How Do I Un-Remember This?: Unfortunately True Stories

Podcaster and comedian Pellegrino (Fancy AF Cocktails) takes a humorous and heartfelt trip down memory lane in this candid account of the moments that shaped him. Growing up during the ’90s as a “closeted kid” in a small Ohio town, Pellegrino had his fair share of misadventures—from streaking through the night on a dare to the unexpected trials of trying to get a family vacation off the ground, with very shaky results. For all the laughs his recollections induce, there’s an equal amount of introspection and vulnerability on offer in his shrewd articulations of universal human anxieties: “Every year on my birthday, a sense of melancholy washes over me.... I feel judged by my peers, and all the while I’m scrolling IG and judging the celebrities... with a leftover Roadside Slider from the Cheesecake Factory in my free hand.” He also elegantly writes of the challenges he faced and the gradual steps he took to openly admit to being gay (“Those years when you’re figuring it all out can be mental torture, but... life doesn’t stop when you come out. In fact, life begins because you’re finally living it authentically”). Readers will adore this witty account of navigating life—and finding the joy in marching to the beat of one’s own drum. (Mar.)