By Kristi Alexandra
@kristialexandra

I’m a bit of a nihilist when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Sure, I make them, but ultimately know I’m going to break them. For whatever short-lived motivation I have to achieve my lofty fitness, personal and career goals, it ultimately dwindles away with the slightest inconvenience, and sometimes with a full-on anxiety attack.

So when Courtenay Hameister’s Okay Fine Whatever came across my desk just before the New Year, I knew I had finally found the book that would perfectly sum up my feelings on self-help. Besides, the book had glowing endorsements from a couple of my favourite memoirists: Cheryl Strayed and Chelsea Handler. And, since it is one of my goals to read more in 2020, I thought, “Okay Fine Whatever, let’s do this.”

For those who aren’t familiar with Hameister’s work, she was the host and head-writer on Live Wire!, a nationally syndicated public radio show in Oregon that hosted the likes of Carrie Brownstein (Sleater Kinney/Portlandia), author Susan Orlean, and musician and author James McBride–just to name a few. And like Hameister, as someone who works in media, I, too, have had the devastating thought: is my job in media the only interesting thing about me?

Luckily for me, Hameister lays it all out in her memoir, where she details “the year [she] went from being afraid of everything to only being afraid of most things.” She attacks her complacency with only slight reluctance, because what else is there to do?

Within, Hameister aims to tackle her fear and stagnation by doing little things that scare her–or at least used to.

She takes the reader along on some wild leaps–from being a once thirty-something virgin to taking a fellatio class to trying her hand at polyamoury and eventually ending up at “Portland’s Premier Swingers Club”–and some not-so-wild leaps. Hameister writes comically but with such earnest relatability, you’ll feel like you’re in the driver’s seat with her, picking up a few bits of random knowledge along the way.

In all, Okay Fine Whatever is a quirky, narrative romp that amuses, and inspires the reader to face their fears head-on. Or, at the very least, resolve to look their fears in the eye and say, “Okay Fine Whatever.“

Okay Fine Whatever is now available in paperback at major bookstores

Kristi Alexandra is an unabashed wino and wannabe musician. Her talents include drinking an entire bottle of cabernet sauvignon, singing in the bathtub, and falling asleep.