Microthrills

Raised in Manhattan by her overly protective, sex therapist mother who wore "seven layers of shoulder pads" and her two doting grandparents, life in Wendy Spero's world has never been dull. As a child, she passed the time organizing impromptu "garage sales" on city sidewalks, sniffing fruit-scented magic markers to intoxication, parenting dozens of high-maintenance stuffed animals, and seeking out other "microthrills", which she writes about in this hilarious book of odd but true stories.

Life got increasingly more interesting for Wendy as she grew up and embarked on a stint of door-to-door knife-selling before taking an office day job, where she developed an abnormally close, paternal relationship with her big-time executive boss, which involved as much pot smoking as it did mentoring. (Wendy, in turn, sprinkled glitter in his expense reports and placed gold stars on his paychecks.)

Now, as a budding young comedian living in L.A., Wendy grapples with such "grown-up" issues as trying to kick her addiction of eating candy in bed and finally learning how to drive.