"That is a beautiful blouse you're wearing. It goes so nicely with this book"- Ellen DeGeneres
"I love the way you're holding this book. It's like you were born to buy it and hold it forever."-Ellen DeGeneres
"You know what I love most about you? That we get each other. And also your eyes."- Ellen DeGeneres
"You're my favorite reader. Ever, of all time. Shhh...don't tell the other readers."-Ellen DeGeneres
DeGeneres wrote this book in hopes of communicating with a broad audience. I believe she succeeded, and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes DeGeneres, or likes to laugh in general. I liked that each chapter was about a different topic such as the importance of honesty, how to be a supermodel, common courtesy, family, the secrets of life, writing books, dreams, and gambling tips, to name a few. She often connected these topics with personal anecdotes from her life, opinions, or serious pieces of advice. This allowed DeGeneres to appeal to different audiences. Despite the changing topics, I found it all to be very interesting and I could relate most of what she was saying to some part of my life. A lot of what DeGeneres wrote was downright funny, but she balanced the humor nicely with valid life tips and genuine advice she gave with hopes of making the reader happier, or at least the knowledge they need to do so.
The chapters were also short which was nice because the end of every chapter seemed like a good place to stop, if the reader needed to, since there wasn't a continuing story line. I feel like the shorter chapters made the reading feel really fast, and allowed DeGeneres to cover a wide range of topics, as mentioned before, which I absolutely loved. Her writing cracked me up, and I will have to add her two other books to my "to-read" list!
I do love to laugh and I certainly like Ellen. What would you say is the overarching "message" of the book? Is it an outlook on life or is there a more serious idea that runs underneath the humor? Were there chapters? How did the book work, overall? Was it chronological or topical?
ReplyDeleteThe majority of the book is Ellen just being Ellen. She tells the reader a lot about her personal history and how her daily life operates, though many jokes and wild exaggerations are intertwined. It is mostly very humorous. However, in the final chapter, she summarizes her main points of advice which are to help others, don't be afraid to show what you are thinking and feeling, and to stay true to yourself and your beliefs. Her hope is that, if a person does these things, the world could become a better place and the individual could become a happier person.
DeleteI think the book worked really well, structurally speaking. There were chapters, and each chapter dealt with a different topic. For example, there were chapters entitled: Family, Common Courtesy, Sauna, Guided Meditation, Stretching, and What Would Jesus Do. Ellen even devoted one chapter to children, where there were four pages with pictures that could be colored in!
I've always wanted to watch her show because I really like her attitude on life, but I never realized that she has written multiple books. I'm know adding this to my to read list. I really like the way you say the book is written. I hope that I get the chance to read this book and her others. The whole concept of reaching everyone and talking about many topics sounds very interesting.
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