All posts tagged: Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

Confession Time

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I have to admit, like Katie C., I was hesitant going in to this novel. I have complicated feelings about Amy Schumer — I thinks she’s funny, but can only take so much of her. 300+ pages of her humor had me a little nervous. But here’s my biggest confession: I didn’t finish it. And not because I didn’t like it, but because I wasn’t in to it. I also have made a new promise to myself to stop reading books I’m not enjoying. With over 300 unread books on my shelf (I’m not exaggerating), it’s becoming increasingly clear that abandoning books needs to be something I’m okay with. Otherwise I’ll never come even close to making that unread number smaller. Maybe at another time when I didn’t have so many other,  heavier books (ahem, Fates & Furies) calling my name I would have been able to muddle through. I laughed out loud a couple times in the beginning, and read some lines out loud to my husband, but like I am with her humor, …

Just What I Needed

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If you’re reading my review, I’m going to assume you’ve read Katie C.’s review. I will admit here that I am the one who suggested this book for The Bookly Club, and I was SO NERVOUS to read it because I knew not everyone was so excited to do so. What if it was terrible or disgusting?  Or what if it just made you really dislike Amy? That has happened to me before. I won’t say who, but there is a person I adore(d) whose book I read and it just made me not like them. I was petrified this would happen again and everyone would blame me for making them read an awful book about someone who turned out to be an awful person. I was thrilled when Katie C. like the book. Because I liked the book, loved it even. When I would chuckle or straight up laugh while looking at my Kindle, my husband would say “Amy Schumer’s book?” And I would snort out a “yes,” and proceed to read him whatever …

Surprise, surprise

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I had extremely low expectations for this book. In fact, at first I was against reading it at all. Not only is Amy Schumer someone I could give or take, but 300+ pages of her raw and self-deprecating humor seemed trivial, uninteresting and not worth the time it would take the read the book. So it’s a near miracle that I say now that not only do I not think this book was a waste of time, but I liked it. Like, really liked it. “One of the first times I was paparazzied, they caught me stand-up paddleboarding in Hawaii. I didn’t even recognize myself. I saw the shots in magazines and thought, Oh, cool, Alfred Hitchcock is alive and loves water sports.” Non-fiction short stories aren’t even really my ‘thing’ either. I don’t usually choose this genre. But I found this book to be not just funny (as one would expect), but relevant, empowering, even moving at times. I have an entirely new outlook on who Amy Schumer is and where she comes from. I …

April Book

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All these April showers and exponential lack of vitamin D has us craving something happy, funny, and endorphin-releasing. A pick-me-up if you will. And who better to pick us up than Amy Schumer with her semi-autobiographical book and collection of personal essays The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo. This New York Times Bestseller, released in 2016, addresses some serious subjects such as gun violence, sexual assault and consent, domestic violence, Schumer’s troubled relationship with her mother and her father’s multiple sclerosis… but all from her raw and humorous perspective, of course. Schumer has dealt with a lot of criticisms for her stand up comedy and some subject matter from her show Inside Amy Schumer. Criticisms that her male counterparts may not face? But her seemingly inappropriate sense of humor and her willingness to tackle of sometimes taboo topics (see essay topics above) put her in the category of ground-breaking. And although she insists that this book should not be categorized as memoir, autobiography, or self-help, she offers some very personal stories and some very relevant advice (i.e. money, self-employment, sex, …