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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Parts were laugh out loud funny and other parts were not my thing. I highly recommend the audiobook as it's Jenny, herself, reading!
Super funny. I listened to this on audio and it kept me extremely entertained. Jenny Lawson is hilarious and has some interesting insights on mental illness. Her stories are so bizarre, it almost seems like fiction, but not. Her writing style gets a little repetitive, so I like listening to it so I get small doses at a time.
There are nuggets of this book that have heart and reason to all the chaos, but not as much as needed to balance the book. Some stories provide giggles, but again not as much as I hoped. There are a lot of times that the writing feels self indulgent. Lawson makes a point and then keeps going and going and going, which further distances me from the point. The writing style just isnt for me. I have to DNF.
Disappointing, I enjoyed her first book but this one didn't connect with me. I think there was one time I chuckled out loud. I got about 80% through and forced myself to finish. Too much rambling and it wasn't funny.
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
I have always enjoyed Jenny Lawson's blog. I remember reading about the giant metal chicken Beyonce and laughing so hard I could barely breathe. Jenny's second book is solidly good, predictable Jenny. Some sections are literally cut and pasted from her blog, but her humor doesn't disappoint, and her brutal honesty is touching. It makes me wish she lived next door, although she wouldn't let me in unless I was being chased by a murder of swans. I'd forgive her.
Lawson talks about how she addresses her multiple diagnoses of mental health challenges by being furiously happy. She narrates various escapades--domestic, international and often in the interiors of her psyche. She has a love for taxidermy (the cover is a depiction of one of her two grinning stuffed raccoons).
I was reading this in my classroom at the university while I was waiting for students to come to writing conferences. I was laughing so hard that I was wheezing. I was afraid a teacher down the hall would call the paramedics.
It's touching to read how she uses her imagination to battle her greatest demons. She's very kind to show vulnerability so that others can see there is more than one way to live your life and to see that people can address very difficult things by throwing a lot of random thoughts and actions at the enemy.
I was reading this in my classroom at the university while I was waiting for students to come to writing conferences. I was laughing so hard that I was wheezing. I was afraid a teacher down the hall would call the paramedics.
It's touching to read how she uses her imagination to battle her greatest demons. She's very kind to show vulnerability so that others can see there is more than one way to live your life and to see that people can address very difficult things by throwing a lot of random thoughts and actions at the enemy.
Jenny puts into words the things I cannot. The struggle with mental illness is one often kept quiet and I love the way she shares her personal experiences. It inspired me to start sharing my own. An amazing book and a woman I very much look up to.
While I found parts of Lawson's narration to be very funny, overall, the fact that I didn't really know who she was before picking this up worked against my enjoyment of this book. I think it was recommended on goodreads during the Mental Health Awareness month. Some of Lawson's descriptions had me laughing like a maniac on the street, but I also found it quite easy at times to zone out and have to go back because not all of her stories really appealed to me without the pre-personal investment that I often have when I pick up other people's memoirs. I needed something to listen to and this filled that need, but I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't already know who Lawson is.
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Animal death
There’s a pretty triggering chapter where she goes on about dead kittens and what one could do with kitten skins. It was really disturbing.
Also, mentions of taxidermy which came across more whimsical than cruel. As in, no one killed the animals and used them as trophies.