DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD?

The second collection of breezy essays from the former editor-in-chief of Real Simple, who is now a literary agent.

For years, at Real Simple and as a columnist for Time (where many of these essays were previously published), van Ogtrop offered American women practical guidance on how to order their lives, careers, and homes. Like Just Let Me Lie Down, her latest does the same, dispensing advice in chapters with titles like “How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Roomba,” “The Shalom Ambulette, or How To Know If Your Career Is Over,” and “My Own Style of She Shed: More Vodka, Less Gingerbread Trim.” The collection is a mix of personal anecdotes, humor, and self-help bromides, much of which is either glib or strained. For example: “Your friends keep you level and help you remain anchored when you feel like you are slipping….They illuminate the path before you.” The author is at her best when she stops trying to be overly clever and writes in a straightforward, genuine voice. “Rebel Love,” about the loss of a family dog, is particularly moving, as is “Aging Parents and the Long Goodbye,” which the title perfectly describes. If van Ogtrop has the tendency to cast clichés as life lessons, she is also willing to admit that she doesn’t have all the answers. “My father has opinions on everything,” she writes in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” (an overused title if there ever was one). “And yet when I e-mailed to ask him the secret to a long marriage, he never responded. I don’t quite understand why. But I also haven’t pressed him on it. And I don’t understand that either.” The author has her moments, but if she had spent more time honing her craft and admitting to what she doesn’t understand, there would have been a lot more.

A mixed-results platter of humor and life lessons.