I am totally up for an irreverent book about how toddlers are a pain in the ass. I genuinely believe that the cognitive state of children is not unlikI am totally up for an irreverent book about how toddlers are a pain in the ass. I genuinely believe that the cognitive state of children is not unlike that of drunk adults, slowly sobering up over the course of 15-25 years (think about it — first few years they are basically blackout drunk, they won't even remember what happens, they are shitting themselves, can't even walk, they slowly regain bladder and bowel control, they can start talking again but it's sorta incoherent and slurred, then they start being just wild and unfocused, eventually leading to being just kinda thoughtless or reckless like you are when you've had a few drinks). That said, this book doesn't seem like it comes from a place of empathy, it seems more mean-spirited than that. I don't have much context on where this book came from, but it seems like a long, sorta mean and not-that-funny comedy routine. I was expecting more, "Here's a light-hearted way to deal with having kids, explicitly acknowledging what we all tacitly know, which is that if anyone behaved like a toddler and was not a child, we'd call them an asshole."
One thing that really stands out to me is that the author seems to attack other parents who have their shit together. Like, some of the stuff she describes as being difficult with a toddler does not seem difficult with a bit of forethought and planning, but she seems to take anyone who is able to like... not be a complete mess while also being a parent as some sort of attack on her. Maybe she has encountered a lot of judgemental parents and sees "not completely drowning" as "judging me for being in over my head", but I think separating the "you are doing well" from "you are being judgemental" is an important act of decoupling....more
I did not realize that this book was a sort of semi-memoir of two actors who work on the show Outlander; one could be forgiven for not realizing this,I did not realize that this book was a sort of semi-memoir of two actors who work on the show Outlander; one could be forgiven for not realizing this, since it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the description at all. I gather that maybe they have a podcast or a radio show or something, and that they bond over their mutual general Scottish-ness.
I did not feel I walked away with this book any more well-informed about Scotland or Scottish clans. Much of the historical narrative seemed at approximately the level of stories that locals tell each other about the bravery or fierceness or weirdness of the people who once lived in their general vicinity. Quite disappointing. The authors read the audiobook, and while their back-and-forth attempts at humor would probably be interesting to people who were already their fans, it came off to me as a bit forced and grating. Alas.
The author purports to make this book about individuals, and indeed starts the book off with a whole essay about how we are starting to be able to leaThe author purports to make this book about individuals, and indeed starts the book off with a whole essay about how we are starting to be able to learn about individuals even from the distant past, but then the book itself is totally about general peoples and not specific individuals.
He'll give the person who first invented a bow and arrow a name, but then say, "He was probably between 5' and 6', with dark skin and curly hair" or something like that — basically describing the qualities of the people he comes from. This is basically describing population-level information as a biography by making it a biography of some non-existent average person.
I think the actual book itself suffers from this as well, because in order to fit the narrative to the framing device, he has to stretch the science quite considerably, and he is also required to gloss over many details about how we know what we know, since it would be quite inconvenient if the answer to 90% of these things is, "Well it probably evolved gradually over time but there may have been punctuated equilibria set off by individuals, and we basically don't know right now."
It was an ambitious book, but unfortunately I think its reach exceeds its grasp....more
I generally avoid comedians' memoirs or comedy books, because I haven't particularly liked them in the past - they tend to be a sort of re-working of I generally avoid comedians' memoirs or comedy books, because I haven't particularly liked them in the past - they tend to be a sort of re-working of their act into book form, and I'd rather just listen to their act. There's definitely some of that here - I recognize a few jokes in here from the tragically short Jon Benjamin Has a Van, but for the most part this material was new to me.
This book is mainly a collection of amusing stories, like you'd collect from a particularly amusing guest at a cocktail party, with a few comedy bits thrown in there to pad out the book I guess. The book is unnecessarily organized around the theme of "failure", and I'm not entirely sure why - either as a weird challenge Benjamin set for himself, or because that's how he pitched the book and he decided to stick with it throughout. The book would be perfectly fine without this theme, and it seems to me that the theme didn't motivate the stories he chose to tell, but rather he just chose to tell them in such a way that emphasized the failure.
In any case, pretty amusing and the horrifying chapter "The Flood: a Waste of Waters Ruthlessly (or How I Failed My Rental Car)" was funny and crazy enough that I had to play it for my wife. If true, that story is mortifying, and you can only take some solace in the fact that Benjamin was able to get a very amusing story out of it. This book is good for the type of thing that it is.
There was probably some good information in this book, but I could not stand how it was presented. The whole conceit about it being a primer for womenThere was probably some good information in this book, but I could not stand how it was presented. The whole conceit about it being a primer for women time-travelling got annoying about 5 seconds in, and the rest of the book was just a constant screed of sneering about how people in the Victorian era were backwards savages and how we should all laugh at their misguided notions. Zero compassion, zero historical context, just "look how crazy these people are".
Plus saying you wouldn't piss on Kellog if he was on fire is kinda harsh since his crime was being wrong in a way that offends your modern sensibilities (despite it being obvious that he meant well).
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