This Might Be Too Personal: And Other Intimate Stories

Shelasky (Apron Anxiety), editor of New York magazine’s “Sex Diaries” column, chronicles her love life and writing career in this collection of blithe essays. Recounting her first job in “See Alyssa Date”—writing a blog of the same title for Glamour magazine—Shelasky knew “participating in such an uncool, heteronormative” project was (even in 2006) “wildly unwoke.” But it helped her find her calling: to be a writer who “share[d] deeply personal stories as a way of exploring complicated universal truths.” Shelasky flies through almost two very busy decades: from growing her career to deciding to become a “Single Mom by Choice” via IVF to finding love outside “a traditional couple construct.” The writing achieves vitality around her pursuit of motherhood—recalling the fertility doctor’s visit in “Dr. Grifo,” she writes, “It was like, This is the moment I’ve waited my whole life for and This is the moment I never wanted to see happen both coming together at the exact same time.” Unfortunately, though Shelasky writes of resenting comparisons to Carrie Bradshaw, her rom-com-like zingers (“And just like that, my fatherless daughter had a dada”) get more play than the story of what actually drove her toward a life of “unconventionality.” Instead of being “too personal,” Shelasky’s essays elide as much as they illuminate. (May)