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    The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All
    The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All
    The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All

    Written by Alexandra Penney

    Narrated by Marguerite Gavin

    1.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Throughout her life, Alexandra Penney's worst fear was becoming a bag lady. Even as she worked several jobs while raising a son as a single mother, wrote a multimillion-dollar bestselling advice book, and became editor in chief of Self magazine, she was haunted by the image of herself alone, bankrupt, and living on the street. She even went to therapy in an attempt to alleviate the nagging in her mind that told her that all she had worked for could crumble.

    And then, one day, that's exactly what happened. Alexandra Penney had taken a friend's advice and invested nearly everything she had ever earned with Bernie Madoff. So one day she was successful and wealthy; the next she had almost nothing. Suddenly, at an age when many Americans retire, Penney saw her worst nightmares coming true.

    Entertaining and inspiring, The Bag Lady Papers chronicles Penney's struggle to cope with the devastating financial and emotional fallout of being cheated out of her life savings, and traces her journey back to sanity and security. Her outraged blogs about the Madoff scandal in The Daily Beast and her commentary on CNN have generated millions of hits and earned her a loyal following.

    How do you pick yourself up after your worst nightmare comes true? Penney shows us how.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 16, 2010
    ISBN9781400185450
    The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All

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    Reviews for The Bag Lady Papers

    1.5/5

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    • 1/5
      She obviously wrote the book for money, thinking that she didn't have enough of it already. If she really wanted to do some good in this country, maybe she should have volunteered at a local women's homeless shelter. I am always surprised to see that the wealthy people do not know how to save their own money, have no idea who to trust, bla bla bla. It just shows a lack of street smarts and maybe even some self-sabotage issues. Her writing is wordy. And the title is a bit insulting, even that shows a lack of empathy towards the "un"-wealthy citizens. It seemed that her worst fear was not becoming poor, but being an outcast among the privileged. I wonder if she ever gives to charities who really need the help. This book was a complete waste of time in reading.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Gack. This book rubbed me the wrong way time and time again. Penney invested her money with Bernie Madoff and lost it all. For the value of "losing it all" that left her with a luxury apartment, a house in Long Island, a house in Florida, and a studio in SoHo. Not to mention the Birkin, the Chanel suits, the...well, you get the idea. She was panic-stricken at the thought of not being able to buy more of her *insert name of fabulously overpriced luxury good here* and was certain she'd be out on the streets in no time. Fortunately, Penney was surrounded by many good friends, also filthy rich, who helped treat her depression and salve her fears with trips in private jets, bottles of Cristal (she helpfully points out that it costs over $200 per bottle, in case her penurious readers didn't know) and the like. Before long, she'd mustered her wits and her networks and begun a paid blogging gig about being poor which she turned into the 75K advance for this book, which I am deeply thankful I borrowed from the library. But I did learn that it's perfectly acceptable to barter photography skills for such life essentials as the colorist, the botox doctor and the mysterious "blow-out".

      The part that sent me over the edge is when she shamelessly divulges that the original breast cancer ribbon was the idea of some woman in one of the flyover states, and the ribbon was peach. When Penney, then editor of Self Magazine, contacted the woman about using her idea in the magazine, she was refused. So Penney decided to steal the idea, only using a pink ribbon. She called Estee Lauder's business manager, got them on board, and began the pink ribbon campaign. With a stolen idea. The theft of which seems to have escaped her entirely. I hate the pink ribbon campaign anyway, but to learn that it was stolen so blatantly made me lose whatever respect I might have had for Penney.

      Perhaps I'm bitter, reading this from the summer of my monetary discontent. I recommend it only for sympathetic rich persons who might better be able to empathize with Penney's undoubted suffering.


    • 3/5
      What literary agents constantly urge on us (writers, that is) is topicality.

      Whatever you do or don't feel about Alexandra Penney's writing style (not to mention philosophical outlook), you can't deny that this book is topical! Homelessness -- whether the reality, or merely the threat of it -- is no longer something that happens only "out there" to marginalized people. It's a spectre that haunts all of us in these troubled economic times.

      Is Alexandra Penney some "materialistic bitch" (as some have suggested here)? I, for one, don't think so. She and I (or you) may have (y)our eyes on different labels, but that's a world she knows -- and she's not ashamed to own up to it. Who doesn't miss nice things? Besides, every writer worth his or her salt knows the cardinal rule: Write what you know about!

      If I have one major criticism of the The Bag Lady Papers, it's only this: Alexandra and her coterie make this out to sound exclusively like a women's issue. Trust me, Alex: many men wrestle with the same demons night and day. And women (or at least mothers) have the courts to back them up. Men don't. The message to men who suffer a similar economic plight is quite simply: "DIE, DOG! Or at least DISAPPEAR!"

      RRB
      4/5/13
    • 3/5
      A woman has lost her life savings thanks to a ponze scheme. She's been very well to do as far as most people would be concerned, an apt in Manhattan, a cottage in FL and a cabin in upstate. Some of the reviews I've read say that she was just a spoiled wealthy woman. If you look deeper into the book she however is facing challenges that we might all face. What would happen if we lost all our savings? She also has what she calls her bag lady nightmares in which she is penniless as well as homeless. This is where the title of the book comes from. Although her life is extravagant by my mid-west standards it is relatable in that we could all face these same challenges.
    • 1/5
      Kind of false advertising. I got a quarter of the way in, and she was nowhere near to being homeless. This could have been a good book, but turned out to be a let-down.
    • 2/5
      Ms. Penney is an affluent member of society whose worst nightmare is the thought of losing everything and ending up penniless in the street. A horrible nightmare to be sure … until it actually happens. This is the true story of the author’s experience with financial ruin after losing everything by investing with Bernie Madoff (the original Ponzie scheme).

      This was an interesting read, but somehow I could not muster the appropriate sympathy for Ms. Penney. Granted, losing all your money, your home and everything else you value is devastating no matter how much or how little it all amounts to. But Ms. Penney had a support circle and contacts to manage to get herself on her feet again much faster than the average person. Kudos to her for telling her story and finding her life again, but it would have taken someone like me much longer if I could even do it at all.
    • 1/5
      A journal of a writer who has lost her savings due to investing with Barney Madoff. Anyone who has to cut back on her three residences does not have it too bad. She did not have my sympathy. I could not relate. Welcome to real life, Alexandra!!!