Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsThis s*** is funny!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2010
I just finished reading "S*** My Dad Says," by Justin Halpern. This is the phenomenon that started as a Twitter site and has recently been turned into a half-hour sitcom on CBS. And I just have to say...
This book is hilarious!
The book is a look at the wonderfully strange character his father is and how he got to know his father better as he grew up through the quirky, sometimes jaw-dropping, but always hilarious quips his father would come up with.
The author, Justin Halpern, grew up as the youngest son of Sam Halpern - a retired Naval doctor who went on to be a practicing oncologist and frequent expert lecturer on nuclear medicine at the University of California San Diego. At the age of 28, he moved back home after a split with a girlfriend.
The concept for the book actually began as way to track his father's unique outlook on different subjects by using his quips as his status updates on Twitter. The way Halpern describes it, he started out with a small group of fans - mostly friends and family who knew him and his father - and it snowballed. Before he knew it, he had thousands ... and then millions of fans following his Twitter posts. With the growing interest in the Twitter posts, publishers were trying to beat each other as they beat a path to his door.
The result was a hilarious, yet touching, look at his relationship with his father.
The format of the book lends to the uniqueness of his relationship with his father. Each chapter is structured the same way - it starts with a story that revolves around one of his father's quips, but the story gives you insight to Halpern's relationship with his father. Then, after the story, it follows up with anywhere from five to ten different quotes on a variety of subjects. (One of my very favorites is "On Getting in Trouble at School": "Why would you throw a ball in someone's face? Huh. That's a pretty good reason. Well, I can't do much about your teacher being p*ssed but me and you are good.")
This book is one I will be re-reading again and again and again and again and again. When I started this book, I got so engrossed that - on a Sunday night/Monday morning - I looked up at the clock and saw it was 1:30 in the morning. And I agonized over getting a few hours of sleep before work or continuing to read this book. Eventually, due to the nature of my job, sleep before work won out... but I couldn't wait to pick up the book again to finish it. I was sneaking moments during the day at work to read just a few more paragraphs. And, after a thoroughly depressing and disappointing horrific afternoon at work, I eventually returned to this book to help lift my spirits some tonight.
Definitely a FIVE OUT OF FIVE rating!!
