I couldn't get through it. I just didn't like it at all. ( )

You might know Koren Zailckas from her earlier memoir, Smashed. I didn't read that, but my best friend Jen did and said it was (a) very good and (b) featured Ocean City, where I have spent many a summer day.

But we're not here to talk about Smashed, binge drinking or Ocean City.

After Smashed, she wanted to write a book about anger, but it just wasn't working. Then, after a breakup (a really bad breakup) with someone she calls the Lark, she moves back in with her parents (her apartment is being subletted) and seeks therapy. Her family dynamic is one where anger isn't really expressed. Instead, huge things are glossed over and minor irritations (being cut off in traffic; dinner being late) are treated as major infractions.

This book is so amazing! I don't normally read non-fiction, but this is exactly the kind I do like: it sort of reads like a novel and the "heroine" is completely relatable. It also reminds me of Odd Girl Out, which I read for my book club. The idea behind that is that teenage girls become bitchy and passive-aggressive because it's the only way we're taught that we can express anger. This book deals with that theme as well (obviously, I guess, in a book called Fury).

And also, I want to hire her to ghostwrite all my emails and blog posts from now on.

This is part of an email she sent to the Lark: "...as for the question of memories, I can't answer it right now Not the fact that this ended, but the way in which it ended tarnished so many memories I would've liked to keep."

Who hasn't felt that way about a relationship?

And there's this:

"My hunt for a shrink is not what you might call an informed search. I don't seek out recommendations. I don't ask for referrals. I select a woman on the sole basis that her practice is located three blocks from my apartment, which, in the death grip of depression, is the farthest commute I can undertake."

So in case you're like me and you tend to avoid nonfiction because it's usually dry and boring, know that this is the exact opposite of that. Koren is the kind of person we all wish we were friends with. :) ( )