Book Report: Hyperbole and a Half

33. Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened (2013) (12/19/2020)

And so for something completely different--from yesterday's book report, at any rate. Well, and yes: Allie Brosh is something else. This illustrated romp through childhood, coping (sometimes just barely), and self-deprecatory self-exploration is taken from Brosh's award-winning blog of the same name. Her drawing style is, with the rare exception, deliberately crude, but the stories she tells are funny, sometimes winsome or sneaky, always self-aware and wise.

The book is also multicolored! Each of the eighteen stories is printed on a different color of paper, making for a whole rainbow of experience. There are chapters about her dogs, the "simple" one and the "helper" (not); chapters about sometimes humiliating childhood events involving, variously, cake, getting lost in the woods, hot sauce, a toy parrot, and tooth surgery/a birthday party; and about depression, identity, thoughts and feelings. There is a hilarious encounter with a goose:

I had never taken birds seriously. They've always seemed like silly, innocuous creatures. I mean, their most recognizable traits are flitting about and singing, which is adorable. In school, I learned that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs, though I never really saw the resemblance. But when I walked into my living room and found this thing chasing [husband] Duncan, I finally recognized it: the predatory gleam in its eyes and its jerky, robotic movements were straight out of the dinosaur documentaries I used to watch as a child.
     The goose stopped and slowly shifted its reptilian gaze onto me and I understood with startling clarity exactly what it must have felt like to be a baby stegosaurus. I froze and whispered, "Oh no, what do I do?"

Here she is getting things done, in the chapter titled "This Is Why I'll Never Be an Adult":

The industriousness does not last . . .

I very much enjoyed the chapters about her "special" dogs, 

which you can also find on her blog, such as here ("The Simple Dog") and here ("Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts, Like Moving"). 

All right. I managed to wash away the heaviness of The Overstory with this book. What's next? Something halfway in between perhaps?

(Here is a probably better review of this book, in case you're not convinced.)

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Today's Covid-19 stats for Monterey County: 22,483 total confirmed cases (up 228 since yesterday--that's more like it)*, 151 current hospitalizations (up 6), and 177 deaths (up 7). 

* By that I mean, yesterday's stats involved a lot of data manipulation/catching up on the part of the state and county, such that the one-day rise in reported illnesses was a whopping 3,304. So while 228 still isn't good, at least it's not in the thousands.

Stay safe. Remember: this pandemic gives us time to read. Find a good book and relax. We've got a ways to go.