I started watching Inside Amy Schumer on Comedy Central a few weeks ago and dear God she is funny. So I thought I’d share a few clips with you guys. She does stand-up, she has a skit show, she’s awesome.

Since moving to NYC I’ve been lucky enough to meet a ricockulous number of interesting and lovely women, including Samantha Hahn. She’s a fashion illustrator and artist and all-round insanely talented person. She’s so talented, in fact, that if she wasn’t nice and funny too, I would probably be jealous.

Her upcoming book is called WELL-READ WOMEN and it’s an absolute dream for everyone who loves to read: an illustrated compendium of some of the most-loved female characters in literature. When I heard about it, I nearly fell off the sofa with excitement.

There’s about 400 women I need to buy this for, especially ME. And even though it’s not out till August, Samantha just sent me a PDF of a few of the spreads – so here’s a sneak peek…

Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Esther Greenwood, from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Lorelei Lee from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos.

Holly Golightly from Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.

Word on the street is that this is going to sell out FAST – each book is a work of art, seriously, for serious – so if this is your bag, get pre-ordering, my loves… here in the US and here in the UK and as soon as The Book Depository sorts itself out and lists it, I’ll let you know…

ASOS Baseball top. (American Apparel does them too, but the quality is fairly shit, as usual.)

Santa Maria Novella Melegrano. When you just want to smell soapy squeaky clean. (You can buy it online at Aedes de Venustus or in person in London in the Piccadilly store, in NYC at the LAFCO store in Nolita or in Rome at the eponymous store. Y’know. Next time you’re in Rome.)

Jacked Up Banana Bread by Smitten Kitchen. I make this almost every week, with Errol as my trusty kitchen sidekick, and beweaf me, if I can’t fuck it up, neither can you. I like to store it cold in the fridge and eat with slivers of very cold salty butter or Skippy creamy peanut butter.

This book. I was wondering whether to post about Lean In by Cheryl Sandberg, because I’m not exactly the corporate type, I don’t need to know how to become CEO because I’m, y’know, a writer, and I’m already a fairly confident, ambitious, outspoken-when-I-need-to-be feminist type. And I bet a lot of you are thinking the same thing. But this book is something EVERY woman should read the moment she finishes university, nay, school. They should hand it out as you leave your last exam. Just read it a few chapters at a time, the way I did, and let it all soak in. It will change the way you think about yourself and the way you relate to the world around you. Even if you think it’s not for you, read it, so you can be a part of the conversation.

Lastly, this article ‘Can Men Be Funny?’ by Ellie Kempner in GQ this month, was v amusant.

I like a good teen comedy.

You already know this, obviously. Sixteen Candles is my favorite movie of all time. Can’t Buy Me Love, Heathers, Adventures In Babysitting, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Footloose (by the way the spoken lines in that clip are dubbed in Spanish, which makes me laugh so hard), St Elmo’s Fire, Pretty In Pink (EPIC song), Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Dirty Dancing, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Weird Science (actually, this film kind of sucks, but let’s move on), Secret Admirer, The Breakfast Club (though I don’t love it as much as everyone else), Say Anything, Sure Thing… Goddamnit, they are all just so great, and make me wish I’d been a teen in the 80s so much. So does this. It’s basically how I dance anyway.

But then the 90s hit. And… nothing. No, American Pie doesn’t count. It wasn’t that funny (okay, ‘suck me beautiful’ is funny, but apart from that, it’s kind of sexist and awkward. I mean, the porn-crazy Czech exchange student with the big fake jugs? Ew).

Except Can’t Hardly Wait.

I was just thinking, – for no particular reason other than I was gazing into space trying to figure out a plot thing and that’s when random stuff just drops into my brain – about the way the jock dude says ‘Aman-DAH’ – and thought, hell, Can’t Hardly Wait is a funny goddamn movie, I think I’ll share this with the group. I have no particular point to make except, it’s awesomer than you may remember, it has these tiny hidden gems of hilarity, and you should watch it next time you are bored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67dfnrTJlUE

Okay, the trailer doesn’t zing. Just trust me.

Actually, you know what ELSE is awesome? Mallrats. But that’s a whole different blog post.

Obsessed.

I have binged on this show for the past week or so, and I don’t know what the fuh I am going to do with my life now.

They cancelled it after two seasons. (I don’t know who ‘they’ is, but I like to roll my eyes when I say it, as if I totally do.) I hear they’re making a movie. I hope they do. Everything about this show is kind of perfect. So find it on iTunes and buy it like now. I swear you won’t regret it.

OBSESSED WITH THIS SONG.

I am sure you all already know it. Never mind. Turn it up and start jumping up and down, my lovelies.

PS And since we’re here, talking about girls with attitude, I still love Sleigh Bells, and I particularly love this, and I love this song which everyone else probably already is totally over but what the hey.

It’s on Amazon.co.uk, which means it’s official. The UK cover for BROOKLYN GIRLS is here!

I KNOW. ISN’T IT AMAZING. I CAN’T EVEN USE EXCLAMATION MARKS AND QUESTION MARKS. I AM JUST SHOUTING.

I am so in love with this cover. The lovely and talented people at Quercus have been perfecting it for ages, and from the moment they began showing me the concepts I was 100% on board. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I love that they’re using my strapline ‘Life begins at 22’ on the front, too.

Quercus has equally exciting covers for the second and third books in the BROOKLYN GIRLS series, but I’ll post them later… (oh, yah, it’s a series, mmmhmm. Each book is written ‘by’ a different character in a group of friends as they go through their 20s.)

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the UK cover in comparison to the US cover, which I also absogoddamnlutely adore.

But it turns out, I can love them both, like children, without having a favorite. The UK one is sharp and naughty and charmingly bold. The US one is fun and friendly and cool. These are all adjectives that I hope will apply to the books, so I’m pretty much the happiest little author in the world right about now.

Pre-order now if you love me, here for the UK and here for the US and here for the rest of the world. Or even if you don’t love me, I don’t mind, but pre-order anyway….

Every now and again I write funny little things for magazines. (We’ve covered this in previous sessions.)

I sort of stumbled into magazine writing (I was an advertising copywriter before I became an author and screenwriter). But writing about makeup is so fun! Plus, you know, free stuff.

Writing for Tatler UK is particularly fun, as one gets to sound all plummy and posh. (I’m not particularly posh, but I speak posh fluently. I never use words like ‘tremendous’ and ‘tiresome’ in real life, but I do for Tatler.)

ANYWAY. I thought that on this sunny Friday, you might like to read them. None of them are rocket surgery, I warn you, but they might make you laugh. And since the magazines are all back issues now, I’m sure the good people at Tatler won’t mind.

THEBOYTICIAN

THENAILFILES

These first two were nominated for a P&G Beauty Writing awards. I didn’t win. (Pouts, makes a huffing sound.)

GiveItToMummy

Manners

I’mReadyForMyCloseUp

Enjoy!

By the way, The Nail Files article is my favorite of all of them. The rest I’m not so crazy about. This is fairly typical of me. I’m never happy with my writing. I’ll probably tweak this post 15 times before next week.