Scan barcode
left_unsupervised's review
3.0
I was lucky to receive this advance copy from NetGalley. I was drawn to this book by the title and cover.
Just the other day I received a nighttime serum and it said that you can layer serums atop one another. The fact that you can get through this book in small bursts of reading makes it even better. There were parts that I totally laughed at and others that really clicked.
Just the other day I received a nighttime serum and it said that you can layer serums atop one another. The fact that you can get through this book in small bursts of reading makes it even better. There were parts that I totally laughed at and others that really clicked.
bookgoodfeelgood's review
4.0
This book is a little niche (imo), but if it’s your niche, you’ll really enjoy it.
As someone who has a long-standing chronic illness and only very recently has realized that my priority has to be illness management and doing whatever I can to strengthen my body physically, nourish it adequately, and live as well as I can within my circumstances, this book provided me with some much-needed laughter.
Trebenski is earnest and hilarious. Healthy people often come armed with the most ridiculous suggestions of what the rest of us can/should try in order to feel better (albeit typically with the kindest intentions!) — and this book provides folks who have experienced that time and time again with solidarity in the most entertaining way.
You’ll relate to some things deeply, most likely, and perhaps others not at all. A couple of “chapters” (they’re more like essays) I didn’t connect with much, but I could still appreciate Trebenski’s experience and she still garnered a chuckle or two out of me.
I valued that Trebenski acknowledges the privilege it takes to be able to engage in (and suggest) many types of “self-care.” Much of what people recommend requires money, time, resources, and/or really exceptional health insurance.
As someone who has a long-standing chronic illness and only very recently has realized that my priority has to be illness management and doing whatever I can to strengthen my body physically, nourish it adequately, and live as well as I can within my circumstances, this book provided me with some much-needed laughter.
Trebenski is earnest and hilarious. Healthy people often come armed with the most ridiculous suggestions of what the rest of us can/should try in order to feel better (albeit typically with the kindest intentions!) — and this book provides folks who have experienced that time and time again with solidarity in the most entertaining way.
You’ll relate to some things deeply, most likely, and perhaps others not at all. A couple of “chapters” (they’re more like essays) I didn’t connect with much, but I could still appreciate Trebenski’s experience and she still garnered a chuckle or two out of me.
I valued that Trebenski acknowledges the privilege it takes to be able to engage in (and suggest) many types of “self-care.” Much of what people recommend requires money, time, resources, and/or really exceptional health insurance.
librariann's review
5.0
** I received an ARC of this from the publisher because I am a librarian and librarians are awesome **
You know that feeling you get when you have started at least 8 books recently and cannot get more than 15% into any of them? This book is THE CURE. First, it comes in charming little bite size essays that can be read while doing bathroom business if your child sees fit to leave you alone in the bathroom for more than five minutes.
As I was reading it, I kept thinking "this reminds me of reading some of my favorite McSweeneys!" Then, after Googling the author's name, I realized, hey, she actually WROTE one of my favorite McSweeney's!" (No, not "WHAT YOUR FAVORITE ’90s ROCK BAND SAYS ABOUT THE TYPE OF BORED SUBURBAN DAD YOU ARE TODAY,"... "THE GIRL FROM AVRIL LAVIGNE’S “SK8ER BOI” RESPONDS 18 YEARS LATER")
Even though Trebenski definitely falls into the solid millennial non-parent demographic and not the Xennial cusp who has not slept in a different zip code from their spawn for more than 72 hours in the last 6 years, I related to her SO MUCH. Maybe it was all the Adam Driver references. Maybe it was the self-deprecating way she handled anxiety, religion, romance novels, and Being Female. Even the chapter headings! I was cackling at the chapter headings from the moment I saw this on Edelweiss!
"My Targeted Instagram Ads, Translated"
"Have You Tried a Duke?"
"I'm Your Outdoor Dream Girl and Not an Evil Wood Nymph Who Wants to Steal Your Soul"
Whether you are 26 or 40, I feel like there is plenty here for everyone who appreciates tiny bites of lady wit doled out in thematic chapters.
Also, I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Love Hypothesis, even though they are Entirely Different Animals.
Like any collection of essays, some are more successful than others, and I'm not gonna pretend that they all hit it out of the park. But as a whole, I find this collection JUST DELIGHTFUL, possibly because it was like taking a little dip into my own brain, but much more edited and nicely organized.
You know that feeling you get when you have started at least 8 books recently and cannot get more than 15% into any of them? This book is THE CURE. First, it comes in charming little bite size essays that can be read while doing bathroom business if your child sees fit to leave you alone in the bathroom for more than five minutes.
As I was reading it, I kept thinking "this reminds me of reading some of my favorite McSweeneys!" Then, after Googling the author's name, I realized, hey, she actually WROTE one of my favorite McSweeney's!" (No, not "WHAT YOUR FAVORITE ’90s ROCK BAND SAYS ABOUT THE TYPE OF BORED SUBURBAN DAD YOU ARE TODAY,"... "THE GIRL FROM AVRIL LAVIGNE’S “SK8ER BOI” RESPONDS 18 YEARS LATER")
Even though Trebenski definitely falls into the solid millennial non-parent demographic and not the Xennial cusp who has not slept in a different zip code from their spawn for more than 72 hours in the last 6 years, I related to her SO MUCH. Maybe it was all the Adam Driver references. Maybe it was the self-deprecating way she handled anxiety, religion, romance novels, and Being Female. Even the chapter headings! I was cackling at the chapter headings from the moment I saw this on Edelweiss!
"My Targeted Instagram Ads, Translated"
"Have You Tried a Duke?"
"I'm Your Outdoor Dream Girl and Not an Evil Wood Nymph Who Wants to Steal Your Soul"
Whether you are 26 or 40, I feel like there is plenty here for everyone who appreciates tiny bites of lady wit doled out in thematic chapters.
Also, I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Love Hypothesis, even though they are Entirely Different Animals.
Like any collection of essays, some are more successful than others, and I'm not gonna pretend that they all hit it out of the park. But as a whole, I find this collection JUST DELIGHTFUL, possibly because it was like taking a little dip into my own brain, but much more edited and nicely organized.
chanelchapters's review
5.0
4.5
This was pretty damn funny. Whilst I think she went a little hard on the yoga instructor, I found almost every chapter quite humorous - she basically slags off everything she can think of to great comedic effect.
This was pretty damn funny. Whilst I think she went a little hard on the yoga instructor, I found almost every chapter quite humorous - she basically slags off everything she can think of to great comedic effect.
ash_hernick's review
3.0
I received this book as an ARC. My review might not apply completely to the final published version of this book.
"Do I Feel Better Yet?" felt like a mixed bag of personal essays, snippets of satire, and lists vaguely reminiscent of what you might find on BuzzFeed. Like most anthologies, it was a bit of a mixed bag - I had a particularly hard time reading "Anything Men Can Do I Can Do Bleeding" which (despite a vaguely trans-inclusive note at the beginning) felt pretty tone-deaf to trans people - some other siilar pieces had the same problem later on, but this was the one I found most difficult to read, as a trans person myself. It focused on how the writer gets her period and still has to go to work, while the men she works with don't understand her struggle. I understand the importance of talking about menstruation openly and overall eliminating the taboo around periods, but Trebenski pretty quickly fell into the trap of "people who menstruate = women" and "people who don't menstruate = men" which rubbed me the wrong way.
There were some essays I thought were really interesting - I thought "Have You Tried Hypnotizing Yourself Calm?" was a particularly original piece. Some of Trebenski's work genuinely made me laugh out loud, too, which was great! This is supposed to be partially satire, after all - I think? I guess that's one of the problems I had with this book: some of the satire REALLY works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly. Especially when covering topics like mental illness and recovery, I feel like it's important that your jokes on the matter don't fall flat. Of course, I know that a joke that lands for someone might not seem funny to me, so I can't be too frustrated about this.
I did feel like "Do I Feel Better Yet?" suffered from too much filler. Not all of the essays directly related to the theme of the anthology, and some of them didn't seem to have any connection to it at all. These tended to be the weakest essays and distracted me from what I actually liked about the book in the first place. I think that this book would be stronger if it was cut down a bit - sticking to the strongest pieces would be best, even if it cuts down on page count.
"Do I Feel Better Yet?" felt like a mixed bag of personal essays, snippets of satire, and lists vaguely reminiscent of what you might find on BuzzFeed. Like most anthologies, it was a bit of a mixed bag - I had a particularly hard time reading "Anything Men Can Do I Can Do Bleeding" which (despite a vaguely trans-inclusive note at the beginning) felt pretty tone-deaf to trans people - some other siilar pieces had the same problem later on, but this was the one I found most difficult to read, as a trans person myself. It focused on how the writer gets her period and still has to go to work, while the men she works with don't understand her struggle. I understand the importance of talking about menstruation openly and overall eliminating the taboo around periods, but Trebenski pretty quickly fell into the trap of "people who menstruate = women" and "people who don't menstruate = men" which rubbed me the wrong way.
There were some essays I thought were really interesting - I thought "Have You Tried Hypnotizing Yourself Calm?" was a particularly original piece. Some of Trebenski's work genuinely made me laugh out loud, too, which was great! This is supposed to be partially satire, after all - I think? I guess that's one of the problems I had with this book: some of the satire REALLY works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly. Especially when covering topics like mental illness and recovery, I feel like it's important that your jokes on the matter don't fall flat. Of course, I know that a joke that lands for someone might not seem funny to me, so I can't be too frustrated about this.
I did feel like "Do I Feel Better Yet?" suffered from too much filler. Not all of the essays directly related to the theme of the anthology, and some of them didn't seem to have any connection to it at all. These tended to be the weakest essays and distracted me from what I actually liked about the book in the first place. I think that this book would be stronger if it was cut down a bit - sticking to the strongest pieces would be best, even if it cuts down on page count.
4everbookedd's review
3.0
While this book is pretty hilarious, I may have found myself skimming a lot of chapters. It was a a good read but not one id re-read and I think it would be a best to read this book in short reading sprints throughout the day / week and not a “sit down and read it all at once” kind of book ?