Book Review–Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

 

From Goodreads:

For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris-Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.
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.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit something: I had never read Lawson’s blog before I read this book. I’d heard of the blog and knew of some stories from other blogs and Twitter but I’d never actually checked out the blog. I now realize this was a horrible mistake and am working to correct this.

This book, much like Lawson’s blog, is amazing. I laughed; I came close to crying; I decided I wanted to be bff’s with Lawson. This book had me cracking up multiple times. I even read “the funny parts” to Doug, which means I read him almost the entire book. The only parts that aren’t funny aren’t really supposed to be funny.

Lawson touches on some mental health issues, health issues, and a few other no-so-funny issues (I don’t want to give anything away) but yet she’s able to come right back and be funny again – usually in the same paragraph.

I was able to relate a lot to Lawson, especially when she talked about not being popular and learning to embrace her weirdness. Topics I definitely have dealt with. But she did it with such humor and there was definitely a feeling of laughing with her and not at her.

This is definitely in the top 5 as far as books I’ve read this year and up there on the best books I’ve read, period. Doug has really enjoyed the parts I’ve read to him and has been cracking up right along with me. I definitely recommend this book – and Lawson’s blog! Just be careful that your tears of laughter don’t get on your e-reader.

Image from Goodreads