Our annual community reads event returns for its 20th year!
As part of the King County Library’s annual Lake Forest Park/Shoreline/Richmond Beach Reads program, Third Place Books welcomes acclaimed Seattle author Kristi Coulter for a presentation of her memoir, Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, now available in paperback.
Exit Interview is a memoir about a decade of working at Amazon in a variety of senior roles. The book explores ambition, gender and the pressures of a demanding work environment, ultimately leading the author to question her identity and purpose.
This event is free and open to the public. For important updates, RSVP is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!
About Exit Interview. . .
Now in paperback, this “unique and brilliant book” (Oliver Burkeman) is a candid, relatable, very funny memoir of female ambition and a grueling decade in tech.
What would you sacrifice for your career? All your free time? Your sense of self-worth? Your sanity?
In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cozy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that would come with it.
In no time she found the challenge and excitement she’d been craving—along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear. But the chase, the visibility, and, let’s face it, the stock options proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed—until she no longer recognized the face in the mirror or the mission she’d signed up for.
Unsparing, absurd, and wickedly funny, Exit Interview is a rare journey inside the crucible that is Amazon. It is an intimate, surprisingly relatable look at the work life of a driven woman in a world that loves the idea of female ambition but balks at the reality.
Praise for Exit Interview. . .
“Exit Interview is pure joy from beginning to end. Kristi Coulter’s voice is truly inimitable: vibrantly intelligent, tender, occasionally furious, and always funny. A brilliant and surprisingly moving tour of the outer reaches of corporate madness.”
—Claire Dederer, author of Monsters
"Coulter is a delightful, funny guide, giving us an insider’s view of Amazon’s quirks and toxicities, and she’s alert to the personalities and characters around her (including glimpses of Jeff Bezos and his management style) . . . An engaging, well-paced, and thoughtful memoir, Exit Interview takes a cleareyed look at women in corporate America, particularly tech, noting how far from parity they remain in those worlds."
—Sarah McCraw Crow, BookPage (starred review)
“Kristi Coulter has given us the most vivid account yet of Amazon’s chaotic, mercurial, dignity-crushing office culture. Exit Interview is also a very funny and intensely personal depiction of what it’s like to be female in the oppressively male world of technology.”
—Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound
"With wry humor, Coulter provides candid insights about life, love, and gender as well as surviving a toxic workplace."
—Kirkus
Kristi Coulter is the author of Nothing Good Can Come from This, which was a finalist for a 2019 Washington State Book Award. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She is a former Ragdale resident and has taught writing at Hugo House and the University of Washington. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, Elle, and New York magazine, among other publications. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
Want a signed edition of the featured book, but can't make it to the event? Order through our website or over the phone, and write your request for a signature or personalization in the comments field at checkout. Please call the hosting store if you're placing your order within 24 hours of the event.
For media or access inquiries, please email
ZXZlbnRzIHwgdGhpcmRwbGFjZWJvb2tzICEgY29t or call our Lake Forest Park store at (206) 366-3311.
You may also like the following events from Third Place Books Lake Forest Park:
- Next Wednesday, 16th July, 07:00 pm, Susana M. Morris presents 'Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler' in Lake Forest Park
- This month, 21st July, 07:00 pm, Wendy N. Wagner with Isabel Cañas — 'Girl in the Creek' in Lake Forest Park
- This month, 31st July, 07:00 pm, Ken Jennings presents 'The Complete Kennections: 5,000 Questions in 1,000 Puzzles' in Lake Forest Park
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