Julie Tilsner
Julie Tilsner is an American author of humor books dealing with themes of women's experiences, children, and family. Her books have been published by McGraw-Hill, Bantam Books, NTC Publishing Group, and Ten Speed Press. Tilsner is also a journalist, and was on the staff of BusinessWeek. As of 2006, she is a Contributing Editor for Parenting Magazine.
Biography
Tilsner was born in Southern California, worked her way through college as a belly dancer, obtaining a degree in Journalism from San Jose State University. She graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 1992. As her 30th birthday approached, Tilsner left her position at BusinessWeek to live and work on a kibbutz in Israel. There, she met her husband. She now lives in Southern California with her two children.
Style
Starting with 29 and Counting, written in the tone of one girlfriend talking to another, Tilsner's books often use personal experiences to illustrate her outlook on life, conveyed in a way that appears intended to strike the reader as funny, and slightly shocking, yet true.
One of the typical gags in Planet Parenthood is a section on when to resume postpartum sex which devotes several paragraphs to the mother's psychological reentry to sexuality, body issues, and the ethical choices involved in risking bringing another baby into the family and our dangerous modern world. Thereafter, the section dealing with the man's feeling says, in its totality: "Dad's ready to go in about two weeks."
Attack of the Toddlers dismisses the notion that expectant parents should learn about the phases that their amazing offspring will go through, on the grounds that the child's development is more or less programmed by DNA. The book focuses instead on the sometimes involuntary metamorphosis the parents themselves will go through. "Parenthood is a state from which you never recover," according to the book. "You won't regret it, but you're going to change. Big time."
Mommy Yoga uses difficult, often impossible, yoga poses as metaphors to describe the demands of motherhood. It is based in part on contributions solicited from women via an email list. The cover features a mother who, despite her contented smile, is in the pose of a beast of burden.
Tilsner currently writes a blog, in which she writes about her complete lack of know-how in the kitchen, and how her attempts to feed her friends, family and children like other mothers often backfire.
Published works
Tilsner's works include:
- 29 and Counting (A Chick's Guide to Turning 30) (1998)
- Planet Parenthood (2001)
- Attack of the Toddlers (2001)
- Mommy Yoga: The 50 Stretches of Motherhood (2005)