Customer Reviews

Is It Just Me?: Or is it nuts out there?

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is the name of the last chapter of this book. This chapter consists of three lines. I'm going to quote them. You can read them without ruining the rest of the book for you if you haven't read the chapters that come before. They say:

"These were just things on my mind and some ideas of ways I could be better. Maybe it helps you too. If not, pass this book on!"

This book is Whoopi's opinion on a whole range of what she perceives to be irritations. She knows that she isn't alone in her irritation. She doesn't say that you're wrong if you disagree. She does use humor, she is irreverent, and she is also serious in ALL of it. She doesn't come across as perfect in her own conduct, in fact, she states more than once that she most definitely isn't. She finds those things irritating in other people and in herself. She does not deny that she is guilty of the same things that she is complaining about.

I am a big Whoopi fan, and I could hear her saying these things in my head while I was reading them. The language that she writes is the language that you hear coming out of her mouth every day on TV etc. Whoopi addresses issues that happen and that we don't seem to notice anymore because they have become so commonplace, they've become a habit. She talks about things like cutting your toenails or picking your nose on the bus or train on the way to work. She doesn't like the word 'stupid' and yet doesn't have a problem with people using certain swear words, and why. How you can swear at someone without actually using the words aloud, just thinking them can have an effect. Things you could consider saying when you've been put on the spot and don't want to hurt someone other people's feelings.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I did find myself chuckling at what she says, how she phrases things, and the irony in some of her statements. This book uses events in her life as examples, and it is not her memoirs. If you are buying this book expecting to read only her comedy, expecting to laugh aloud, you'll be disappointed. If you asked me to describe this book in two words, I would say "humorous" and "thoughtful".

I like Whoopi so I was looking forward to reading about the things we all can't stand (i.e. sharing cell phone conversations) with a dose of Whoopi humor. As one other reviewer wrote "I wanted to laugh". This book could have been so much better with some humor. In my opinion, she's preaching to the choir here. The people that read this book are those who probably have noticed the same things and the people who don't read it are the ones we are talking about so they'll never get it nor read her suggestions. It just could have been so much better.

I agree - could not get past a small bit of this long harangue on the current state of society. I do admit I started it because I do believe society is uncivil and uses too many personal insults but at the same time - believe that Goldberg herself is one of those types - sadly hiding behind 'humor' to do it. So I was hoping that perhaps she was going to address that, but once again it is always someone else being wrong.

Don't waste your time or money.

I couldn't get through this and I read cereal boxes if that's what's in front of me. It's either self parody gone wrong or a really creepy case of TMI. If you've been dying to know why MS. Goldberg has never run for public office (I'm not making this up), you'll love the book. If not, you'll find that it's impossible to read and politely avert your eyes at the same time.

Lets get this out of the way: this is in no way a book written with "trademark irreverence and humor". Its written in a conversational tone. Its not somber. It isnt weighty. But there is no attempt at humor and I doubt Whoopie would have claimed there was one, so it surprising to hear the product description make that claim.

"Is It Just Me?" is one of those quickie books where the author jots down a bunch of disconnected thoughts which are eventually gathered up and massaged into book form by a hapless editor. Whoopie admits this in the forward- this book writing process was just writing down things that bugged her over the course of the year on note pads. These snippets where then assigned into 72 chapters like "There aren't enough jails", "If you dont like it dont do it", and "Places not to use a cell phone". Got the idea? You could probably fill in the contents of those chapters yourself.

No major crime there, but no the height of literary sophistication.

This book is sort of like going into a bar and having some bore who is already 6 drinks in sit down next to you and start filling you in on his critique about how the world is being run: there a great logical gaps in the narrative, a mild persecution complex, and a lot of unsubstantiated facts being loudly asserted.

Whoopie frequently make factual statements based only on her own opinions. There is never a citation of a news article, a statistic or a quote from an authority. The only buttressing arguments when these positions are staked out are "Come on!" "Lets gets real" or "we all know that....".

For instance, in the drunk driving chapter Whoopie claims that drunk driving goes on "Because there's no consequences". Her solution, which society needs to pick up on: "I tell you, if I had my own world? If you drank and drove, and got caught, you would not have a car". She advocates that you would not get your car back until you "had gone through a program and been clean and sober for 75 days".

This is the problem with her no-research way of book writing- the State she lives in already has more sever penalties that what she is recommending in her world. NYS requires a minimum 6mo-1 year license revocation depending on BAC and up to 1 year in jail. Taking away the car is ineffective without revoking the license. Did it never occur to her, in her "get tough approach", that most families have two cars?

There are also problems with the logical organization of her various snippets. For instance in the "Politics has Gotten #$!@5! Nasty" chapter she starts by railing against the incivility to current politicians essentially calling for a more polite society where we may disagree but in a civil way (BTW in this section she slips in "Tea Party people are taking their tea bagging to the streets" which kind of undermines the calm civility point that she was trying to go for). The logic problem comes in because she abruptly shifts to a discussing an incident she was involved in from 2004 at a Kerry fundraiser where she spoke. She had made a number of lewd and scatological references to President Bush's name and there was an outraged reaction from the general public and she got dropped from SlimFast and John Kerry disassociated himself from her. Whats bugging her here is not that she realizes that she herself was being uncivil but that "all of the newspapers said I said something terrible but never actually printed it. That drove me crazy" And she challenges the reader "Go ahead. I want you to see if you can find what I actually said. Here is a big hint: You wont see it." (another spot where a junior editor at Hyperion could have done some fact checking- it took me 30 seconds on google to find a detailed description of the event). So what bugging Whoopie her is that the newspaper reports at the time avoided printing direct quotes of an obscene rant but instead gave accurate but oblique descriptions. It would seem like the newspaper and the general public were the ones enforcing civility in political discourse and Whoopie was the one "getting @#$@$# nasty out there".

Yes these both nominally belong in the politics chapter, but didnt the editor care enough to realize Whoopie just undermined the point of the chapter?

There are numerous instants that make you think Whoopie is weirdly disconnected from society. For instance she says " Is it just me, or does it seem like there is no such thing as privacy anymore? Big Brother is here watching you. Except he is doing it through his blog instead of some science fiction telescreen". What?! How does someone what you through their blog? There is no further discussion of that point. It's like Whoopie has vaguely heard of blogs and knows they involve computers but that is all she knows. According to her, the problem with cell phone having cameras is that people could be taking pictures or videos of *her* anywhere she goes and that could be "taken out of context". Ok that maybe the overriding celebrity position on smart phones. But isnt she aware enough to realize that for the readers of her book 99.9% of their time is spent using phones to get shots at their children's school or sporting events? Trying to convince us that smart phones are bad because celebrities fret about them is unlikely to convince a reader who's never see a celebrity in the first place, let alone tapes them sloppy eating a cuban sandwich.

So in conclusion this is a not particularity funny book (dont think it was trying though)with a lot of factually inaccurate rants poorly organized. The upside is that the chapters are short and since they dont require any context you could easily read a couple while waiting for a bus or in a doctors office.

The only real market is as a gift for major Whoopie fans who might not be the greatest readers who can overlook the choppy nature of the material since they wont be reading a lot at one sitting. Maybe a slightly ditzy aunt with a mild persecution complex like Whoopie. The ideal reader would be one not bothered by logical or factual consistency and already a fan of the author.

Any future literary efforts would benefit from Whoopie and her editors not phoning in the whole project like they did with this one. More time, more fact checking, revise a few times, maybe develop a comedic voice and they would probably have a 3 or 3.5 star work.

Though I am admittedly not a "fan" of Whoopie Goldberg (never found her that funny), I was looking forward to reading this book, regardless of who wrote it. I happen to love talking about pet peeves (in a usually-humorous and light-hearted way), so I was excited to see a book full of them. The excitement ended after word one.

The book is horrid. It's terribly written in a conversational style that I assume is supposed to mimic Goldberg's live personality and spoken demeanor. I felt as if her editor (was there one?) might have said "hey, Whoopi, why don't we change this paragraph to read..." and was shut down ("don't *touch* the way I wrote it, the people want to hear ME.") It comes off as narcissistic, rambling and repetitive, and without flow or organization. As some others have said, it's also ironically very rude and curmudgeonly.

But most importantly, it's not funny. I mean not even so much as a giggle. And I *wanted* to giggle... I was receptive to giggling. But I couldn't even force a quiet chuckle. It just got worse and worse, almost to the point of being incoherent. It also is full of factual errors, outdated socio/cultural/technological references and gross exaggerations used just to make a peeve sound more valid (people don't talk on cell phones during flights... they don't work at 35,000 feet). Overall tone is that of a grumpy person who is just "not with it."

Many of the premises are good and true and could have been used to great effect, but everything just falls on its face, chapter after chapter (and yes, I still read all of it, just hoping it would get better). With the right author, tone of voice and good editing, it could have been hilarious and relatable. Instead this book is now one of my pet peeves. Save your money.

I am very disappointed with this book. Whoopie addresses many issues we all readily
identify with and most likely have ranted about ourselves, but she failed to apply her skills as a profesional comic. Instead she came across as a professional ranter/lecturer with no wit or levity at all. Humor can come in handy duirng times of dealing with those
irksome issues. Where'rd your humor go Whoopie?

PS: Good idea to read reviews as well as readinga sample, before buying a book.
PS: I LOVE my Kindle 3 :)

I bought this book thinking I was going to enjoy the witt and funny style of Whoopie--Sadly I was disappointed. This book is just ramblings and no spark.

First I love Whoopi, so I was looking forward to reading this book. I could not finish it...I found myself annoted from the first page...it is just page after page of ramblig thought -- opinions rather. Maybe it gets better but I could not make past the first 3 chapters....Sorry Whoopi try again!

Sadly I put this book down after reading only half. It rings of a self-indulgence rant, done by someone who has the star-power to be published despite the content. Reading the cutsey colloquialisms wears quickly thin as well.