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janeleng's review
5.0
This book goes a lot deeper than your typical celebrity memoir, and, for that, I loved it. A very meaningful deep dive, not only into Pete's personal history but his transformative journey with spirituality. As with all things that Pete does, the sincere and joyful intention behind his words is what makes this book really shine.
mrsrccockrell's review against another edition
2.0
This book started out as a home run. I related so hard to Pete’s childhood and upbringing. I laughed at so many of the things he talked about being into because I was into a lot of those same things. I was really enjoying it.
But about halfway through the story changed and became less of a memoir and more of a self-help book. Pete tells about his quarter-life crisis of faith and how he found his “guru” (I’m still not sure what that even means) in a guy named Ram Dass, whose beliefs and teachings I’m not even going to try to explain because I don’t understand them. Based on the book, I’m not sure Pete does either. Once we hit that part of his story, the rest of it became basically a hardcore sales pitch for a hippie, new-age kind of spirituality. I don’t see a problem with that in and of itself, but Pete spent several chapters talking about his crisis of faith and how the church felt like a prison, and then spent the rest of the book talking about how he went to retreats with Ram Dass and did a special one-on-one retreat to Ram Dass’s home (which sounded more like an estate compound). I wanted to ask him how much he spent on his new religion that he claims wasn’t a religion at all. To me, it seems like he traded one “binding” religion for another.
To read the rest of this review, please visit https://themustreads.com/book-review-comedy-sex-god/
But about halfway through the story changed and became less of a memoir and more of a self-help book. Pete tells about his quarter-life crisis of faith and how he found his “guru” (I’m still not sure what that even means) in a guy named Ram Dass, whose beliefs and teachings I’m not even going to try to explain because I don’t understand them. Based on the book, I’m not sure Pete does either. Once we hit that part of his story, the rest of it became basically a hardcore sales pitch for a hippie, new-age kind of spirituality. I don’t see a problem with that in and of itself, but Pete spent several chapters talking about his crisis of faith and how the church felt like a prison, and then spent the rest of the book talking about how he went to retreats with Ram Dass and did a special one-on-one retreat to Ram Dass’s home (which sounded more like an estate compound). I wanted to ask him how much he spent on his new religion that he claims wasn’t a religion at all. To me, it seems like he traded one “binding” religion for another.
To read the rest of this review, please visit https://themustreads.com/book-review-comedy-sex-god/
thatguyscout's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
Pete has always been an inspiration to me. Meeting him he absolutely radiated joy and that came through in this book. I listened to this fully on audiobook while I was grinding away at my job working outdoors. One day it was raining so hard we had to hide under the trees, and suddenly I was forced to sit and really take it what Pete was experiencing during his first mushroom trip. I’m not ashamed to say it made me trip, and all of a sudden I was having a deeply spiritual experience. The rain pouring as Pete talked about the ice cube turning to water and into the atmosphere once more. Never really gone always here. Just in a new form. Pete is a beautifully honest and vulnerable soul and this book helped me quite a lot.
trevoryan's review against another edition
3.0
I was enjoying this book SO MUCH, right up until he went way off the deep end into the creepy stuff about the spiritual leader. And that was almost half of the book. I'm still not sure if it has tainted my view of Pete Holmes. I really love his standup comedy. But now that I know he also pretty much worships this guru-type guy in Hawaii, I've definitely lost some respect for him.
hpvlovecraft's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
holly_keimig's review against another edition
4.0
This book was really interesting. Pete Holmes's take on faith is fascinating and his journey to get to the faith he has today was pretty fun to listen to as well. There are some very adult themes in this book (Sex is in the title) and a bit of drug use (LSD) which detracted a little from his main points for me but his thoughts on how the church handles sex were interesting. Fans of Rob Bell and anyone who has every struggled in their faith will really enjoy this book.
littlewhelan's review against another edition
First half was amazing , slowed down a lot for the 2nd half
carriechameleon's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
5.0