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Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir)
Let's Pretend This Never Happened - A Mostly True Memoir
Author: Jenny Lawson
For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris -- Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.   Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives -- the ones we’d like to pretend never happened -- are in fact the ones that define us. — In Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780399159015
ISBN-10: 0399159010
Publication Date: 4/12/2012
Pages: 313
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 146

4 stars, based on 146 ratings
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books / Putnam
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 16
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

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.
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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.
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. :)


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