Isn’t it refreshing that in a time where so-called influencers continually push the next best thing that we simply must love, someone has the courage to produce a list that does the opposite?
Image: Margot Robbie and Ryan Reynolds in The Barbie Movie (source: The LA Times)
I heard one influencer extolling a ‘must have’ item – a new water bottle. Nothing wrong with that. As I’m writing this blog, it has just pipped 38 degrees outside (Perth, WA) and we all know how important hydration is. But the water bottle in question was retailing for $185. The expense was explained by it having a microchip (and wi-fi connection to your phone of course) to communicate how much water had been consumed. Heaven forbids, having to use one of those old-fashioned water bottles, where you have to look at the bottle to see how much water you have left!
Image: A futuristic image of a microchipped water bottle, courtesy of Chatgpt, with the characteristic typo (Source Chaptgt 25/3/25).
I first heard about Betsy Lerner on a ‘The Writer’s Files’ podcast (link, 28/2/2025). I’m not sure if her relevance was magnified by me listening to it at 3:30 in the morning, but she struck a number of chords. When the clock clicked over to more a reasonable hour, I looked at Betsy’s website (link). She has been around for a while and has produced an eclectic range of books. Perhaps more notably, she has been a co-writer for a few landmark projects.
Image: Betsy Lerner (foreground) and Patti Smith (Source: Google images)
Lerner’s books include ‘The Bridge Ladies’, ‘the Forest for the Trees’ and ‘Food and Loathing’. ‘The Bridge Ladies’ is a memoir, with some creativity thrown in. ‘Food and Loathing’ is Lerner’s essay on how women can “lose themselves in the quest to lose weight” and ‘the Forest for the Trees’ (and yes, the lower case ‘t’ is correct) is book that has been described as a survival course for writers. It is intended to help the writer who cannot get started. She encourages you to be an effective self-promoter, not a self- saboteur.
Reaffirming that the most important thing a writer can do is – write. The book is also encouragement to late bloomers as Lerner, despite having a long career in editing didn’t publish her first book until she was 63.
Image: Betsy Lerner's Award winning debut novel 'Shred Sisters'. (Source: The author's website).
Her most recent book, ‘Shred Sisters’ was long listed for 2024 The New York Times Book of the Year. It is a “novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sisters” (Goodreads). The story interrogates how one person’s battle with mental illness can destabilise the lives of a whole family. Goodreads claims that “Shred Sisters is “an intimate and bittersweet story exploring the fierce complexities of sisterhood, mental health, loss and love.” These are themes that I explore in the novel that I am currently writing, ‘No Index’ (working title). In 'No Index' we meet some of the characters in a mental health facility. 'No Index' doesn’t go down the same path as 'Shred Sisters', but it explores how people find themselves in similar situations and how they recover.
Image: Just one example of Robert Mapplethorpe's incredible photography (Source: Google Images).
While Lerner’s novels provide evidence of impressive work in themselves, she doesn’t stop there. She co-authored ‘Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People who think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions’ with Temple Grandin (TED talker, animal rights and autism advocate). Grandin's TED talk has been downloaded more than 7 million times. Lerner ghost wrote her friend Patti Smith’s biography. Patti Smith, is arguably the grandmother of punk rock in the US. To limit Patti Smith to punk music however underplays her wider influence. Rolling Stone magazine lists Patti Smith among the top one hundred most influential musicians in the USA. The resulting book, ‘Just Kids’, was produced to fulfil a promise Smith made to Robert Mapplethorpe, her long-time partner, friend and notable photographer.
Lerner is also an award-winning editor and literary agent. There is no doubt in my mind that Betsy Lerner is a polymath – modern day renaissance woman. Perhaps it is ironic that the thing that first caught my eye was her annual ‘Things I Hate List’.
Image: Who could love those ridiculous lips? (Source Google images)
Lerner’s 2025 list of hates includes, Nicole Kidman’s wigs, the Term ‘Bucket list’ and that she can’t lose weight. Previous items on her annual lists have included: watching as friends partner fade away with Alzheimer’s, getting older, everything pink and Barbie (and her own jealousy of Greta Gerwig, the producer of the Barbie Movie), calling Twitter X, ‘the battle for the soul of her country (USA) and people not getting Taylor Swift.
Image: A size disproportionate to value, pocket shredding, dodecagonal fifty cents coin. (Source: Freestock images).
I suppose we shouldn’t have been a surprised that Lerner’s list of hates was a bit ‘out there’. Some of her hates are hard to assimilate, but others are hard to argue with.
Lerner’s list gave me pause to think about what I might put on my list of things to hate. Without getting too philosophical my list would include:
Cockroaches
‘Old-fashioned’ paperclips
DT. The Cheeto coloured first president of Gilead.
Groups of people that sprawl over the footpath making it impossible to pass
Liars
Ticks
The situation in Gaza
Botox lips
People that stand in lines at Fast Food outlets, only ruminate over their order when they actually reach the front of the queue.
If I’ve included an item that you disagree with let me know, and make a case for me making a retraction. What would you include on your list?
Image: A hungry parasitic tick (Source: Google images)
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Image: An American cockroach living in Australia (Image: Western Pest Control)
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