Single & Happy: The Party of Ones

by Joshunda Sanders

Single & Happy is a manifesto and online dating memoir meant to inspire those who are happily single to celebrate themselves before they try to jump into a relationship. After trying to follow The Rules and live like a character from Sex and the City, J. Victoria Sanders decided she would stop subjecting herself to World of Warcraft addicts and learn what it really meant to be content alone.

77 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Joshunda Sanders is the author, most recently, of a debut novel forthcoming soon from Park Row Books, two children's books including I Can Write the World, the story of a budding journalist named Ava Murray. She also wrote The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans (2016) and How Racism and Sexism Killed Traditional Media: Why The Future of Journalism Depends on Women and People of Color (2015). A speechwriter and long-time book lover and critic, she has taught writing for the School of the New York Times Summer Academy, Lehman College, the New School, the University of Texas at Austin and various other institutions. She lives in The Bronx, her hometown.

Reviews

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in late 2011, I ran across the Single & Happy blog. Wordpress.com had drawn me in, but I started looking at various tags including dating. Lots were people talking about current dates and especially the horror that is online dating web sites. Single & Happy was a better, maturer different.

My only other experiences with blog writers who publish a book is to collect the best blog posts, give them to an editor, maybe expand a bit upon them, and publish the collection. Instead we get an actual book influenced by prior work and so something new and exciting.

While not a single black woman, I am single and almost black. I strongly sympathize with the plight of attempting online dating. The dating stories seem eerily familiar. And the advice Victoria gives on being a friend to yourself is good advice. It happens I a friend posted on Facebook on why she hates the question, "Why are you single?" so I referenced a quote from this book.

Somehow after decades of being single, I think I am happy. Well, happy-ish. There is room for improvement. It is good to know there are others out there working on the same issues willing to talk about the challenges.