If the name E. Jean Carroll doesn’t resonate with you right away, I can sum her up: Trump rape case.

Maybe that’s not fair. She had a career prior to being the person Donald Trump raped in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. She was a journalist with a career writing for numerous magazines and newspapers, as well as publishing a syndicated advice column. I don’t remember reading any of her work, although I might have come across it and not remembered it all these years later. In any case, what she’s known for now is that she sued Donald Trump for defamation – twice – and won – twice.

Not My Type is her memoir of the two trials that took place. The title comes from Donald Trump’s denials of having assaulted her. In fact, he denied ever having even known her, despite the fact that there are pictures of them in a receiving line at some charity event. If you’re rabid MAGA, there’s nothing in this book that’s going to convince you of anything. You’re too far gone. For the rest of us, it’s confirmation of what a horrible man Trump is. That’s not news to me, as I lived just outside New York City for 39 years and heard plenty of stories about the man in regard to his fraudulent business practices. The sexual assault accusations that began to be leveled at him about 10 years ago don’t come as a big surprise, though.

I listened to the audiobook, which was read by E. Jean herself. I can’t speak to how the book reads. I don’t know if she wrote the book in the same style she reads it. It felt almost like I was attending a reading of the book, as there are a lot of times she opens a sentence with: “Now, friends…” While that familiarity is nice in some ways, it raised questions in me about how much she is reading directly from the book and how much she might be improvising. In addition, it seems that if you purchase the audiobook, there’s a PDF that comes with it. E. Jean refers to it quite often for pictures that she talks about. I can’t imagine that in the middle of the book it’s written: “now take out your PDF…”

Having written for Elle Magazine, there are a lot of references to fashion and looks during the course of this memoir. As someone who’s not a fashion maven, it often left me feeling like she was rather shallow. I mean, she’s in the middle of a trial about sexual assault and defamation, and she’s gushing about how beautiful Trump’s attorney Alina Habba is.

At the same time, though, I get a real kick out of her. E. Jean comes across as a woman who would bust through the glass ceilings presented to her in life, and do it with style. There are times when she’s reading, and all I can think is “You go, girl!” Like any person, she’s a bit of a mixed bag. She’s had a very colorful life, and I enjoyed her occasional diversions into that history. Other times, I wanted to get back to the main topic.

There are times when she’s reading, and her emotions break through. It’s apparent she was raised not to show emotion, and she admits that she often laughs at things that should be taken more seriously. This was brought up at the trial. She thought the whole situation was a joke and was laughing until Trump slammed her into the wall. Trump’s first attorney spends a lot of time questioning why she would laugh at such a frightening moment, but I have seen that happen in many situations. I understand her whole tendency to “not make a fuss” because that’s how many of us were raised. Thankfully, it’s something going by the wayside thanks to people like E. Jean speaking out.

While I found there to be a lot of good information in Not My Type, I can’t really recommend the audiobook. I found it hard to listen to, which is unusual for me. I like the author quite a bit; I just think having her narrate the audiobook wasn’t the best decision. She is inspiring when it comes to standing up for yourself, even when it seems like it would be better to stay quiet.