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Book Reviews of Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir
Let's Pretend This Never Happened A Mostly True Memoir
Author: Jenny Lawson
ISBN-13: 9781447223443
ISBN-10: 1447223446
Publication Date: 4/17/2012
Pages: 318
Rating:
  • Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
 4

4.6 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

14 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

crytal avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 155 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 11
I won an ARC from Goodreads First Reads, and had never previously heard of The Bloggess.

This book was hilarious! There were many laugh out loud moments, some where I actually teared up. And there were others I had to reread or mark the pages so that I can go back and reread them when I need a good laugh. Some of my favorite stories were in chapters entitled: Stanley, the Magical Talking Squirrel, A Series of Helpful Post-it Notes I Left Around the House for My Husband This Week, and The Psychopath on the Other Side of the Bathroom Door. And my new favorite line to use during a fight came from Thanks for the Zombies, Jesus. "You know what? I f-ing dare you to make less sense." I'm gonna use that one!

Nice short chapters, that were easy to read and kind of rambly and all over the place, but that worked out well for me. Most of the photos were hard to see, but I'm assuming that is because I had a proof copy. It would have been awesome to see those photos.

Great book, and I now follow the blog!
c-squared avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 181 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
As Jenny Lawson would say, "This book is dumb, you guys." The premise sounded great: a potty-mouth blogger who talks about her vagina a lot. Hmmm...when I put it that way, it probably doesn't sound like everyone's cup of tea, but it sounded good to me. Nope. I just felt like she was trying way too hard and really wasn't funny. At least to me. Several of my reader friends think this book is fantastic.

The Harry Potter episiotomy scar story (a conversation with her OB/GYN, not an actual event) and the stories from her HR jobs were the only parts that actually made me laugh. The rest was just eh. Some is even straight-up sad and depressing. I realize that life is that way, but I wanted funny. Only funny.

The GR blurb recommends this book for fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris. I really liked Bossypants, but was lukewarm towards Me Talk Pretty One Day. I think Lawson is closer to Sedaris on the comedy spectrum.
Chocoholic avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 291 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
Oh, such a great read! I laughed until I cried, then I cried some and came back for more. Parts of it were so outrageously funny that they absolutely demanded to be read out loud to whomever was nearby. A celebration of the bizarre and strange and often furry things in life, bloggess-turned-author Jenny Lawson is a comic genius. Lawson relates anecdotes from her rural upbringing with a father who has a zeal for taxidermy through adulthood, marriage, career, and family life. This book reads like some demented cross between Jen Lancaster meets Jeanette Walls' "Glass Castle" and we are all the richer for it.
blucanary avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 15 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
I've been following The Bloggess for about a year and I've found her blog hilariously funny. She's self-described as broken, but it's in a completely relatable way.

I was trying to read this book while my husband was taking a nap and it almost killed me. I was trying so hard not to laugh, but some of the stories are so side-splittingly hilarious that I ended up just shaking and crying, occasionally managing a gasp of breath.

I can't recommend this book enough. And so sorry, but I won't be posting my copy once I'm completely finished with it! This one makes the shelf!
krisann avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 76 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
A must read book. If Jenny didn't have pictures to back up her stories I would have never believed them. Sometimes, humor doesn't translate to a full-length book. In this case, Let's Pretend This Never Happened was EVEN BETTER THAN I EXPECTED. Not only did it have me laughing out loud, but there were also poignant moments that I didn't anticipate. From the crazy tales of her childhood to the imagined conversations with her husband, Jenny will keep you hanging on her every word. This is easily the best book I've read so far this year.
reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 65 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
If you like Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman, this is the book for you. But for me, it was a little too much schtick and not enough substance. Lawson truly has had an unbelievable life and experiences that are hard to believe. Everything is not a joke waiting for a punchline. I like the funny take on some horrific situations but when she can't get through a paragraph without an anecdote it turns into a gimmick. It just stops being entertaining after a few chapters. She's trying way too hard to convince us that she's okay to truly be okay. Therapy is probably a good idea.
SteveTheDM avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 204 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Ive been a fan of Jenny Lawsons humor blog (http://thebloggess.com/) for at least a year now, so when her memoir was released, I jumped on it. Its fun. Its crazy. And its some insight into the demons Jenny seems to face day after day.

Compared with books like the Chelsea Handler memoirs Ive read (which were atrocious), Jennys book is essentially a group of stories of finding the absurd, living the absurd, and reveling in the absurd. I loved it.

4 of 5 stars.
reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book was witty and funny. It seems too crazy not to be true. I generally read books that are more "normal" and less filled with tangents, but I have to admit this book was just what I needed, a good laugh and a break from reality.
raksha38 avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 203 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book was fantastic! I love Jenny's blog, so I figured this would be funny and it most certainly was! Her childhood was especially bananas. I think its a good thing her father lives in Texas, because I think if he lived anywhere else (well, except maybe northern Idaho) he'd be locked up as an actual crazy person, though he seems mostly harmless even though he occasionally tosses live bobcats on people when first meeting them. This whole book is golden.
nic03red avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 38 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A mostly true memoir of the author's crazy life moments. From her hilarious childhood, to married life adventures.
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I really enjoyed listening to Lawson's stories of her life in Texas. I tried to read this book several years ago and ended up putting it aside. Although I found it funny, I just couldn't get into it at the time. I listened to the audiobook, and it was definitely the way to go! Listening to the author telling her stories was so much more enjoyable to me. I was laughing out loud at some of her experiences. I was holding my sleeping baby when I read about Jean Louise and it was so hard to suppress my laughs so I wouldn't wake her up! ð
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I also had the physical copy sitting on my shelf, which was actually nice because Lawson included photographic evidence of some of her experiences. Her family really did have a pet raccoon who wore pjs! So it was fun to listen to the audiobook, but be able to see the photos too.
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If you're looking for a funny audiobook or memoir, then I would definitely recommend this one!
â­ï¸â­ï¸â­ï¸â­ï¸/5
ilovebooksanddogs avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 360 more book reviews
This woman is a riot!! I actually had never heard of her before, the book cover caught my attention at Target and being a new memoir I just had to buy it. Well worth the money I spent!! I alternated between nearly pissing my pants and expelling through my nose whatever liquid I happened to be drinking while reading it (and I quickly learned not to eat or drink while reading this due to the danger of choking to death). Her X-Lax story is one of the funniest things I have ever read in my life. A major comedic voice that spoke to me on a raw level. I'm still not sure how much of this is true and how much is spawned out of her crazy-ass mind but I loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent reading it.
confuzzledbooks avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 486 more book reviews
After having successful blog, author Jenny Lawson, wrote this memoir from parts of her already written blog and her humor filled life...or imagination.

As a blogger myself I had heard about this book through other bloggers. I had never been to the bloggess aka Jenny Lawson blog before but now that I have read Let's Pretend This Never Happened I am addicted to checking Jenny's blog. Her humor is just plain awesome. She seems like someone I could be friends and we would laugh all day. I that is probably romanticizing a friendship but I am trying to explain how much I love her sense of humor.

I have seen many reviews saying the book is not funny and whiney, or not like David Sedaris, or has to much potty mouth. Ok first thing it is funny...so funny if have a sense of humor and do take things lightly. Secondly the book is not like David Sedaris but to me that is a blessing. I find Sedaris unfunny and kinda mean. As for the potty mouth, there is some but that does not bother me. Cursing and words that make people uncomfortable for others is just part of life.

I loved Let's Pretend This Never Happened and I am now a fan of TheBloggess blog. She has a second book Furiously Happy which is added to my TBR pile. It was actually a book that brought me out of a really bad reading slump. I needed the humor to flood away the depression I have had recently and maybe if you are feeling the same I would say read this if it fits your humor.
honorgrace avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 10 more book reviews
This book is so hilarious(& twisted!).
Any author who can make me cry with laughter over incidents that not only stagger the grasp on reality
--and keep me reading when I've been a Vegetarian for over 45 yrs!-- has my undying loyalty.
I'm sure some humour-deficient pinched-anus-proper throwback to the 1950's white gloved Bible Thumpers would swoon over the Magic Squirrel, ect. & call Jennys' childhood "abusive".
To those of that humourless persuasion I quote the Immortal George Carlin: "Fuck'Em"!!!

I was going to keep this one (it surely is a keeper!)But when I saw the several hundred PBS folk wishing for it I just couldn't keep the happy all to myself-- so I'm listing it and will just wait for the Amazon Prime ultra-cheap offering to come around in a year or so and then keep it to loan out to my buddies.
And I,too, am now following The Bloggess.com. Just delicious, Folks! Highly recommended reading. :)
Grazona avatar reviewed Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir on + 119 more book reviews
I gave this book 3 stars, I thought it was pretty good. It started out strong, I was laughing out loud a lot. The stories about her childhood are fantastic. But as she moved on to marriage and motherhood stories, I just didn't find them as funny. In general it was a fast, easy, fun read and I recommend it.