Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler
(It Books, 2013, 231 pages)
Aisha Tyler’s Self-Inflicted Wounds is a collection of humorous essays about various times in her life when she has made impressive mistakes and humiliated herself but managed to keep going and learn from what happened. We start when Tyler was young and made her first epic mistake and we proceed to the present day. Tyler has no shame in putting it out there, but her honesty fits with her personality. This is a woman who can laugh at herself.
We hear about the time she gorged on fattening food after dieting to be in a magazine only to break two toes while stumbling around in her hotel room. We learn about how she tried to show off on a sushi date by eating a large portion of wasabi, only to have everything in her mouth wind up on her date’s face. We hear about the epic party foul of passing out at a party – and no, we’re talking about an event that happened well after college. Plus all kinds of things in between. This was a quick read and an entertaining book. There were definitely parts that were laugh-out-loud funny, but not on the same level as, say, Tina Fey’s Bossypants. If you like Aisha Tyler and/or light humorous reads I think you’ll enjoy this book – I did.
