Kinokonos

Had I Only Known

Revisado: 01-02-20

I’ve met Laura handful of times over the years pre/post transition. I can say with 100% certainty that the picture she paints of herself as this horrible person is the furthest thing I’ve ever seen of her. From playing foosball with her and members of the longest running lineup pre-transition to her being totally freaked out and not knowing how to react to some random jerk aggressively hitting on me when we were just trying to do shots of fireball after the show (after which she disappeared, which I now understand was probably because the legal implications and press she might have had to endure in backing me up understandably made retreat her only viable option), she never seemed like the unhappy/self-absorbed person she presents herself as in this book. I think most people who have met her over the years for more than a quick photo or a meet and greet would agree. I feel so bad knowing she felt that way all this time and carried that burden while putting on a mask for the rest of us. That’s the side of the story this book doesn’t tell.

Yes this is a tell-all, I know/have met other people named in this book, in some cases their portrayal shocked, in others it was spot on, but while Laura clearly saw the worst in herself and put all the dirt on the table, a lot of people who she’d bump into sporadically along the way would be shocked that this self portrayal has no juxtaposition from fans, acquaintances, and friends that tell the other side of how cool she’s been to some of us. This book almost deserves the equivalent of a YouTube response video to let her know her self projections of a past life she’d rather not remember was nowhere near as bad (often quite the opposite) of how she remembers it, but she clearly deserves to leave that past in the past.

This book is a necessary read for everyone that lost faith in Laura and Against Me! through various eras of the band’s history. It sheds new light on albums I admittedly hated but ended up loving after the Rolling Stone article announcing her transition was released, giving me new context/a new lens to view certain songs/lyrics through. Though I myself already have grown fond of them, I now have a much better understanding/appreciation for them. While admittedly I feel like a few things are left out of the book (as an on/off avid follower of her social media content/journalism sideline) there’s only so much you can fit into a book to keep it readable/on-point and this did just that. I’d hope for a follow up book someday, but for now this book did everything from make me cry (a difficult task), laugh, learn, re-contextualize, and I finished it in 3 sittings. Definitely worth a read or a listen.

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When did Colin Quinn get so smart?!

Revisado: 09-29-17

This is just a great book that takes you through Collin Quinn's life growing up in New York. It is by no means PC, but it is intelligent, historic and absolutely hilarious. I can't lie, often feels like it's walking the fine line between racism and social commentary, and at times it feels like it's going to fall off the deep end, but I think that's part of the suspense of the book. The first time listening to this I was subconsciously waiting for Quinn to say something horribly offensive so I could go tweet about it, it didn't happen. It was actually a really delightful story about a time in one of the greatest cities of the world that can only be remembered by stories like this. I think it's a great read, it's probably better as an audiobook than as a physical book. I find that the cadence of Quinn's voice is integral to this story and commentary, and I loved every second of it.

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I like blue/dark commedy, but couldn't finish this

Revisado: 09-29-17

As the tittle states, I like dark/raunchy/blue comedy, I love British comedy, I'm a fan of Russell Brand, but I couldn't even get very far into this. It's almost as if he wrote a book in the voice of the character he played in his hit film Get Him To The Greek (I think it was a hit film... I really liked it). This might sound awesome, but imagine that guy trying to write a book? I could not imagine that character writing a very good book, so walking away with the impression I walked away with, is definitely a negative thing from my viewpoint. I may try to give it a 2nd chance, but there's just so many other GREAT audiobooks by comedians that I want to listen to, or listen to again that it falls pretty low on the priority list. I only still own it because I had trouble trying to return it and I didn't act fast enough. Audiobooks like Tina Fey's Bossypants, and both of Jim Gaffigan's books are much better reads if you're looking to laugh for hours on end (which is what I was hoping I'd get out of this book, oh well). Because I really do enjoy Russe Brand I wish I could honestly give it more than one star, but in all honesty, if I could give it half a star, or no stars, I'd have to give it less than I gave it. I feel really bad saying that, but it's the truth. I felt it was a waste of my money. That being said, other people give it rave reviews, so objectively speaking it could just be me.

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Ray Porter brings a 'tech heavy' book to life!!!

Revisado: 09-29-17

The Kevin Mitnick story is not just for 'computer nerds,' it's actually a pretty wild tale of one person's trailblazing adventures and some pretty serious human rights violations he suffered because at the time the technology he was experimenting with and abusing was not easily accessible (therefore the average person had no idea how it worked). It's the story of a pretty major failure of the legal system in a 1st world country, and how a kid who liked magic, pulling pranks, and wanting to know everything about how the world works ended up in prison for half a decade while awaiting trial, in part because of the media's violation of his rights as a minor. It's the story about how he bounced back, and the friends he made along the way, some of which were the very people breaking his head to try and catch him. This is a great companion piece to Frank Abagnale's 'Catch Me If You Can' (the book is much different than the movie, but both are masterpieces as far as I'm concerned).

I've listened to this at least 10 times, and while I'm well versed in some areas of technology, I'm actually a little embarrassed about how little I know about web security. I'm saying this because I this review would not be honest if I didn't mention Mitnick talks about a number of... I guess strings of code/commands. I'd like to think that most people could follow the story even if they don't understand all the 'jargon' but I'm a quick study, I'm sure I had to google a bunch of terms the 1st/2nd time I listened to this, and still loved it. It's a great book, it's the true story that inspired a lot fiction. It's also the story about some how some false claims about Mitnick inspired a lot of fiction. Mostly if you ever read a newspaper article about Mitnick, it's your chance to hear his side of the story, and in this case, it's a story worth knowing.

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Amazing! A little weird that Chris didn't read this himself. Still AMAZING!!!

Revisado: 02-13-16

Really an amazing book. For those of us who have come to love Chris through his comedy and former weekly public access show, now picked up by cable in its second season, it might be weird to hear Thomas in any voice other than Chris' because it's so easy to hear how Chris himself would say certain things in your head. At least for some 'Geth Heads.' That aspect was also a little entertaining though and I felt the narrator/vocal performer did a good job with an impossible task, being Gethards voice, his performance is very enjoyable.

If you like stories about weird but awesome people who do things considered Fringe/Unconventional, you need to read this book. I'm on my 5th or 6th listen.

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Leaves you wanting more.

Revisado: 09-11-15

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Let's face it. Most of us have seen the movie. THIS BOOK IS NOT THE MOVIE (which is actually the movie that got me to start respecting Leonardo DiCaprio, had to be a good flick to achieve that feat). It's not better, it's not worse, it's different and great in it's own right. You will hear things in the book that weren't in the movie, and the story ends in a different place than the movie ended. If it were not for that, people wouldn't say that it was too short. If you look at it as an independent entity, it had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, I think I finished it in two days. For me a way to gauge something is if I kept listening to it when I wasn't driving, and I never wanted this to end. I will be checking out Abagnale's other books after this. While I liked the narrator I don't offer the same extreme praise as other reviewers, but that's a matter of taste. He did a solid job with his performance and still get's 5/5 from me but I'm more partial to dumb comedy books read by the authors who are very expressive in a different way and in general I find a lot of audiobooks not worth reviewing. This one was worth sharing my love, I highly doubt it will disappoint!

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Easy Listen, made me hungry.

Revisado: 09-11-15

I personally liked his last book a lot better and I still give this 5 stars across the board. to be fair, I'm biased, I travel a lot, I know a lot of the places he talks about in this book and there's a lot of nostalgia. If you watch a lot of the food network and enjoy this brand of humour, or if you travel a lot this book is probably a good fit. it's not all about eating while travelling, but a good section of his numerous commentary on the broad subject of food is focused on various elements of travel, and it might be useful to note this. Rock on Jim, I needed a few laughs, once again, you did not disappoint. Can't wait for book #3 which if you did not know you were writting, now you do, I have decided for you. ;)

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Took a bit to get into, then it was all out laughs

Revisado: 08-04-15

What made the experience of listening to Dad Is Fat the most enjoyable?

This one had me laughing a lot from the time I started re-listening. I can't remember why I couldn't get into it at first, but as an adult who had to take a road trip with my parents, this saved me. Maybe I was just in a weird mood, but if you're like me and had a hard time getting into it, stay with it, it's hilarious.

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I love when mandatory reads come as audiobooks!!!

Revisado: 04-29-15

I had to read this book for a class, and my grade was significantly higher because I was able to listen before and/or after I read the chapter(s) of the week. This is actually the book that sold me on audiobooks. If you've read other psych books, you should be able to handle this, I have to be honest, if I wasn't discussing the readings with a highly regarded professor every week I probably wouldn't have read this, and I might not have finished it, but for my purposes this book was a life saver. Speaking of lifesaving this book is jam packed with useful knowledge about how your brain interacts with your body, and some of it is pretty terrifying (it gave me more goose bumps than many books/movies from the horror/thriller/suspense/true crime spectrum of popular media).


That being said, I would not recommend this book if you're a hypochondriac or if you have psychosomatic tendencies. I'm not a doctor, but I feel like this book is enough to make the average person (who doesn't struggle with that spectrum of disorders) think that they're body is going haywire. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, when you have a better idea of how your body works it can naturally make you more cognitive of it's internal functions. If you can wrap your head around that, it's a good thing, if you can't I'd imagine it could be enough to give someone a pretty bag anxiety attack.

If there was one thing that was a bit of a pain it was that the footnotes from the book are not read in the audiobook, and I can't remember if they were included in the PDF or not, but if you're using this for a class, you are definitely going to want to get the footnotes in some format (even if that means just looking at a friends book). I'm not sure how well I would have followed without the physical book to accompany it.


One way or another, for my purposes I was 100% satisfied with the book, as my makeshift disclaimer states, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, and I hope this review helps you decide whether this book is for you. If it is, it's a great read!

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