You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story that Never Happened by Amy Weinland Daughters
I initially bought this because a friend and former coworker mentioned it on Facebook. The author is from the same area I am, and graduated from the same high school I did (which is also where I teach). This takes place roughly six years before I moved to the same area, but the things she mentions, I can see them in my mind's eye. We even had the same fourth-grade teacher. So that aspect of the book would have put it near the top of my list of great books this year on its own, but then there is the story itself.
This is a weird mixture of autobiographical and fiction, which is not something you usually encounter--ever--but it somehow works. It starts in Ohio in 2014, where Amy currently lives. It is the day before Thanksgiving, and she is flying home to the suburbs of Houston, Texas, where her family lives, to meet with her siblings and parents to discuss financial matters while her parents are still alive and in sound mind to make decisions. She is taking a tiny plane, flown by her husband's boss' wife. She falls asleep on the plane, and wakes just before landing. They land at the wrong airport. Instead of an airport on the west side of town, they land at Hooks airport, mere minutes from where Amy grew up.
More importantly than landing at the wrong airport, they land on Thanksgiving Day, in 1978. Mary, the pilot of the plane, drives Amy to the house she grew up in, but tells her that is has been explained to her family (including her ten-year-old self) that she is a distant cousin from Ohio. She also tells Amy that she can't screw this up, meaning things will still turn out ok is she messes up. What ensues is both hilarious and touching as Amy re-experiences this time with her family, seeing everyone in a different light.
I can't recommend this book enough. Go out and buy it and share it with your friends.
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