Graphic Novels
![Jonny Sun - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B01N6BZU25.jpg)
Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
Instant New York Times Bestseller
"Truly, there's no shame in taking a break from books during the pandemic. But if you're feeling ready to reach out, try starting with Goodbye, Again. Take my word for it - let Jonny Sun into your life."---Janet W. Lee, NPR
The wonderfully original author of Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too gives us a collection of touching and hilarious personal essays, stories, poems-accompanied by his trademark illustrations-covering topics such as mental health, happiness, and what it means to belong.
Jonny Sun is back with a collection of essays and other writings in his unique, funny, and heartfelt style. The pieces range from long meditations on topics like loneliness and being an outsider, to short humor pieces, conversations, and memorable one-liners.
Jonny's honest writings about his struggles with feeling productive, as well as his difficulties with anxiety and depression will connect deeply with his fans as well as anyone attempting to create in our chaotic world.
It also features a recipe for scrambled eggs that might make you cry.
"Truly, there's no shame in taking a break from books during the pandemic. But if you're feeling ready to reach out, try starting with Goodbye, Again. Take my word for it - let Jonny Sun into your life."---Janet W. Lee, NPR
The wonderfully original author of Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too gives us a collection of touching and hilarious personal essays, stories, poems-accompanied by his trademark illustrations-covering topics such as mental health, happiness, and what it means to belong.
Jonny Sun is back with a collection of essays and other writings in his unique, funny, and heartfelt style. The pieces range from long meditations on topics like loneliness and being an outsider, to short humor pieces, conversations, and memorable one-liners.
Jonny's honest writings about his struggles with feeling productive, as well as his difficulties with anxiety and depression will connect deeply with his fans as well as anyone attempting to create in our chaotic world.
It also features a recipe for scrambled eggs that might make you cry.
Editorial Reviews
"There's something in the way Jonny Sun tells stories that makes you feel like he can see right through you. No matter the medium, he speaks directly to readers, inviting us to intimate conversations on loneliness, belonging and burnout. Honest and opinionated, Sun feels like your friend…every essay in Goodbye, Again is peppered with nuances informed by his constant moves, self-imposed expectations and bittersweet goodbyes, recognizable at first sight to another third culture kid in America. Take my word for it - let Jonny Sun into your life." -- NPR
"Sun's collection is an almost too-perfect companion to the present anxiety, exhaustion and loneliness wrought by the pandemic. . . .Through essays and minimalist drawings that resemble wood cutouts, Sun begins to re-evaluate his relationship to the world, and "this constant voice in my head telling me that my own rest and recovery and catharsis were not valuable to anybody," including himself. Amid our fast-paced and distracted culture, it is oddly calming to read these obsessive, but also quiet and tender, dispatches from a mind overwhelmed by guilt and worry: over how often to water plants or call friends, how to properly scramble eggs or talk at parties, how not to be so alone." -- New York Times Book Review
"Offers insight into the workings of an exceptionally busy, productive mind as well as the price of living in a hypercompetitive society . . . A quietly provocative collection." -- Kirkus Reviews
"This poetic, humorous, and heartfelt collection will have readers nodding along, laughing, and maybe even crying, but more than anything they will be engrossed and craving more. Similar to Sun's previous work, this is another standout." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"Captivating and immersive . . .To spend time with this book is to spend time in the private world of a creative, sensitive person who finds life inviting, beautiful and rich, but also overwhelming, scary and exhausting." -- BookPage, Starred Review
"Goodbye, Again is the very best book of Sun's early career. Consisting of mostly short bursts of inspiration, introspection, and hopeful observations, the book is exactly what we all need right now. Easy to pick up, flip through, and almost always find the very words you need to hear in that very moment, while also being meaty enough to sit with and read in longer bursts, Goodbye, Again is a joyful look at everyday life from one of literature's most compassionate and well-rounded minds. It is, in a word, fantastic." -- Shondaland
"Sun's collection is an almost too-perfect companion to the present anxiety, exhaustion and loneliness wrought by the pandemic. . . .Through essays and minimalist drawings that resemble wood cutouts, Sun begins to re-evaluate his relationship to the world, and "this constant voice in my head telling me that my own rest and recovery and catharsis were not valuable to anybody," including himself. Amid our fast-paced and distracted culture, it is oddly calming to read these obsessive, but also quiet and tender, dispatches from a mind overwhelmed by guilt and worry: over how often to water plants or call friends, how to properly scramble eggs or talk at parties, how not to be so alone." -- New York Times Book Review
"Offers insight into the workings of an exceptionally busy, productive mind as well as the price of living in a hypercompetitive society . . . A quietly provocative collection." -- Kirkus Reviews
"This poetic, humorous, and heartfelt collection will have readers nodding along, laughing, and maybe even crying, but more than anything they will be engrossed and craving more. Similar to Sun's previous work, this is another standout." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"Captivating and immersive . . .To spend time with this book is to spend time in the private world of a creative, sensitive person who finds life inviting, beautiful and rich, but also overwhelming, scary and exhausting." -- BookPage, Starred Review
"Goodbye, Again is the very best book of Sun's early career. Consisting of mostly short bursts of inspiration, introspection, and hopeful observations, the book is exactly what we all need right now. Easy to pick up, flip through, and almost always find the very words you need to hear in that very moment, while also being meaty enough to sit with and read in longer bursts, Goodbye, Again is a joyful look at everyday life from one of literature's most compassionate and well-rounded minds. It is, in a word, fantastic." -- Shondaland
Readers Top Reviews
Vin DElizabeth Herná
Great book, better than what you expect. Quick read, fantastic book to reread when needed, especially for a gut punch or 2
Ken T.
This is a great book! Very genuine and I really respect the author’s willingness to be vulnerable.
Francisco Rodriguez
The author is known for his exquisite illustrations but ironically in his own book, the illustrations are few and far between. It’s such a tenderly written book about his feelings. I still recommend it. My advice to author, revise the book, fill it chock full of your art work, in a paperback edition. And please keeping writing AND illustrating more of your own work. You have a gift. Your written words make it deeply personal, but it is the ARTWORK that creates a Universal experience. (my two cents)
Ignacius Merryweathe
Perhaps I can relate to a lot of it coming from an immigrant family... but it's more than that. There are many parts that are alien to me - plants. music. workaholism - and still.... I was expecting to be maybe amused, but instead I felt tearfully joyous. It's a good thing.
Dave Bour
This book is a beautiful collection of stories, thoughts, and insights. I appreciate the drawings, the clear dedication to grammer/spelling/wording (it is clear he put a lot of effort into proofreading, each part is a reflection of this commitment), but more than anything, the vulnerability with which he conveys very common human emotions and experiences. Jonny has done/is doing the self-reflection and internal work that we're just now recognizing, as a culture, is a required course in Becoming A Decent Adult. His reflections carry no undertone of right/wrong, judgement, nor weakness - they're real and something many more Americans should aspire to for articulation of their own. Jonny's book does not fall victim to this format's pitfalls. It is a format where the book is put together after the fact - often lacking a thematic thread and lending itself to incoherence. Again, this is not the case here. His breaks from reflection, the drawings, all feel like interludes to a greater idea of knowing oneself and finding meaning in any life experience. I loved how he views the same idea from multiple angles. The way he describes moving out of an apartment with the assignment of negative values (absolute negative, not judgemental negative) to convey an idea is, at times, masterful. I really enjoyed reading this book and I hope you do, too.
