About the Book
Notes to Boys (And Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public) is a “mortifying memoir” from bestselling author and tv/film writer Pamela Ribon. Miserably trapped in small town Texas with no invention of the internet in sight, Ribon spent countless hours of her high school years writing letters to her (often unrequited) crushes. The big question is: Why did she always keep a copy for herself? Wince along with Ribon as she tries to understand exactly how she ever thought she’d win a boy’s heart by writing him a letter that began: “Share with me your soul,” and ends with some remarkably awkward erotica. You’ll come for the incredibly bad poetry, you’ll stay for the incredibly bad poetry about racism.
“…brain-breakingly funny…hugely relatable, very entertaining… It’s a collection of embarrassing stories and mortifying notes, yes, but it’s also a pretty deeply felt memoir about her introduction to boys and sex and – perhaps most painfully – learning when not to tell people how you feel.” — Linda Holmes, NPR
From Booklist:
Television writer Ribon, also the author of several novels, including Why Girls Are Weird (2003), bares her teenage soul in this hilariously endearing memoir, which chronicles her youthful passions. Ribon was a lovelorn teen in the early 1990s, and she saved copies of the earnest notes she sent to the objects of her affection. In asides dropped in between the text of the notes, Ribon winces at the flowery prose she used to woo elusive teenage boys. She also shares mortifying memories, such as an uncomfortable sex talk with her father and a sexual encounter that goes awry thanks to the unfortunate presence of gum. Ribon’s passion wasn’t limited to boys: she railed against the backward teaching at her high school, daring to call out a teacher for racist comments during a lesson. Ribon also tried to start an underground paper only to have it hijacked by students with the means to produce it. Imaginative children of the 1980s and ’90s will likely see themselves in Ribon’s writing, as will like-minded teens today. –Kristine Huntley
Buy it here.