Review: Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen

Title: Adulthood is a Myth
Author: Sarah Andersen
Published: March 8th 2016
Source: Purchased
Genre: Comics/Humor
Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
Caution: May contain spoilers

Are you a special snowflake?

Do you enjoy networking to advance your career?

Is adulthood an exciting new challenge for which you feel fully prepared?

Ugh. Please go away.

This book is for the rest of us. These comic document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, dreaming all day of getting home and back into pajamas, and wondering when, exactly, this adulthood thing begins. In other words, the horrors and awkwardnesses of young modern life.

My Thoughts:

I can't remember when I started seeing the comics from Sarah's Scribbles, but I did a Google search for words in the comic to find the origin of this brilliance. When I learned Sarah Andersen was publishing the comics in a book, I nearly tripped over myself to get a copy in my hands. Luckily at the time I had literally just enough on a gift card to buy it.

You know those books that you want to savor because they're so good, but since they're so good you can't stop reading? That's what Adulthood is a Myth was for me. I could relate to sooo many things in the comics, I even took a picture of one to send to a friend because we had just talked about it. I couldn't stop chuckling and thinking "It's me!" throughout the whole thing. The only complaint? IT'S TOO SHORT AND I WANTED MORE. Hahaha! But, how can you blame me when you read comics like this:

^ That was the first one I saw of her comics and it will forever be the truest thing for me.

So if you like hilarious comics for your wonderful twenty-something (or early thirty-something in my case) self, take a gander at this gem. I know that from now on, I will be consistently tripping over myself to get the next book by Sarah Andersen. That's the truth. In fact, she has a new one coming out in March that I'll probably be pre-ordering at some point very soon called Big Mushy Happy Lump. Happy reading!

My Rating:

Review: It's Okay to Laugh: (Crying Is Cool Too) by Nora McInerny Purmort

Title: It's Okay to Laugh: (Crying Is Cool Too)
Author: Nora McInerny Purmort
Published: May 24th 2016
Source: Copy given by author for honest review
Genre: Memoir/Humor
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

Joining the ranks of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Carry On, Warrior, a fierce, hysterically funny memoir that reminds us that comedy equals tragedy plus time.

Twentysomething Nora McInerny bounced from boyfriend to boyfriend and job to job. Then she met Aaron, a charismatic art director and her kindred spirit. They made mix tapes (and pancakes) into the wee hours of the morning. They finished each other’s sentences. They just knew. When Aaron was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer, they refused to let it limit their love. They got engaged on Aaron’s hospital bed and married after his first surgery. They had a baby when he was on chemo. They shared an amazing summer filled with happiness and laughter. A few months later, Aaron died in Nora’s arms in another hospital bed. His wildly creative obituary, which they wrote together, touched the world.

Now, Nora shares hysterical, moving, and painfully honest stories about her journey with Aaron. It’s Okay to Laugh explores universal themes of love, marriage, work, (single) motherhood, and depression through her refreshingly frank viewpoint. A love letter to life, in all of its messy glory, and what it’s like to still be kickin', It’s Okay to Laugh is like a long chat with a close friend over a cup of coffee (or chardonnay).

My Thoughts:

I discovered this book by chance on Twitter when someone I followed tweeted about reading this book. I hadn't heard of it so I checked it out on Goodreads to see what it was about. I was immediately intrigued and wanted to read it badly. So I did.

Nora's memoir was a journey of humor through sadness. She has this way with words, and in her manner of thinking, that makes you smile and chuckle in between tearing up. Each chapter is about a different moment in her life, and they all tie together for a really lovely memoir.

Even though I wouldn't compare it to Jenny Lawson's memoir, it is still an extremely touching and often amusing book. Nora McInerny Purmort is someone I can admire for her bravery and her ability to find humor in the little things. Not many people can do that. If she writes another book, I would definitely pick it up.

My Rating:

Review: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Title: Let's Pretend This Never Happened
Author: Jenny Lawson
Source: Purchased
Genre: Memoir/Humor
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father (a professional taxidermist who created dead-animal hand puppets) and a childhood of wearing winter shoes made out of used bread sacks. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

Lawson's long-suffering husband and sweet daughter are the perfect comedic foils to her absurdities, and help her to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a poignantly disturbing, yet darkly hysterical tome for every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud. Like laughing at a funeral, this book is both irreverent and impossible to hold back once you get started.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Jenny Lawson is better known in the blogosphere as The Bloggess. I first discovered her blog upon reading this post after being linked to it from another site. I subscribed to her posts, not knowing much about her, and discovered that she was one of the most hilarious persons I’ve ever known. If her blog posts could have me laughing out loud, her book would have to be more funny. AND IT WAS. This book is, as she puts it, “a mostly true memoir” where she chronicles numerous events in her life. We’re taken through a maze of memories from her childhood with her parents and sister to adulthood with her husband and daughter.

You would think that reading a memoir could be boring… oh sweetie… not even. I picked this up right before I went to bed one night. MISTAKE. Not to read it in general, but to read it when everyone is in bed. Why? Because I almost laughed so hard that if I hadn’t shoved my face into a pillow I would have woken up everybody in the house who would then come to my door and demand why I’m laughing so hard. And to explain what was so funny would be not only hard to explain easily but also hard to speak without laughing and rolling around on the floor. I did end up reading the first paragraph of the first chapter to a friend and I could hardly get through the first half without doubling over.

What is so funny about what Jenny Lawson says? She is very straightforward about the things the majority would consider taboo to speak of so… frankly. Sometimes her thoughts fly off into left field, completely deviating from the original story to tell another story slightly irrelevant to the first. But the fact that she is so honest, direct, and outspoken makes these bizarre stories and thoughts so outrageously hilarious. She says everything you were thinking but would never admit, and everything you could be thinking if your train of thought ever went in that direction.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is, BY FAR, the most hilarious thing I have ever, or will ever read (until she publishes another book). I’m usually fairly conservative when it comes to expressing myself. I don’t go overboard--I’m very shy, even on this blog. Reading this book has opened me up to new heights. I want to be more funny, like I am in my head and around the people I am close to. Jenny Lawson had me not just laughing but applauding her for turning a phrase so perfectly. I recommend anyone who is not easily offended to check her out, not just her book, but also her blog. I suggest starting with this post, as it is one of my favorites.

My Rating:

Exceptional: Stay up until at least 1 AM

Review: It's Always Something by Gilda Radner

Title: It's Always Something
Author: Gilda Radner
Source: Purchased
Genre: Memoir
Buy: Amazon ~*~ Barnes & Noble
Add to your Goodreads shelf
Caution: May contain spoilers

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"I had wanted to wrap this book up in a neat little package. I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned the hard way that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end."
The world fondly remembers the many faces of Gilda Radner: the adamant but misinformed Emily Litella; the hyperkinetic Girl Scout Judy Miller; the irrepressibly nerdy Lisa Loopner; the gross-out queen of local network news, Rosanne Rosannadanna. A supremely funny performer, Gilda lost a long and painful struggle in May 1989 to "the most unfunny thing in the world"--cancer. But the face she showed the world during this dark time was one of great courage and hope. "It's Always Something is the story of her struggle told in Gilda's own remarkable words--a personal chronicle of strength and indomitable spirit and love undiminished by the cruel ravages of disease.

This is Gilda, with whom we laughed on Saturday Night Live: warm, big-hearted, outrageous, and real. This is Gilda's last gift to us: the magnificent final performance of an incomparable entertainer whose life, though tragically brief, enriched our own lives beyond measure.

~synopsis from Goodreads

My Thoughts:

I have always loved Gilda Radner. Her humor and ability to make people laugh, she was just one of the coolest people. When she wrote this book, she was facing a battle with ovarian cancer. Sadly, she did not survive this battle. But her story, what she went through and how she faced it with a determination in spite of her own insecurities and struggles, is one of the most amazing and empowering stories I’ve read. I’ve never dealt with cancer personally or with somebody I’m close to. After reading this, I can understand a lot more of the little details of what it feels like to have this directly affect you or someone you love.

She starts out with the story of her and Gene Wilder falling in love and getting married. I never knew much about it until now. As the book progresses, you can see how they were perfect for each other. There was much more to them than comedy. She goes on to talk about their attempts at conceiving a child, the various movies she and Gene were in together, their trips to France, and all about their dog, Sparkle. Then comes the time when she finds out she has cancer.

This part of the story is a rollercoaster of emotions. Gilda has major ups and downs when faced with her own mortality. After some time, she gives in and goes to a support group for people with cancer at a place called The Wellness Community. This is when her attitude changes. She becomes more optimistic and continuously says things to herself to keep upbeat and positive. She had a brief remission, but not much later the cancer returned. She kept thinking that she would be able to end this book on a positive note, that she fought cancer and won. At the end of the book, she still had cancer. But she mentions something from the middle of the book that one of her friends said to her, which I am going to share with you now:

"The more I protested about this ambiguity, the more Joanna pointed out to me that it was both a terrible and wonderful part of life: terrible because you can't count on anything for sure--like certain good health and no possibility of cancer; wonderful because no human being knows when another is going to die--no doctor can absolutely predict the outcome of a disease. The only thing that is certain is change. Joanna calls all of this 'delicious ambiguity.' 'Couldn't there be comfort and freedom in no one knowing the outcome of anything and all things being possible?' she asked. Was I convinced? Not completely. I still wanted to believe in magic thinking. But I was intrigued."

You can’t control everything. We all have to deal with unknowns. It’s not the thing any one of us wants to hear, but it’s life. We need to live it, and then face whatever comes to us when it comes to us.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading It’s Always Something. I only knew so much about Gilda Radner prior to this book, but after it, I know so much more about her. Gilda became a real person to me, someone I could have known personally and been great friends with. Her journey created in her an attitude to aspire to have. She never lost her sense of humor. Even though she faced moments of depression, she always pulled through in the end with something to laugh about. And that is something we all need, the ability to laugh despite difficulties.

My Rating:

Very Good: Stay up late

Here's one of the great Saturday Night Live sketches featuring the wonderful Gilda Radner in her hilarious glory. Enjoy!

  
 

My Rating:

Very Good: Stay up late