A pretty cool collection of memoir essays about the author, during which she recounts her disordered life and how her life until the age of 40 was basically a massive failure. She was an alcoholic and drug addict, in and out of abusive relationships, starting and quitting loads of jobs. Now she’s married to the love of her life, has a successful career as a writer, and is sober. If she can eventually have a successful life, so can I, right? ( )

I went to a few Sister Spit shows long ago, and was happy to catch up with the Michelle of today. It's a collection of personal essays about different ways in which growing up and becoming sober has made her life better - it's actually a lot more fun to read than that sounds. ( )

Oh, Michelle Tea, how I have loved thee! As soon as I saw this book at the store I knew it was only a matter of time. As I already own all of her other memoirs (though not all of her fiction), what would be the point of resisting?

That said, this memoir is pretty far removed from her other books. Tea has, as she asserts, grown up. Whether or not that makes for as fascinating reading as her young, broke, drug-fueled, yelling-at-cops-topless, occasional sex-working days, back when she indicated speech by playing with capitalization rather than just using quotation marks, well, I suspect your mileage may vary.

Tea has held a lot of strong opinions in her life, and the evidence of her mellowing on most of those certainly will (and has) offend some people. But this isn't a struggling-girl-writer-makes-good-and-sells-out story, even as Tea sometimes seems to struggle with whether or not she thinks it is. When your whole identity has been based so long on youthful hedonistic rebellion and an identification with the broke and disenfranchised, it can be hard when you wake up one day and realize you want a life where insects living in your refrigerator is not a normal thing.

I think Tea continues to display a lot of integrity here. Even as she sobers up, moves to a nicer apartment, occasionally splurges on travel and clothes, she mostly manages to not judge those whose priorities haven't undergone similar shifts. (Except those who --gasp!-- don't moisturize!) Kidding aside, there are a lot of references early in the book to Tea's ex. Now, it's pretty well-known among those who've followed Tea's career exactly who this ex is. Despite their break not being the cleanest, and despite there being some easy ammunition in her ex's identity to make him look freakish/unstable/the bad guy, she never plays those cards.

The main weakness, in my opinion, of this memoir, is that it is really a collection of memoirish essays. It often felt like it could take a little more structure/editing. That aside, I left this book with a warm feeling, a compulsion to buy moisturizer, and a little more comfort around the idea that my sudden affection for nice (kinda expensive) sandals doesn't mean I'm a bad feminist, or a sell-out. Maybe a sneaking suspicion that I'm growing up, too. ( )

A memoir about a free spirited lady as she begins to settle down in her late thirties and early forties. In her youth there was alcohol, drugs and sexual experimentation along with other excesses. She lives in virtual poverty for years as a struggling writer. Eventually through AA and in my opinion just maturing as she ages she gains a new outlook on life without losing her independent and unique nature. This is her fourth memoir and what I wonder is if she repackaging a lot of information from her previous books. Ultimately, how many books can a person write about themselves. ( )

This book was billed as "hilarious" however I never even really found it amusing. While the author is a talented writer, the stories she merely eludes to in this book are the ones I wish she would have written about more comprehensively than the subject matter she ended up choosing. In her past life she was a promiscuous drug addict...where are those stories? I want to hear about a train wreck, not someone who is touting the merits of moisturizing. I gather from her stories that perhaps she has written other books that may contain these stories, but this particular book is about her new-found grown-up life with her current wife and their struggle to get pregnant. While I'm happy the author has pulled through a very difficult period of her life and now feels like a grown-up, I don't feel like this is a story that I really cared to have read. I do thank the publisher, though, for giving me the opportunity to read this book via a First Reads contest. ( )