“Poignant and brutally honest. . . will make you laugh out loud.” — Washington Post, "The Best Feel-Good Books of the Year"
“A laugh-out-loud book of essays. . . . strikes gold. . . . Klein’s comedic sensibilities and abundant care for women make her the ideal writer to square off against the obligations and judgments placed on mothers. . . . an instant classic." — Glamour
“Comedian Jessi Klein delivers a necessary laugh for parents just beginning to emerge from the dumpster fire otherwise known as pandemic parenting. . . . grapples with the humiliations and possibilities of midlife and motherhood, from impossible car seats to equally befuddling ‘Mama’ necklaces. Even the essay titles are funny.” — Time Magazine
"Her humor and insights are spot-on." — People, "The Best New Books"
"Achingly funny." — Esquire, "The 8 Best Comedy Books of the Year"
“Brutally honest and so very human.” — Vulture, “The Best Comedy Books of the Year (So Far)”
“Jessi Klein is back with an unflinchingly honest and hilarious memoir about navigating the absurdly high expectations of being both a mom and a woman. . . . I’ll Show Myself Out will not only make you laugh but also, and most importantly, think, ‘Hmm, so it’s not just me.’” — Shondaland
“Jessi Klein has yet again ‘delivered’ (and yes I’m using that in the messy motherhood-pun way—I’m not the writer) a collection of the most relatable, achingly raw, and stunningly human essays I have read about the mess of motherhood and this chapter of life since her last collection. And… they are of course hilarious. THANK YOU JESSI for this gift. Please read it, mothers. It is nourishment.” — Kathryn Hahn
“Jessi Klein’s essay collection spoke to the deepest part of my soul and being. Her framing of motherhood as a ‘hero’s journey’ made me weep from feeling seen. I also howled with laughter so many times I was politely asked to leave a restaurant. It’s a perfect book.” — Casey Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of The Wreckage of My Presence
“I'll Show Myself Out is so pee-in-the-pants funny, I made sure to wear period underwear while reading it. Insanely smart and wildly relatable, Jessi Klein's highly anticipated second book is the most entertaining thing I've read in a long time.” — Ali Wong, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Girls
"Jessi Klein has once again arrived with a collection of essays so familiar to me, it's like she has been directly inside my brain. Smart, bold, and uproariously funny. It's a 10/10 from me." — Kate Baer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Woman and I Hope This Finds You Well
“[Klein] is gifted at turning the day-to-day minutiae into comedy gold, while simultaneously pulling back to lend commentary (often searing commentary) on the larger picture. A lot of her writing reminds me of David Sedaris, the way you find yourself laughing your ass off as you read along, and then suddenly you’re like why is my heart in my throat ?” — Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times bestselling author of The Weekday Vegetarians and Dinner: A Love Story
“A bold and irreverent collection. . . . Klein is full of surprises, and moments of hilarity often dissolve into unexpected glimpses of joy. . . . Funny, clever, and full of heart, this one’s a gem.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Klein isn't here to make motherhood look pretty, but she ends up making it look pretty great in the truest sense of the word, mixing laughs with poignancy and treating heavy topics with a brightening kind of honesty.” — Booklist
Praise for You'll Grow Out of It: "A book like Jessi Klein's YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT comes along to remind us just what an artful confessional essay can do." — New York Times
"Is it really a surprise that comedian Jessi Klein, head writer and executive producer for Inside Amy Schumer , would write a book of personal essays brimming with sharp observations and insights and poignant recollections but that above all is very, very funny? ...We guarantee that this book will quickly become one of your summer favorites." — Entertainment Weekly
"[Jessi Klein's] astute, hilarious essays about the perilous path to modern womanhood will have you wincing in recognition." — People
"Klein shares her eccentric path to adulthood, from her tomboyish girlhood to sidesplitting dating tales and beyond in this uproarious, relatable, and irresistible memoir." — Harper’s Bazaar
"Deftly blending irreverent humor with poignant insights, Klein's writing is wonderfully intimate." — New York magazine
"Never afraid to share insights and reveal the raw truth behind her own stories, Klein makes readers laugh while inspiring them, a feat that calls to mind the work of the late Nora Ephron. This uplifting and uproarious collection of personal essays will be repeatedly shared among friends." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Reading [Jessi Klein's] book is like watching her--doubtless superb--stand-up act." — Booklist (starred review)
"A gifted comedian turns the anxieties, obsessions, insecurities, and impossible-to-meet expectations that make up human nature into laughter." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Klein isn't here to make motherhood look pretty, but she ends up making it look pretty great in the truest sense of the word, mixing laughs with poignancy and treating heavy topics with a brightening kind of honesty.
Jessi Klein’s essay collection spoke to the deepest part of my soul and being. Her framing of motherhood as a ‘hero’s journey’ made me weep from feeling seen. I also howled with laughter so many times I was politely asked to leave a restaurant. It’s a perfect book.”
Jessi Klein is back with an unflinchingly honest and hilarious memoir about navigating the absurdly high expectations of being both a mom and a woman. . . . I’ll Show Myself Out will not only make you laugh but also, and most importantly, think, ‘Hmm, so it’s not just me.’
A laugh-out-loud book of essays. . . . strikes gold. . . . Klein’s comedic sensibilities and abundant care for women make her the ideal writer to square off against the obligations and judgments placed on mothers. . . . an instant classic."
Jessi Klein has yet again ‘delivered’ (and yes I’m using that in the messy motherhood-pun way—I’m not the writer) a collection of the most relatable, achingly raw, and stunningly human essays I have read about the mess of motherhood and this chapter of life since her last collection. And… they are of course hilarious. THANK YOU JESSI for this gift. Please read it, mothers. It is nourishment.
"Jessi Klein has once again arrived with a collection of essays so familiar to me, it's like she has been directly inside my brain. Smart, bold, and uproariously funny. It's a 10/10 from me."
"Her humor and insights are spot-on."
"The Best New Books" People
I'll Show Myself Out is so pee-in-the-pants funny, I made sure to wear period underwear while reading it. Insanely smart and wildly relatable, Jessi Klein's highly anticipated second book is the most entertaining thing I've read in a long time.”
[Klein] is gifted at turning the day-to-day minutiae into comedy gold, while simultaneously pulling back to lend commentary (often searing commentary) on the larger picture. A lot of her writing reminds me of David Sedaris, the way you find yourself laughing your ass off as you read along, and then suddenly you’re like why is my heart in my throat ?
Praise for You'll Grow Out of It: "A book like Jessi Klein's YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT comes along to remind us just what an artful confessional essay can do."
"[Jessi Klein's] astute, hilarious essays about the perilous path to modern womanhood will have you wincing in recognition."
"Deftly blending irreverent humor with poignant insights, Klein's writing is wonderfully intimate."
"Klein shares her eccentric path to adulthood, from her tomboyish girlhood to sidesplitting dating tales and beyond in this uproarious, relatable, and irresistible memoir."
"Is it really a surprise that comedian Jessi Klein, head writer and executive producer for Inside Amy Schumer , would write a book of personal essays brimming with sharp observations and insights and poignant recollections but that above all is very, very funny? ...We guarantee that this book will quickly become one of your summer favorites."
Klein isn't here to make motherhood look pretty, but she ends up making it look pretty great in the truest sense of the word, mixing laughs with poignancy and treating heavy topics with a brightening kind of honesty.
"Reading [Jessi Klein's] book is like watching her—doubtless superb—stand-up act."
Booklist (starred review)
Praise for You'll Grow Out of It: "A book like Jessi Klein's YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT comes along to remind us just what an artful confessional essay can do."
New York Times on You'll Grow Out of It
Praise for You'll Grow Out of It: "A book like Jessi Klein's YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT comes along to remind us just what an artful confessional essay can do."
2022-05-08
In 22 clever, readable, and whimsically footnoted essays, Klein, an actor and executive producer for Inside Amy Schumer , continues the trajectory of her successful debut, You'll Grow Out of It . In the opening essay, after admitting to being possibly the last person in the civilized world to get wind of Joseph Campbell's mythic "hero's journey," she was possessed by the notion that her trip to the store to pick up teething biscuits was part of a meaningful narrative—complete with a "call to adventure," "unimaginable torment," "superhuman deeds," and a "strangely fluid and polymorphous being” (“my baby”). It takes a certain kind of mind to get this much out of a box of Nom-Noms, and Klein's comedic talent often involves an element of quasi-philosophical unspooling of mundane challenges and passages, often with a certain amount of profanity and all-caps exclamations. In the essay titled "On the Starbucks Bathroom Floor," she describes her struggles with her child’s potty training; in "Listening to Beyoncé in the Parking Lot of Party City," it’s balloons and birthdays; in “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die," it’s brutal marital realism. "In Defense of Drinking" takes a tough stand on the mommy juice controversy: “I am a better mother because I drink." In "Demon Halloween," Klein confesses failure in the homemade costume department. Sometimes she puts joking aside and gets to the heart of things. "Somewhere between the optimism of pure faith and the letting go of pure Zen lies, I suppose, good parenting….Our children need us, at bare minimum, to not be nihilists, right? We have to believe in something,” she writes. The author clearly believes in family, love, laughter, and a well-placed Xanax—and she's pretty convincing.
Frank, free-spirited sass for the modern mother's soul.
