Story for the Week
I am a big believer in knowing what you’re capable of handling, which obviously includes what you’re not capable of handling. Call it what you will. Know your strengths. Understand your limitations. It boils down to truly knowing what you can and can’t do.
Shortly after Dennis and I got married, we bought a van that he used for making deliveries for work. He had been a courier in New York for years, so his van basically became a lifeline for his job. He diligently kept up with oil changes, tire rotations, fluid checks, tune-ups. By the time he got rid of that van he used in New York, it had well over 200,000 miles on it. He definitely stayed on top of maintenance.
But vehicle maintenance bothered Dennis to no end after he moved from New York to Chicago. In Queens, he had a wealth of mechanics at his disposal. He would say “a mechanic on every corner.” With that much competition, costs stayed relatively low, and he could bring his own parts, which saved a ton of money.
The first time he got a quote to have the brake pads changed here in Illinois…let’s just say there was some sticker shock. The fact that he couldn’t buy the pads at AutoZone and take them to the mechanic almost sent him over the edge. But we paid because we didn’t have a choice. Neither of us was capable of changing brake pads, and we certainly didn’t have a place to do the work even if we knew how.
Then one day in the dead of a very cold winter (hugely important) the van required a tune-up. It was a work van, and we had bought it used, so Dennis had certainly put a lot of miles on it. Midas quoted close to $600, and the van really just needed the spark plugs replaced. I know next to nothing about cars, so I had my doubts. Dennis was confident that we could replace the plugs ourselves.
We asked my parents if we could borrow their garage to keep us out of the bitter cold. Dennis bought the spark plugs, and we hunkered down to replace the six spark plugs. We replaced the first spark plug without a problem. While I was not thrilled about the exercise, at least it seemed Dennis knew what he was doing. Spark plug #2, however, was stuck…really stuck. It was also the spark plug that was misfiring, so it had to be replaced.
Hours went by, and nothing worked. The spark plug wouldn’t budge. It was getting dark, and Dennis needed the van for work. We talked about getting a tow truck, but he really didn’t want to pay for a tow and still pay for the tune-up. As the sun went down and it got colder, my brother-in-law Tom called a mechanic friend of his.
He arrived at my parents’ house with his cold-weather jumpsuit, his hanging lights, and his tools and finished the job. He knew what he was doing, and it still took him a while. We thanked him profusely, and gave him a couple hundred dollars. And this one experience set the tone for every time Dennis threw out the comment, “We can do this ourselves.”
I wasn’t always able to convince him with my “remember the spark plugs” reminder. We changed the kitchen faucet, but to this day, you have to move the handle a specific way to completely stop the water flow. When Dennis decided we could change the faucet on the bathroom sink, we ended up calling a neighbor who finished the job and told me never start a job like that after dinner.
I joke now that there are some things I don’t do myself. Instead, I pay people to do them for me. We started paying a lawn service years ago because Dennis couldn’t do it anymore and didn’t want me to have to do it. After he passed, I hired someone to help with the housework (floors, bathrooms, dusting) because I felt overwhelmed. It’s made enough of a difference that now I don’t want to spend my weekends doing those things. When a snow storm is expected, I have a company that puts us on their schedule to clear and salt the driveway. I even hired a service to come once a week to pick up the dog poop in the yard, not because I can’t but because (ewww) I just don’t want to.
For basic home maintenance, I do what’s required. I change the furnace filters, change the filter in the refrigerator, spray out the central air conditioning unit before the summer, change the toilet seat when it’s time for a new one. But there are just some things that I don’t want to do anymore. So I don’t, and that is my prerogative.
I know what I want to do. More importantly, I know what I can’t do, unlike the main character Charlie in the book reviewed below. Charlie seems to want to try everything to help himself except the one thing he really needs to do.
Book Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Totally Fine by Nick Spalding
298 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Publication Date: October 15, 2025
I received an advance copy of this title from NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.
Publisher’s Description
Meet Charlie King. He’s doing great! Honestly. A fantastic job, two solid best mates and a girlfriend who might just be The One. Life is good. Perfect, even.
So why is he waking up in a cold sweat? Why does his heart keep trying to punch its way out of his chest? Charlie should probably see a doctor. That’s what everyone keeps telling him. But it’s not that bad. He just needs a decent night’s sleep. Other than that, he’s Totally Fine.
Except for that car crash a few months ago—the one he barely remembers. The one he hasn’t thought about at all.
Not even once. Not until now…
Can Charlie fix himself—and his two equally deluded best friends—before his job, love life and future unravel completely? Or will his relentless insistence that he’s Totally Fine be the very thing that breaks him?
************
Main Characters:
- Charlie – owns his own event planning company called King Productions, in a relatively new relationship with Annie, always determined to ensure that things run perfectly at every event he coordinates
- Annie – Charlie’s girlfriend, a stand-up comedian
- Jack and Leo – Charlie’s two best friends for the past 30 years
At the beginning of Totally Fine, Charlie King prepares to kick off the best Jurassic Park-themed birthday party ever at a local bowling alley for Annie’s nephew Teddy. Charlie thought of everything—dinosaur props (which Annie says look like plucked chickens), an animatronic velociraptor, local actors dressed as movie characters. He even has the film soundtrack pumping through the PA system. This is his specialty as an event planner, after all. He has all the connections to make things happen.
Teddy is thrilled, which makes Charlie look even better to Annie, who he still wants to impress because he feels like she could be The One. Even his best friends are in attendance at the party…friends who Charlie has been concerned about of late. They’ve seemed a little different to him, and he needs to figure out what’s going on with them so he can help.
Charlie’s entire life is built around making everyone else’s lives better, so he certainly doesn’t want anyone to see any cracks in his own. Since a car accident several months ago, he’s been having a hard time sleeping, so he’s drinking a lot of coffee. He gets a shooting pain in his neck once in a while, so he’s been taking painkillers. He avoids letting anyone see him wince or rundown.
At the end of the day, though, anyone’s body will eventually force them to slow down. Charlie’s just happens to start at the birthday party when his eyesight starts to blur. He feels exhausted but his heart rate is elevated, and he’s having trouble breathing. He feels like someone has dumped ice cold water over his head, and his legs can’t support him. Something is very wrong. When his vision starts to go black, he can’t help but think that he’s dying in the bowling alley. Teddy’s birthday party will be ruined, and Annie won’t be impressed with him at all.
By the time an ambulance arrives, Charlie has come to after fainting, and one of the paramedics tells him that fainting during a panic attack is rare, but it happens. Charlie thinks “a panic attack?!” The paramedic explains that our minds don’t always work the way they should, and although Charlie tells everyone he feels fine, he feels an overwhelming sense of doom. When the birthday party is followed by a major screw-up at an event the next day, Charlie’s life really starts to fall apart.
One of the things I love about Nick Spalding’s writing is his ability to create a certain energy with his narration. This story unfolds from Charlie’s point of view in the first person, so we can feel his insecurity and panic. As he suffers from lack of sleep and fills himself with coffee and Red Bull, his narration becomes increasingly more frenetic.
As readers, we experience his doubts about whether Annie sees a future with him, especially with his mental state the way it is. And we really feel his resistance when Annie, Jack, and Leo keep insisting that he go to a doctor because he really doesn’t want to go to a doctor. What makes this story the most entertaining are the ways that Charlie chooses to seek help to avoid just going to the doctor.
I don’t want to give them away because he kind of pulls out all the stops here. And while he’s avoiding truly fixing himself, because he’s “totally fine,” he screws up time and time again trying to fix what he seems to think is wrong with his friends.
What also keeps me coming back to Spalding’s books is his ability to inject humor into some pretty serious topics. My introduction to Spalding was Dry Hard, which dealt with alcohol addiction. Then I read Logging Off, which covered technology addiction (Poop! Is There an App for That?). Last year, he released Grave Talk, which dealt with grief (Mother’s Day Hits a Little Different Every Year). So when presented with the opportunity for an ARC for Totally Fine, which deals with PTSD, I shifted some things around to fit it in.
Spalding’s books are always entertaining, and this one is no exception.
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