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Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) [Kindle Edition]

Jenny Lawson
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,167 customer reviews)

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Sold by: Penguin Publishing
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Book Description

Includes a new chapter!

When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.

In the irreverent Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson’s long-suffering husband and sweet daughter help her uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments—the ones we want to pretend never happened—are the very same moments that make us the people we are today. For every intellectual misfit who thought they were the only ones to think the things that Lawson dares to say out loud, this is a poignant and hysterical look at the dark, disturbing, yet wonderful moments of our lives.


Readers Guide Inside


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jen Lancaster, author of Jeneration X, interviews Jenny Lawson about Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Lancaster: You appear to have a soft spot for dead, stuffed creatures, particularly if they’re clad in bowler hats or acting out a scene--please explain.

Lawson: My father is a professional taxidermist, so it’s not like I had a fighting chance. And besides, I think the real question here is, who wouldn’t be interested in ferrets in cancan dresses? Old anthropomorphic taxidermy is fascinating and I’ve collected an entire menagerie of creatures that make up my personal posse. Cuban pirate alligators, Shakespearean mice, heavily armed squirrels, vampire-slaying ducklings. I’m not sure how you say no to those. My husband can, but I’m fairly sure there’s something not right about him. Anyone who can turn his nose up at the Last Supper constructed of Victorian kittens has a problem. I suspect it’s because he’s a Republican.

Lancaster: Who would you say is more powerful, The Bloggess Army or the KISS Army? Compare and contrast.

Lawson: My gut says the Bloggess Army is a bit more intimidating because we don’t dress up like kitties, but I’d probably still pick the KISS Army because Gene Simmons scares the shit out of me. Plus, my fans are less of an army and more of a collection of misfit minions looking to have a good time. Actually, now that I think about it, there’s probably a lot of crossover with the KISS Army. We should host a potluck together.

Lancaster: Can you believe some people don’t know what a confidence wig is?

Lawson: Right?! It’s shocking how often I walk in with one and I hear people whispering about the poor cancer patient that just walked in. I’m not a cancer patient, people. I just wear a wig to increase confidence. Plus, if I really mortify myself, I can just run to the bathroom, throw away the wig, and come back in and ask everyone who invited the crazy blonde that just crawled out of the bathroom window. There is no downside.

Lancaster: What’s it going to take for Nathan Fillion to send you a photo of himself holding a ball of twine?

Lawson: I think it’s going to take Nathan Fillion holding a ball of twine. I’ve offered him thousands of dollars and he still rebuffs me. I have no idea what the hold up is, but I can only imagine that Nathan Fillion is allergic to either twine or to bringing smiles to the faces of strange women who really aren’t asking for that much, Nathan.

Lancaster: Complete this sentence: “An oversized metal chicken…”

Lawson: “Means never having to say you’re sorry. Because it’s not towels.”

Lancaster: Snooki or Kim Kardashian?

Lawson: Alphabetically, or in order of who is most likely to fuck up the youth of America? Because those are two different answers. Or possibly they aren’t, now that I think about it.

Lancaster: What would you be doing if you weren’t writing? (“Hard time” is an acceptable and, frankly, the anticipated answer, FYI.)

Lawson: Well, I was going to say “hard time” but now you’ve ruined it. Which makes me feel stabby. Which leads to hard time. I think this is an example of circular logic. In real life, though, I’d be writing. Before my book it was blogging and before blogging, it was journaling and several times in between, it was graffiti. Writers write always. I thought Ray Bradbury said that, but I can’t find the quote anywhere so I’m taking credit for it. Writers write always.

Lancaster: I don’t consider you a mommyblogger, but many PR companies do. What’s the worst pitch you’ve gotten?

Lawson: Once a PR exec accidentally “replied to all” and called me “a fucking bitch” after I asked them to stop sending me pitches about a Kardashian wearing panty hose. He replied that I should feel flattered that I was even viewed as relevant enough to be pitched to, and I replied “Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy” and tweeted it out to hundreds of thousands of people. It was kind of awesome. And terrifying.

Lancaster: Wil Wheaton or William Shatner?

Lawson: Wil Wheaton. Unless we’re doing the “destroying America thing” again. Then I have to recalculate. William Shatner and I are still recovering from a feud that was covered by MSNBC and Gawker when he refused to come to my house after I apparently offered him the wrong type of hooker. That man is a damn diva. Wil Wheaton, on the other hand, is an officer and a gentleman. William Shatner could learn a lot from that man.

Lancaster: If you had one piece of advice for someone hoping to follow your career path, what would it be?

Lawson: My one word of advice would be “FORTHELOVEOOFGODDON’T.” I’ve fallen backward into this, and I have done every single thing wrong. I have no sacred cows and am fairly unmarketable to any mainstream advertisers. I burn bridges because I like the pretty way they glow and I do exactly the opposite of everything I’m ever told to do. Thank God there’s a steady stream of intellectual misfits and misanthropic joy-seekers who get me, because that’s the only thing that’s saved me. Finding my tribe was a great gift that the Internet gave me. I returned the favor with tweets about shit my cat was doing. We’re pretty even.

Lancaster: What’s it like to ride around in your head for the day?

Lawson: Cramped. Exhausting. Exhilarating. Baffling. I have no way to compare it, but whenever I let slip the bizarre things I’m thinking about, people seem alarmed and step away slowly, so I think “disorientating” is probably fair as well.

From Booklist

In this mordant memoir, Lawson, who calls herself “The Bloggess,” displays the wit that’s made her a hit on the Web. She makes hilarious hay out of her rural Texas upbringing, during which her taxidermist father thought nothing of bringing feral creatures into the house (on her future husband Victor’s first visit to meet the family, dear old Dad tossed a baby bobcat into the unsuspecting lad’s lap). Plagued by anxiety attacks, Lawson is loath to go out in public, and when she does, she inevitably makes a scene. At a Halloween party, she regales guests with a tale of being attacked by a serial killer (turns out it was just her corpulent cat). Lawson, whose award-winning website, TheBloggess.com, averages more than half-a-million page-views per month, delivers some mild moments among the mayhem. At a women’s retreat replete with bonding and wine, she happily discovers that girls really aren’t so bad. Lawson is funny, but her over-the-top tales eventually take their toll, prompting jaded readers to wonder how much of this stuff she’s making up. --Allison Block

Product Details

  • File Size: 1412 KB
  • Print Length: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley; Reprint edition (April 17, 2012)
  • Sold by: Penguin Publishing
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0065S8R38
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #969 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • Would you like to give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

I laughed out loud while reading this book. Angela  |  411 reviewers made a similar statement
Jenny Lawson, aka, The Blogess, writes a very humorous, sometimes sad, book with stories about her life. Cindy Rodriguez  |  211 reviewers made a similar statement
It is amusing for the most part, but the author seems to be trying a little too hard. Sunny Mar  |  51 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
136 of 147 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably not a book to read in public... April 17, 2012
By Kat
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was laughing so hard at some parts, I was crying and had a sore throat afterwards! Even as I was laughing, I was thinking, "Should I be laughing at this? I'm glad it's a book, because if she was telling me this story, I'd still be laughing, which may be inappropriate and embarrassing for both of us!"
Buy this book if:
- you like Jenny's website
- you're not easily offended
- you've ever worked in HR

Don't buy this book if:
-Cursing offends you
-You're easily offended

Also, another reviewer noted spacing problems with the kindle edition. I noticed there were problems on my kindle touch, but I switched to my fire because I thought the pictures might be in color (they weren't). This did solve the spacing problems, but that may be because I've changed the text size settings on my touch but not on my fire.
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70 of 78 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This is already your favorite book April 17, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Incredibly funny memoir that made me laugh out loud to an embarrassing degree. Read it in the privacy of your home because you will snort with laughter! Jenny Lawson is a gifted storyteller and a talented humorist. Her ability to make her readers laugh and bring them into the story with empathy and warmth impressed me. Well done Jenny, well done.
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162 of 200 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Better as a blog, indeed July 3, 2012
Format:Hardcover
I like the bloggess. Jenny Lawson is witty, warm, and delightful, and can be clever as well. Not that you'd be able to tell by this book. Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a rambling collection of anecdotes from Mrs. Lawson's "crazy" upbringing, and some of the stories are amusing, and pitiful, but lordy, she steps all over her punchlines with her absolute, undying need to point out just how wacky it all really was. Just tell me the story and let me decide, okay? If I think it's funny, I'll laugh. You don't have to cue me. It's like how Jay Leno has to ruin EVERY joke he tells by explaining the punch line in detail. We get it. You're now making it less funny. I retract my laugh. Thank you.

I respect Mrs. Lawson too much to suggest that her editor required her to pad the book for a greater word count, but it does tend to feel that way. Stories that might have been funny (might, not a given) if left to their own devices are weighed down by the author's assertions that Yes! My childhood was just THAT effed up, ya'll! I really wanted her to stop doing that. Over and over. And on that point, exactly how many times can you read the F word before it loses its power of emphasis? It is not used sparingly. I am a cusser, so I was not offended in the least, but it did get distracting. I started to wonder at her unvaried vocabulary a little bit.
The stories themselves are hit or miss. It was difficult for me to tell if I wasn't laughing because it wasn't a funny story or if the stories were just interrupted too much and overly interpreted for me by the author. I also had an unconventional upbringing, and it's possible my opinion is skewed on that account, but I felt that many of these "crazy" scenarios just weren't that weird. She just kept telling me that they were. It's like when someone tells you a story and they say, "I haven't even told you the crazy part yet," and you're like, right, I know, because nothing remotely strange has happened within your story, but they just keep talking and it never gets interesting. It never does.

I didn't hate this book -- I doubt I could hate anything by the bloggess -- but I felt that the editors did it a disservice by not assisting more in the streamlining process. This is the author's first book, and while she is responsible for the content and, well, all of it, what is an editor for if not to help make the book readable? There was just too much that didn't fit here.

I will continue to read her blog and will read her next book, whenever that might be, but I'll be reading it with an eye toward looking for improvements over this one. For the record, I borrowed it from the library. I highly recommend the library if you're considering this title.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to read some of the language
I had hoped to enjoy this book more than I did. But I suspect there are others who would really enjoy it and laugh through the whole thing. Just not what I thought it would be.
Published 10 hours ago by Wendelyn J. Thornton
3.0 out of 5 stars Some very entertaining parts...
Some FB friends were raving about it and so I decided to download it. It definitely had some laugh out loud parts, but not as entertaining as made out to be
Published 13 hours ago by Lisa Traver
5.0 out of 5 stars Can't wait for the next one...
Jenny has the most bizarre, yet entertaining thoughts and experiences. I'll be back for the next set of adventures. Thanks Jenny!
Published 14 hours ago by Heather F
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Lawson's book is totally hilarious! I love that she actually has pictures - laugh out loud funny! I recommend this book to all of my friends!
Published 1 day ago by jordon Corbett
1.0 out of 5 stars A bunch of profanity! Don't waste your time or money!
I bought this book before the paperback was available so paid more for hardcover. I had expected it to be hilarious. What I found was practically every other word was profanity! Read more
Published 1 day ago by Jodi
1.0 out of 5 stars Please don't waste your money.
Started out funny and that was it. Seldom do I not finish a book, but this one I couldn't. I'm from Texas and yes I could relate to some things, but I didn't care for " oh it... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Dee
1.0 out of 5 stars couldn't bring myself to finish it
I do not normally leave reviews, but I felt compelled to leave a review for this book. There were so many positive reviews on the book, I thought it had to be a great read. Read more
Published 2 days ago by ODC_DC
5.0 out of 5 stars Seriously people?
Wow people some of your reviews! This book is not for everyone and Jenny gives you plenty of warning of that in the introduction. It's not. She's correct. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Lisa Meyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, one of a kind, bamboozlement.
Jenny Lawson is a diamond, imperfect maybe, but a diamond nonetheless. This book is non-stop humor and it had me in total shock and disbelief... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Dee
5.0 out of 5 stars amazing
I'm a big fan of the bloggess and this book lived up to everything I expected. Hilarious, bizarre, and touching
Published 4 days ago by NatW
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More About the Author

Jenny Lawson is a very strange girl who has friends in spite of herself. She is perpetually one cat away from being a crazy cat lady.

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