Cringe edited by Sarah Brown

I found this book sitting on a display of "I Can't Believe It's Nonfiction!" books.  I had never heard of it before and I had to snatch it up right away.  I've kept a journal pretty solidly since I was 14, sometimes writing multiple times in a day, lining the edges of the page with angsty lyrics, and copying in some of my "best" poems.  Now that I am the ripe old age of 31, it's kind of funny to go back and see what I had to say when I was in high school.   There was a lot of drama, a lot of scandal, and a lot of insights that I've carried with me through the years.

But the embarrassing is key in this book.

Sometimes it's nice to know that there are things that are universal.  I really enjoyed reading something written in 1990 that I would have written in 2000 and that someone else is probably writing right now.  My favorite pieces were the ones concerning the very elaborate plans to get the attention of a crush.  Some of the plans are hilariously ridiculous and involved and made that one time I made a mix tape and then posted online about how it wasn't just a mix tape seem not so desperate.

Basically, it's nice to know that no matter how embarrassing you are at 14, you'll totally grow out of it.  Someday you'll probably even laugh about it. -RYQ