Summer Reading: Jessica Apple Recommends…

Are you looking for a good book to take along on your vacation this summer?  All summer ASweetLife’s bloggers and contributors will be sharing some of their favorites.

Can you think of line that’s better than the title of this book for a doctor to tell someone as she’s being diagnosed with diabetes?

Instead of: You’ve got diabetes, now you need to start worrying about losing your toes, sight, and kidney function, the doctor would say, You’ve got diabetes.  Just take care of yourself.  Everything is going to be great.

In the memoir Everything Is Going to be Great, An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour, Rachel Shukert tells of her experience as a young, American woman living abroad.  Most of the book takes place in Amsterdam, and Shukert’s observations of the Dutch, and just about everything else are spot-on.

The book is original, smart, hilarious, and thoughtful.  And what’s really amazing is that you will notice those four things on almost every page.  While you’re reading Everything, every so often you’ll have to take a break from laughing in order to cringe.  But no matter what she’s done, you’ll be so in love with Shukert, you’ll stop cringing and start praying she lands on her feet.

Rachel Shukert is an incredible storyteller.  I highly recommend her first memoir, Have You No Shame? And Other Regrettable Stories, which I love even more than Everything.

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

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Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)