Scuffed’s review of A Perfectly Normal Childhood: Short Essays on Pattern Recognition, Human Behavior, and the Systems We Pretend Not to See (Still Noticing) > Likes and Comments

Thanks! The anxiety is what allows all the observations to be seen. A Perfectly Normal Childhood is Book 1 of 3 in the Still Noticing Trilogy. Book 1 is the evidence. You have read that! Book 2 'Nothing New, Just Better Lighting' continues with the patterns into adulthood and dives deeper into anxiety but the real arc comes from book 3, "Before Anyone Says Anything". I truly appreciate the review and I'd love to send you book 2 and book 3!

Scuffed Granny — thank you. I loved this review, and I especially appreciated your observation about the anxiety because, strangely enough, I think you’ve identified something important about the book.

For most of my life, I didn’t experience anxiety as “anxiety.” I experienced it as preparation, observation, overthinking, ambition, reading the room, anticipating what might go wrong, and occasionally constructing an entire internal emergency-response system for situations that absolutely did not require one.

Which is probably why it doesn’t announce itself loudly in the stories. It was just the operating system.

I’m also delighted that Miss Kelley was your favorite. That story has always stayed with me because it begins as this lovely little lesson about generosity and kindness and then, as life occasionally does, takes a hard left into something considerably less inspirational.

And “rattled my way through this” may be one of my favorite descriptions of someone reading the book. That’s pretty much how I hoped it would feel — quick, funny, slightly chaotic, and then every so often something sneaks up and makes you think.

Thank you for reading it so closely and for taking the time to write such a thoughtful review. I genuinely appreciate it.

Jason