How to Be Awkward

by Amanda Turner

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store and Hair of the Corn Dog, Amanda Turner (previously writing as AK Turner) offers up a new collection of hilarity and embarrassment with How to Be Awkward.

Disclaimer: This book is not intended for the super cool. If you begin every day by setting an intention while doing yoga on a paddleboard (and somehow not falling off), you're out of my league. If you are even semi-fluent in the Urban Dictionary, there's little chance we'll connect. And if you use a vaginal steamer, well, I think we're done here. Especially if you don't have a vagina.

On the other hand... if your spirit animal is the blobfish or you regularly and inexplicably choke on your own saliva, we might be related. If you find intermittent fasting to be both cruel and unusual, I feel your pain. If your athletic abilities could best be described as blundering and oafish, I'm right there with you. It's possible that we speak the same language.

We should talk.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780998654133
Publisher:	Fever Streak Press
Publication date:	09/22/2022
Pages:	252
Sales rank:	1,086,623
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.53(d)

Editorial Reviews

10/31/2022

Playfully ruminating on the foibles of what it means to be human, Turner (This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store, as AK Turner) writes in chuckle-worthy essay form, exploring the perpetual struggle of functioning with anxiety, shame, and shortcomings—and how to cope with people who feel it necessary to point out those failings—in a society defined by rules and expectations. As Turner explains in “I’m What Smells Bad,” a story of her smelly egg salad sandwich in first grade that causes the whole school to stink, “Welcome to awkwardness, I want to say to the younger me. It’s with you for life.”

Turner’s genius lies in her anecdotal storytelling cloaked in universally relatable fears and public displays of embarrassment. In “True Love Story,” Turner declares that the ultimate in awkwardness is shopping for a mattress with your boyfriend and your mother at the same time, while she dedicates nearly the entirety of one chapter to bullet points detailing “How to Be Chubby,” with winning tips like be sure to eat your children’s leftovers, fantasize about exercise without actually doing it, and learn to be content with your size as long as you’re happy and healthy. She turns to the serious, too, in “Sorry About the Plague,” as she muses on the human need for connection amid isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Readers can expect plenty of laughs, at others and themselves, as Turner reflects on familiar themes like acceptance—“Cool people simply fail to admit things about which the rest of us are more forthcoming”—and parenting: when waiting in the school pick-up line, Turner routinely embarrasses her daughter by rebuking other children’s bad habits, justifying her actions with “I promise they had it coming.” Throughout, her unconditional self-acceptance is refreshing, and readers with a soft spot for humor mixed with candor will be thoroughly entertained.

Takeaway: An entertaining read that makes being awkward cool.

Great for fans of: Mindy Kaling’s Why Not Me?; Laurie Notaro’s The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club.

Production grades Cover: A- Design and typography: A Illustrations: NA Editing: A Marketing copy: A-

BookLife Reviews

2022-10-18
In this collection of essays, a humorist reflects on the awkward incidents and characteristics that have shaped her life.

“In my mind,” Turner writes in the opening of this volume, “I’m a goddamn cheetah. Sleek, stealthy, lithe, with a teaspoon of danger.” But upon reflection, the author acknowledges that “my body leaks and creaks and sweats” and that she has the “ability to land in cringeworthy situations and/or directly cause them.” In this compilation of 26 essays, the endlessly hilarious Turner walks readers through the awkwardness that is her life, from an overactive salivary gland and gastrointestinal issues to her fangirl fixation on fellow essayist David Sedaris, who “is unaware of our bond.” Featuring an abundance of self-deprecating anecdotes from the author’s personal life, this work becomes an homage to the awkward readers who wear taped-up glasses, spend too much time in public bathrooms, and are “bling-free in a sparkly world.” Constantly relatable, the essays include the perils of husband-and-wife DIY projects gone wrong and couches that swallow TV remotes and socks into their cavernous abysses. An entire chapter provides a “Field Guide” on “How To Be Chubby” that concludes with sage advice. Previous works by the author, published under the name AK Turner, include the popular Vagabonding With Kids travel series and an unfiltered confessional about the trials of motherhood, This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store (2012). This volume is a worthy addition to Turner’s impressive, award-winning repertory. The author’s fearless honesty in grappling with her own personal quirks and bodily irregularities will surely resonate with a wide range of readers beyond a target demographic of middle-aged mothers, as nearly every essay possesses at least one laugh-out-loud moment (often delivered in the sidesplitting footnotes). Fans of Turner may be disappointed that a handful of the essays appeared in previous publications, and some readers may object to the volume’s scatological humor and predilection for four-letter words. But for those with a fair share of awkward idiosyncrasies, this collection is a delightful read that celebrates people’s eccentricities.

An incisive and entertaining celebration of awkwardness.

Kirkus Reviews