'What's in your purse?': How Broad City's Abbi messily reimagines a ubiquitous fashion spread

No 'handful of almonds' here

Carry This Book
(Image credit: Penguin Random House)

"I wonder how this book made it into your hands," Abbi Jacobson writes in the introduction to Carry This Book, out today. "You might have bought it because you are into Broad City," she suggests, and this is likely the case: Carry This Book isn't just written and illustrated by Abbi Jacobson, who, with Ilana Glazer, is the creator and star of the beloved Comedy Central series. It also feels intrinsically connected to the show. Jacobson's artwork occasionally appears on Broad City, usually as Abbi and Ilana are in mid-misadventure (Abbi accidentally sells a drawing to a racist dating site; Abbi can't get anyone to buy her picture of a tomato), but it is the focus of Carry This Book, which illustrates a world that fans of Broad City probably recognize. Carry This Book, like Broad City, is a splashy, colorful, and irreverent look at people through the most revealing lens possible: In this case, the things they carry with them through the day.

Carry This Book is a spin on the "what's in your purse" gambit of every fashion magazine you've ever read, but expanded to what Jacobson imagines both current stars and legendary figures might carry each day. Albert Einstein carries a dream journal and a packet of Mallow Cups, Judge Judy carries false eyelashes (the "Bella Donna" model), and Donald Trump sticks with a clutch of self-tanners, "huge gloves…for show," and a list of mantras ("You are a genius," "you are extremely well-endowed," "bankruptcy is the new black").

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Sarah Marshall's writings on gender, crime, and scandal have appeared in The Believer, The New Republic, Fusion, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015, among other publications. She tweets @remember_Sarah.