Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

How do I even begin to describe the comedian and author Samantha Irby. If David Sedaris is sassy, Irby is sassier. If Anne Lamott’s words are soulful, Irby’s seem to radiate even higher. And if Glennon Doyle runs toward sad, awful days, Irby takes those bad days, looks them in the eye and kicks them right out the door. “Wow, No Thank You” is Irby’s fourth book and a collection of essays about aging, marriage and settling down. Much like her blog, “bitches gotta eat,” she writes personal stories about her struggle with Crohn’s disease, arthritis, depression, eating and sex. At only 41 years old her perspective on life seems wise beyond her years. In 2016, she married her partner Kirsten Jennings and the two now live in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Irby’s two step-children. After growing up in Evanston, Illinois, and later working as the receptionist in a veterinarian clinic, Irby has now given up that job to write full time following her success. In this collection, she turns her keen eye on her life in Michigan while also going back and forth to Hollywood to take meetings about future projects. She spends weekends in Los Angeles meeting with “skinny, luminous people” while being a “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwestern person” with neck pain and no cartilage in her knees. She just twists a phrase like nobody’s business, and she makes me laugh out loud. While she is friends with the writer Roxane Gay, just be sure not to confuse the two. In the review section of Goodreads, Gay wrote a comment praising Irby’s book and how she is baffled when people confuse the two writers. “She’s awesome. I am decent. We look nothing alike! There is more than one big black writer with tattoos,” write Gay. They are both amazing in my eyes, and I can’t wait to read what they publish next. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.