Lucy then spends four years dating around, including a brief relationship with a delightful Swedish dude who she kicks to the curb because she needs her space. At the beginning, we learn Lucy and her beloved boyfriend John had broken up because they disagreed about whether to have kids. Unfortunately, this book has all of the problems typical of Knisley’s work, without much else to make it appealing. However, I recently read Displacement (2015) and thought it was a little better in this regard, so I was prepared to give Something New a try. I thought 2014’s An Age of License was her worst offender to date, and it made me reluctant to read subsequent books. The problems she does talk about are usually pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, and as a result she often comes off, to me, as entitled and whiny, and her books can be unsatisfyingly callow. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need to know every gory detail of a writer’s life, but I feel like Knisley alludes to heavier things-depression in her family, her parents’ divorce, the (apparently not great) way her father treats his girlfriends-and then quickly dashes back to something less interesting, something that goes down more easily and is as facile as a not-very-good TV drama. The book includes some serious grown-up conversations about getting married and decisions about whether to have kids, which younger readers may or may not care about, but there’s nothing you’d really need to hide from the kids.My reviews of Lucy Knisley’s previous works have revealed some ambivalence on my part: She’s great when writing about travel or food, but at a certain point a little more emotional investment is required, by both the writer/artist and the reader. Note to parents: I think the book is appropriate for teens and up.

And the book is published by First Second Books, so it’s just gorgeous. I love the way that Knisley is able to capture these scenes from her life and turn them into an engaging story.

Something New is in stores now, and I highly recommend it, whether you’ve planned a wedding or been in one or have no plans to have one. We talked about what it’s like to write a book while planning a wedding and what it’s like to hide a pregnant belly in an autobiographical cartoon. I included Knisley’s latest book, Something New, in my Stack Overflow column on Monday, and it’s a really terrific book chronicling her adventures in wedding planning. Earlier this week I promised an interview with Lucy Knisley, and here it is!

Something new lucy knisley