Everybody into the Pool by Beth Lisick (2005)

An unexpected gift from Andris in Washington with the statement that I will probably like it better than he did. Probably true. I mostly enjoyed this funny and edgy collection of true stories from a San Franciscoan. I especially appreciated the setting, since San Francisco was where I was going to go and live after college, though life landed me solidly in the Midwest. I have lost my yearning for the West Coast, though I still love to visit it. In some ways I felt some similarities with the author - we both were raised in solid families, but tended to find friends and adventures in the more edgy world - though I never got anywhere near as edgy as Lisick.

I loved some of the early stories the best, like the one where she become a prom princess, and when a cute older guy hit on her, she learned to avoid "people who were suave, classically attractive, and socially adept." And her obsession of ferreting out phonies stuck with her. The ladies tea story was funny too and I enjoyed her flirtation with bi-sexuality. I also liked the last story with her take on raising a baby. In the middle, her life in the world of drug addicts was less appealing, but still a good description of these various groups in our culture. I thought she was remembering a lot of the same things as I did from my younger days, but at some point, I realized she was talking about the 90's and must be quite a bit younger than me. I just went on an exploratory mission and found she 13 years younger. Lisick has a new book Helping Me Help Myself, as she takes a year to work on different aspects of herself each month (Is there a theme going? See Eat, Pray, Love.) I think I'm going to find this book and read it - I seem to be in a similar stage.

I brought this with me to Latvia in March as a gift for someone, but my friend Inta was desperate for something American to read, so she read most of it before I had to pass it on. She mostly liked it too, but found the prom chapter too long. I believe she just couldn't relate to the American high school scene, which I found so funny because I do remember it that way.