Shannon Yvonne Moreau

We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

I read a rave review on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books so I checked out the audiobook via Libby. Three chapters in and I knew I was buying the hard copy. Warning: the chapter “Code 261” is harrowing, and necessary. I advise against listening to it during your yoga session before going to work, though, because you’ll spend the morning biting everyone’s head off.

One of the things I really appreciated is Union’s progressive sex-positive outlook. In “Sex Miseducation” she advises women to take care of and enjoy themselves:

“So repeat after me: I resolve to embrace my sexuality and my freedom to do with my body parts as I see fit.”

In “Prescription for a Breakup” she advocates against the age old advice given to women to “work on” themselves  before jumping into bed with someone else.

“Oh, please, who’s got that kind of time? I got shit to do. I’m trying to work, I’m trying to get home to watch Scandal, and I’m trying to get it in.”

Preach, girl.

Meaty by Samantha Irby

Well, you know I love Samantha Irby because I’ve posted a few quotes from her book We Are Never Meeting in Real Life on my social media.

For Meaty, I wrote this review on Goodreads.

When it’s Monday morning and you just want to stand in your bathroom with your hands over your face and cry because you have to go to work, plug in the audiobook of Meaty for the drive in. By the time you show up at the office, you’ve been LOL-ing for the past twenty minutes and now feel like you can handle anything.

When your fibroids are pushing against your bladder and you’re like I have to pee again? Seriously? and wondering how many people are noting your frequent trips to the restroom, Samantha Irby assures you that “Um—yeah, girl, it could be so much worse. You’re aight.”

And the next time you question that decision to go on a years long hiatus from dating, because of that lost weekend after finding out the twentieth man you were crazy about not only didn’t love you, he probably didn’t even like you that much, Samantha’s got your back. She’ll confirm for you in crystal clear truth-ringing words that you made absolutely the right decision.

Confirmation: the part where she’s rebutting her girlfriends’ conviction that she’s jealous of their boyfriend because she’s single:

“You know what I don’t have to do? Wonder where my boyfriend is all day. Wonder why my boyfriend didn’t answer his cell phone. Wonder why my boyfriend didn’t answer his work phone. Wonder why my boyfriend’s Facebook is private. Wonder who my boyfriend is texting during dinner. Which totally explains why I’m so jealous and bent out of shape all the time. All of this free time to read books and go to shows and cultivate personal interests can really get to a person.”

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know by Retta

This book is a real treat on audio. Retta’s acting and comedic chops are on display. The part where she describes meeting Jon Hamm in “Membership Has Its Privileges”—sublime. She even had me engrossed in the chapter about hockey when I don’t give a hoot about sports. But the pinnacle (I listened to it twice) is her chronicle of her Hamilton awakening in “That Year I Went Lin-Sane.” I truly envy her flair for writing reviews on Twitter:

“My review of @HamiltonMusical:

It was so so so so good. It made me so happy. I laughed I smiled I bawled. It was Out. Of. Control.

I wanna have Lin’s babies.

I want Javier by my side as a life partner.

I wanna collab w/Leslie and star with him in everything.

I wanna have dirty unabashed sex with Daveed.

I wanna hang with Oak at all things cool.

I wanna be best friends with Jonathan Groff and have him serve as my Maid of Honor.

I wanna live on that stage and have each and every one of them in my life forever and always.

If someone says do you want to go see Hamilton slap them in the face for asking such an asinine question because it is an insult to your sense of art culture and general #KnowingGoodShit-ness.

So. Fucking. Good.

If I don’t see it 4 more times it’s because I’ve died a sudden tragic death and in my last breath I whispered Go. See. Hamilton.”

Good thing Hamilton’s coming to my town next year.