After the death of her best friend, the loss of her life's savings, and the collapse of her once-happy marriage, Meredith Maran - whom Anne Lamott calls 'insightful, funny, and human' - leaves her San Francisco freelance writer's life for a 9-to-5 job in Los Angeles. Determined to rebuild not only her savings but also herself while relishing the joys of life in La-La Land, Maran writes 'a poignant story, a funny story, a moving story, and above all an American story of what it means to be a woman of a certain age in our time' (Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author).