A humorously self-deprecating memoir; A rollercoaster through the ADHD mind of a father trying to time-capsule his brain before a drunk t-bones him off the Hoan Bridge.
“And yet, here I am, doing whatever the hell I want because it’s my book.”
John Marszalkowski, podcaster, musician, photographer, stay-at-home dad, has now added one more career to his name – author.
“The reviews of this book (if I can find anyone willing to review it) will probably be hilariously mean.”
Sorry John, I enjoyed your book far too much to do a mean spin on it.
This book has the sort of off-the-wall humor that absolutely just gets me every time.
How could you not laugh at chapters like this:
“WARNING:
THIS CHAPTER IS EVERYTHING I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT AT FAMILY EVENTS OR WORK.”
Or research like this?
“…I’m going to go out on a limb and assume no one has ever been killed by a NERF gun.”
And especially, moments like this:
“Alright! You’re five chapters in, and you haven’t given up yet! This is exciting!”
(Note: while I did not need the encouragement, this was well-appreciated!)
(Additional note to other authors who send me books: sometimes I could really use that encouragement…maybe consider putting it in.)
This book meanders through life with the attention span of a jackrabbit – we leap and bound from one subject to the next with the focus of a kid on a first sugar high.
And yet…. that worked. Really well, actually!
I can honestly say that I never knew what was coming next, but nonetheless enjoyed the ride.
I loved the snippets of home life interspersed throughout – from moments raising his daughter to the little ways he keeps his marriage interesting, such as this chapter:
“Written almost entirely to annoy my wife, let me now share with you my obsession with the concepts of higher dimensions.”
My favorite chapter is probably the shortest one, which I will transcribe for you in full:
“CHAPTER XXI
COULD THE EARTH ACTUALLY BE FLAT
No.”
(Yes, I literally laughed at loud at that one.)
The only thing that threw me out of the novel was the guest chapter.
The story goes, Steve Killner (John’s longtime friend) found out that John was writing a book and asked if he could write a chapter.
John agreed.
And at first I was really hyped about it – it’s unusual to swap authors for a single chapter…and yet it fit the bill for this book perfectly. Zany, edgy and ultimately hilarious.
It really…just didn’t fit and I feel like it brought the book down by standing out so starkly.
But, as you can see this did not overpower the book.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book – it was fun, funny and fabulous.
The author’s warm tone and hilariously self-deprecating humor made it shine.
I am absolutely excited to see what he writes next!
“I am in no way qualified to write about this, but that is also the exact reason you should read what I’m about to write.”
With thanks to the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
P.s. According to google – it IS impossible to kill someone with a NERF gun…that is, unless you decide to bludgeon them with it…then it might be deadly…
Author
amyshannon
3 years ago
Interestingly Humorous
The title does not say it all but it makes for a very great title, and tells the reader just what to do, “BUY MY BOOK: Not Because You Should, But Because I’d Like Some Money.” With that said, I really enjoyed reading this book and the very, no more like extremely unique writing style of this author. This book was gritty and raw and blatantly shared the opinion and perspective of the author. Wonderfully done. I also enjoyed the images throughout the book, and thought they told a story of their own as well. The author is just being himself, and I think more people should be like that. I enjoyed this read, as it was an appalling yet wonderfully grand read. I highly recommend this read, and hope the author writes more of his thoughts down and shares them with his audience (or following).
“And yet, here I am, doing whatever the hell I want because it’s my book.”
John Marszalkowski, podcaster, musician, photographer, stay-at-home dad, has now added one more career to his name – author.
“The reviews of this book (if I can find anyone willing to review it) will probably be hilariously mean.”
Sorry John, I enjoyed your book far too much to do a mean spin on it.
This book has the sort of off-the-wall humor that absolutely just gets me every time.
How could you not laugh at chapters like this:
“WARNING:
THIS CHAPTER IS EVERYTHING I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK ABOUT AT FAMILY EVENTS OR WORK.”
Or research like this?
“…I’m going to go out on a limb and assume no one has ever been killed by a NERF gun.”
And especially, moments like this:
“Alright! You’re five chapters in, and you haven’t given up yet! This is exciting!”
(Note: while I did not need the encouragement, this was well-appreciated!)
(Additional note to other authors who send me books: sometimes I could really use that encouragement…maybe consider putting it in.)
This book meanders through life with the attention span of a jackrabbit – we leap and bound from one subject to the next with the focus of a kid on a first sugar high.
And yet…. that worked. Really well, actually!
I can honestly say that I never knew what was coming next, but nonetheless enjoyed the ride.
I loved the snippets of home life interspersed throughout – from moments raising his daughter to the little ways he keeps his marriage interesting, such as this chapter:
“Written almost entirely to annoy my wife, let me now share with you my obsession with the concepts of higher dimensions.”
My favorite chapter is probably the shortest one, which I will transcribe for you in full:
“CHAPTER XXI
COULD THE EARTH ACTUALLY BE FLAT
No.”
(Yes, I literally laughed at loud at that one.)
The only thing that threw me out of the novel was the guest chapter.
The story goes, Steve Killner (John’s longtime friend) found out that John was writing a book and asked if he could write a chapter.
John agreed.
And at first I was really hyped about it – it’s unusual to swap authors for a single chapter…and yet it fit the bill for this book perfectly. Zany, edgy and ultimately hilarious.
It really…just didn’t fit and I feel like it brought the book down by standing out so starkly.
But, as you can see this did not overpower the book.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this book – it was fun, funny and fabulous.
The author’s warm tone and hilariously self-deprecating humor made it shine.
I am absolutely excited to see what he writes next!
“I am in no way qualified to write about this, but that is also the exact reason you should read what I’m about to write.”
With thanks to the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
P.s. According to google – it IS impossible to kill someone with a NERF gun…that is, unless you decide to bludgeon them with it…then it might be deadly…
Interestingly Humorous
The title does not say it all but it makes for a very great title, and tells the reader just what to do, “BUY MY BOOK: Not Because You Should, But Because I’d Like Some Money.” With that said, I really enjoyed reading this book and the very, no more like extremely unique writing style of this author. This book was gritty and raw and blatantly shared the opinion and perspective of the author. Wonderfully done. I also enjoyed the images throughout the book, and thought they told a story of their own as well. The author is just being himself, and I think more people should be like that. I enjoyed this read, as it was an appalling yet wonderfully grand read. I highly recommend this read, and hope the author writes more of his thoughts down and shares them with his audience (or following).