My Less Than Secret Life: A Diary, Fiction, Essays

Rating:
Summary: Ames scores another knockout!!!
Review: I couldn't put this book down, wanting to read just one more chapter in the life of Jonathan Ames each time. The stories are nothing short of brilliant. Ames excellence stems from the fact that shares everything with the reader - the good, the bad, and even the very ugly. If he fells intimated, hurt, or embarrassed, he tells you. These stories are told exactly as they unfolded, there is no spin doctoring by the author to put him in a better light. The authors sincerity aside, the book is very amusing. Most of us will only find us in one or two of these situations in a lifetime, but Ames seems to be in one several times a month! How many orgies or animal scarifies have you been to? If you are a fan of Ames, pick this book up immediately, and if you are not a fan, this book will make you one.

Rating:
Summary: Ames does it again!
Review: I have been visiting [this site] for many years now, but Jonathan Ames is the first author that has ever inspired me to post a review. "My Less Than Secret Life", like "What's Not to Love?" before it, is a highly captiviting look into the bizarre (but always engrossing) escapades of one America's most comic contemporary writers. If you enjoy your humor a bit outside the norm, this book is for you... I can't recommend this (or any of Ames's books) more highly! Long live the "Herring Wonder"!

Rating:
Summary: Some of it is good, but overall this book is disappointing.
Review: I read a lot of good reviews here and decided to buy this book. It seemed like it was exactly what I wanted -- adventures of curious character, a New Yorker like myself, while he travels in various cities, meeting lots of people, doing what he is not supposed to be doing, etc. Some of the stories in this book are indeed fascinating. Basically, the 1st half of this book is a collection of articles that appeared in New York Press. And they feel like article you would find in a newspaper. I felt it was not deep enough. Many of the stories were like a joke that starts out funny and promises to be one of the best you've heard but misses a punchline. At times, it feels like a travelogue. When I reached the 2nd part of book -- the period after NY Press, I pretty much lost interest in the book, since the stories seemed alike. Even though I like to read about sex, in this book sex becomes almost boring. How many times can you read detailed description about the author's organ? It's funny the 1st time, but when he repeats it over and over again, you feel like the author had nothing else to say.

Rating:
Summary: Why "My Less Than Secret Life" could save your life
Review: If you've ever been in a relationship, that has just ended against your heart's will, and shockingly, right along with theirs, and found yourself in a book store, cruising the shelves endlessly for that one perfect book, with just the right blend of humor and pain, with passages that shed truth and light on your life and can therefore bring you solace and survival of your own pain, well then this is the book you need.You always hear stories from friends and strangers and your favorite movie characters how this book, or that record, or a particular film got them through their break up, and you want that very thing to call your own. So you wind up in a giant bookstore looking for that perfect new book to be your very own "get you through it" solution. Well, this book is it. It just may save your life.

Rating:
Summary: Intimate perversion...at your fingertips
Review: Jonathan Ames challenges every taboo, deviance and impulse with loveable charm. There are moments when it felt as though he were reading to me. His style is warm and intimate despite the often heady (and heavy) nature of his explorations into the human condition. The essays surrounding his boxing match against a man called "The Impact Addict" will have you calling your friends, trying to read through fits of laughter. You'll be sad to reach the last page.

Rating:
Summary: Beat Me Until I Laugh
Review: Jonathan Ames is a jewel! It will be interesting to see if the Letterman show actually lets him go on! Bleep bleep bleep. This book continues where "What's Not to Love" left off. Jonathan's Walter Middy style prose is both innocent and X-rated. Whether he's talking about nude wrestlers in The Herring Wonder, trying to get invited to his first orgy or taking his dad onto a porn set, he's able to take the unimaginable and make it hilarious. The whole chapter on penis enlargement is a hoot; and the S&M support group is hysterically funny. My only caution with this book is that if you read it publicly such as on the treadmill at the gym, you might find people looking at you with enquiring eyes when you start to howl! This is another gem from our American Oscar Wilde! Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Beat Me Until I Laugh
Review: Jonathan Ames is a jewel! It will be interesting to see if the Letterman show actually lets him go on! Bleep bleep bleep. This book continues where "What's Not to Love" left off. Jonathan's Walter Middy style prose is both innocent and X-rated. Whether he's talking about nude wrestlers in The Herring Wonder, trying to get invited to his first orgy or taking his dad onto a porn set, he's able to take the unimaginable and make it hilarious. The whole chapter on penis enlargement is a hoot; and the S&M support group is hysterically funny. My only caution with this book is that if you read it publicly such as on the treadmill at the gym, you might find people looking at you with enquiring eyes when you start to howl! This is another gem from our American Oscar Wilde! Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: Jonathan Ames is a literary genius! His writing comes from his experience and also from his incredible mind. He's honest and hilarious! When reading his books I find myself laughing out loud and sometimes even brought to tears because they are so funny! Jonathan Ames is amazing!

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: Jonathan Ames is a literary genius! His writing comes from his experience and also from his incredible mind. He's honest and hilarious! When reading his books I find myself laughing out loud and sometimes even brought to tears because they are so funny! Jonathan Ames is amazing!

Rating:
Summary: A More than Stellar Writer
Review: No this isn't the best collection of short stories ever, that honor belongs to his first collection, "What's Not to Love" but like the 2nd side to any worthwhile greatest hits album, its damn close to as good! Mr. Ames's later NY PRESS years focus on his rise and fall as the "Herring Wonder" and on his many interesting travel adventures. This book also shows his versatility as there's actual "fiction" here and a stunning true life crime caper....u want more? pretty greedy of you but he obliges as he empties out his hard drive to give you so many funny magazine articles and reviews, you may actually begain to understand what makes him tick... ALL IN ALL, a very funny book, and one that leaves the reader yearning to time travel 5 years ahead so that we can read the next collection or better yet a new novel!!!