Paperback
248 pages
6 × 9 inches, cream stock, matte cover. The one to lend.
What it’s about
A year she would not have chosen, told in the order she survived it.
In this collection of personal stories, Kaye Laine shares her journey of navigating life’s challenges with humor and grace. From unexpected turns to small daily triumphs, she explores how a sense of fun can be a powerful tool for resilience.
The stories are short on purpose. Some are four pages, one is a single paragraph, and several are about nothing more consequential than a grocery run gone wrong. There is a chapter about a hospital vending machine. There is a chapter that is mostly a list.
What holds them together isn’t a plot. It’s a habit — the one Kaye built without meaning to, of looking for the part of a bad day that was, objectively, quite funny. Not to dismiss the day. To be able to keep looking at it.
248pages
6 × 9paperback
ISBN978-1-64532-123-4
Published2026
Read the opening
From “The Vending Machine at St. Jude’s”
The machine took my money and gave me nothing, which felt, that particular Tuesday, like a fairly pointed piece of commentary.
I stood there for a while. Not long — I want to be honest about the scale of this — maybe forty seconds. Long enough for a nurse to walk past, glance at the machine, glance at me, and say, without breaking stride, “It does that. You have to hit it here.” She hit it here. A packet of shortbread fell down.
I have thought about that nurse more often than almost anyone else from that year. Not because she solved anything. She did not solve anything. My mother was still upstairs and the situation upstairs was still the situation. But she knew exactly where to hit the machine, and she told me, and she kept walking.
That is most of what this book is. Ninety seconds at a time.
Praise
What people have said.
“A vital reminder that laughter is a form of courage.”
“Heartwarming and hilariously honest.”
“Reads like the friend who texts you at the exact right moment and says the exact wrong thing, perfectly.”
Inside the book
A few of the twenty-nine.
- 01
The Vending Machine at St. Jude’s
Four pages. Mostly shortbread.
- 04
Things I Said to the Dog That Year
A list. The dog never replied.
- 09
On Being the Person Who Brings the Wrong Casserole
There is no right casserole.
- 13
My Father’s Filing System
Seventeen folders, all labelled “misc”.
- 17
The Group Chat Did Not Know What to Say
Neither did I. We managed.
- 21
Everyone Keeps Telling Me I’m Strong
The only angry chapter.
- 24
A Short Defence of the Nap
One paragraph. Firmly argued.
- 29
Don’t Forget To Laugh
Where the title came from, and who said it.
“You are allowed to find it funny. That is not the same as being fine, and nobody said you had to be fine.”
Reading group guide
For book clubs.
Ten questions, a suggested reading order for a single evening, and a note from Kaye on which chapters tend to start the best arguments.
Request a book club visit- 01
Kaye says the nurse “did not solve anything.” Why does that moment stay with her anyway?
- 02
Several chapters are deliberately very short. What does the length itself communicate?
- 03
Chapter 21 is the only angry chapter in the book. Does it change how you read the ones around it?
- 04
Where is the line between using humor to cope and using it to avoid? Does the book ever cross it?
- 05
Who in your own life is the person who knows where to hit the machine?
Formats
However you like to read.
Ebook
All readers
Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play. Reflows properly.
Audiobook
6h 12m
Read by Kaye. She insisted. She was right.
Large print
On request
Available through libraries and by order from any bookshop.