. She is brutally honest in her assessments of decent women vs. catty women. She writes about our sexuality, aging, identity and gender dynamics. She throws in a bit of political feelings since in the first and last story Donald Trump makes an appearance.