steph_84's review against another edition
4.0
I received this book as a gift and probably wouldn’t have bought it myself because I’ve got most of the Lifted Brow back-catalogue already, but reading them together was good fun and very entertaining. It was very quick to read (just an hour or two) but I’m hoping to pass it on to share the laughs. Ben and Jenny are great value, even if the letters are surely fake!
clairesodium's review
5.0
As wonderful as always, Ben and Jenny shine through in this collected volume of their column in The Lifted Brow. Little illustrations add a sense of whimsy and a level of visual humour that perfectly complements the written elements.
mcmillan's review
4.0
We visited quite a few bookstores while we were in Australia last year. I was keeping an eye out while browsing for books I might not come across in Canada, and this seemed like a fun one. It's a collection of articles from a humour sex and relationship advice column in a Melbourne-based magazine called The Lifted Brow. People write in about their various situations and Benjamin Law and his mother, Jenny Phang, both respond. Seeing both responses on the same page is just hilarious, and both Benjamin and his mother seem like very open and funny people.
It's a brilliant idea that just works so well. There's nothing professional about the advice. In fact, occasionally Benjamin has to comment on his mother's response to make sure no one follows the advice too closely. It's just a bit of fun. The illustrations in this, by Beatrix Urkowitz, are great and work perfectly.
Benjamin Law has a couple of books out that I'd like to pick up. The Family Law is a memoir of growing up as a first-generation Australian in a Malaysian family, and Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East follows his travels through Asia to explore how his life may have been different if he had grown up as a gay man in Asia rather than Australia.
Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram
It's a brilliant idea that just works so well. There's nothing professional about the advice. In fact, occasionally Benjamin has to comment on his mother's response to make sure no one follows the advice too closely. It's just a bit of fun. The illustrations in this, by Beatrix Urkowitz, are great and work perfectly.
Benjamin Law has a couple of books out that I'd like to pick up. The Family Law is a memoir of growing up as a first-generation Australian in a Malaysian family, and Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East follows his travels through Asia to explore how his life may have been different if he had grown up as a gay man in Asia rather than Australia.
Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram
babblingbooks's review
4.0
Law School is the collected advice on sex & relationships given by Benjamin Law & his mum Jenny Phang in The Lifted Brow magazine over a number of years.
The advice is mostly hilarious, sometimes helpful, and often conflicting, as mother & son attempt to answer questions from readers about their bodies, partners & socially awkward situations.
The advice is grouped together into loose themes, but the joy is in reading between the lines to see the interactions between mother and son.
Though I enjoyed reading this, I do question whether or not it actually needed to be made into a book. Or if it did, perhaps some additional footnotes or commentary from Ben and Jenny looking back, aside from thw brief introduction, would have made it feel more substantial.
Recommended for: people who can laugh at themselves (or perhaps others).
The advice is mostly hilarious, sometimes helpful, and often conflicting, as mother & son attempt to answer questions from readers about their bodies, partners & socially awkward situations.
The advice is grouped together into loose themes, but the joy is in reading between the lines to see the interactions between mother and son.
Though I enjoyed reading this, I do question whether or not it actually needed to be made into a book. Or if it did, perhaps some additional footnotes or commentary from Ben and Jenny looking back, aside from thw brief introduction, would have made it feel more substantial.
Recommended for: people who can laugh at themselves (or perhaps others).
More...