It's strange to try and assign a star value to someone's diaries, but I give this one a 3.5. I am a long-time fan of David Sedaris and was recently lamenting over not having any of his books left to read, when I realized I hadn't read this yet. Woo!

Though there is a level of editing that goes into publishing diaries, it was still interesting to see the types of things David felt worth writing about even when he was writing just for himself, turns out it's not all the different from the things we see him write about in his other books. It was fun to see the initial entry behind some of my favorite essays which David would publish in later works. I was surprised by the lack of personal intimacies (though they weren't completely lacking) and how David's entries were more stories and retellings of his day. Everyone's diary is different, and personally my diary is much more emotion-focused mixed in with retellings of my day to day, which lets pray are never published. I loved David's descriptions of what it was like being a young adult in Raleigh, NC especially as someone who has lived in the Raleigh area for the last several years.

Everyone says it, but I would read David's grocery lists. Live Laugh Love David Sedaris.