Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane

West (Shit, Actually) blends her signature sharp wit with endearing vulnerability in this luminous memoir of a cross-country road trip she took to rebuild herself and her marriage. Spurred by her love of the Beach Boys song “Kokomo,” West rented a van to drive from Seattle to Key West after learning that her husband, Aham, had another partner and wanted a polyamorous marriage. In between humorous missives from RV campgrounds (“I am self-actualized now! I’m not flirting with a city slicker who tried to light a campfire with just a log and a match!”), West writes candidly about her struggles with being a public face for the body positivity movement while sometimes “feel[ing] bad in my body.” With unblinking resolve, she also autopsies the effects of masking her feelings of inadequacy with humor and a suffocating dependency on her husband: “I want to be desirable, but I do not know how to be desired.” A defecating otter and a seven-year old in a Trump hat also make appearances, bumping up against indictments of comedy’s mistreatment of women and the bruising effects of skinny-worship. The result is a madcap, rewarding journey that demystifies the unsexy work of self-actualization. Agent: Gary Morris, David Black Literary. (Mar.)