Book Review:

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence
by Amy Sedaris

I'm not sure what I expected when I chose this book for my Spring reading list. Perhaps a quirky, funny, tongue-in-cheek book about parties and entertaining? I'd read good reviews, and the book's cover art was cutesy and appealing.

Lesson learned: Don't judge a book by it's cover.

Second lesson learned: Check behind the cover (for, um, pin-up pictures).

I suppose I should have clued in to the whole Hospitality Under the Influence thing. Who knew it was meant to be taken literally? Unfortunately, I Like You crosses way over the boundary of quirky irreverence. This book enters the territory of cruel, offensive, vulgar and mean. Some of the sections are downright disturbing.

To be brutally honest, I couldn't bring myself to read I Like You through to the end. (Though the book's coffee table format is better suited to browsing anyway.) I became thoroughly disgusted after the first couple of chapters.

In fact, I felt embarrassed to even have the book within my possession. I hid it upstairs in my room. I could just imagine my mother-in-law spotting I Like You on my bookshelf, casually leafing through the pages, and finding illustrated instructions for a F*** It Bucket.

Right.

This is one book that will quickly find its way out of my home and back to the library.