I approach Handler's books as a blend of honesty and hyperbole. At least, I hope it's a blend. Her stories are always over the top, but never boring. I read this, her first book, after "Are You There, Vodka?" and enjoyed it less since the author spent more time with absurd situations and less with fast and clever dialogue. My Horizontal Life is still a successful novel, but I think moderating the largeness of the stories makes for a more enjoyable reader experience. ( )

I really wanted to like this, just from the subtitle. (I've never heard her do stand-up or seen her on TV.)

Alas, the subtitle is thoroughly deceptive: the eighteen stories here contain exactly one one-night stand, at least if sex is a mandatory part of such a thing. A few mention relationships of modest duration, and the rest are basically one or another misadventure involving heavy drinking, pathological lying, family gatherings, or all three at once. I kept waiting for the fun to begin, and it never did.

Perhaps this will appeal to people who feel similarly miserable about their own woeful attempts at finding pleasure in the arms of others. (In one of the funnier bits she mentions "spending Valentine's Day with my life partner, Ketel One.") Considering how much she says she likes sex, there are maybe two or three moments at most where she actually says she had a good time. She also literally flees if Mr. Tonight turns out to be under- or over-endowed.

Towards the end of the book she seems to be wearying of the game, so perhaps she's suppressing the better times to give the story an arc; but it gets tedious at times.

I should be clear here: I don't have a problem with the drinking, drugs, promiscuity, and so forth, but I don't find merely mentioning such things inherently laugh-out-loud funny, as some do. There are some good one liners, though, and I suspect those who like this book best are those know the author's voice and timing, probably it's more enjoyable then. ( )

As an avid watcher of Chelsea Handler's late night television show, Chelsea Lately, I thought this would be a fun read and snatched it up quick when it became available on BookMooch. I'd like to say that it did not disappoint, but in a way it did a bit. I wanted this book to make me laugh, which it did, but only twice, and they were actually more of a chuckle than a laugh. I don't really like the word 'chuckle' though.

Handler does have a writing style that flows nicely though, I felt as though she was actually reading the book to me. So, even those this wasn't an amazingly hysterical book, I will be looking forward to reading her follow-up books. ( )

I needed a light and quick read one day, having spent a lot of time in depressing and heavy reads, some of which were wonderful but still rough. So when I ran across a review of this book, I remembered it was on my tbr stacks and decided that it would be the perfect antidote to hugely depressing. And it was.

Short story essays chronicling Chelsea's love affairs with men of all shapes and colors, some of these stories are hysterical; some are less so but overall, this is a light, fluffy entertainment. I couldn't stop myself from laughing over the tale of the dog who showed up gnoshing on skidmarked underwear just as Chelsea was making a clean getaway. It was both disgusting and side-splittingly funny. She is definitely no holds barred in discussing her own sexuality but she can be a bit nasty when she takes on other people: the subjects of her failed and consummated one night stands as well as her roommate. The mean-spiritedness takes away some of the entertainment value and certainly no one would argue this book is anything but designed for entertainment value.

It did for me what I was looking to have it do but I would be wary in recommending it to anyone with a reasonably sophisticated sense of humor (not me) or to someone looking for an in depth look at what Handler's choices mean or even to someone who prefers to have a person show growth before the end of the book. Hilarious, low-brow humor leavened with not much else, this is decent for chuckles and a superficial skim of a life I've never led. ( )

for what it is, funny. i admire a woman who's not afraid to own her sexual promiscuity.... it's not as though it's unheard of, and yet such stories are only regarded as funny and acceptable when a man writes about it. (i guess i have a bit of feminist in me after all). ( )