Seriously... I'm Kidding

As part of Pride Month, I'm spotlighting books by or about GLBTQIA+ people. Ellen is one of the most prominent lesbians here in the US, between coming out on a sitcom, having her own daytime talk show, and her judging stint on American Idol. This is her third book, but the first one I've read. If the other two are like this one, I need to read them!

Seriously...I'm Kidding is a really funny book. It reads a little bit like an ADHD squirrel, but that's part of its charm. I read the print version, but this is one book I might have to get the audio version of, mostly because of the one chapter she wrote specifically for the audio version:

“Anyway, since you have the benefit of being able to hear this, I thought I would include some bonus material of me making strange noises. For those of you who are reading this the old-fashioned way and can't hear me, I've printed the noises below and I encourage you to use your imagination to think of what they might sound like coming out of my mouth.

Meeeeee
Faaaaaa
Cooooo
Gooooood Morning
Bowwwww
Babowwwww
Yelowwwww
(more strange noises listed)”

The book covers a lot of ground, from producing her show to judging on American Idol to coming out as lesbian to hosting dinner parties. It also varies wildly chapter to chapter, from brief short stories (less than a page) to haiku, to coloring book pages of odd things like toasters, to prose, wandering chapters that are an interesting look at Ellen's thought process.

I really enjoyed this book, and it's definitely worth reading because it's just FUN.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

I listened to this as an audiobook, which is great because Ellen is such a phenomenal voice actor and she lends that to her reading of this book. While I did enjoy this (nothing like a couple laughs to soothe an insufferably long commute), it was essentially just a string of jokes. Basically, take Ellen's monologue from her talk show and then repeat it 50 times. That's not a bad thing (see: laughs on insufferably long commute): it just wasn't quite funny enough to make up for it being a string of mostly unrelated jokes and a whole lot of tangents. But it feels sacrilegious to say anything less than wholly positive about Ellen because I love her so I'd still recommend this to an audiobook for anyone who wants a smile on their daily commute!

I was so disappointed by this. The best bits were straight from the monologues of her TV show, which I'd seen on youtube. The first half was ok, but the second half was terrible; the only reason I finished was because I'd read half and I'm already behind on my goodreads 2014 challenge! (This is the main drawback of the challenge, finishing books you would normally scrap).
I had high hopes for this because I like her stand up (obviously a good few years old at this point) but there was too much surreal waffle.

This is a review of the audiobook version.

I'm a big fan of Ellen DeGeneres and of celebrity memoirs. She's one of my favorite comedians and I enjoy quite a bit of her stand-up. I was excited to check out this book to see what sort of things she would write about. While it's not exactly a memoir, there are certain things that she does touch on in the book. It's most certainly not a “life story” book, so if you're looking for one of those, you will be disappointed. American Idol is just touched on and her wife Portia only gets a short mention once every few chapters.

This book is really just a bunch of anecdotes, but at times it is more than that. Ellen questions a lot of things that are commonplace in our society. Why are we not impressed with the simple things in life? Why are we so do dependent on technology? Why are we never happy? It's a lot more introspective than I would have expected.

There's definitely a lot of funny stuff, so don't worry that it's all philosophical. In fact, I think a lot of the thought provoking undertones won't really matter much to people – they just want to laugh. There are times, though, when Ellen seems to ramble. Especially near the end of the book. However, all the chapters are pretty short, so if a “bit” isn't working, rest assured it will be over soon.

If you “read” this book, I highly suggest reading it in audiobook form. Ellen adds a lot of stuff for the listener and it definitely adds to the experience.