Disaster Preparedness

A memoir from a writer who's "smart, hilarious, unique-just terrific" (Anne Lamott). A thoughtful, funny memoir about surviving the real and imagined perils of childhood and early adulthood, Disaster Preparednesscharts how the most humiliating and painful moments in Havrilesky's past forced her to develop a wide range of defense mechanisms, some adaptive, some piteously ill-suited to modern life. By turns offbeat, sophisticated, uproarious and wise, Disaster Preparednessis a road map to the personal disasters we all face from an irresistible voice that gets straight to the unexpected grace at the heart of every calamity.

Heather Havrilesky is a regular contributor to the New York Time Magazine. She was TV critic at Salon com for seven years, and eocreated the cartoon Filler with illustrator Terry Colon for Suck.com. Her Writing has also appeared in the Los Angles Times, Bookforum, the New York Times, New York, the Awl, and NPR's All Things Considered. She lives in Los Angles with her husband and two daughters.