Thank you Libro.fm, Macmillan Audio, Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for Broken (in the best possible way).

Jenny Lawson has struggled all her life with anxiety and depression. This is definitely a hard topic to write about, but Lawson is unflinching in her description of her mental health journey and how she copes with the ups and the downs, in the hopes of helping other people dealing with mental health struggles and be open about it. Despite a seeming acceptance of the importance of mental health as many people have suffered during the pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, there still remains a stigma. And as Lawson notes in her book, she has to fight her insurance company on covering the medications and other treatments she needs that are often deemed "unnecessary" or too costly. And thank you for discussing your anxiety because it's good to have a buddy (an author you've met once) who also involuntarily tightens or shakes their hands when anxiety or sensory overload takes over and you realize you are not as unusual as you feel you are, although being unusual is also how you like it and would never want to be "normal." Una buona storia: che sarebbe anche migliore se Winslow evitasse di flirtare col lettore e non si ostinasse a voler fare motti di spirito, che gli vengono così così, non c’è nulla da fare. The unique thing about this book is that intermixed with these more stoic chapters are laugh-out-loud ones. That is, if your brand of humor includes things like toddler-sized tiny condoms for your dog to use as boots, buttworms, and bearcat hot buttered pee. (Yes, you read that right.) There are lists of mortifying things she’s said, mortifying things strangers have done and tweeted to her, and mortifying corrections she’s received from her editors.Equal parts laugh-out-loud-until-I'm-crying, heart-wrenching, heartwarming, and yes, kind of cringey and even often crude, I yet again really enjoyed my time with Jenny Lawson. Jenny's books do good by helping others who suffer from mental illness. Jenny writes about being on a book tour and meeting wonderful people who dealt with some of the same issues she had. Many folks shakily told her that it was the first time they'd left their house in weeks. Jenny was proud to be able to talk to each person, though it was VERY draining for HER, because she gets anxious being around people. A difficult conundrum indeed. This one was funny as hell and a nice little police procedural on top of that. Definitely my favorite of the lot and the one most likely to spawn a recurring role by the character of Chris, and possibly Champ the Chimp. Paradise is a tweener. It follows characters Ben, Chon, and O between the events of the two books in which their story is told. It's told in the same style as well which is fun. It's a damn good story, it's fun. It involves some characters from Bobby Z and Frankie Machine as well. I loved this story, but I feel like this one only works for people who have read The Winter of Frankie Machine. If you haven't, the end of this story--which is really good--would seem kind of out of left field. It makes perfect sense and you see it coming if you've read Machine though (which you should anyway). And one other tiny thing: she says “totally” a lot, which totally reminds me of a valley girl, which most certainly she is not. And damn if I don’t find myself saying “totally” more often after reading her books, and for that she is in big trouble! I’m WAY too old for “totally!” But I must admit it’s fun to say; I feel like I’m channeling a coed from California.

Ma il secondo è dedicato a Steve McQueen - che mi manca sempre tanto e ogni tanto riguardo un suo film, inutile dire “vecchio” film, sono ormai quarantatre anni che non c’è più, sigh, e su tutti, uno dei miei film preferiti in assoluto, Bullit – e viene subito da pensare a Il caso Thomas Crown, ladro raffinato ed elegante e dal fascino irresistibile che progetta rapine senza spargimento di sangue. Sunset is a story that was written to include Winslow's "Dawn Patrol" characters like Boone Daniels. This is a good story and it's fun to spend some time with the gang again. The story is good though perhaps not to the quality level of others in this collection, it only suffers in comparison that way-on it's own, it's fantastic. Those who regularly read my humble opinions here are aware that I try to keep this space a “no-spoiler” zone. I will do my best to adhere to this rule while discussing BROKEN, even though I am tempted to do so. Let me get it out of my system by first talking about “Paradise,” which bears the subtitle “Being the Intermediate Adventures of Ben, Chon, and O.” Sunset might be the most well-written story in the bunch and is a nostalgic story set in the California surf community about maturity and loyalty, featuring some of Winslow's oldest characters. ★★★★★

I'd never read Don Winslow before, and I think this was a good place to start. Broken consists of six novellas of crime fiction, fast-paced and full of suspense. It tells of cops who skate a thin line between justice and personal vengeance, and villains so full of charm that you can't help but root for them.

I decide to keep the broken dove even though I can already hear Victor in my head telling me that she’s too broken to save. I will nod and agree but I still won’t part with her. She will tell a story to people who will wonder what magic she must have if she’s still treasured even in this state. You can guess what happens next. Either little brother mans up to help out big brother, or big brother goes on crazed torture-killing spree to avenge his precious younger sibling. Little brother’s killer seems to have broken into the Madrid Museum of the Spanish Inquisition to steal torture gadgets and books on torture to fully paint himself as the truly evil bad guy in this story. Crime 101 is a clever, well-plotted little cat-and-mouse story about a cop and a career thief chasing each other up and down the Pacific Coast Highway. ★★★★ That's not to say that there aren't difficult parts. She has long been open about her health and mental health struggles and some of those chapters are incredibly painful. But...but...she always offers a bit of lightness and hope even in the midst of the darker days. And if you don’t look too closely you can hardly tell she’s broken.I read Jenny Lawson’s first book, Lets’s Pretend This Never Happened, on my wife’s recommendation. Of course, by the time I read it she had probably already read a third of it to me a little bit at a time when I asked what she was laughing about now. Ms. Lawson had a bizarre childhood, and that memoir is hilariously bonkers.Many thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Co., and Jenny Lawson for an ARC of this book! Now available as of 4.6!** The last chapter, one long metaphor, is probably the one Lawson feels is the most important. Said simply, it relates shattered glass to the feeling of being broken. There’s a definite upbeat tone—hence her book title: Broken (in the Best Possible Way). Although brilliant, it went on a little too long. It’s hard to keep using a metaphor forever, I think.

It isn’t just about Winslow’s past though because we also get a couple of great homages to crime writing legends Elmore Leonard and Raymond Chandler. The San Diego Zoo is dedicated to Leonard and most definitely feels like one of his novels while Sunset is kind of a surfer based remake of Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Furiously Happy and Let’s Pretend This Never Happened comes a deeply relatable book filled with humor and honesty about depression and anxiety.I'll start by speaking of these stories as a group before getting into them individually. It's really an incredible collection and I highly recommend reading it. Winslow shows all sides and taps his biggest influences in these works and it's well worth reading. This is also a treat for fans of his who have read his previous books. There are cameos by some characters from previous novels, some of these tales are stories that are entirely about a character or cast of characters from previous books and best of all, since many of these characters live in the same worlds and similar places, sometimes they overlap. It's a real treat to revisit characters you came to enjoy in other books. Thank you for writing about the embarrassing things you do like starting fires in your house and making me feel better about when I start fires in my house (the latest was a toaster fire because setting it sideways shoots the hash brown patties out onto a plate like it would be in the beginning of Pee Wee's Big Adventure but it also sets all the crumbs and grease on fire). A former investigator, antiterrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island. In a serious vein, Jenny excoriates her insurance company, which avoids paying for her medication and treatments....a phenomenon that's probably familiar to much of the general public. I couldn't stop laughing while reading a few sections. Like, fully-body laughter, which is rare for a book. The mix between these very funny sections and some really compelling, more serious sections was very effective and made for some moving reading. The parts of the book where Jenny Lawson talked about her struggle with depression and anxiety were very eye-opening for me, and I think it made me understand more about the struggles that people with different mental illnesses go through.