Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Product Information

It sounds like a strange sort of book, and it is, but in a really intriguing and important way that I loved. From the very beginning though, I realized it would be far from the book I expected. I have no idea who this individual(Jenny Lawson) is, but the whole book was one big mess, full of stories that were meant to be funny and unique (but were neither). Every single story felt forced and exaggerated. The author couldn’t stop herself from constantly reminding and insisting her childhood was unique and that she’s gone through SO MUCH and so on and so on…

The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook – With echoes of Lonesome Dove and News of the World, the story of a pregnant young mother, her child, and the frontier tradesman who helps them flee across Texas from outlaws bent on revenge, even as an unlikely love blossoms.

JENNY: So you're making a decision to not save someone's life on the off chance that it might be inconvenient if you turn into a less efficient zombie? The crazy is almost always played for laughs, and while I get smiling through the pain, appreciating uniqueness, holding one's head high, making lemonade, sharing the pain, etc., etc., I just don't know. It was a thin line that sometimes felt closer to laughing at someone with cancer than with them. (No, no one in the book had cancer. That's just my metaphorical way of saying laughing at mental illness' oddities is a lot like laughing at someone struggling with cancer. It can be all-consuming, can come endowed with lots of symptom baggage and can be a constant struggle. And they probably had about as much choice in the matter. So even if they play the clumps of hair falling out for laughs--and many people do--it still represents a whole lot of hurt behind the smile. And, now that I think about it, there is that same sense of trying to conceal the horror as I watch it happen). I *really* wanted to like this book. Maybe diehard devotees of Jenny Lawson's blog might like it more than I. I thought some of her essays were great, but couldn't stand an entire book of her. It was just... too forced.

PDF / EPUB File Name: Lets_Pretend_This_Never_Happened_-_Jenny_Lawson.pdf, Lets_Pretend_This_Never_Happened_-_Jenny_Lawson.epubit's fun, and quite funny, but when someone moves from blog form to a published book, i expect the text to be more polished and streamlined. It covers mini vignettes of her life from childhood, through high school, marriage, and children, and each story is crazier than the last! If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)? Lawson] writes with a rambling irreverence that makes you wish she were your best friend.”— Entertainment Weekly

As a kiddo librarian, I would probably caution against recommending these to kids who have very cautious or overprotective parents, simply because words like "dumb" and illustrations depicting the blubbery jowl fat of her obese lunch lady probably won't go over very well in those particular households. But those who grew up on and have outgrown smart-mouthed characters like Junie B. Jones will feel right at home with this series. Written by Michelle Porter, a descendant in a long line of Métis storytellers, A Grandmother Begins the Storyfollows five generations of Indigenous women as they reach for the stories to remake their worlds and rebuild their futures. Two-point-five:: It doesn't happen often, but occasionally there are sound effects accompanying the audio. The knife sharpening in the deer section was a sinister touch. YOU: *sigh* "Yes. I should have done that. I see that now. I am going to not discuss this with you any further because you are a freakin' psychopath."Alternately it is very honest and touching. We all have our struggles, what makes us strong is our ability to laugh at them. Thankfully I do not suffer from depression like Jenny, but I do have anxiety (inherited from my mother, and her mother before her, and before that it was Vikings, and I doubt they were ever anxious about anything…), and I have very severe IBS. It’s not fun, but I get through it, because later I can laugh about it. It’s good to see other people doing the same.