How to Success by Corinne Caputo is, without question, one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. The honest cluelessness on each page is like reading a how-to on brain surgery by someone who’s never cut so much as a watermelon, and probably hasn’t come closer to using a knife than watching a YouTube clip on slicing fruit, but has all the trust and confidence that they can, indeed, perform brain surgery and have it result in a positive outcome.
Every page is funny (“How to come out as a writer to your parents”) or irreverent(“How to bring up your book at parties!”) or maybe quasi-useful (“Math problems for writers”).
But unsaid throughout the book is the idea that you can get it done – you can write a novel, or a memoir, or a screenplay. All you need is to do it. Do it wildly, do it badly, do it loudly..but do it.
You can’t edit what isn’t written. And maybe fortune, awards, and fame await. If they do, you’ll have practiced taking an author photo and signing autographs (things to do before writing that bestseller. 😉
Full disclosure – Corinne is also my daughter, but it makes the book no less funny.