Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs: She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse. Paul Carter

This memoir is poignant, gritty, riotously funny and at times heartbreaking. A heartfelt and brilliant piece on the mysteries of a life spent abroad and often alone, with eyes wide open to the beauty, adventure, tragedy and humor that the world offers all of us (but especially the craziest among us).

I don't ever write reviews about books, this one being my first on here but I just had to on this book. I bought this at an airport on a return trip from Australia and I'm not really sure why I got it, or what stuck out that compelled me to purchase it. I don't read fiction and to be honest it was the only thing there that was non-fiction that seemed different (the title alone should tell you all you need to know about this read). Within 20min of reading this book I was laughing so hard that I had people looking at me like I was crazy. I couldn't hold the tears back as the author had me rolling with his Seinfeld life. It's all about an average Joe who makes a living on an oil rig and always has something go wrong. A true roughneck job but written in such a comical way that you can't put the book down. It's the kind of read when you get done that you close the book and go look for someone to say "Hey you GOT to read this book man!"

I end up buying a lot of books that document people's interesting adventures in far away places. Some of them turn out to be poorly written or boring, but NOT THIS BOOK. I read it in a day, and loved it. While I'm in the oil industry, and that might help viusalize some of the places he ended up in, it's not at all necessary to have a background to enjoy this book- the majority of it is actually his travels to and from the rig. Love the crazy cast of characters, variety of pets, and especially the Brunei native whose dog had a dog...

I almost wet my pants laughing my way through this book. The other patrons at the resort pool were giving me strange looks as tears ran down my face and I struggled to catch my breath. I couldn't put it down till it was finished!

Paul Carter tells his tales of working on oil rigs like very few others can. This book is literally "laugh out loud" funny. Written by an Australian and from an Aussie view point, non-Australian readers may not enjoy the humour as much as I did, but I guarantee that you will like the book and will probably read it more than once and pass it on to friends. It has been selling very, very well here in Australia since its release. It's really is a "don't miss" book.