Little Weirds

By: Jenny Slate

Narrated by: Jenny Slate

Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times best seller about love, heartbreak, and being alive - "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders). 

You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright, as the creator of Marcel the Shell, or as the star of Obvious Child. But you don't really know Jenny Slate until you get bonked on the head by her absolutely singular writing style. To see the world through Jenny's eyes is to see it as though for the first time, shimmering with strangeness and possibility. As she will remind you, we live on an ancient ball that rotates around a bigger ball made up of lights and gasses that are science gasses, not farts (don't be immature). Heartbreak, confusion, and misogyny stalk this blue-green sphere, yes, but it is also a place of wild delight and unconstrained vitality, a place where we can start living as soon as we are born, and we can be born at any time. In her dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, Jenny channels the pain and beauty of life in writing so fresh, so new, and so burstingly alive, we catch her vision like a fever and bring it back out into the bright day with us, where everything has changed. 

One of Vanity Fair's Great Quarantine Reads

©2019 Jenny Slate (P)2019 Little, Brown & Company

Critic Reviews

"This book is something new and wonderful - honest, funny, positive, completely original, and inspiring in the very best way: it made me remember I was alive." (George Saunders)

"Jenny's writing is magical and stylish, just like her. Each essay in Little Weirds feels like a vivid, cinematic experience, full of original observations and unexpected laughs." (Mindy Kaling)

"Luminous, emotional, lovely, and a little mysterious, this book is something you will savor like a half-remembered, gorgeous dream. You'll finish it feeling like Jenny Slate is your new best friend." (Susan Orlean)

"A singularly hilarious and horny, but also poignant and tender, collection of writing that beautifully captures Slate's inimitable voice, which is one that, once you've heard it, you want to listen to forever." (Kristen Iversen, Nylon)

"A man on the 2 Express Train read some of Jenny Slate's Little Weirds over my shoulder. 'What kind of book is this?' he asked. 'The best kind,' I replied." (John Mulaney)

"This book is like a stovetop goulash, delicious and varied ingredients, prepared perfectly and excellent with bread...I'm sorry, I lost track of the simile." (Amy Sedaris)

"Jenny's writing is wide open, tuneful, tender. She sees the world (and feels the world) like a bug might, two antennae poking out from her head like sensory wands. Reading Little Weirds made me feel tipsy." (Durga Chew-Bose, author of Too Much and Not the Mood)

softness is earned and it is wonderful

this book reminded me I was alive, yes, but more importantly it reminded me that I can and should exist in myself, inhabit myself, observe myself, and that I should not ignore my thoughts and needs in order to struggle with complacency and conformity. softness is good, it's necessary. I've found that it has to be worked for and chosen, and I truly admire and appreciate how soft and good ms. slate's book is, and how soft and good it made me feel when I could relate especially to certain stories. I highly highly would recommend this book to anyone else who has felt displaced in themselves, and wants to remember that the little moments that make you you are valuable, and that you are valuable.

Weird - and not just a little

You'll either love or hate Little Weirds by Jenny Slate. I listened to the audiobook read by the author and would recommend it to try to understand it better. This book is strange and trippy and random, and I don't know if it contains actual poetry, but it's extremely flowy and poetic. I even tagged it as magical realism.

I like Jenny Slate as a person and enjoy her standup comedy and voiceover work. I wanted to read this book after seeing her talk about it in an interview. Little Weirds is a super quirky collection of essays and contains what a lot of people would likely say is nonsense, but I enjoyed it because it's mostly light and memoir-like. There are nuggets of emotion, meaning, and wisdom throughout the book mixed in with the stream-of-consciousness fever dreams.

I wouldn't say Little Weirds is funny exactly, and I didn't laugh out loud. The chapters are very short and don't follow chronological order. Slate's voice is strong and feels genuine. I truly believe this is what she's like in real life.

Quirky but not that funny

Little Weirds is quirky and a little dark, very poetic and oh so weird. It reads more like an art piece that comes from the mind of the artist and is not entirely relatable for the reader, but you're interested enough to stay engaged. I loved parts of this book and enjoyed the writing and sentiment, but kept waiting for more laughs, which were infrequent for a book cataloged as comedy.

bait & switch

The Sample Reading, was all about a Ghost in her childhood home. The storytelling was so involved that I found myself feeling sympathetic towards the old ghost. Anxious to continue the story, I buy to book.
I'm now in Chaper 5 and this book is just a whole bunch of ramblings of absolutely nothing!! (No ghost, No ghost story, not even the mention of a ghost.) I listened to over 8 minutes of the reader starting every sentence with the words "I was born..."
Obviously, you were born or I would not be tortured with what you call a writing style for a book.
Going to look for a refund as soon as I finish this post.

Devastatingly beautiful

Wow this book was life changing! Jenny Slate thank you for your beautiful vulnerability

Sweet. Strange. Deeply Insightful.

It really feels like a window into Jenny's brain. It's funny and quirky, but also really beautiful. A lovely self-exploration/reflection. Can something be realistically whimsical? It bounces so gracefully from crass, to heartbreaking, to sweet, to nostalgic, to angry, to happy, to loving.

A wonderful tapestry of memory and self-awakening

A collection of nonfictional magical realism that makes me want to buy the author red geraniums and be her friend.

Sappy and whiney

The author has a good writing style but if you don’t want to listen to hours worth of some one whining then don’t waste the money or credit. She’s funny at times but the whole gist of this book seems to be how unhappy she is and how much she doesn’t like the president. Which is whatever to me but she throws it in pretty often.

Whimsical

Vulnerable and so beautiful. So glad I listened. Will certainly come back and listen again when I need to.

Witty short stories

I enjoyed these little tales, especially as told by Jenny Slate herself. I think it'd be best listened to in bits at a time. It can get a bit repetitive in tone when listened to in long stints. It was entertaining and well written... like a modern day poem. Quirky and fresh outlook on the world from Ms. Slate's perspective.