Life's Short, Talk Fast: Fifteen Writers on Why We Can't Stop Watching Gilmore Girls

Fifteen leading writers explore what Gilmore Girls means to them in this delightful celebration of a contemporary TV classic.

Fast-talking, warm-hearted, and endlessly rewatchable, Gilmore Girls has bonded real-life mothers and daughters since 2000, when its iconic pilot introduced us to Lorelai, Rory, and their idyllic Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. More than twenty years later, it has become one of the most-streamed TV shows, ever. In an anthology as intimate and quick-witted as Gilmore Girls itself, best-selling author Ann Hood invites fifteen writers to investigate their personal relationships to the show. (“It’s a show? It’s a lifestyle. It’s a religion.”) Joanna Rakoff considers how Emily Gilmore helped her understand her own mother; Sanjena Sathian sees herself—and Asian American defiance—in Lane Kim; Freya North connects with her son through the show; Francesco Sedita discovers an antidote to pandemic loneliness; Nina de Gramont offers a comic ode to the unreality of Stars Hollow. For anyone who identifies as Team Logan, Team Jess, or even Team Dean, Life’s Short, Talk Fast reveals what Gilmore Girls tells us about ourselves—and why it matters.

About the Author

Ann Hood is the author of a dozen books of memoir and fiction, including the novels The Stolen Child, The Book That Matters Most, and The Knitting Circle, and editor of the anthologies Knitting Yarns and Knitting Pearls. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York.