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My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un)Popular Culture

by Guy Branum

Other authors: Mindy Kaling (Foreword)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1236223,276 (3.88)1
"In the vein of New York Times bestsellers Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby, a collection of side-splitting and illuminating essays by the popular stand-up comedian, alum of Chelsea Lately and The Mindy Project, and host of truTV's Talk Show the Game Show. From a young age, Guy Branum always felt as if he were on the outside looking in. Self-taught, introspective, and from a stiflingly boring farm town, he couldn't relate to his neighbors. While other boys played outside, he stayed indoors reading Greek mythology. And being gay and overweight, he got used to diminishing himself. But little by little, he started learning from all the sad, strange, lonely outcasts in history who had come before him, and he started to feel hope. In this collection of personal essays, Guy talks about finding a sense of belonging at Berkeley--and stirring up controversy in a newspaper column that led to a run in with the Secret Service. He recounts the pitfalls of being typecast as the "Sassy Gay Friend," and how, after taking a wrong turn in life (i.e. law school), he found standup comedy and artistic freedom. He analyzes society's calculated deprivation of personhood from fat people, and how, though it's taken him a while to accept who he is, he has learned that with a little patience and a lot of humor, self-acceptance is possible. Written with Guy's characteristic blend of wit, guile, and rumination, My Life as a Goddess is an unforgettable and deeply moving book by one of today's most endearing and galvanizing voices in comedy"--… (more)
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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
So there's quizbowl content, which you normally don't see in memoirs or novels, which was interesting since the author was essentially a contemporary, albiet he played at a Midwestern school and most of my tournaments were on the East Coast, so they had more time for long van trip adventures.

Admittedly, this was just a small portion of the book and judging from the sample of other reviews I've seen, it's wasn't exactly a commercial for the enterprise, either. But that's how it goes sometimes.
  Brio95 | May 31, 2023 |
Guy Branum is great at two things: 1) being funny; 2) knowing exactly which personal and cultural circumstances make him funny.

He also appears to have the entirety of pop culture at his fingertips and ready to deploy in any situation, no matter how tenuous the link or how Rube Goldbergian the analogy. 10% of the time this is an annoying compulsion, but 90% of the time it's delightful. ( )
  NickEdkins | May 27, 2023 |
I stumbled on this by way of Twitter recommendations, of all things, and I'm glad I read it, even though I have nearly zero interest in Chelsea Handler, or any of the other projects with which Branum has been involved. Which proves to be a bit of a problem when discussions about those projects becomes the focus of the book for a while toward the much less philosophical, less interesting (more performative, and kind of wheel-spinny) final third, excepting the last chapter, which tidies up nicely the section before.

Or maybe I'm reacting to the fact that it isn't a narrative in which everything turns out great, or is perceived to turn out great. Or maybe it is that it has a more gloomy view of how gay people are treated than I would hope for as a cis het guy.

I don't think so, but I'm leaving open the possibility.

The book is laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly profound, at times, and is well performed in audiobook format. If you have any patience at all for these sorts of books, this is one of the much better ones. ( )
  danieljensen | Oct 14, 2022 |
Loved it. ( )
  Je9 | Aug 10, 2021 |
A coming-of-age and coming-out story and a ferociously smart, singular voice. Or: how to live an examined life if you're Different. Get the audiobook if you can... Branum reads it himself. ( )
  testingwithfire | May 2, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Guy Branumprimary authorall editionscalculated
Kaling, MindyForewordsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
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"In the vein of New York Times bestsellers Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby, a collection of side-splitting and illuminating essays by the popular stand-up comedian, alum of Chelsea Lately and The Mindy Project, and host of truTV's Talk Show the Game Show. From a young age, Guy Branum always felt as if he were on the outside looking in. Self-taught, introspective, and from a stiflingly boring farm town, he couldn't relate to his neighbors. While other boys played outside, he stayed indoors reading Greek mythology. And being gay and overweight, he got used to diminishing himself. But little by little, he started learning from all the sad, strange, lonely outcasts in history who had come before him, and he started to feel hope. In this collection of personal essays, Guy talks about finding a sense of belonging at Berkeley--and stirring up controversy in a newspaper column that led to a run in with the Secret Service. He recounts the pitfalls of being typecast as the "Sassy Gay Friend," and how, after taking a wrong turn in life (i.e. law school), he found standup comedy and artistic freedom. He analyzes society's calculated deprivation of personhood from fat people, and how, though it's taken him a while to accept who he is, he has learned that with a little patience and a lot of humor, self-acceptance is possible. Written with Guy's characteristic blend of wit, guile, and rumination, My Life as a Goddess is an unforgettable and deeply moving book by one of today's most endearing and galvanizing voices in comedy"--

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