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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
cariannlyle's review
3.0
A little too heavy on the god and spiritual for me, but overall an enjoyable read for a longtime Pete Holmes fan.
andymascola's review
3.0
Details Pete’s growing up extremely religious, leaving the church, becoming a comedian, his first wife cheating on him, finding new spirituality, Ram Dass, and getting remarried and having a baby. Second half of this book was better than the first. Liked it.
elinakd's review
2.0
I thought the title of this book was Comedy Sex God - as in, Holmes was calling himself that, maybe? A more apt title would be Comedy, Sex, God. Or rather: God, Sex, Comedy - as that is the order of subject most covered. I guess I should have read the description, rather that just pick up a book by a comedian I like. It was interesting - but very very spiritual. Not what I was looking for.
ryandandrews's review against another edition
5.0
Pete at his best. Moments of insight, humor, and honesty. Loved it.
Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Up the street, people were literally protesting at my high school because some of the teachers didn't have masters degrees, yet all the while the mysteries of existence and the complexities of spiritual ethics were being taught to children by guilt ridden volunteers, and no one gave a shit.
So much anxiety in my life comes from not knowing what to do or how to behave, but everyone knows how to be sad. Mingling at a party is hard; drawing the blinds and drunkenly having a fake conversation with your ex-wife is surprisingly natural.
It's not "no one's watching, who cares!" It's "no one's watching, let's watch each other."
God and life and sex were complicated, and that exploring those ideas in humorous ways often felt beautiful, and unifying, and sometimes reminded me of Jesus having dinner with the sinners and the tax collectors, loving and breaking bread with them instead of offering judgment.
God is the name of the blanket we throw over the mystery to give it shape. Come on - shouldn't I have heard this in church? Why am I hearing this from the road manager for AC/DC?
The new perspective of God as metaphor is about unlocking the deeper meaning and applying it to yourself. And that deeper meaning is "go and do likewise."
The story isn't about fact-checking what happened then, it's to assist in your inner transformation now.
Stop debating burial sites or looking for DNA on the shroud of Turin. This story is continuing, and the next chapter is about you. You, dying to your lower self, leaving behind your base humanity, and rising to your highest self, awakening to your own interconnectedness with the pulse of the world.
But so many of us are still standing around talking about how well He did it instead of getting a move on. Don't just celebrate His ascension, get to ascending yourself.
There's nothing I can do to bring me closer to or farther from the infinite love of God, I thought. There are only things I can do that can increase or decrease my awareness of that love. 'Sin' wasn't the 'bad thing,' it was unconsciousness.
She was smart, and kind, and funny, and just the safest, warmest hiding spot I had ever found in which to shield myself from the stresses and fears of life.
My whole life, talking to God was prayer, and prayer was asking for things - guidance, or money, or a new nickname to replace "Biter Shaft." But repeating a mantra was different. It wasn't about getting something, it was about losing something; namely the never-ending stream of unsolicited horseshit our brains pump out effortlessly every second of every single fucking day.
The only method for getting out of your own way, then, is to give your brain a task. Something monotonous and hypnotic, so you can sneak past your mind like around a napping security guard.
Because let's be honest - sometimes meditation feels great, and sometimes you sit there with your legs crossed for half an hour just replaying an episode of ALF in your head, and you don't feel any better than you did when you started.
Maybe we're not just here to satiate our sense desires. Maybe we are something more than just our personalities and our drives toward pleasure and our hopes to avoid pain, and maybe when that elemental part of us sees us chasing the wrong carrot or the wrong stick it sends up signals to nudge us back onto the right track.
My whole adult life, whenever I was depressed, I had a hard time seeing the meaning in anything. People would ask me if I wanted to go to the park, say, and my despair would respond, "Why? What are we gonna do? See things? Smell things? Touch, taste, and hear things? What was the point? If that's all we can do, why leave your bed? My depression made me feel trapped, like I was stuck in one of these ridiculous hungry, bored, horny bodies, forced to play the meaningless game of killing time - shooting pool, eating sandwiches, fucking - until one day I die. But...if everything - going to the park, feeling low, eating a burrito - was another opportunity for you to awaken, to play hide and seek with the truth of who you really are, suddenly life could be charged with endless meaning and electric vitality, snapping you into the moment because it's all we have, and you don't want to miss a thing - one clue, one opportunity to snap out of it and reclaim your true Self.
He teaches that instead of saying, "I'm depressed," you could say, "There is depression." Like, I'm over here, looking at it. Wow. That's a heavy one. I don't know if people get out o depressions like that one. But he asks,"Is the part of you that's noticing the depression depressed?" In other words, is your Awareness depressed? If not, part of spiritual practice is to slide into that part of yourself, identify with it, and relax.
God is the part of you behind your thoughts and your personality that's watching all of it.
I wanted to love Christ so badly, and I did, but the Gospel he asked us to spread as it had been told to me was, frankly, shameful. I was ashamed to have to tell all my gay, atheist, agnostic, Jewish, and Muslim friends they were going to hell. I was ashamed to tell people that their grandparents and loved ones who had died didn't believe were in hell, right now, and there was nothing we could do about it. On one hand, I was told to tell everyone I could the Good News, to save them, and on the other, there was nothing I wanted more than to keep it to myself.
Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
Up the street, people were literally protesting at my high school because some of the teachers didn't have masters degrees, yet all the while the mysteries of existence and the complexities of spiritual ethics were being taught to children by guilt ridden volunteers, and no one gave a shit.
So much anxiety in my life comes from not knowing what to do or how to behave, but everyone knows how to be sad. Mingling at a party is hard; drawing the blinds and drunkenly having a fake conversation with your ex-wife is surprisingly natural.
It's not "no one's watching, who cares!" It's "no one's watching, let's watch each other."
God and life and sex were complicated, and that exploring those ideas in humorous ways often felt beautiful, and unifying, and sometimes reminded me of Jesus having dinner with the sinners and the tax collectors, loving and breaking bread with them instead of offering judgment.
God is the name of the blanket we throw over the mystery to give it shape. Come on - shouldn't I have heard this in church? Why am I hearing this from the road manager for AC/DC?
The new perspective of God as metaphor is about unlocking the deeper meaning and applying it to yourself. And that deeper meaning is "go and do likewise."
The story isn't about fact-checking what happened then, it's to assist in your inner transformation now.
Stop debating burial sites or looking for DNA on the shroud of Turin. This story is continuing, and the next chapter is about you. You, dying to your lower self, leaving behind your base humanity, and rising to your highest self, awakening to your own interconnectedness with the pulse of the world.
But so many of us are still standing around talking about how well He did it instead of getting a move on. Don't just celebrate His ascension, get to ascending yourself.
There's nothing I can do to bring me closer to or farther from the infinite love of God, I thought. There are only things I can do that can increase or decrease my awareness of that love. 'Sin' wasn't the 'bad thing,' it was unconsciousness.
She was smart, and kind, and funny, and just the safest, warmest hiding spot I had ever found in which to shield myself from the stresses and fears of life.
My whole life, talking to God was prayer, and prayer was asking for things - guidance, or money, or a new nickname to replace "Biter Shaft." But repeating a mantra was different. It wasn't about getting something, it was about losing something; namely the never-ending stream of unsolicited horseshit our brains pump out effortlessly every second of every single fucking day.
The only method for getting out of your own way, then, is to give your brain a task. Something monotonous and hypnotic, so you can sneak past your mind like around a napping security guard.
Because let's be honest - sometimes meditation feels great, and sometimes you sit there with your legs crossed for half an hour just replaying an episode of ALF in your head, and you don't feel any better than you did when you started.
Maybe we're not just here to satiate our sense desires. Maybe we are something more than just our personalities and our drives toward pleasure and our hopes to avoid pain, and maybe when that elemental part of us sees us chasing the wrong carrot or the wrong stick it sends up signals to nudge us back onto the right track.
My whole adult life, whenever I was depressed, I had a hard time seeing the meaning in anything. People would ask me if I wanted to go to the park, say, and my despair would respond, "Why? What are we gonna do? See things? Smell things? Touch, taste, and hear things? What was the point? If that's all we can do, why leave your bed? My depression made me feel trapped, like I was stuck in one of these ridiculous hungry, bored, horny bodies, forced to play the meaningless game of killing time - shooting pool, eating sandwiches, fucking - until one day I die. But...if everything - going to the park, feeling low, eating a burrito - was another opportunity for you to awaken, to play hide and seek with the truth of who you really are, suddenly life could be charged with endless meaning and electric vitality, snapping you into the moment because it's all we have, and you don't want to miss a thing - one clue, one opportunity to snap out of it and reclaim your true Self.
He teaches that instead of saying, "I'm depressed," you could say, "There is depression." Like, I'm over here, looking at it. Wow. That's a heavy one. I don't know if people get out o depressions like that one. But he asks,"Is the part of you that's noticing the depression depressed?" In other words, is your Awareness depressed? If not, part of spiritual practice is to slide into that part of yourself, identify with it, and relax.
God is the part of you behind your thoughts and your personality that's watching all of it.
I wanted to love Christ so badly, and I did, but the Gospel he asked us to spread as it had been told to me was, frankly, shameful. I was ashamed to have to tell all my gay, atheist, agnostic, Jewish, and Muslim friends they were going to hell. I was ashamed to tell people that their grandparents and loved ones who had died didn't believe were in hell, right now, and there was nothing we could do about it. On one hand, I was told to tell everyone I could the Good News, to save them, and on the other, there was nothing I wanted more than to keep it to myself.
stephvad's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
schepp_kay's review
5.0
I thought I would be bored because I already know too much about Pete Holmes from listening to his podcast for years. But I really loved it, and I connected to it. I already want to reread it.
mr_duryea's review
3.0
As I feared, the book is an edited version of stories previously told through Pete's various platforms. As a fan, ingesting these ideas through this format was enjoyable, but certainly not as though-provoking or hysterical as the first few times I had heard them through the podcast or through his stand-up...or his HBO show.
Also, the "God" section of the book gets a little frustrating because our language fails to firmly grasp the all-too-big ideas Pete wished to grasp, which makes for a cloying read.
Also, the "God" section of the book gets a little frustrating because our language fails to firmly grasp the all-too-big ideas Pete wished to grasp, which makes for a cloying read.
jtdumproff's review against another edition
5.0
Good Ol’ Petey. He’s one of my favorite comedians. I relate to him and this book so much, growing up in a Christian household. Pete shows how losing one’s religion can itself be a religious experience.
easonsay's review
4.0
“...And there it was, the new summation of the law. If an atheist had climbed up Mount Sinai instead of Moses, he would have come down with just one commandment, chiseled big on half a tablet: DON’T BE A DICK. We’re all we’ve got.”
.
“Clearly you could be an atheist and still have a deep respect for human life and values. In fact, your respect may be more sincere, since you’re not doing it for the eternal reward you’ve been promised after you die. You’re not being bribed to love your neighbors, you’re loving them because they’re caught in the same confusing, frightening bullshit we all are. It’s not ‘no one’s watching, who cares!’ It’s ‘no one’s watching, let’s watch each other.’”
.
“Christian Finnegan got me to stop wearing my cell phone in a soft, clear plastic case I clipped onto my belt with two words — ‘Belt clip?’...”
.
finished this a while back, it was a nice addition as i’m listening to old episodes of his podcast. (like i’m seven ish yrs late to that party
.
“Clearly you could be an atheist and still have a deep respect for human life and values. In fact, your respect may be more sincere, since you’re not doing it for the eternal reward you’ve been promised after you die. You’re not being bribed to love your neighbors, you’re loving them because they’re caught in the same confusing, frightening bullshit we all are. It’s not ‘no one’s watching, who cares!’ It’s ‘no one’s watching, let’s watch each other.’”
.
“Christian Finnegan got me to stop wearing my cell phone in a soft, clear plastic case I clipped onto my belt with two words — ‘Belt clip?’...”
.
finished this a while back, it was a nice addition as i’m listening to old episodes of his podcast. (like i’m seven ish yrs late to that party
camdehart's review
4.0
A lot of the 3 star reviews capture how I felt about the last half of the book. I’m giving it 4 stars because I’m a big fan of Pete’s comedy and I relate to his upbringing. In the first half of the book, I harder than I ever have at a comedy memoir. The stuff about transcendental philosophy, I AM/Human Potential nonsense made me seriously question Pete’s critical thinking skills. The stuff about the guru made me wonder if he’d lost his mind during/after Crashing.