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Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants

Based on a True Story

About The Book

From the creator and director of Transparent and Emmy-nominated writer for Six Feet Under comes a hilarious and unforgettable memoir.

When Jill Soloway was just thirteen, she and her best friend donned the tightest satin pants they could find, poufed up their hair and squeezed into Candies heels, then headed to downtown Chicago in search of their one-and-only true loves forever: the members of whichever rock band was touring through town. Never mind that both girls still had braces, coke-bottle-thick glasses and had only just bought their first bras—they were fabulous, they felt beautiful, they were tiny ladies in shiny pants.

Now that Jill is all grown up and a successful writer and producer, she can look back on her tiny self and share her shiny tales with fondness, absurdity, and obsessive-compulsive attention to even the most embarrassing details. From the highly personal (conflating her own loss of virginity and the Kobe Bryant accusations), to the political (what she has in common with Monica and Chandra), to the outrageously Los Angelean (why women wear huge diamonds and what they must do to get them), Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants is a genre-defying combination of personal essay and memoir, or a hilarious, unruly and unapologetic evaluation of society, religion, sex, love, and—best of all—Jill.

About The Author

Author Photo by Paul Smith

The creator and director of critically acclaimed series Transparent, Joey Soloway (previously Jill Soloway) is an Emmy-nominated writer and coexecutive producer for HBO’s Six Feet Under and creator of Sit n’ Spin, a night of comedic storytelling in Los Angeles.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Free Press (September 14, 2005)
  • Length: 272 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743290043

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Raves and Reviews

"In Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, Soloway courageously dives right into her past -- armed with a dangerous intellect, a prickly sense of outrage, and a scathing wit -- and comes to the surface with a riotously good read...I can't help considering a woman who's this honest and this funny as nothing short of revolutionary."

-- Salon.com

"Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants will remind you of those rambling, all-night-long, nothing's sacred talkfests that can happen with a good friend."

-- Glamour

"Sisterly, smart, funny, and vulgar, Soloway's debut deserves a space on the shelf beside David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs."

-- Entertainment Weekly

"FINALLY, a woman has written a hilarious manifesto for the post-feminist generation.... Soloway's wickedly entertaining prose and willingness to bare the most amusing, intimate moments of her life reveal the contradictory challenges of being a smart, sexy woman who wants to have it all."

-- New York Post

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