Seriously… I'm Kidding

August 22, 2011
This latest collection of humorous riffs from DeGeneres (The Funny This Is...) goes down as easily as one of the comedian and talk show host’s monologues. Arranged loosely around the idea of happiness and how she’s found it, the term “loosely” is used loosely, since DeGeneres veers into topics as diverse as mirrors that magnify your pores (avoid them) and the secret of life (spoiler: it’s kale). She’s at her best and wittiest when her mind leapfrogs from topic to topic, as in the segue—or lack of one—between a chapter entitled “Ideas,” in which DeGeneres recounts a thought that once came to her while hanging upside down in a Pilates machine, and “Gambling,” where the reader learns such helpful tips as if you don’t win the slot machine jackpot, don’t despair, just go to the roulette table. There’s also a smattering of serious issues—identity, homosexuality and gay marriage; inner beauty; and the dangers of labels and stereotypes—but DeGeneres handles each with humor: in “Babies, Animals, and Baby Animals,” she addresses the much-asked question of whether or not she and wife Portia de Rossi will have children (no, but she can tell which end of a baby you feed). Whatever the topic, DeGeneres’s compulsively readable style will appeal to fans old and new.