January 11, 2021
Lawson (You Are Here) returns with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety, and rheumatoid arthritis. As always, the author is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects. In the poignant “I Already Forgot I Wrote This,” Lawson shares moving reflections on her family’s history of dementia (“My mother jokes about it now and I do too, because you either laugh or you cry”). In “The Things We Do to Quiet the Monsters,” she details the transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment she underwent to cure her medication-resistant mental health issues (“It feels like an invisible chisel drilling holes into your head while you have an ice-cream headache and also you’re paying for it to happen to you“), and she excoriates her insurance provider in “An Open Letter to My Insurance Company”: “you decided that it ‘wasn’t medically necessary’ that I have the drug that had kept me away from suicide.” In “Six Times I’ve Lost My Shoes While Wearing Them,” she chronicles the strange places she’s lost her left shoe after “walking out of it” due to fluctuating ankle swelling from chronic arthritis. The beauty of these essays lies in Lawson’s unfailing hopefulness amid her trials. “After all,” she notes, “we are changed by life... it puts its teeth in us... makes us who we are.” Lawson’s fans are in for a treat.

February 1, 2021

Lawson returns with her signature mix of humorous antics and heartfelt self-reflection in this follow-up to 2015's Furiously Happy. She shares with raw honesty her experiences living with mental illness, including depression and anxiety, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other physical conditions. She openly discusses her suicidal thoughts, detailing her transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment and its results, and shares her frustration with her health insurance company. Being Lawson, it's not all gloomy subjects; she also includes an uncomfortable exchange at the post office, a list of awkward moments shared by her fans, unusual encounters with animals, pitches for Shark Tank, and marriage advice. Lawson describes her book as "probably horribly offensive," and those who don't mind profanity will enjoy her frank sense of humor. She excels at advocating for self-acceptance, embracing and sharing failures, and laughing at the difficulties and absurdities of life. Her ability to blend poignant self-reflection and candid humor allows for the darkness of life to become less alienating, which makes her stories about failing and flourishing to be both engaging and relatable. VERDICT Lawson already has thousands of fans, and she's bound to pick up more with this latest memoir. Recommended for all public libraries.--Anitra Gates, Erie Cty. P.L., PA

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2021
The Bloggess is back to survey the hazards and hilarity of imperfection. Lawson is a wanderer. Whether on her award-winning blog or in the pages of her bestselling books, she reliably takes readers to places they weren't even aware they wanted to go--e.g., shopping for dog condoms or witnessing what appears to be a satanic ritual. Longtime fans of the author's prose know that the destinations really aren't the point; it's the laugh-out-loud, tears-streaming-down-your-face journeys that make her writing so irresistible. This book is another solid collection of humorous musings on everyday life, or at least the life of a self-described "super introvert" who has a fantastic imagination and dozens of chosen spirit animals. While Furiously Happy centered on the idea of making good mental health days exceptionally good, her latest celebrates the notion that being broken is beautiful--or at least nothing to be ashamed of. "I have managed to fuck shit up in shockingly impressive ways and still be considered a fairly acceptable person," writes Lawson, who has made something of an art form out of awkward confessionals. For example, she chronicles a mix-up at the post office that left her with a "big ol' sack filled with a dozen small squishy penises [with] smiley faces painted on them." It's not all laughs, though, as the author addresses her ongoing battle with both physical and mental illness, including a trial of transcranial magnetic stimulation, a relatively new therapy for people who suffer from treatment-resistant depression. The author's colloquial narrative style may not suit the linear-narrative crowd, but this isn't for them. "What we really want," she writes, "is to know we're not alone in our terribleness....Human foibles are what make us us, and the art of mortification is what brings us all together." The material is fresh, but the scaffolding is the same. Fans will find comfort in Lawson's dependably winning mix of shameless irreverence, wicked humor, and vulnerability.

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Starred review from February 1, 2021
Whether she's writing about buying condoms she'll use to cover her dog's paws, applying to the Vampire Brotherhood, or hiding in her bathroom, best-selling humorist Lawson (Furiously Happy, 2015) openly describes a variety of ailments. She's losing her memory (and her shoes); she's anemic (she suspects blood-sucking bats in the night); she suffers from depression (and fears that it may lead to suicide); she has a host of autoimmune disorders. She sums it all up with, "I make others feel okay by being a barometer of awkwardness and self-doubt." She also makes others laugh. Her delivery is zany, clever, and raunchy. Her conversations with party guests, her long-suffering husband, her sister, and even herself are flat-out hilarious. And the situations she finds herself in are comic gold. Beneath the banter, however, is a heartbreaking chronicle of what goes on in the mind of a person dealing with anxiety and depression. Lawson is willing to try new drugs and procedures but ends up battling the insurance company at every turn. Lawson experiences some successes, and she's grateful as she glories in feeling normal even though her anxiety can return at any moment. Her insights are eye-opening as she gives readers a first-hand view of the struggles caused by mental illness.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Stock up for Lawson's millions of readers, who cherish her candor and have been eagerly awaiting her new book.

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