Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

I discovered Jenny Lawson the way many of her fans discovered her: through her blog post about a giant metal chicken named Beyoncé (Blog Post Titled: And that’s why you should learn to pick your battles.). That single blog post turned me into a Bloggess fan, and I patiently waited several months for the release of her first book. Luckily she blogs regularly, so there was rarely a dull moment in the land of The Bloggess. I read her book in just a couple of days, with laughter and tears.

The book reads like her blog and contains a few of her blog posts (the infamous post about Beyoncé is included) but only a small part of the book is from her blog. You get all sorts of childhood and early year’s stories that make you see how Jenny turned out to be the woman she is today.  You also get more of a glimpse into the life that she shares with her husband, Victor, the only man in this world who could ever be her husband.

Through Jenny’s battle with anxiety and depression, you learn that hiding behind your illnesses benefits no one and that there are some days that you have to hit them head on and other days that you just need to withdraw for a while. I have also learned that humor and sarcasm are both much needed forms of art that can turn a bad situation into something better and that ethical taxidermy could possibly brighten your day.

Rarely do I read books more than once, but this one is definitely one that I will probably read annually. Jenny has a second book in the works for 2014, and I am already looking forward to reading it. For now, you can find her at http://thebloggess.com.

~Reviewed by Tonya Overstreet

Nashville Member, LBDC

How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

Through the mighty powers of related suggestions on my Kindle, I discovered How to Be a Woman, or at least I discovered the book and not the answer. My Kindle is usually pretty good with suggestions, and it was right about this one, as well.

Overall I enjoyed the book as long as I don't pick apart each chapter. There were some chapters that I liked more than others, and a couple of chapters I didn't like at all. Admittedly, I skimmed or skipped through the couple of chapters that didn't do much for me, such as the chapter on Abortion and Role Models. Her views on Abortion don't match mine, and while I respect that we are both allowed to have different views, I felt like she was "poking fun" at people who don't have her same view. The Role Models chapter seemed to be there to solely put into words her high disdain for Katie Price.

With those two chapters out and a few soapbox moments in some other chapters, the book was pretty spot on for what I enjoy reading in a book about what women like and really bonded with Caitlin through her words. Caitlin is a mother and has a chapter on being a mother, followed by a really awesome chapter on why women shouldn't feel that they have to be mothers. Being a Not Mom myself, I gained tremendous respect for Caitlin for addressing the issue and pointing out that women who are childless (by choice or not) are not less of a woman. Caitlin was truly and properly speaking for me as a childfree woman by saying things like, "But deciding not to have children is a very, very hard decision for a woman to make: the atmosphere is worryingly inconducive to saying, “I choose not to,” or “It all sounds a bit vile, tbh.” We call these women “selfish.” The inference of the word “childless” is negative: one of lack, and loss. We think of nonmothers as rangy lone wolves—rattling around, as dangerous as teenage boys or men. We make women feel that their narrative has ground to a halt in their thirties if they don’t “finish things” properly and have children."

Caitlin presents herself well as this woman that most women would enjoy spending time with. She's like an 'every woman' representative for women who aren't and never have been perfect and perhaps identify closely with their weird side.

"How to Be a Woman"  is recommended for people who lean more left than right and understand that there are way too many facets of womanhood to attempt to explain fully in a novel. However, reading this book can help you gain a better understanding of why you are who you are and why society views you in certain ways.

~Reviewed By Tonya Overstreet

Nashville Member, LBDC