Let's Pretend This Never Happened (spoilers)

[sparrowsong]

I don't know if it was a great book. It was just kind of like reading a whole blog all at once, more or less in chronological order. And paying to do so.

I also didn't care too much for the extent of gory animal stories. The story about the death of Barnaby was really hard for me to read. I liked the parts when she was talking about, well, anything other than how a duck died, or a squirrel died, or a raccoon died... I'm someone who does avoid movies like Bambi though. I also work at an animal sanctuary that rescues a lot of exotic animals from crazy people just like Jenny's dad. So that definitely affected how I read the sections about that stuff.

However, it is what it is and Jenny seemed able to separate the bad and crazy from the good and crazy in her past in how to raised her daughter and I admire her for that.

I definitely laughed out loud a lot while reading it. The acquisition of Beyonce the giant chicken is pretty much my favorite prank ever so I loved reading about that again.

[5kcandlesinthewind]

I thought it was really hilarious and good, until the last third. I laughed out loud a lot during the first few chapters, and I think I read at least 1/3 of it out loud to my husband. But after the dog died, it just seemed to veer off course.
Beyonce excepted, obviously.

[charlatti]

May 20, 2012 10:48:40 GMT -5 sparrowsong said:

I don't know if it was a great book. It was just kind of like reading a whole blog all at once, more or less in chronological order. And paying to do so.

That's how I felt too (minus the paying -- mine was a library book ). I enjoyed it and definitely laughed a lot, but for me it didn't work that well as a book.

[PinkSquirrel]

I think it definitely felt like a collection of ridiculous and funny blog posts. For me what had the most impact was not only the funny stories, but more than that it was a glimpse inside the mind of someone with a mental illness.

[sparrowsong]

That's a good point. I thought she handled the explanations of her struggles with anxiety very well. She was very honest without being preachy or self-critical. She just put it out there as one part of who she is, but not something that completely defines her.

[imoan]

Her book was exactly what I was expecting from someone who is famous for writing a funny blog about nothing. I expected a book length collection of blog posts. I enjoyed it.

[Zoly]

I don't read her blog regularly and had really never heard of her until the "Beyonce incident". Was it mostly just a collection of her blog posts?

[sparrowsong]

No, a lot of it was written new just for the book. I was more or less an autobiography, starting with her childhood and her crazy parents, a touch of the painful high school years, but the bulk was after she met her husband, got married, and had their daughter.

[mimosas]

I seriously couldn't get over the dog dying. I was mad at her the rest of the book for leaving him outside even KNOWING it was dangerous and then for turning burying him into a "funny" chapter for her book. Not funny, not enjoyable to read.