This book is a love letter to my family. It’s about the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us who we are today. I’ve reserved the very best stories of my life for this book…to celebrate the strange, and to give thanks for the bizarre. Because you are defined not by life’s imperfect moments, but by your reaction to them. And because there is joy in embracing—rather than running screaming from—the utter absurdity of life. I thank my family for teaching me that lesson. In spades.

Why, Yes,
There Is a Method
to My Madness

-- Jenny Lawson, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Excerpt

"When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives." -- Publisher's Description

By popular vote, our third memoir of choice for the Fall Semester is Jenny Lawson's Let's Pretend This Never Happened : A Mostly True Memoir (Berkley, 2013). Veering towards the funny, impudent, and certainly uplifting comes this New York Times #1 Bestseller.

A graduate of Angelo State University, Jenny Lawson is a highly popular journalist and blogger who has been writing about her "strange life" for over a decade -- a life that includes dealing with physical and mental illnesses, among them: rheumatoid arthritis, depression, anxiety, avoidant personality disorder, and mild obsessive-compulsive disorder.

She’s been featured on the New York Times, Gawker, Salon.com, Mashable, The London Times, The Washington Post, People, O Magazine, CNN, Time Magazine, The Today Show.  MSNBC calls her an “internet rockstar”, Forbes repeatedly lists  thebloggess.com as one of the Top 100 Websites for Women, and Katie Couric calls her “Hilarious.” She is a repeated finalist (and an occasional winner) in the Weblog awards for Best Writing, Most Humorous Writer, Shorty Award, Best Design, Blog of the Year, and Lifetime Achievement.

Lawson's books are all award-winning NYT bestsellers; in addition to Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, her books include: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things; YOU ARE HERE: An Owner’s Manual for Dangerous Minds and Broken (in the Best Possible Way).

Fall Memoir Book Club is co-sponsored by GSLD Student Success and meets once a month. The first 10 students to register will get a free copy of the book.

Where: 305 Russell