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The way I tend to get so overconfident as soon as I read one nonfic and decide to go on a requesting spree and then report in a full year later. Whoops! Anyway, so delighted to finally be bring you reviews for Chronic by Rebecca Dimyan, Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, and Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas. Shout out to Netgalley for providing me the e-ARC for Strong Female Character and Congratulations, the Best is Over! and the audio ARC of Chronic. Sorry I read them like six months later. Oops.

Chronic by Rebecca Dimyan

This memoir is for people dealing with a chronic illness, and particularly endometriosis. I really appreciated this memoir for what it provided, but I did feel like it sometimes came so close to putting Dimyan’s experience into a broader context and it would dip into that, before pulling back. And while I appreciated Dimyan being very careful not to ever suggest that what worked for her to get her endo under control would work for others, I did sometimes wish for some more broad commentary. Ultimately though, I appreciated the vulnerability and the realness that Dimyan shared. I would read from her again. 

Strong Female Character
by Fern Brady

I appreciated a lot about being able to listen to this book, with the opportunity to hear about someone whose life was really so different from mine. Brady is a comedian, although like with Hannah Gadsby’s memoir, Ten Steps to Nanette (ARC Review), the actual content and focus of her memoir is not to be funny and it really isn’t. Brady hasn’t lived an easy life and it’s fascinating to watch how in looking back she’s so clearly able to identify what made her autism difficult to manage. Sometimes her chapters would leave me confused though about the timeline of things and for how long she experienced some things that she did. I know timelines are difficult to put together (or at least, they are for me), so I tried to shrug it off, but I wound up really confused. I think when you’re not familiar with the subject of a memoir, it’s difficult to not have some additional context when reading about their lives, but that’s likely more a me problem than a general one. One of my favorite aspects of Strong Female Character was when Brady spoke about her time as a sex worker (specifically, working as a stripper) and how that career path was relatively beneficial for her as an autistic woman. I do think that this memoir was quite real and unfiltered, which are qualities I highly value in memoirs and so I would recommend if you’re already invested in Fern Brady or if you’re interested in learning more about one woman’s experience being diagnosed with autism later in life. 

Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas

There are so many ways that I could demonstrate to you my love for this book. For one, I finished a chapter pulling into Barnes & Noble and immediately pulled out my phone to text my best friend that she and her fiancée simply have to read a specific chapter as soon as humanly possible because I just know they’ll both love it. (That chapter, btw, is about R. Eric Thomas’s goal of making his therapist laugh and various other things. It was excellent.) Then, upon leaving Barnes, I finished the last hour of the audiobook stuck in stand still (literally stopped, not moving, had my car turned OFF) traffic and honestly didn’t even notice because I was riveted to the end of this book. Third, my sister called me wanting some nonfiction recommendations and was looking for like, nonfiction that helps her learn things, and I just kept telling her to read this instead. This essay collection was absolutely incredible. R. Eric Thomas is actually funny and his narration made this book even better than I think it would have been reading with my eyeballs. He talks a lot about the beginning of the pandemic, how depression can truly suck the life out of you, how going outdoors voluntarily can be a very baffling concept, racism, and so, so much more. If you’ve ever moved to a place and had to like, forcibly make your own community, this is a great book for helping you feel a bit less alone about it. Truly, if you’re in the mood for an essay collection that will make you laugh and maybe (probably) cry, I cannot recommend this one highly enough.

Closing Thoughts

If you only read one of these books, I would beg you to pick up Congratulations, the Best is Over! but if you have endometriosis, I would recommend Chronic and if you’re curious about adult diagnoses of autism, I would recommend Strong Female Character. Have you read any of these? Also, do you prefer memoirs or essay collections? I’m curious!

xx