I’m really excited to announce that for the first time in I don’t know how long, I finished my book club’s selection well before our monthly meeting. Yes, the book in question is really just a collection of blog entries that are mostly illustrations, and I read it in two hours at the beach this weekend, but whatever. Yay me!
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh is a collection of entries from her blog of the same name. Allie is a wonderfully flawed young woman who has the guts to talk about what it’s really like to deal with depression, want to throw sand at children, run from invading geese, and just live life with her boyfriend and seriously odd dogs. Her essays cover fun topics such as cake gorging, dog rescues, getting lost, motivation, identity, depression, etc. All of these are accompanied by some hilarious artwork. I was reading this while at the beach with a friend this weekend; I kept irritating her by laughing out loud and trying to explain each funny thing. She gave up and borrowed it after I was done and loved it as well.
I think what has made Allie so popular, and hopefully this is of some comfort to her, is that her inner thoughts are in fact not all that unusual or bad, and we can all see a little of ourselves or our loved ones in each and every essay. There’s not really much else to say about this one aside from: Go out, either to the library or a book store, get this book, and read it. It won’t take that much out of your day and you’ll have a great time doing it.