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Sunday

15

March 2020

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COMMENTS

I Might Regret This by Abbi Jacobson

Written by , Posted in Reviews

Four Stars

Best for:
Anyone who likes a good road trip story. Anyone who is feeling a bit lost.

In a nutshell:
Writer and actor Abbi Jacobson (of Broad City fame) decides to go on a three-week road trip after breaking up with her girlfriend. She documents her time.

Worth quoting:
“People who can talk while exercising—anything more than a hike or walk—are insane to me. You want to tell me the drama that’s currently going on at your office? Ohh, your co-worker plays their music too loud?? It’s distracting and no one else seems to care?? I can’t breath right now!”
“It’s okay to not figure it all out. It’s okay to feel broken and alone and scared sometimes. It’s okay to not know everything. It’s okay to not eat where everyone tells you to, or not take a selfie in front of everything you’ve seen or done and post on the internet for friends and strangers to see.”

Why I chose it:
I like funny women telling their own stories.

Review:
It seems as though my world has changed dramatically since I bought this book and started reading it. I purchased it when I was visiting Seattle in mid-February, two weeks before their first case of COVID-19 was detected (but after one had been confirmed in a neighboring county). I had dinner with a good friend who works for the health department there, and we could tell it was just the beginning, but no one really knew what was coming. I stopped reading this book until this weekend not because it isn’t great (it is!) but because my brain is full. I feel like if I have time to read, I should be reading the news, talking to my friends who are dealing with kids home from school for the next six weeks, keeping up on Twitter.

But my brain needs a break. Sometimes that comes in the form of re-watching Parks and Recreation (only 8 episodes left!), but it also needs to come in the form of books. Good books. Books that either make me laugh or that make me feel connected to others (especially as we’re all being told to take a step back in our physical connections). This book definitely helped with that.

Abbi Jacobson is probably best known to you as one half of the amazing duo responsible for Broad City. The stories she tells in this book come from a road trip she took in the summer of 2017, right before the final season was shot and right after breaking up with her girlfriend. She spends three weeks traveling mostly along the southern bit of the US, along the way exploring her heartbreak, her feelings about the future, and many of the general issues anyone with some introspections struggles with.

It isn’t a lighthearted take, but there are parts that are very funny. It feels honest and yes, vulnerable, but not self-pitying, if that makes any sense. It’s just good reading.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
Pass to a Friend

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