Tacky

<b>An irreverent and charming collection of deeply personal essays about the joys of low pop culture and bad taste exploring coming of age in the 2000s in the age of Hot Topic Creed and frosted lip gloss&#151;from the James Beard Award-nominated writer of the <i>Catapult</i> column Store-Bought Is Fine&#148;</b><br><br><i>Tacky</i> is about the power of pop culture&#151;like any art&#151;to imprint itself on our lives and shape our experiences no matter one's commitment to good taste. These fourteen essays are a nostalgia-soaked antidote to the millennial generation's obsession with irony putting the aesthetics we hate to love&#151;snakeskin pants <i>Sex and the City</i> Cheesecake Factory's gargantuan menu&#151;into kinder and sharper perspective.<br>&#160;<br>Each essay revolves around a different maligned (and yet Rax would argue vital) cultural artifact providing thoughtful even romantic meditations on desire love and the power of nostalgia. An essay about the gym-tan-laundry exuberance of <i>Jersey Shore</i> morphs into an excavation of grief over the death of her father; in You Wanna Be On Top Rax writes about friendship and early aughts girlhood; in another Guy Fieri helps her heal from an abusive relationship.<br>&#160;<br>The result is a collection that captures the personal and generational experience of finding joy in caring just a little too much with clarity heartfelt honesty and Rax King's trademark humor.<br>&#160;<br>A VINTAGE ORIGINAL