Spending the Holidays with People I want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann - Review

Published: October 13, 2015

Number of pages: 224

Genre: Humor

Synopsis:

For fans of Laurie Notaro and Jenny Lawson comes an uproarious and oddly endearing essay collection for anyone trying to survive the holidays in one piece.

When it comes to time-honored holiday traditions, Jen Mann pulls no punches

In this hilariously irreverent collection of essays, Jen Mann, nationally bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat, turns her mordant wit on the holidays. On Mann’s naughty list: mothers who go way overboard with their Elf on the Shelf, overzealous carolers who can’t take a hint, and people who write their Christmas cards in the third person (“Joyce is enjoying Bunko. Yeah, Joyce, we know you wrote this letter.”). And on her nice list . . . well, she’s working on that one. Here, no celebration is off-limits. The essays include:

• You Can Keep Your Cookies, I’m Just Here for the Booze
• Nice Halloween Costume. Was Skank Sold Out?
• Why You Won’t Be Invited to Our Chinese New Year Party

From hosting an ill-fated Chinese New Year party, to receiving horrible gifts from her husband on Mother’s Day, to reluctantly telling her son the truth about the Easter Bunny, Mann knows the challenge of navigating the holidays while keeping her sanity intact. And even if she can’t get out of attending another Christmas cookie exchange, at least she can try again next year.

What did I think of this book:

This book was everybit as good as the original People I Want to Punch in the Throat book. It is very fitting to be reading it at this time of the year. We all  have people we know are over acheivers that we want to just punch and Jen just says what we all wish we had the guts to say. Just like the last book I read parts of this out load to my husband as he laughs and says I like this lady. There are still a couple of her books I have not read yet but trust me I will be reading them as well. Her feelings on things are exactly as I feel i.e. the cookie Christmas exchange. Who likes doing those and why do they try to say it is so easy. NOT. You have to make a million cookies and then you end up getting back not very many that anyone in your family will even eat. I look forward to seeing what else Jen has in store for us. 

About the author:

Jen Mann is the nationally bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat, based on her popular blog of the same name. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, NickMom, Babble, Circle of Moms, and CNN Headline News. Her blog received a 2014 Bloggie Award for Best Parenting Weblog. She lives in Overland Park, Kansas, and is married to “the Hubs” and is the mother of two children whom she calls Gomer and Adolpha on her blog. She swears their real names are actually worse.