★ 06/26/2017
One of veteran comedian Poundstone’s highest-profile recurring gigs involves panelist duties on National Public Radio’s Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me! game show, and the accomplished funnywoman draws quite effectively on her natural ease in front of a microphone, bringing the droll quality of her stand-up comedy to the audio medium. The narrative centers on her quest to find the elusive experience of bliss through various experiments, ranging from the altruism of donating plasma and volunteering in a nursing home to the hedonism of renting a sports car or watching movies at home with her three kids for 24 hours in a row. Poundstone’s turn imitating the teenage angst of her technology-addicted son leaves a particularly memorable impression. An Algonquin hardcover. (May)
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
Narrated by Paula Poundstone
Paula PoundstoneUnabridged — 7 hours, 34 minutes
The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness
Narrated by Paula Poundstone
Paula PoundstoneUnabridged — 7 hours, 34 minutes
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Overview
The results are irreverent, laugh-out-loud funny, and pointedly relevant to our times. The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness is both a hilarious story of jumping into new experiences with both feet and a surprisingly poignant tale of a working mother raising three kids. Paula is a master of her craft. Her comedic brilliance, served up in abundance in this book, has been compared to that of George Carlin, Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin, and David Sedaris.
Editorial Reviews
A pure romp . . . A deeply revealing memoir in which the pathos doesn't kill the humor—delivers more than it promises.” —Kirkus Reviews “For readers who want a break from the current madness in the world and a good dose of Poundstone humor, this book will certainly provide.” —NY Journal of Books “Smart, sweet, and laugh-out-loud funny balm for exceedingly stressful times.” —Booklist “The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness is a remarkable journey. I laughed. I cried. I got another cat.” —Lily Tomlin “The bravest and best improv comic of our time has now done the impossible and created a Work of Literature that has the wild hairy spirit of performance about it. Sort of like Emmy Dickinson Her Sensational Cat Circus. Or Hermie Melville His Singing Whale. The whole family comes in for the price of one ticket and there is not a bad seat in the house.” —Garrison Keillor “Reading Paula Poundstone’s The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness, I laughed until I got fit, wired, earthy, organized, you-name-it. I’m happy now. I’ve discovered that the secret to happiness is to let Paula do all these things while I read her hilarious book about it.” —P.J. O’Rourke “If you haven’t met Paula Poundstone, I highly recommend that you get to know her now. I flew through her book and laughed at every page.” —Dick Van Dyke “Paula Poundstone is hilarious. She says that deep-rooted happiness requires a sense of purpose. I started reading this book because I knew it would make me laugh, and it did. I finished this book with hope, my own sense of purpose, and a renewed faith in people.” —Trisha Yearwood “Paula Poundstone deserves to be happy. Nobody deserves to be this funny.” —Roy Blount Jr. “Paula Poundstone never disappoints with her stand-up, and now she has written an informative and highly entertaining book which deserves to be read and discussed . . . and I highly recommend that it is.” —Carl Reiner “Did someone finally do it? Did Paula Poundstone discover the secret to human happiness? I don’t want to give away the ending, but she did make me laugh a LOT, and even shed some tears. Read this book!” —Pete Docter, screenwriter and director, Inside Out, Up and Monsters, Inc. “My God, this is a funny book! Bright shafts of the incomparable Poundstone wit come at you from every page.” —Dick Cavett, New York Times columnist and author of Brief Encounters “Paula Poundstone is the funniest human being I have ever known. Everything she does, thinks, or says is hilarious. She is made of funny. If you chopped her into bits, each piece would be hilarious. (But don’t.) Air becomes funny having been breathed by her. So, thus and naturally, this book is hilarious. Even the punctuation is a scream. Buy it.” —Peter Sagal, host, "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!" and author of The Book of Vice
11/15/2017
Comedian Poundstone pursues the secrets of happiness with a series of over-the-top unscientific studies. Whether it's learning to dance, getting in shape, getting closer to nature, or binge-watching movies, Poundstone dedicates herself to trying anything that promises happiness and recording the results. Peppered with hilarious asides, family squabbles, failures, cat litter, and hands-on research, this will find listeners laughing along with the absurdity and hilariousness of the author's search for human contentment. Expertly narrated by the comedian, it comes across like good stand-up comedy and will garner Poundstone even more fans. VERDICT For fans of comedic memoirs and zany scientific endeavors.—Erin Cataldi, Johnson Cty. P.L., Franklin, IN
Comedian Paula Poundstone wanted to know if there’s a secret to happiness, so she became the test subject of her totally unscientific research. Listeners are the beneficiaries. In each chapter, she tests a new hypothesis for happiness, starting with getting fit with taekwondo and moving to camping with her daughter, dancing, and spending more time with her family. Along with scientific-sounding evaluations and analyses comes the wisdom, laced with her canny observations and sparkling wit, and delivered in her trademark deadpan tone. For instance, did you know that cello hours are longer than computer hours? And she loves to read to her kids but thinks it’s better to have an audiobook on when she’s driving. Thank you, Paula, for going through all that tedious research. I feel much happier after listening. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
2017-04-17
In the follow-up to There's Nothing in This Book that I Meant To Say (2007), comedian Poundstone chronicles her amusing and surprisingly personal search for the key to happiness.In the introduction, the author notes that she has done things in the moment that made her happy, but she had never given much thought to pursuing it consistently. If anyone had found a secret to success, it would be cruel of them to keep it secret. So Poundstone resolved to find it and began an "unscientific" study to figure out if the secret could be found in various tasks or pursuits. Some of the experiments included an exercise regimen, dancing, spending more time with her dog and many cats, and hugging everyone she meets. She also spent an entire day watching movies with her kids, an enterprise that almost broke down over movie choices. After renting a Lamborghini, she discovered that while it thrilled her to drive a powerful machine, she felt like a jerk every time she passed a homeless person. That experiment was supposed to last for a week, but as Poundstone notes, she was deep in debt and could only afford to rent the car for a day. The concept of a comedian doing a series of stunts to find happiness seems like a pure romp, and there are plenty of great laughs, but that's not the whole story. One of the reasons the author is searching for happiness is to cope with real struggles. She is raising three kids while trying to keep a tour schedule to pay her debts; her cats are involved in a territorial pissing fight; a good friend is dying of cancer. Eventually she realized the true nature of her search: "Happiness needs to be like a soaking rain, an aquifer, a tucked-away capacity to store enough so that when your friend Martha gets sick, you don't fade away forever." A deeply revealing memoir in which the pathos doesn't kill the humor—delivers more than it promises.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170128266 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HighBridge Company |
| Publication date: | 05/09/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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