The NerdHerd Reads: We Should Hang Out Sometime {by Josh Sundquist}

Title: We Should Hang Out Sometime: Embarrassingly, A True Story

Author: Josh Sundquist

Genre: Memoir

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Received via NetGalley

A bright, poignant, and deeply funny autobiographical account of coming of age as an amputee cancer survivor, from Josh Sundquist: Paralympic ski racer, YouTube star, and motivational speaker.

Josh Sundquist only ever had one girlfriend.

For twenty-three hours.

In eighth grade.

Why was Josh still single? To find out, he tracked down the girls he had tried to date and asked them straight up: What went wrong?

The results of Josh's semiscientific, wholly hilarious investigation are captured here. From a disastrous Putt-Putt date involving a backward prosthetic foot, to his introduction to CFD (Close Fast Dancing), to a misguided "grand gesture" at a Miss America pageant, this story is about looking for love--or at least a girlfriend--in all the wrong places.

This was an interesting book. I went into it not quite knowing what to expect, but I ended up loving it. It was hilarious, entertaining, and just plain fun.

Josh sets out to figure out why he's never had a girlfriend (except for the one in 8th grade for 23 hours). The book is divided up by girl: he shares the background story of what happened, then his hypothesis of why it went wrong, and finally the investigation from when he met them face to face (or in some cases, Facebook message). This was a really interesting take and interesting way for him to share his story.

Sundquist has a pretty unique voice. He's fairly upbeat and positive, all things considered. He very open and honest. It was also pretty interesting to hear him talk about his religious background and about being homeschooled until high school, as those lent itself to some of the stories. His drawings and graphs also made the book unique and stand out.

I will say, it did almost feel like reading the same story over again. I mean, he's never had a girlfriend, so there are only so many ways you can hang out with a girl that isn't your girlfriend. I realize why, and I know that being a true story, it's not like he can change that. But still.

But it wasn't all fun and games. Being an amputee cancer survivor, there are a lot of serious things that go on in his life as well. I love how he ended on a deeper note, giving purpose to the whole story.

I thought this was super interesting, and hilarious, and I would definitely recommend it. I don't usually read memiors or anything, but this was a great read. It was a fairly quick read, but full of hilarity.

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