I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag: A Memoir of Life Through Events—the Ones You Plan and the Ones You Don't
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
A warm, wise, and wholly original memoir of survival, renewal, and transformation, by one of New York City’s most successful and respected special events coordinators
With her top-level events company, Save the Date, Jennifer Gilbert has worked with Fortune 500 companies, broadcast media giants, international nonprofit organizations, and celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Bill Gates and beyond. Yet few of her clients or colleagues have known, until now, that Jennifer not only a self-made success: she’s also a survivor. After a random, near-fatal attack left her body in critical condition on a crowded city street, and left her with emotional wounds that would take years to heal, Jennifer embarked upon a journey to reclaim her life.
This is her story, in her own words: I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag, an intimate, poignant, inspiring memoir of perseverance, rediscovery, and hope.
Read more from Jennifer Gilbert
And Deliver Us from People!: The Revelation for Elevation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChurchin’ Ain’T Easy: What All Christians Need to Know but Few Take the Time to Share! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag
Related ebooks
The Facebook Killer: Part One. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Exes and Ohs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Long Night Out Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSteal the Lightning: A Field Ops Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lean On Me: An unforgettable, emotional read from NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER Beth Moran for 2024 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGo Ask Ali: Half-Baked Advice (and Free Lemonade) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Business Arrangement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLights, Camera, Murder: Reality TV Cozy Mysteries, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTILLY: Wedding At Lynx Lodge: Wedding At Lynx Lodge, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Goodbye Cruller World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mischief at Eden's Gate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunting at Ocean House: A James Murray Mystery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeow Missing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove Your Frenemies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Secrets, Lies, and Family Ties Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Birds of a Feather Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPromise Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOWL Investigations Mysteries Books 1-3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Family Affair Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrespassers Will Be Mutilated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Secret Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl on a Boat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLost and Gowned: Rosemary's Wedding: A We Sisters Three Mystery, #4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Arrangements: A Cozy Mystery Box Set: The Flower Shop Mystery Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Offering: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Journal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSamhain Secrets Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sudden, Sudden Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Liar Bird Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5We Are Family: A feel-good read from NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER Beth Moran Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Women's Biographies For You
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman They Wanted: Shattering the Illusion of the Good Christian Wife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Butts: A Backstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frida Kahlo: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag
17 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I thought that this was going to be a nice little book with some anecdotes about bridezillas and overbearing mothers. I was a little bit wrong. Ms. Gilbert, as a young adult woman, was brutally attacked by a man who stabbed her multiple times with a screwdriver. This is her recovery story with a couple event planning anecdotes thrown in. A good read and I am glad that she did recover to write it. Emotionally and physically.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When Jennifer Gilbert was just 22 years old, she was attacked by a crazed man who stabbed her repeatedly with a screwdriver. He had followed her from the subway to her friend's apartment and brutalized her right outside her friend's apartment door. This event begins her memoir I Never Promised You A Goodie Bag- A Memoir of a Life Through Events- the Ones You Plan and the Ones You Don't.Jennifer screamed and pounded on the door and when her friend Andrea opened the door and saw what was happening, Andrea panicked and closed the door. The man still came at her, and she used all her might to avoid being stabbed in the head.Andrea opened the door again and Jennifer scrambled into the apartment, with the attacker on her heels. Andrea ran into her bedroom and locked her door. Finally the man gave up and left, but Jennifer was in bad shape, losing a lot of blood.Later she found out that there were four other women cowering in their bedrooms in the apartment, but no one came to her aid. Remarkably, she didn't hold it against Andrea, trying to understand how frightened Andrea was too, but their friendship didn't last.Jennifer's parents and sister brought her home and tried to comfort her, friends and neighbors stopped by, but it didn't help. Her view of the the world and her place in it had been shattered, and now she was labeled "victim".She moved to Boston and stayed with an old boyfriend, but was stuck in a state of fear and inertia. She couldn't work, focus, or leave her apartment. Then she decided to fight back."Where was that girl and why had she given up? I had let the attacker frighten me out of the city I loved and into a deep hole that I had dug for myself to hide in. This was not my fabulous life. This wasn't why I had fought so hard to survive that day. If I was going to be afraid to live, then that man might as well have killed me. I was lost and alone and scared, and I was headed down a road of not just feeling nothing, but being nothing."She decided to work on her career and applied for jobs in event planning; she received two offers, one from Bear Stearns and one from a small events planning company. She chose the small company because she would be getting a commission on any event she booked and because of the freedom her boss gave her to help build the business.Corporate clients were cold called, and she pestered them until they gave her a chance; she was relentless in her pursuit, finally getting Salomon Brothers as a client in 1992. Gilbert was great at her job, and her "AA-type personality" served her well. No detail was overlooked and she became well-known to caterers, party venues and hotels.She learned "not only how to function in stressful moments, but also how to make those moments less stressful for everyone else involved." I worked in marketing for a mall, and events planning was part of my job, so I very much enjoyed reading how Gilbert solved problems (a bride locked in the bathroom crying, a venue that promised it would have a liquor license by event day didn't, running out of beer at a Salomon Brothers party at Tavern on the Green) with her can-do attitude.Eventually Gilbert started her own events planning company, Save-the-Date, and because of her attitude and reputation, was successful. Her love life was another story. She had some long-term relationships, but none worked out. The only steady man in her life was her friend Bennett, who loved her and was convinced that they should be together, but Jennifer couldn't see it happening.The title of the book comes from her idea that goodie bags are over. Her description of wealthy, high society women climbing over each other to get a bag that has nothing more than "a granola bar and a bottle of shampoo" had me chortling in recognition. I've seen that happen time and again, and I'm with Jennifer on this- get rid of the goodie bags!What I took away from this book was the resiliency of the human spirit. Something horrible happened to Jennifer Gilbert, but she was determined not to let it stop her from living her life. That experience colored everything that came after, but she worked hard to overcome it and live "her fabulous life". You can let things in life defeat you or you can fight back and make a better life; it is all up to you. It's a lesson many of us can learn.