Stories I'd Tell in Bars by Jen Lancaster

Jen Lancaster is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Here I Go Again and The Gatekeepers the nonfiction works Bitter Is the New Black, The Tao of Martha, Such a Pretty Fat, and Bright Lights, Big Ass and the memoirs Stories I’d Tell in Bars, Generation X, My Fair Lazy, Pretty in Plaid,Īnd I Regret Nothing, which was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year. Lancaster’s incisive, yet hilarious musings draw from extensive research, as well as her own experiences growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a member of GenX, and expand to encompass her more recent encounters with Millennials who have opened her eyes to their unique perspective on the world. But by using renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a guide, the book takes a comedic tour through our modern world, tackling today’s hot button issues like body image, parent shaming, gun violence, privilege, and more, unearthing their origins and examining their development through today. To be fair, there are a lot of things to be on edge about: a global pandemic, for one, but even pre-pandemic there was climate change, the glamorous but fake lifestyles promoted on social media, political divisiveness, and how medical science keeps discovering new things that can kill us, to name a few. This new book is Lancaster’s meditation on the state of the world and why it routinely feels like the end of days.

Lancaster is no stranger to anxiety-she has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and still has nightmares about her waitressing job from college-and she realizes that the world around her is just as stressed out as she is.

Stories I'd Tell in Bars by Jen Lancaster