Jean

My biggest complaint about this book was something that AJ Jacobs mentions himself, which is that his voice has a somewhat nasal tone. When I first heard his voice I thought "That is NOT how I imagined him sounding", since I've read his book "The Year of Living Biblically" and saw many photographs chronicling the growth of his beard. But after awhile I grew used to his voice, and he does a good job of being expressive.

I liked that each chapter of the audiobook was based on a different experiment which AJ tried in his life. My personal favorite was the one about outsourcing. It was really funny to picture AJ's Indian assistants actually finishing his chapter on outsourcing for him.

For anyone who is not familiar with AJ's work, I think the introduction that AJ gives at the beginning of the book does a good job of describing the type of experiments he has done for the purpose of his writing.

Since each chapter is based on a different experiment, this book is good for breaking up over a long amount of time as one chapter does no depend upon the previous chapter for reference.

Perhaps it is not fair to rate a book that I have not finished, but I want to warn anyone else out there who saw all of the high ratings for this book that it is not nearly as interesting as it appears.

The first problem that I have with the book is the narrator. His voice is a combination of monotony and condescension which I find insulting and hard to listen to. This is the first audio book I have listened to which is not an autobiography read by the author, so maybe that is part of the problem.

The content of the book is also incredibly dull so far. The book opens with Jim Henson's funeral, but keeps cutting from the funeral to describe the thoughts of some other people who helped create Sesame Street. There is a long lament against Henson's decision to license the Muppets with Disney, and it seems like a personal vendetta the author has against Michael Eisner.

The first chapter opens by going in-depth describing some family who originally came up with the idea for Sesame Street, but once again I find myself wondering why the details of these people are so relevant. I'm not sure if the book actually drags on or if it's just the narrator's voice that makes it seem like these details just go on forever, but at this point I do not see myself being able to finish this book.

Perhaps it's the fact that the story opens with a funeral that gives the story such a depressing tone. It would have been better to open up on a livelier note.

I only planned on listening to this book during my drive to and from work every day, but Kristen's narrative style had me so entranced that I spent my lunch hour listening to the book and would even listen to it once I got home in the evening. I wanted to make the story last forever because she was so entertaining, but I was also impatient to get to the next point in the story.

What I liked the most was that Kristen is very frank. She is not a celebrity that is all over the tabloids so I did not have a preconceived idea of who she was before listening to her book, I was just familiar with her from 3rd Rock. She does a good job of describing part of her childhood and what led her to becoming an actress, but the book does not become a lengthy autobiography. From the beginning, we know the book is about Kristen's battle with addiction and that remains the focal point of the book.

Perhaps it is her training as an actress that allows Kristen to tell a story that is so captivating. I truly enjoyed listening to her voice because she is very expressive. Her impressions of the British doctors and nurses from her stay in a London hospital were great to listen to.

My biggest complaint about the book was it seemed too short. It would be nice to know more about how her life is now as a sober person.