I picked this book up more times than I can count. I tried, and tried again but just could not continue. It read like stand-up comedy and unfortunately it was not my type of comedy.

I can relate a bit to some of her tales of family and friends. It's amazing how many communities we find ourselves part of as we grow up and older. I didn't get into the book as much as I had hoped, but every individual is different. It's not that I didn't enjoy it, it was a lark, but just didn't relate as much as I thought I might have. Every family, I think, is dysfunctional in it's own way. Maybe another reader will relate to it more. It's well written and had humorous moments, but not enough to want to have the book on my library shelf at home or at work.

Sometimes we need a fun, well-written light read. This is one of those books.

Gurwitch has certainly had an interesting life. The stories in this book mostly focus on family and her experiences with trying to become an actress. I very much enjoyed when she talked about being non-religious in a Jewish family and how she still keeps some rituals, because they're just so ingrained into her. I also thought the stories she writes about her aging parents are at once heartbreaking, funny, and moving. Anybody who's had to handle any aspect of taking care of an aging relative will be able to relate to her experiences with moving her parents to a retirement facility and dealing with failing health. Humor, emotion, and reflection are well presented in these stories, and I think that a lot of people will be able to enjoy those aspects of her stories.

However, in spite of how interesting most of the stories are, I wish they had more focus. Most of the stories read like a stream-of-consciousness exercise and don't have structure or form, which made them hard to follow. It gets better as the book goes on, but the first half of this book is a real struggle. I can't imagine listening to this as an audiobook--I don't think it'd make much sense at all. It definitely took away from the experience, because you'd start on a story thinking you were going to be reading about one of her father's famous exploits, and you somehow end up reading about flamingos or seafood.

I still found this book to be a somewhat enjoyable read. I won't be outright recommending it to people, but if the description sounds interesting to you -- go for it! Just know what you're getting into in terms of how the stories are written.

Gurwitz has has the rate ability to make you laugh be wistful and sad all in the same paragraph. No one writing today about the interconnectedness and difficulty of family life,does it as well and as funny as Gurwitch. And she has the uncanny ability to bring it in home, if you’ll excuse the pun or metaphor or whatever. Highly recommended.

I didn't relate to this quite as much as I thought I would, but I still enjoyed reading it. I think fans of Annabelle Gurwitch will love it. I was looking forward to reading stories about her family, but many of the essays are more about her "tribes" and community than her biological family. They are about friends who embraced her growing up, in the theatre community, in a new-age-y kind of cult, summer camp, the Jewish community, the atheist community, and her parents retirement community. Most were humorous in a sarcastic, cynical kind of way. Some attempts at humor fell flat and seemed like her intent may have been to sound self-deprecating, but it comes across as insensitive at times. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I think that voices can be stifled by trying not to hurt anyone's feelings so I can appreciate when someone speaks their mind. I guess I just didn't relate to many of her experiences that weren't related to family.

I can't help but think that this would work better in audio book format. The copy I read was an uncorrected advance copy, provided free by the publisher for review purposes. Since it was a pre-publication copy, the footnotes were in some sort of formatting limbo that didn't make it any easier to read. The audio book is read by the author, who is an actress and comedian, so her delivery is probably much better on audio than it was on an uncorrected advance copy.

It took a while to get into, but Gurwitch's memoir is filled with funny stories and quirky characters. I knew that it was a "funny" book when I picked it up, I just wish it wasn't "trying" to be so funny. I could've done without all the punchlines everywhere. The stories were comedic material enough on their own

I have struggled with this book and am giving up. I guess I'm just not getting what the author isvtrying to convey.

Why did I keep reading?

The answer is because clearly, I'm a bit masochistic. I have a strong opinion that while the occasional footnote is appropriate, if you use too many, you need to edit what you are writing. Gurwitch doesn't just use them a little too much; on each page of the book there was at least one, if not two of three.
Realistically, I also couldn't relate to much of her stories, which only made it more difficult to continue reading.

I didn't really enjoy this book. She really rambles - there were times when I thought I had maybe missed a page the subject changed so quickly. I found that very distracting.

Very interesting book. This was a fun read that had a good message of the importance of family.