Customer Reviews

Happily Domesticated: Musings on life, love, parenthood, malfunctioning appliances and marital bliss

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I've been listening to Mr. Cummings for over a year via podcast. He consistently knocks the ball out of the park. He is witty, intelligent and just plain entertaining and all in under six minutes. If you're busy (like me) you will appreciate how Kevin packs in amusing anecdotes, one-liners and the classic comedy triplet into each story he writes. What's most amazing is that his observational humor is g-rated and is never polarizing. It's entertainment. These stories are the cream of the crop, the top of the heap, the ... you get the picture. If you're stuck for an apt comparison, the best would be Erma Bombeck in her prime. Read one and you'll be hooked. I am!

I'd pick up "Happily Domesticated" when I was down, read one or two chapters, and that would lift my spirits. Kevin Cummings made me laugh sometimes even as Dave Barry does--which says something--and even after I set the book back down, it made everything seem funnier. I finally finished it, just in time to begin reading a memoir about post-traumatic stress disorder, which I promptly laughed at. (I guess I should've smoothed out the transition between those two books a little.)

The book contains 54 essays, most of them previously published on the author's blog and podcast, except for a dozen pieces from a newspaper humor column he used to write. He talks as a typical middle-aged male about a variety of topics, including marriage, children, health, home, and garbage disposals: all the major issues that face middle-aged men today.

(What if you're not a middle-aged male? What if, for example, you're a newlywed, 20-something woman? Well, you too should read this book, because it will warn you what to expect in the years to come. And maybe if you're lucky, you can get out before it's too late.)

It is no big secret to some that I am a huge fan of Kevin Cummings' "Short Cummings Audio" podcast. Given that, I was thrilled when "Happily Domesticated" was released. This book draws largely on works that Kevin wrote for his podcast.

Kevin Cummings' essays are very much from the Erma Bombeck/Dave Barry School of writing.If you want a great take on parenting, for example, read "Teenage Standard Time". For his insights on relationships, check out "Fight Club". All my wife had to do was read the notes on the book's back cover and she cracked up laughing.

In addition, there are twelve essays that were not drawn from "Short Cummings Audio". These are worth the book's price all by themselves. I nearly split my sides reading "The Razor's Edge".

If you want good, light reading that will tickle your funny bone into submission, you MUST read "Happily Domesticated". You'll wind up downloading his latest podcast and waiting for his next book.