Kansas GenExistential: Essays from the Heartland

Crack up or cry, Kansas GenExistential will take you on a ride! Have some snacks handy-and your hand fan if you're in menopause-because you'll be reading this book all at once.

Insightful and hilarious, Amber Fraley will keep you on the edge of your chair with this collection of frequently irreverent, sometimes heartfelt, essays about growing up a GenXer in the Midwest. In the style of David Sedaris, Carnival Snackery and Nora McInerney, Bad Vibes Only: (and Other Things I Bring to the Table), Fraley is brutally honest about everything from a 1990s college experiement in how to turn free pasture hemp into smokable weed with your friends, to learning about social justice as we age.

With her trademark biting wit, Fraley describes the foibles and follies of growing up a kid in the turbulent and strange decade of the 1980s, odd characters she encountered in the 1990s, and how GenXers are now handling midlife differently than their parents. She also talks frankly about her late entry into the reproductive justice movement and what menopause is really like with equal parts humor and compassion. From the long, strange trip of the Reagan years to the Trump years, and the particular frustrations of being from the Midwest, Fraley's view on life is refreshing.

These biting essays delve into identity, resilience, and activism. From navigating childhood challenges to fighting for bodily autonomy, Fraley's heartfelt narratives and timely insights invite readers to embrace diversity, challenge stereotypes, and join the ongoing battle for justice-while laughing out-loud.

Amber Fraley is your typical Gen Xer suburban Kansas wife and mom of one who grew up a book nerd in a dysfunctional family and now writes about those experiences as hilarious therapy. She's the author of the college coming-of-age novel The Bug Diary, and the viral essay Gen X Will Not Go Quietly on Medium.com, as well as numerous human interest articles. Amber loves Kansas with all her heart, is frequently awkward in public, and desperately wishes to see a tornado and live to tell the tale.