Courtenay Hameister is a professional nervous person. During her 12 years as host and head writer for Live Wire, a nationally-syndicated public radio show, she interviewed over 500 intimidating people and wrote 200 personal essays in bursts of anxiety-fueled inspiration at midnight the night before each show. Her work has also been featured in McSweeney's, APM's Marketplace, More Magazine and some scathing emails to the customer service department at Macy's.
I loved this book so hard. Courtenay Hameister makes me feel thrilled to be alive-even though most things in life scare the crap out of me so much it's hard for me to walk out of my own front door. Okay Fine Whatever is a brilliant testament to the fire of the spirit for misfits and scaredy pants everywhere. A soul triumph. A reason to live. --Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children The author not only chronicles how she faced her inner demons and won; she also offers a reminder that doing even the smallest thing to conquer fear 'is enough to change a lot.' A fresh, intelligent memoir. --Kirkus Reviews A witty, wise call-to-arms for the anxiety-ridden in a period when we're more anxious than ever. A timely book for these end-of-times times. --John Hodgman, New York Times bestselling author of Vacationland Inspiring from the first pages. Courtenay fearlessly lets us into her head; she didn't clean up in there before company came over, and I am so glad. Her risk-taking adventures in career and love are more stirring to me than any daring physical feat. You'll root for Courtenay while reading and in your spare time too. --Jen Kirkman, New York Times bestselling author of I Can Barely Take Care of Myself You can't help but fall in love with this gem of a book. Courtenay deftly executes one of the most difficult feats for a writer: she makes the smallest moments vivid, meaningful, and laugh-out-loud funny. You'll be rooting for her the whole way, and she'll surprise you at every turn with her fortitude, her sparkling feats of fearlessness preserved in riotous detail, and her joie de anxiety. --Annabelle Gurwitch, New York Times bestselling author of Wherever You Go, There They Are and I See You Made an Effort Vaguely embarrassed posers who think they know from humiliation, step aside - the somewhat intrepid yet thoroughly original and hilarious Courtenay Hameister is our new patron saint of the bizarre life experience. Readers everywhere will be super grateful to her for doing all this awkward stuff so they don't have to. Thanks, Courtenay! --Karen Karbo, author of In Praise of Difficult Women It's a rare writer who is as frank, funny, and smart as Courtenay Hameister is on the page, and in Okay Fine Whatever her talent for all of these things is on full display. I was moved by Hameister's vulnerability as she wrote about her long-time struggles with her weight, her anxiety, and her search for love, and I was gobsmacked by the fearlessness with which she set out to do the varied, wild, strange things she thought would cure her of her deepest sorrows. I never wanted to put down Okay Fine Whatever. It's one of those books that takes you into its grips. It reads like an adventure novel and a secret whispered into your ear. It felt true to me and alive and real, like on every page I was witnessing someone who finally made good on an ancient dare. I loved this book. I think you will too. --Cheryl Strayed Courtenay Hameister is one of the funniest, sharpest writers I know. Her work is confessional, witty, and laugh-out-loud hilarious. I love her. --Chelsea Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Heartsick and One Kick Courtenay Hameister wrote the following sentence and for this sentence alone she should be world famous: 'Like the snowflake of the genital world, no two vaginas are ever alike.' Her stories are honest, funny and touching. I love her work and so will you. --Mike Sacks, author of Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers