Good Time Girl

Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Gay’s featherweight follow-up to Bad Mormon offers a humorous if diffuse look at the author’s lifelong pursuit of pleasure. Peppered with observations about men, sex, food, and fun, the narrative can read like a teenage diary (early on, Gay shares a letter from her early 20s in which she admits she only “wants to be a superstar”), but the proceedings gain a measure of gravity whenever she discusses her Mormon upbringing in Colorado. Fans of the show, or of Gay’s previous memoir, will be familiar with the bullet points of her entanglement with the LDS church: her early devoutness, her eventual divorce from her husband, and her subsequent struggle to reconcile her identity as a wife and mother with an inner desire to let loose. Unfortunately, the book’s scattered focus dulls the impact of that arc, with entire chapters dedicated to prepubescent ear piercing and Gay’s teenage affinity for Neil Young. More serious sections, including one on body positivity, can feel muddled; Gay acknowledges the harms of fat-shaming before blithely endorsing weight loss drugs. There’s something to be said for Gay’s commitment to candor, but this is strictly for hardcore Housewives fans. Agent: Steve Troha, Folio Literary. (Dec.)