Anne Lamott knows a thing or two about love. In fact, there is so much of it exuding from her essay collection Somehow, you'd be forgiven for feeling wistful and misty-eyed just reading some of her descriptions. They act as a form of time travel, showing us scenes from Lamott's life that have proven to her the essential nature of love as a feeling, and how it affects each of us in both minute and enormous ways.

In twelve essays, Lamott exhibits her famed intellect and bright humor, inviting us on a journey past the many faces of love. One gets the feeling while reading her interior monologue that she has a dark streak and no interest in concealing it. She frequently returns to self-loathing and fear, eventually talking herself out of it, always with the assistance of love: the only true balm for pain. It's apparent she grew to this maturity past the tender seedlings of a young naivety...