Lancaster is no stranger to anxiety—she has been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and still has nightmares about her waitressing job from college—and she realizes that the world around her is just as stressed out as she is.
This new book is Lancaster’s meditation on the state of the world and why it routinely feels like the end of days. To be fair, there are a lot of things to be on edge about: a global pandemic, for one, but even pre-pandemic there was climate change, the glamorous but fake lifestyles promoted on social media, political divisiveness, and how medical science keeps discovering new things that can kill us, to name a few. But by using renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a guide, the book takes a comedic tour through our modern world, tackling today’s hot button issues like body image, parent shaming, gun violence, privilege, and more, unearthing their origins and examining their development through today. Lancaster’s incisive, yet hilarious musings draw from extensive research, as well as her own experiences growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s as a member of GenX, and expand to encompass her more recent encounters with Millennials who have opened her eyes to their unique perspective on the world.
Jen Lancaster is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Here I Go Again and The Gatekeepers; the nonfiction works Bitter Is the New Black, The Tao of Martha, Such a Pretty Fat, and Bright Lights, Big Ass; and the memoirs Stories I’d Tell in Bars, Generation X, My Fair Lazy, Pretty in Plaid,
and I Regret Nothing, which was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year. Regularly a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards, Jen has sold well over a million books documenting her attempts to shape up, grow up, and have it
all—sometimes with disastrous results. She’s also been seen on the Today show, as well as CBS This Morning, Fox News, and NPR’s All Things Considered, among others. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and her many ill-behaved pets.