I was recently in Charlotte for the Check Out Your Library Fiction & Film tour, and I had the absolute pleasure to chat with Emily Farris at Protagonist Brewery LoSo in Charlotte. We had so many library fans and Emily fans join us at the brewery, enjoying delicious food and craft drinks.

I may be biased, but one of my favorite things on the menu was the conversation with Emily. We had the chance to talk about her book, her writing process and what it's like to make your husband the hero of your memoir to then have your marriage end. Emily’s candor and openness to talk about everything from her divorce to her work as a Senior Commerce Writer at Bon Appétit and Epicurious was as refreshing and filling as her Divorce Salad.

In the fifth grade, Emily won a D.A.R.E. essay contest. Since then, she’s written for The Cut, Bon Appetit, BuzzFeed, Food 52, the Kitchn, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Taste, Epicurious, Country Living, and many, many more. Her first cookbook, Casserole Crazy: Hot Stuff for Your Oven published in 2008, and she contributed to Charlotte Druckman’s Women on Food anthology.

🎙️ Make sure you’re subscribed to Professional Book Nerds wherever you listen to podcasts for an upcoming episode with Emily!

More from Emily’s personal essay collection

I’ll Just Be Five More Minutes: And Other Tales from My ADHD Brain (🎧 audiobook read by the author) is a collection of honest, hilarious, and thoughtful essays on life, love, and discovering you have ADHD at 35. It’s full of laugh-out-loud-funny, tear-jerking, and at times cringey true stories of Emily’s experiences as a neurodivergent woman.

Emily candidly reexamines her complicated relationships, her money problems, the years she spent unknowingly self-medicating, and her hyper-fixations (hello decorative baskets).

“This is an ignore-your-family, cancel-your-plans, stay-up-past-your-bedtime tale that reminds me of Samantha Irby, David Sedaris, and so many other favorite essayists. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and strikingly smart, and Farris offers brilliant insight into the ADHD brain.” — Joanna Rakoff

If you’re looking for some similar reads...

Gentle Chaos by Tyler Gaca
🎧 Audiobook (read by the author)

From the wild imagination of Tyler Gaca, also known as TikTok’s Ghosthoney, comes a beautiful compendium of poems, images, personal stories, and vignettes that explore magic, queerness, Tyler’s unique story, and the enchantment and comfort to be found in the weird, the dark, and the different.

Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby
🎧 Audiobook (read by the author)

Quietly Hostile makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes.

Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan
🎧 Audiobook (read by the author)

What would happen if a shy introvert lived like a gregarious extrovert for one year? If she knowingly and willingly put herself in perilous social situations that she’d normally avoid at all costs?

Jessica sets up a series of personal challenges to explore whether living like an extrovert can teach her lessons that might improve the quality of her life.

Feel Free by Zadie Smith
🎧 Audiobook

Gathering in one place previously unpublished work as well as already classic essays, Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics as well as Smith’s own life.

Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
🎧 Audiobook (read by the author)

A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women. This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message of hope.

*Title availability may vary by library & region.

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