I enjoyed reading Survival of the Thickest. The vulnerability we get from the author as I read about her life had in me tears. I did not want to put this book down everytime I did though I couldnt stop thinking about the stories she told of her hookups that had me laughing so much.

The hilarious comedian and actor Michelle Buteau will have you rolling and reflecting with her candid and empowering lessons on work, marriage, motherhood, body image, and Blackness. Truthful, willful and hopeful, this is a heartwarming debut collection. - featured in my Ms. Magazine column 12/8/2020

I’ll be honest, I only vaguely knew who Michelle Buteau was before I read this one. I had heard her name before, but I had never watched anything with her in it. 

After reading and listening to Survival of the Thickest though, I promise you I will be watching anything and everything she has done and will do! Michelle tells her story of growing up and the good and bad that came along. Let me tell you while reading this, I experienced all the emotions! Michelle had me laughing at her jokes and crying at her infertility struggles & stories of her 9/11 experience. If you want to listen to a genuine story from someone who makes you laugh and cry while telling her story, then definitely grab this one!

Excellent book, and it fits perfectly with what I've known of Michelle from seeing some of her previous work. Definitely glad I took the time to read this book!

I am already a fan of Michelle Buteau, but I learned SO much more about her from this book! The way she writes is so easy to follow and really feels so relatable as if your closest gal pals are hanging out chatting. Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Before reading this book I had never heard of Michelle Buteau And after reading this book I will never forget her.
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 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭  is a loud, in your face collection of essays from the life of actress and comedian Michelle Buteau.
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In this book Michelle talks about everything from friendship and infertility, to being an only child raised by a Jamaican mother and Haitian father.
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Michelle grabbed my attention from the first page when she boldly announced that she is a “Jerseyan”. That’s right! She’s from my home state of New Jersey. When she described “Jerseyans as, “loud, brash people in leopard skin clothing, with red lip stick.” I knew right then that I was going to like this book😂. And, I was right. It was wonderfully entertaining.
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I listened to audio version, as well as read the hard copy. I liked the audiobook much better. With Michelle reading the story it was hilarious! Down right laugh out loud funny. But I have to warn you, if you are sensitive to profanity, this may not be the book for you.
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Not every chapter was filled with comedy. There are moments when Michelle goes deep. One such moment can be found in the chapter titled 9/11 Chronicles. In this chapter there is a shift. Michelle’s emotions become very somber as she recounts the details of the horrific and tragic events of 9/11.
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Another somber moment can also be found in two chapters titled,  IVF and Surrogacy. In these chapters she writes about her struggle with fertility. She goes into detail about the many miscarriages she experienced, while taking us into her IVF and surrogacy journeys.. It was definitely eye opening.
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What I like most about this book is that even as she shares her most difficult moments in life, she ends each chapter with light at the end of the tunnel. She offers hope coupled with humor. And in today’s world, this is a perfect combination.
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Overall, I give 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭 5⭐️s. Because of this book Michelle now has a new supporter. I will be on the lookout for her movies and stand up comedy shows.
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Thank you Simon and Schuster for gifting me this digital copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an awesome book for anyone who wants to sit back and relax with a great story. The entire book made you feel like you were hanging out with your best friend since middle school and rehashing your youth over a bottle of wine. I thoroughly enjoyed the details Michelle used to describe her friends and their situations. I highly recommend this book to any woman looking to hang out with the girls.

I knew Michelle Buteau from her cohosting VH1 Morning Buzz with Nick Lachey and thought she was pretty funny, so I wanted to check out her book.  It was kind of what I expected - a lot of pop culture references - most of which I got even though I am under 38 ;)   It was definitely interesting to hear about her life growing up and being light skinned.  Her Dad is from Haiti and her Mom is from Jamaica.

The book seemed to bounce around a bit on the timeline which confused me at times and I also could have gone without her reminding us about how big her tits were every other chapter (despite having gotten a reduction.)  But Michelle is funny and that came through for sure when reading this - it was easy to hear her voice coming through as I read along.  Though a comedian, she did touch on some tougher topics like 9/11/01 and dealing with IVF and miscarriages and I thought she wrote about these topics well.  That may be why she was considering journalism before she went into comedy. She has a skill for both.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

3.5. I love Michelle Buteau's standup (her IVF story on the Risk podcast is one of my favorites), so I was excited to read this book of essays. While her stream-of-consciousness doesn't translate well to the written word, I appreciated her candor and her openness in talking about her life, particularly her fertility journey.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me. 

I like Buteau's sense of humor and how open and honest she was in this book. She talks about growing up Afro-Caribbean, the importance of friendship, and motherhood. She also shares the difficulties of being a woman in comedy and her experience during 9/11. 

It's a mix of anecdotes from throughout Buteau's life with some jumping around in chronology. We get a peek into her life and the choices that have made her life what it is.

Besides seeing her in Always Be My Maybe, I really didn't know anything about Michelle Buteau before reading her book. I knew she was funny, but I hadn't yet had the chance to experience her other work, so that likely affected my experience of this book. It's funny. She tells a good story. But there are also heartbreaking parts of the book, like when she writes about her pregnancy losses. It's just a very real and intimate look into her life thus far. My only minor complaint is that she overuses "big titty" and "big-tittied" in describing herself. I have no issue whatsoever with the titties themselves, but the flow of the book was interrupted by the redundancies. Hopefully in the final version of the book, the big titties are spread out a bit more so that they don't find themselves collected into tight groupings. On second thought, that sounds fun, so maybe just keep as is...?

Rating: 5 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book: Survival of the Thickest
Release Date: February 3, 2021
Author: Michelle Buteau
Genre: Essays, Memoir

Sipping Synopsis: One good thing that came out of this pandemic and the stay-at-home order was my introduction to Michelle Buteau and Nicole Byers (Nailed It!)- by the way they are NOT the same person and do NOT look alike (lol Michelle will make this clear in her book). Anyways, back to my Netflix binge. I met Michelle from hosting The Circle and then her stand up on Netflix. So, when I heard that she had a memoir type book coming out I was too excited to cop it. Michelle revisits the most important, funniest, saddest, and most memorable moments of her life in Survival of the Thickest-great title by the way. 

Final sipping thoughts: This book is 100% not for the prude folks. If you get offended by a curse word or sexual reference or two (or 20) then you might want to skip this book. I enjoyed Michelle’s realness and I am so happy I had the audio version so I could hear her oh so sassy reading of it.  Go ahead and pre-order or be ready to grab it in February! You can thank me later!

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley, @MichelleButeau and @GalleryBooks for an advanced copy of @SurvivalOfTheThickest

#SurvivalOfTheThickest #MichelleButeau #GalleryBooks #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #AmazonReads #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #essays #memoirs

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced reader!

This book had me laughing out loud! I knew of Michelle and have seen her on tv and always found her funny. I loved reading about her background, especially her dating life.  Loved her stories about meeting her husband and their fertility journey.  Though some sections were on a serious topic, she found a way to still make jokes in an appropriate way.  Loved her sense of humor and writing style, I hope she does more especially now with twins!

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the Reader's Copy!

Now available. 

I have a confession to make - I have not seen any of Michelle Buteau's acting or comedy series. I was primarily drawn to this book because of its title and the power of Buteau's charismatic smile. In a similar vein to other female comedians, Buteau's book is filled with raunchy sexcapades, reflections on race & gender and the work life balance. 

In particular, I was moved by the section on pregnancy & her candid discussion of her past miscarriages, IVF and surrogacy. It's an area that carries a lot of hidden societal shame for a lot of women today and to see it being discussed openly is healthy & needed. 

However, the book also relies on you to be familiar with Buteau's work as she constantly refers to her TV shows, her Netflix special, etc. Overall, it was an okay read.

I would give this more like 2.5 stars, but rounded. up. As far as "celebrity memoirs" go, this one was not a winner, for me. It just felt like it was trying too hard, and Ms. Buteau really hasn't figured out what makes her stand out enough to write a book.  Some of my main issues are that there were many parts where she seemed to contradict herself. She claimed to have two different "first loves" within a couple chapters of each other. She also went from talking about saving herself for marriage to "being a heau" without explaining what caused the change. There was one chapter where I swear it was the same exact joke I heard on an Ali Wong standup special at least 2 years go. So who stole the joke from whom??? Also, the author seemed to think that having "big tits" was a personality trait. Newsflash, it's not. 
While I did appreciate the chapters where the author was very open and honest about her struggles with infertility, it came so late in the book that I was more or less skimming everything just to be done with it. I think she needs to tighten up her POV and dig deeper.

Buteau is a comedian, who I originally discovered on a podcast called Two Dope Queens. I enjoy her style of humor, and her memoir is written in the same style as her comedy routine. I believe this would be a fun book to listen to on audio, as she narrates it, but even still, if you've heard her voice before, her writing style was enjoyable to read. 
The essays feel a bit all over the place. She goes down tangents right and left, and meanders through the story. I didn't feel like I learned anything, or that her writing was particularly captivating. So overall, although she has good humor, I found I enjoyed her delivery more through her stand up than I do through her writing. 
I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

5 stars

If you thought you knew Michelle Buteau, think again.

This hysterical and heartbreaking memoir reads like one of her stand up acts with references and jokes that had me cackling, but where this book really succeeds is in the painting of the moments when there is very little to laugh at. The funniest comics are not happy 24/7 and Buteau's story is perfect evidence of that. However, even in describing her low moments, her sense of humor lets the reader know that things are somehow going to be okay. For someone who doesn't read a lot of memoirs, I absolutely adored this book and I hope you do too!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Michelle Buteau's "Survival of the Thickest" is an amusing and relatable collection of stories from her childhood in Jersey to her more recent foray into motherhood. We learn about growing up catholic and Caribbean in New Jersey, attending college in Miami, and her journey from behind the scenes news work, to stand up comedy. She discusses her relationships in New York City, and how she meets her future husband as a one-night stand. He's Dutch, and she highlights the complexities of their mixed marriage and the cultural differences between her Caribbean background and his Dutch. Their wedding alone is quite the to-do! The latter parts of the book focus on her journey to motherhood, focusing on challenges that many women face such as miscarriages, and difficulty conceiving. Ultimately, her and her husband go the surrogacy route, bringing up other complexities. Some themes that I really appreciated in thus book included the importance of friendship in your life, chosen family, and just trying to get through each day. I have enjoyed Buteau's comedic work in the past, and will continue to follow her future work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advance reader copy for review.

If you're looking for a hilarious memoir, pick up this book! Michelle is hilarious and I felt like I was in on her life stories. I could literally hear her voice as I read along. I learned so much and laughed the whole way though. It made me long for the nostalgia of the 90s and those overalls. She does a great job of painting the picture and i feel like we are best friends. She does a great job of toeing the line of funny and serious where it needed and honestly if I ever come in contact with Michelle I might act like we are friends IRL.

If you like her comedy - you will LOVE her book.  The book reads like her comedy specials - a little brash, a lot sassy, and a whole lot of honesty.  I received this book as an ARC and was so excited I was picked to preview it.  

I so look forward to more specials, I have to go find her movies!  I did not even realized she acted until I read this book.  Now I have something to look forward to this weekend!