486 ratings | 112 reviews | avg rating:4.35

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Irena Smith

Goodreads Author

Born

in Moscow, Russian Federation

Website

https://www.irenasmith.com/

Twitter

irenawrites

Genre

Memoir, Travel, Parents and Children

Influences

David Sedaris, Patricia Lockwood, Sloane Crosley, Scaachi Koul, Lacy C ...more

Member Since

December 2012

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Irena Smith is the author of the award-winning memoir, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays and the forthcoming Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip. Her obsession with how words work began early (as a child growing up in Soviet Russia, she was known to occasionally stand on furniture and recite Pushkin poems). After emigrating to the United States with her parents and swearing up and down that she would never learn to speak English, she went on to earn a PhD in Comparative Literature and taught literature and writing at UCLA and Stanford before transitioning to college admissions work and writing.

Irena currently writes two Substacks—Personal Statements and The Curmudgeon’s Guide to College ...more

18 posts
Irena Smith's Blog

In a nutshell

During my sophomore year in college, a teaching assistant described my writing as wordy. He might have said "verbose” or “flowery.” This was the same teaching assistant who circled the word “disparate” and wrote “not a word” in the margin of another one of my papers and I was like, You, sir, are an idiot. Of course I didn’t say anything because he was in charge of my grade, but seriously, what was

Combine Editions
Irena Smith’s books

Average rating: 4.35 · 475 ratings · 126 reviews · 2 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays 4.36 avg rating — 417 ratings — published 2023 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip 4.26 avg rating — 58 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Irena’s Recent Updates

Irena Smith wrote a new blog post In a nutshell During my sophomore year in college, a teaching assistant described my writing as wordy. He might have said "verbose” or “flowery.” This was the same Read more of this blog post »
Jul 17, 2026 06:43AM · like
Irena Smith liked holly's review of Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip: "A good memoir by the author of The golden Ticket. Mothers and daughters in a car for three days and all the comes with it "
Jun 28, 2026 06:39PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Troika by Irena Smith. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Troika by Irena Smith <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith liked Kirsten Mickelwait's review of Troika: Three Generations, Three Days, and a Very American Road Trip: "Troika is a wise and witty memoir about mothers and daughters, life as an immigrant, a California coastal road trip, and personal obsessions like "The White Lotus" and nut milk. Smith—a Russian immigrant with a Ph.D. in comparative literature—is such" Read more of this review »
Jun 28, 2026 06:39PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Troika by Irena Smith. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Troika by Irena Smith <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith and 1 other person liked Lisa Penninga's review of The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays: "W🎓W! This nonfiction memoir of sorts, hit me in so many ways. Parenting children and teaching students who live in a culture of “strive to be the best and apply to the best,” as well as parenting and teaching kids with disabilities, impairments, cris" Read more of this review »
Jun 24, 2026 11:39PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Golden Ticket by Irena Smith. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Golden Ticket by Irena Smith <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith is now following Theresa Donovan Brown's reviews
Jun 21, 2026 10:13PM · like
Irena Smith entered a giveaway Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 13, 2026 11:35AM · like · see giveaway · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — This book is not mine, please remove it topic " There's a book on my author page that is not mine. Please remove it. Here is the link and the details: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... Thank y ...more "
Mar 12, 2026 09:40AM
Irena Smith rated a book it was amazing The World at Home by Ginny Kubitz Moyer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I've lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for decades, but Ginny Kubitz Moyer's The World at Home conjured up a San Francisco I never knew existed—a city full of beauty, energy, and promise, perched on the edge of a continent and, in 1944, playing hos ...more
Feb 08, 2026 08:46PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The World at Home by Ginny Kubitz Moyer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The World at Home by Ginny Kubitz Moyer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith rated a book it was amazing Scavengers by Kathleen Boland (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
What an audacious, delightful gem of a book Scavengers is—swooping between a vexed mother-daughter relationship and the lure and lore of the West, between searching for buried treasure and finding treasure that was right there all along, between the ...more
Jan 30, 2026 04:40PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Scavengers by Kathleen Boland. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Scavengers by Kathleen Boland <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Irena Smith rated a book it was amazing As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us by Sarah Hurwitz	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Like Sarah, I grew up without a meaningful connection to my Jewish heritage. Her account of learning to separate the signal from the noise and to discover her true identity was powerful, courageous, and deeply moving—and necessary reading not only fo ...more
Nov 28, 2025 03:57PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Irena's books…

Quotes by Irena Smith (?)

“failing in an ambitious undertaking—and delving into the reasons for failing—is far more interesting than succeeding.”
― Irena Smith, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays

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“The hierarchies of shame in high school are at least as complex and unforgiving as those in an eighteenth-century Puritan hamlet,”
― Irena Smith, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays

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“College admission is arbitrary and howlingly unfair. As a matter of fact, it’s a lot like life.”
― Irena Smith, The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays

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See all Irena Smith's quotes »

Irena’s Quotes

“Odds are about a hundred to one, you are not destined for greatness. Your people will appreciate you all the same.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

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“because we are all a great deal luckier than we realize, we usually get what we want—or near enough.”
― Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1 likes