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A review by marvsbooks
My Thirty-First Year (and Other Calamities) by Emily Wolf
5.0
My Thirty-First Year (and other calamities) was an amazing, heartwarming, soul-searching, heartbreaking, cringy, funny, and meaningful chronicle of Zoe’s life.
As a liberal Jewish feminist who met her now-husband on jDate (a few years prior to this book’s setting, but not too many), who’s also a lawyer, had an abortion, and went on TOO MANY bad first dates…this book was an absolute home run for me. I couldn’t love it more. I’ve never (NEVER!) felt so seen or represented in literature in my life. (Though to be fair, my husband is the only U2 fan in our house!)
Everything in this book tracks like real life as fiction. The unpleasant, the meaningful, the heartbreaking, the disastrous…it was all well-written and came alive in the pages. I didn’t really get the letters to U2, but I’ve also never been one to keep a journal or diary. I assume there’s a correlation. I loved Zoe’s group of friends, and their eternal support of her as she lived her roller coaster of a life the best she could. I loved the portrayal of peripheral characters outside of the primary friend group (especially her boss!) because of how quirky and nuanced they were. And more than anything, I loved her journey and where she ended up. (And I was cheering out loud when she walked out on the date where the guy had no idea who Obama or McCain were!)
Read if you like: strong feminist leads, women’s rights, standing up for what matters, democracy, feminism, Roe, strong friendships, finding yourself, and a lot of awkward dating situations.
Thank you to the author for a gifted copy! I’m honored to have been able to read this.
As a liberal Jewish feminist who met her now-husband on jDate (a few years prior to this book’s setting, but not too many), who’s also a lawyer, had an abortion, and went on TOO MANY bad first dates…this book was an absolute home run for me. I couldn’t love it more. I’ve never (NEVER!) felt so seen or represented in literature in my life. (Though to be fair, my husband is the only U2 fan in our house!)
Everything in this book tracks like real life as fiction. The unpleasant, the meaningful, the heartbreaking, the disastrous…it was all well-written and came alive in the pages. I didn’t really get the letters to U2, but I’ve also never been one to keep a journal or diary. I assume there’s a correlation. I loved Zoe’s group of friends, and their eternal support of her as she lived her roller coaster of a life the best she could. I loved the portrayal of peripheral characters outside of the primary friend group (especially her boss!) because of how quirky and nuanced they were. And more than anything, I loved her journey and where she ended up. (And I was cheering out loud when she walked out on the date where the guy had no idea who Obama or McCain were!)
Read if you like: strong feminist leads, women’s rights, standing up for what matters, democracy, feminism, Roe, strong friendships, finding yourself, and a lot of awkward dating situations.
Thank you to the author for a gifted copy! I’m honored to have been able to read this.