Fun book and quick read. I would definitely recommend this as a plane ride/road trip/doctor's office wait book - highly immersive novel.
Some of the immersivity created by this novel comes from the straightforward writing, some from the character, and some from the humor in the book. Together, they produce a really pleasant and fun read. I found myself trying not to laugh aloud at times (because it would've been pretty embarassing) and although I've never really been in the situation that the single protagonist is, I still found I could relate very well to her self-deprecation and the (sometimes) ridiculous things she did.
Having read The Quality of Life Report just a short while ago, I found myself comparing this book to that one... and the comparison was favorable to The Journal. I had a harder time relating to the arrogance and cosmopolitanism of the character in Daum's book - her New York disparagement of the Midwest was just too political for me. In Harding's book here, the character's anxiety was more closely aligned with her personal life. It is after all set up as alternating chapters of the "Journal of Mortifying Moments" and narrated action between the writing sections. The character, Kerry, is advised by her therapist to write down her most mortifying sexual/relationship moments in a journal in an attempt to help her see that her relationship difficulties aren't a personal defect but rather these events are just combinations of inexperience, bad luck, and occasional lapses in judgement. The story unfolds as first person narration (the journal) as well as narrated "first person" story that tells of events in Kerry's current life from her point of view.
The character is lovable because she's so much like the rest of us... maybe with a bit more bad luck, but entirely human. What she discovers about herself at the end is just the kind of thing that everyone seeks at some time or another during their life. Sure, the end is a tad sappy, but the book has to end somehow, and a sappy ending is one of the easiest ways of ending the story sometimes.
I won't hold it against this book.