What if this were enough?

What if this were enough?: essays / Heather Havrilesky, 228 pgs.

At first I could not discern the link.  How does this collection relate?  Then I went back to the title and realized how it says it all.  Topics range from relationships to pop culture to family life.  Sometimes it is a matter of perspective.  Do we really need to spend a lot of our time every day being told that we need to change, improve, buy better stuff?  Sometimes we need to look around and at ourselves and be happy with what we see.  The author is an advice columnist so is well acquainted with human struggles.  I'm sure some of her comparisons and comments went over my head but lots of it strikes me as very wise. Interesting and relevant.

Calypso

Calypso by David Sedaris, 259 pages

In his latest collection of essays, David Sedaris ruminates on everything from aging to foreign traffic insults to relatives visiting from beyond the grave to his addiction to his Fitbit. Many of these essays focus on his family, including his nonagenarian father and his late sister Tiffany, who took her own life in 2013. While the essays still crackle with Sedaris' trademark humor, there's a degree of introspection here that doesn't always appear in his previous collections. That said, it is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend the audiobook, which is read by the author. A must if you're a fan of David Sedaris.

We are never meeting in real life

We are never meeting in real life: essays / Samantha Irby, 275 pgs.

After choosing this book based solely on the cover (something I explained here), I read Irby's previous book while I waited for this to come up on hold for me.  This one is just as good as the last.  I laughed out loud several times, once scaring my own cats when I could not easily stop laughing. Irby continues to tell it like it is, she does not sugar coat, she does not care if she offends you, she does not care if it embarrasses you because it certainly doesn't embarrass her.  In other words, Irby is everything I admire.  This book has some great insights, some absolutely profane disgusting stories, and something else.  After years of dating men, she found the perfect woman and married her.  Keep up the good work Samantha, I'm already ready for your next book.

Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays

Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays / Mary Gaitskill, 272 pp.

An unusual collection by the author of The Mare, this includes music, movie and book reviews.  A mixed bag, at least for me (I don't really 'get' music reviews and never read them...), but there were several standouts:

• "The Trouble with Following the Rules: on "Date Rape," "Victim Culture," and Personal Responsibility" -  quietly thought provoking and discomfiting
• "And It Would Not Be Wonderful to Meet a Megalosaurus: on Bleak House by Charles Dickens" - cuz, ya know, Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• "She's Supposed to Make You Sick: a Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn" - an astute review, and she feels the same way I do about Gone Girl