Rebecca Fishbein's collection of essays, Good Things Happen to People You Hate (HarperCollins) explores the tragicomic terrains of being a 20-something New York writer, intermingling bedbug infestations, retail day jobs, and a grandmother's death mixed with discussions of anxiety, relationships, and mortality. Throughout, Fishbein, A&S '11, displays a gift for combining lacerating self-deprecation with disarming honesty: "Sex-ed classes teach you that sex will riddle you with disease and unwanted babies but conveniently omit a lot of stuff, like how to make it feel the least bit pleasurable." Good Things, however, is also a vital document of a female writer's experiences during the personal essay–driven landscape of 2010s digital publishing days, before hedge funds and the 2016 election started sucking the air out of journalism. Hilarious and touching in equal measure.
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