Happy Shrapnel

If you are married or have any kind of significant other, you are bound to find Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington delightful.

Generally, I hate the phrase,“Laugh out loud funny”, almost as much as I hate the acronym,”LOL”, (don’t ask me why, I just find them both profoundly irritating,) but this is the rare book that I truly found myself laughing out loud…regularly throughout the entire book.

British author Mil Millington, (seriously,) has filled his book with little vignettes about his life with his girlfriend/wife and their children.

The book is an outgrowth of his website of the same name. And as is often the case with British writers, his book is greatly enhanced by his dry wit and scathingly sarcastic style.

It’s especially charming because while he bitches and moans about his wife and life, it is at the same time abundantly clear how much he respects and adores both.

You can certainly expect to laugh while reading the irreverent Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About but may be surprised at how curiously heartwarming it is at the same time.

If you are looking for a refreshing read, Laurie Notaro’s The Idiot Girl’s Action-Adventure Club is just the thing.

This book is super sharp with wit dry enough to actually be funny. It is made up of a disorganized jumble of stories about the author’s relatively un-remarkable and yet captivating life; captivating primarily because of the relatable “realness” of it and her self-depreciating style of writing.

The chapter topics range anywhere from “being the ugly friend” to stories of her charmingly caustic familial relationships to her unconditional love of her embarrassingly inappropriate “Nana”. Her writing style is honest and often crude, yet not particularly offensive.

Laurie Notaro has written five additional books since this first publication. Having read them all, I would suggest you read I love Everybody (and other atrocious lies) after this one, (gotta love any book with the word “atrocious” in the title!) There is a Laurie Notaro website where you can get info. on her books and upcoming projects.

All her books, (with the exception of her newly published first-time novel,) are delightful. You will presumably enjoy her writing for the same reasons that I do, because she is flawed, funny, and un-intentionally fabulous.