There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Paula Poundstone (Author, Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2006

What do the lives of Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and other historical figures have in common with Paula Poundstone? In the hands of this wryly observant and self-deprecating comedian, the answer is outrageously funny and unexpectedly touching. Poundstone compares her crazy life to theirs, as she holds forth on her children, her career, and the time in her life when it appeared she would lose them both. Now exonerated, Poundstone treats that stressful experience and the rest of her life—successes and failures—with remarkable wit and insight. THERE'S NOTHING IN THIS BOOK THAT I MEANT TO SAY is self-awareness and honesty at its most hilarious.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The intentionally disjointed structure of this audiobook—Poundstone presenting biographies of seven historical figures, including Joan of Arc, Helen Keller and Abraham Lincoln, with each fact launching her into a tangent about her own life—works particularly well on audio. Poundstone sounds like she's chatting naturally and keeps remembering other things she wants to say. She's frank, funny and immensely likable. Her autobiographical stories are often harrowing: she was convicted of driving while intoxicated with her three adopted children in the car, and lost custody of them for a year. Her pain at the memory is obvious, but she leavens the subject matter with plenty of black humor and irony: noting that she was court-ordered on television to attend Alcoholics Anonymous, she comments, "That pretty much blows the hell out of the second A." There are many quotable one-liners, amid Poundstone's self-deprecating humor. By turns funny and poignant, this is a book that shines on audio.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 2001 comedian Poundstone was convicted of DWI--with her three adopted children in the car. The court placed the kids in foster care, and for a year Poundstone picked them up from the foster home early each morning, cared for them, brought them back for bedtime, and didn't leave until they were asleep. She sparks this sad but ultimately triumphal story by uproariously comparing and contrasting herself and famous people. For instance, like Joan of Arc, who claimed to hear God, Poundstone "heard God speak to me once. He said, 'You're wearing that?'" Mocking her alcoholism, she recalls the potted purchases of a pet-store bunny and, later, a dog whose temperament resulted from familial alcoholism: his mother went on a binge and mated with a shark, producing a pet that routinely jumps fences to devour cats. Near the end of the book, Poundstone rhetoricizes, "Am I the luckiest woman in the world or what? I have three great kids, and not one of them is at risk of inheriting my pot belly." Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: HighBridge Company; Abridged; 6 hours on 5 CDs edition (November 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598870718
• ISBN-13: 978-1598870718
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Very Funny, December 3, 2007

By 

Stephen Williams "Stephen Williams" (Hawthorne, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say (Hardcover)

This book is very funny. I could not put it down and finished the book so fast that I wanted more.

Paula Poundstone presented a very popular stage comedy routine on the Bravo television channel. This book is an excellent extension of the stage routine. The book is even better than the Bravo television presentation.

Read this book.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let Me Speak for/to the Detractors, November 24, 2006

By 

Square Peg (AZ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the book. I appreciate that Poundstone took such a creative approach to launch her stream of consciousness. As I read, I chuckled a lot (I'm not much of a laugh-out-loud kind of person) although I did experience the occasional loud snicker.

As I read, I imagined something that the book's detractors would say (if Poundstone can wander off into the weeds writing the book, I can certainly do the same as I review it!):

"Poundstone goes on ad nauseum about her arrest a few years ago....she keeps bringing it up....like she's trying to explain her side of her legal troubles..."

So let me "'splain" to you that this is a stream of consciousness book. Poundstone gets in a biographical mode and then veers off to what pops into her mind. Her legal woes were traumatic for her and a turning point in her life. They're on her mind. When she thinks of one thing, her mind sometimes wanders off to her arrest and drinking and follow-up healing. Though embarrassed, ashamed, and even angered about what she went through (particularly losing her kids and the endless parade of diagnoses), her self-deprecating humor can still see some humor in some of her experiences.

This is not a book for someone who takes himself and life too seriously, who can't eke out some humor in bad experiences in retrospect. If you've never been described as being irreverent or having a morbid sense of humor, if you're turned off Jon Stewart or SNL, don't read this book, and re-read one of your inspirational books.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very, very funnu, and surprisingly touching, May 1, 2007

By 

VMR "V.R." (Toledo, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say (Hardcover)

I don't normally read memoirs, or personal histories, or biographies, but I love Paula Poundstone and her kind of humor, and picked the book. I foolishly started reading it before I went to bed, which was a big mistake - I couldn't put it down. Trust me: it is laugh out loud funny. There is also something genuinely straightforward and a bit sad about her writing. I'm now even bigger fan of her. It is a very fast read, and even though jagged narrative style was a bit jarring to me at first, I loved when she wrote about Beethoven. Also, how can you not like a woman who admits she has a crush on Wilbur Wright?!