SOME NEWS: this is my new book!! it’s called GOODBYE, AGAIN. i’ve been working on it for the last 3 years. it’s about saying goodbye to places you once belonged, the myths of finding solace in work, and the joy in small things. you can pre-order it now!!

http://GoodbyeAgain.com 

i thought i would get this book to you much sooner. i started working on it as soon as “everyone’s a aliebn” was finished. we first announced that i was writing three new books (of which this is the first!) back in 2018 (!). https://twitter.com/jonnysun/status/1043244372911906816

but as i was working on it, some other exciting things happened, too: i passed my phd exams (!!), lin and i made a book together (!!), i wrote a movie (!!), i was asked to give a ted talk (!!), i got to be a part of the writing team for the final season of bojack horseman (!!)

and a lot of personal things happened as well. i got engaged, then married to, the love of my life(!!!!)!!!! and during all of this, i moved a lot and said goodbye to a lot of people and places.

and as i was doing all this moving and leaving and changing and growing, the book became a reflection of the process of making the space within yourself to grow into some new versions of yourself, while also honoring the past versions of you that helped you become who you are.

the book was something i kept turning to throughout this entire time, and i think that it helped me remember some things and figure some things out and it gave me the chance to find some ways to meaningfully articulate them.

it feels like i have crystalized some pieces of myself in this book over this span of this time, and i am excited and honestly very nervous for everyone to read it.

in it, i write about small things that i wanted to remember as important to me: the tree outside my therapist’s office; the joy of waiting in restaurants; my houseplants dying; small bits of conversations with my parents; how to cook scrambled eggs; playing music with my friends.

i also write about burnout and the emotionally harmful culture of endless work we are trapped in, and the realization that this culture makes us believe we can find solace in work, and my attempts to try to identify and unlearn some of that as it infiltrates every aspect of life

(oh and it’s also about nice leaves!!!!! naturally)

i finished writing it before the pandemic, but editing it while going through the pandemic has changed how i see it. it’s become both a mourning and a celebration - a saying goodbye to - of things that i now miss, and it is a hope that we may one day find these things once again.

i think the book is sad and funny and just a little bit hopeful. and i hope that when it gets here, you might find some small amount of comfort in reading it.

so you can pre-order it now from wherever you’d like at http://goodbyeagain.com , but if possible, please, please pre-order from and support your local indie bookstores!! they are the life of all our communities and they need as much support as they can get right now!!

thank you to @HarperPerennial for believing in this, thank you to elissa for everything, and thank you to you, for supporting my work and reading what i write. i never thought i’d get to do this and i am eternally grateful.