After a grueling end to last semester, I was in need of light summer entertainment. Books are always my best bet, especially with this summer's weak crop of movies. I found my outlet in Shannon Olson's new book, "Welcome to My Planet (Where English is Sometimes Spoken)."

At first, it sounded a little self-involved, but the jacket mentioned the main character's Target addiction, and I couldn't pass up a story so close to my own. Technically speaking, this book is a novel, but Olson has created a sort of autobiographical fiction humorously used to make fun of her own "faults." Shannon herself is the main character in her own life story, which chronicles her late twenties and early thirties. We watch her fumble through a few disconnected relationships, fight her frustrations with her mother Flo, and re-enter the college environment to earn her master's degree.

On the way she relates past events that have influenced and shaped who she is and why she lacks direction in a world filled with motivated movers and shakers. Her therapist of five years helps her sort through the repercussions of her immobility. Shannon is as unguarded as a best friend with everyone but herself: it isn't until the last few pages that she finally verbalizes her real problem in plain English.

Olson uses Shannon to express her views on living in America during the age of materialism, and her uncomplicated writing style makes it easy to relate to how she feels. She is a regular girl, not unlike most of us, so I closed the book with that snappy, uplifted feeling, like one that seeps in after a conversation with a true, close friend.

There's a special bonus to this book--Shannon hails from Chaska, MN, attended St. Olaf, and lives in St. Paul, so you can get more of that cushy familiar feeling... but watch out for her reactions to our little fortress on the hill--she was less than ecstatic to be here.