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

by Jenny Lawson (aka. The Bloggess).

I’ve been a long-time reader of Lawson’s blog, The Bloggess, and I finally got around to picking up her book. And if you like the humor and writing on her blog, you’ll like the book, because it’s more of the same, just expanded and somewhat organized.

Lawson takes us, in her own unique storytelling style, from her childhood growing up in rural Texas with an eccentric taxidermist for a father, through the trials of marriage and motherhood and generally being an adult. Some of the stories are outrageous (ok, most) but they do go a long way towards shining a light on why she is the way she is. And while everything is dealt with and presented with humor, she hits on some pretty heavy topics. Miscarriages, losing a pet, living with a pretty severe anxiety disorder – it’s not all happy times in the life of the Bloggess.

I loved the sort of free-format writing that comprises this book – exchanges of post-it notes with her husband, little sidenotes from her editor correcting some of her claims, general rambling and excessive post-scripts. It fits her voice. And it makes reading her book feel like she’s talking to you. You got lots of little insights about silly habits and the self-talk she has when she knows she’s being illogical but does things anyway. Or the kinds of things that you know we all think but no one ever says. It makes you feel like you know her. I particularly loved some of the off-the-wall conversations between her and her husband Victor; Ian and I have conversations that go off on strange tangents and we end up talking about something really random and weird, so I was glad to know we’re not the only ones who do that. 🙂

It’s not the quickest or lightest read, and she does sometimes get bogged down in her own tangents, but overall it’s a really fun book.

I give it 4/5 stars.