JC Auer's book, "You Be Normal and I'll Be Me, " has a powerful, pulsating rhythm running throughout. Written from the heart, Auer explores his past with childlike wonder and a juvenile delinquent's attitude. Through these short stories, he bravely reveals who he is and shines a flashlight into the secret corners of universal memories and mind. The book's rapid fire humor blows away any pretense of political correctness, yet there is a polite sweetness in the author's raucous writing style as he takes the reader from his idyllic small town upbringing to drug-infused dinner parties, car crashes and severed limbs. This is one man's journey from puberty to adulthood told with irony and pathos. A collection of hilarious, self-deprecating stories spanning from the coalfields of West Virginia to the California coast in a superficial search for his soul.