Hyperbole and a Half

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
(Touchstone, 2013)
Format: paper book, gift of my awesome niece. (I have six awesome nieces. But this is the one who knows me the best, and vice-versa. Note to my other five awesome nieces - and my four awesome nephews - feel free to come live with us for a few weeks, too, and you'll maybe - maybe - be able to knock her off her perch.)

From Goodreads: "This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!"

When this book was first out, in October 2013, I began hearing about it. Here, there, and soon, everywhere. And yet I didn't go out to get it, or even go explore Brosh's superb blog. 

I am a fool. Fortunately, my awesome niece is not a fool, so she gave it to me, and now I am a happy fool, and a convert to the cult of Brosh. If only for the all-too-familiar exploits of the Simple Dog and the Helper Dog, I would treasure this book, but Brosh also includes her work on Depression, which is so insightful and incisive it will change your thinking, and straight-up humor like Party, which caused facial muscle spasms due to my laughing so hard.