We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story

Let's start this off with: I have never read a book worse than this one. I thought that the reviews I read must have been too harsh and that they had read too much into certain sections of the book. Sadly, I'm wrong. We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, a True Story is about Josh Sundquist's trouble with dating. He interviews past crushes and quasi-girlfriends to figure out why their relationships never got anywhere. Sounds interesting but creepy right?

Here are a few issues with this book.

1. “Ani DiFranco's songs, as it turns out, are best described as guitar picking played as background music while Ani, an angry, dreadlocked feminist lesbian, spouts diatribes against men. The music created that perfect mood of politically charged man-hating that I always go for on a first date. Ladies, if you're looking to start a date off right, you can't go wrong with Ani.”

2. “If I really want to find you on Facebook, no number of privacy settings is going to stop me. So it was with Francesca Marcelo. It required a lot of searching and no finding, and then searching for her friends and friends of friends from high school, friending them, then scrolling through their friends for the Fs. Eventually I found her: Francesca Marcelo.”

3. In a day dream, Josh says: ‘“Son, do you know how fast you were going?” the cop would say. I would set my jaw and look him squarely in the eye.
“With all due respect, sir,” I would say. “Right now I think my girlfriend needs my warm embrace more than the Commonwealth of Virginia needs my money.” The cop would see from my heroic expression that the only way to stop me would be to shoot me in the face. Then his hardened heart would melt in the light of my undying love.
“Follow me,” he'd say. He would get in his car and escort me with lights flashing and sirens blazing. We'd blow stop signs and traffic lights. When I got to Evelyn's driveway, I'd skid sideways, the back of my car whipping into her garage door and knocking it off its hinges so I could get inside faster. I'd run inside through the now open garage and find her curled up in bed, crying. At the sight of me, she would jump into my arms.'

REALLYYYYYYY?!

This was really cute. I really enjoyed the personal stories. However, I am a little disappointed in the end.

In his search for what went wrong in his relationships, he found that a lot of the time it was his own insecurities or reservations or social cluelessness (the last one can only be cured by making the mistakes he mentions in his books) that was his own downfall and only when he was happy with himself and not actively looking for a girlfriend did he find one.I saw it coming a mile away, because that's the answer, isn't it? Be yourself, do what you love, and you will find someone for you. But as someone who is very frustrated with her love life, I can't help but be a little ‘meh' about it.

What's between these pages is pure honesty, and it's hard not to fall in love a little bit with Josh. He openly shares his whole dating experience, right down to those cringe worthy moments we all wish we could forget. He does it in a way that is sweet at times, hilarious at others, and touching in a way that's hard to ignore. I'll tell you, I've never been a big fan of memoir type books. Normally I'm all about getting lost in anything but reality. In this case though? Josh's story was so well written, and so engrossing, you couldn't have kept me from finishing it.

I think what struck me most is how genuine Josh's character in the book feels. It's like reading a really funny fictional story, but at the same time at the back of your mind you remember that he's telling you all about his real life. Sure things might be changed a bit, but all the events, all the funny moments, all the rejections, those actually happened. With a bit of wit, lots of graphs/diagrams, and some adorable musings on being a teenage boy, he made it through it all. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to share all of that, but I'll fully admit I loved every minute of reading it.

Read this. Trust me, it's worth your time! If you're looking for something that is going to hit you right in that big ball of emotions you call a heart, this is going to be it.