Former SNL writer and THE BRAND NEW Yorker staffer Patty Marx uses the tool she wields best–not that tool; Patty believes in gun control. Instead, she uses her sharp-edged laughter to tackle the most difficult facet of maturing: the mind’s decline. From forgetting her brother-in-law’s name while he was wearing a nametag to hanging up the phone to consider her phone, Marx confesses to her failures, and not just to make you feel better about yourself.

In LET’S BE Much less STUPID Patty addresses troubling conundrums, such as: If a couple of more neural connections in the human brain than famous actors in the Milky Method, why did you put the butter dish in your nightstand drawer? Patty’s pursuit to obtain smarter includes almost everything: learning Cherokee, popping pills (not the good kind), and hearing to–who’s the guy who didn’t write dum de de dum however the other one?