Listened to the audiobook. I have felt quite preoccupied with age since ascending to the 4th floor last year so this seemed ~ relevant to my interests ~. It was a thought-provoking look at the lives and thoughts of 15 different women, reflecting on their experience of being 40-ish. Before starting the book I had read criticisms of the writers being too same-y, and that is absolutely a valid point - this is not a wide ranging representation of experience at all. But knowing that, it lived up to my expectation of "privileged American professional female writers sharing thoughts on being 40" and held my attention pretty well (which isn't always easy for me with audiobooks). My favourite essays were the one about a woman and her best friend since childhood, and the one written by a teacher. My least favourite was the one that spent a lot of time talking about beauty products! I agree with others that it would have been better to have had a *much* wider range of women represented here, but I enjoyed it for what it was.