I Know I Am, But What Are You?

I don't know where to start except to say: read it. It's a hoot and a half. The natural comparison is David Sedaris, and it does have the self-effacing wit and hilarious family stories of my favorite Sedaris books. If you love Sedaris, you'll love this as well. I always like Samantha Bee on The Daily Show, but she's exponentially funnier in feature-length format. She's a wry self-aware, frank storyteller with a knack for letting the narrative wander where the funny takes her. Seriously, dude. This book reads itself & you'll be giggling with alternate recognition and horror the whole way through. Yay!

I bought this book as a big fan of Samantha Bee from the Daily Show and am now a bigger fan after reading this book. She writes in a charming and disarming style, and while she is quick to put herself down and make herself the butt of each joke, one can see her humor, kindness, and honesty throughout each essay. I would love to read more from her--as she jokingly said on the Daily show, she is leaving her marriage and work stories for later books to complete the trilogy.

I KNOW I AM, BUT WHAT ARE YOU? by Samantha Bee of Jon Stewart's Daily Show fame, is a hilarious book of personal essays in which Samantha tells of her life in Canada growing up. From telling about being a child from divorced parents, being Canadian, and a weird relationship with her cat to experiencing attempted sexual assualts and being a thief, this IS the Samantha Bee fans adore. I laughed so hard because I believe she is a brilliant comedienne. Samantha does indeed give some very real insight into her personal life but you have to also be able to differentiate between the brilliant and bold humor and what is real. If you are not a fan of the irreverent, intelligent humor of Stewart's show and Ms. Bee, than you may not take to this book. However, for the millions who are fans, this is a real treat that I read in one sitting and laughed the whole way through. This is not a fairy tale with sweetness and light, or a memoir filled with hearts and flowers and language you would use around Grandma.(yikes, just remembered, I recently became a Grandmother so judge Grandma for yourself) If you understand that, you will become a fan after reading her book. If you are already a huge fan like I am, you will only wish the book had been longer.

I Know I Am But What Are You? By Samantha Bee This memoir done in the style of essays, is a hilarious look at what can almost be described as the tragedy of Samantha Bee`s life. From a child of divorce to an unnatural relationship with her cat and to attempted sexual assault as a young girl, Samantha has a rare talent of allowing us to find humor among her adversity. It shows how when we grow up we can either wallow in the misery that was our childhood or we can learn and grow from it. And worry that we'll make the same mistakes with our own kids! Well reading this I think Samantha did a little of the wallowing but became a stronger woman for it. Anyone who can joke about her upbringing like this has got to be one healthy individual. This is an eye opening, brash and bold book that is hilarious and brilliant, and was a pleasure to read. Care must be taken when reading it though because you just may laugh yourself sick in some parts...and in some you just may find yourself crying for the little girl that was growing up much too soon.

Any time a comedian writes about their life there's a "through the looking glass" tendency to question how much of it is truth and how much is played strictly for comic effect. As a regular contributor to "The Daily Show" Samantha Bee has shown herself to be one of the sharpest wits on television and a master at deftly skewering an array of idiots, gasbags, blowhards, and freaks. What will shock and surprise readers the most is not only Bee's sharp sense of humor and wit, but her laying bare her past in shocking details. "I Know I Am" is by turns not only hilariously funny yet also thought provoking as you read all the drama that Bee has gone through in her life. Like any good comic Bee finds the humor and laughs in her past and plays it to comic effect. Ostensibly a series of essays on various aspects of her life, "I Know I Am" holds together well as a biography of sorts and also as musings on the absurdities of a misspent life doing an array of crazy things. That she wound up on "The Daily Show" is nothing short of surprising, given the strange things she's done in her life, all told in a voice that is distinctively hers. If you've enjoyed Samantha Bee on "The Daily Show" and want to know more about what makes her tick then you'll definitely enjoy "I Know I Am"! But there remains an otherworldly strangeness to the book that makes you wonder if its all true or invented; such is the nature of Bee's humor.