Park Slope/ Prospect Heights

Prospect Park West author in touch with her inner cheapskate

Amy Sohn.
Amy Sohn.

By now you’ve heard all about Amy Sohn’s devil-wears-mom-jeans satire Prospect Park West, which is kicking up controversy among the Connecticut Muffin crowd. Tonight the author braves the flying organic heirlooms with a reading tonight at Cobble Hill’s Book Court, where all of our favorite writers seem to be turning up these days. (Holla Anna Jane Grossman next Monday!). We asked Amy for her favorite local bargains, not because they have much to do with her novel, whose characters seem rather more status-obsessed than their creator, but because… that’s what we do.

Highlights: Vivi at Slope Suds
I go to her because she’s the first person that ever listened to what I wanted, spent time thinking about how to do it, wrote down what she did, and did just as good a job the second time. The local appeal and insanely inexpensive rates are a bonus. I also save money in the form of time, in not having to commute to Manhattan to see her.

Car service: Family, (718) 596-0664
They always say five minutes and it always is five minutes for the car. I first found them because I believe they have a van, which I needed for a small moving job. Not a lot of car services have vans.

Takeout: Istanbul Park
We share the Adana kebabs, the cucumber yogurt and the Mediterranean salad.

Clothes: 1 of a Find vintage
I have a bunch of ’70s lounge lizards shirts that I like to wear open on top of tighter shirts. I got a perfect black dress from the early ’60s that I plan to wear to one of my readings that fits me like a glove.  Also something called a wriggle dress—’60s I think—high-buttoned tight, flowered, nerd dress you have to wriggle to get into. It’s like something Thora Birch would have worn in Ghost World.

Guilty pleasure: Free samples at Yogo
My daughter and I each get a taste and then eat it at the table outside.  For her, it’s enough.  For me, I make it enough. Their prices are too expensive for the real serving sizes.

Workout: Ellie Herman Pilates
Classes with the teachers in training are very cheap.

Amy Sohn at Book Court, tonight at 7 p.m., 163 Court St., 718-875-3677.

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