Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen Degeneres

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
Ellen DeGeneres published her first book of comic essays, the #1 bestselling My Point...and I Do Have One, way back in 1996. Not one to rest on her laurels, the witty star of stage and screen has since dedicated her life to writing a hilarious new book. That book is this book.


After years of painstaking, round-the-clock research, surviving on a mere twenty minutes of sleep a night, and collaborating with lexicographers, plumbers, and mathematicians, DeGeneres has crafted a work that is both easy on the ears and very funny. Along with her trademark ramblings, The Funny Thing Is...contains hundreds of succinct insights into her psyche, and offers innovative features including:

• More than 50,000 simple, short words arranged in sentences that form paragraphs.

• Thousands of observations on everyday life — from terrible fashion trends to how to handle seating arrangements for a Sunday brunch with Paula Abdul, Diane Sawyer, and Eminem.

• All twenty-six letters of the alphabet read aloud.

Sure to make you laugh, The Funny Thing Is...is Ellen in top form.

My thoughts:
So yesterday when I went to the library to find the Chelsea Handler book I wanted to check out I discovered the call number that houses similar titles.  Not that I didn't know they were there somewhere, but I love stumbling across books that I am interested in but hadn't been looking for.  It is like hitting the library jackpot!

I enjoyed this book, it didn't make me laugh quite as hard as Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang did yesterday, but there were definitely parts that set me off.  It was interesting too to read Ellen's book because a few months ago I read her wife Portia de Rossi's book and she was mentioned in it. 

Against Ellen's wishes I read this book while driving and flossing my teeth at the same time.  Not really, but she cautions against it right from the front and urges us all to floss.  Not bad advice.  Also a good point, if you are using something to make sure you can use your phone hands free you may also need to concentrate on it as well!

I think I'm going to be looking for some more of her books at the library next week, just don't tell her since she seems to be very worried about if you have paid for the book!

Details
•Pub. Date: September 2004
•Publisher: Simon & Schuster
•Format: Paperback , 192pp
•ISBN-13: 9780743247634
•ISBN: 0743247639

Meet The Author
Ellen DeGeneres's first book, My Point...and I Do Have One, was an instant national bestseller that spent more than six months on the New York Times bestseller list. DeGeneres has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a People's Choice Award for her work as a writer and actress on her television series Ellen, and received Emmy nominations as host of the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, as an executive producer of HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2, and as star and executive producer of her critically acclaimed one-woman HBO special The Beginning. DeGeneres made history when her on-screen persona Ellen Morgan became the first openly gay leading character on television, but her groundbreaking legacy had already begun in 1986, on the Tonight Show, when she became the first and only female comic invited by Johnny Carson to sit down with him after her stand-up performance. In September 2003, DeGeneres launched The Ellen DeGeneres Show, her own nationally syndicated daytime talk show.

5 comments:

  1. I like her show pretty much. Hope will be able to lay my hand on this book

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  2. I read her first book and love and watch her show. She is a true spirit.

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  3. I don't normally enjoy books by comedians because for me it's all in the vocal timing and delivery. I might try one of hers on audiobook someday though.

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  4. I've always enjoyed Ellen and I read her 1st book. I didn't even realize she had a new one out.
    Alyce brought up a good idea of listening to it on audio.

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  5. This isn't a new book, it is from 2004, but I just checked it out of the library. She does have one coming out at the beginning of next month though. When I read books like this where I know what the authors voice and timing sound like I just kind of hear them in my head. When I read Bossypants this summer someone commented that they listened to it read by Tina Fey and I bet that was even funnier than reading it!

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