Sure, I'll Be Your Black Friend

LOVED this one, went from laugh-out-loud moments to feeling bits of overwhelming rage on Philippe's behalf back to appreciation at his exquisitely deployed pop culture references. I know his YA novels ([b:The Field Guide to the North American Teenager 36284785 The Field Guide to the North American Teenager Ben Philippe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529945233l/36284785.SY75.jpg 57947197], [b:Charming as a Verb 49867239 Charming as a Verb Ben Philippe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582830300l/49867239.SX50.jpg 74949254]) have been well-regarded but I hadn't gotten around to reading them yet–definitely bumping them up on my TBR now!!I will add a CW for some talk about weight loss (and gain) that he acknowledges as being ~problematic as he writes it but then says also basically, it's his memoir and his feelings about his body caused by the society he grew up in and like, is he not supposed to write about it? And: fair. Just mentioning it for any who might find it triggering. (In addition to the discussion of racism, police brutality etc which also might be triggering but maybe more expected here.)