I'm Fine...And Other Lies

by Whitney Cummings

Well, well, well. Look at you, ogling my book page. . . . I presume if you're reading this it means you either need more encouragement to buy it, you're very bored in an airport, or we used to date and you're trying to figure out if you should sue me or not.

Here are all the stories and mistakes I've made that were way too embarrassing to tell on stage in front of an actual audience; but thanks to not-so-modern technology, you can read about them here so I don't have to risk having your judgmental eye contact crush my self-esteem. This book contains some delicious schadenfreude in which I recall such humiliating debacles as breaking my shoulder while trying to impress a guy, coming very close to spending my life in a Guatemalan prison, and having my lacerated ear sewn back on by a deaf guy after losing it in a torrid love affair. In addition to hoarding mortifying situations that'll make you feel way better about your choices, I've also accumulated a lot of knowledge from therapists, psychotherapists, and psychopaths, which can probably help you avoid making the same mistakes I've made. Think of this book as everything you'd want from the Internet all in one place, except without the constant distractions of ads, online shopping, and porn.

I'm not sure what else to say to say, except that you should buy it if you want to laugh and learn how to stop being crazy. If you're bored at an airport, I'm sorry and welcome to most days of my life on the road. And if we used to date, see you in court.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Humor, Biography, Comedy, Autobiography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2017

Reviews

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am impressed by Whitney Cummings. She is brazen about sharing the very fraught and painful experiences from her life. This was not a book about comedy or the entertainment industry or onset antics from her acting career... Whitney boldly shares some very personal, deeply arresting heartbreaking stories about her journey to find herself. I was quite disturbed by much she suffered and in the end, very appreciative of her courage and intention to share that nothing and no one is perfect. She clearly wants to debunk the assumptions we make about beautiful and famous people being different from normal people. This woman has walked through some fire... and really, haven't we all?

[Leo Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!!

It inspired me to write a mammoth blog post that I'll cut up and put on my blog later...

For now: I often enjoy the prospect of comedian essay collections more than the reality, but this one was empowering/compelling af!

I related so much to her experience of throwing herself under a bus to, uh, make a smoother journey for its passengers or something (I'm winging this review obvs.) And it's true that we should go out into the world with humility and in awe of its wonder and how much there is for us to learn. From a place of curiosity rather than arrogance.

I have a theory for why we don't, at least from my own experience. Making yourself vulnerable is attractive to the world's worst people. They want "in." They're like... zombies knocking on your front door, and vulnerability is removing the wooden slats and letting their hands burst in. (I'm looking at the cover of Brian Keene's The Rising as I type.) But for our own sakes, and in order not to sully our own experience of life, we should proceed that way anyway.

It's so important for people, time and again, to see beyond the highlight reel of successful people, to peek at their cutting room floor. Because they probably feel like you. But they kicked ass anyway. So, so can you.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyed this!

I was wary of the last chapter, but it pulled through in the end.

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of it were amusing but it was mostly about her problems and I didn't sign up for that. I have my own problems.

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitney Cummings' book I'm Fine... and Other Lies is an honest biography with lots of self-help thrown in throughout the book.

I've always enjoyed Whitney's stand-up. She's honest, funny, and one of the best female comedians out there. This book shows us there's a lot of painful back story behind this absolutely hilarious woman. Am I surprised? No. A lot of funny people don't have the easiest lives. Regardless, Whitney shares her experiences (both heartbreaking and hilarious), and gives a lot of tips she's learned over the years from her therapists.

Side note: Thank you Whitney for making therapy seem more normal by talking more about it in this book. You're helping remove the stigma behind not getting help for your mental health.

Overall, this book is funny, insightful, and honestly very helpful. Whitney gives fantastic insights into what she learned from therapy, and made a great read.

Four out of five stars!

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve recently become abit of a fan of Whitney Cummings after stumbling across some of her work. She’s clearly whip smart, hardworking and ambitious and doesn’t hold back her opinions, she’s super self aware almost painfully so. I can see how men can be a little intimidated by her! Most of her essays divulge how she wasn’t always so confident, suffering from anxiety and crippling self doubt and poor body image causing herself irreparable damage from a long standing eating disorder she still suffers chronic health issues caused by it. She’s super high energy which I enjoy when she goes on some of her tangents, although sometimes I think this book served more like a purging and confessional of all her perceived flaws than a book of observations so this veered into the territory of becoming a little too self indulgent and exhausting. Even though I’ve given only three stars I still highly recommend for major Whitney fans.

[Jess | thegreeneyedreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟. I loved this book. It was equal parts humorous, emotional, informative, and relatable.

The only reason I didn’t give this a 5/5 rating was because I felt the last couple of chapters dragged on a bit too long and became a little repetitive. However— I found the vast majority of the book to be excellent and I can and will recommend it without hesitation.

I expected it to be funny, but I had no idea how raw and genuine it would be. I am glad I listened to the #audiobook because there were parts where she went off script and choked back tears. I felt the sincerity and emotion in her voice when she spoke about her struggle with a severe eating disorder. This is a #mustread. #bookreview #review #jpbookreview

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so conflicted over this book. What I do know for sure: Whitney Cummings wants us to believe she is convinced of her authority in every aspect of her life. She certainly feels empowered by her personal self-discovery. And she wants us all to feel better. Just like her. After finishing the audio book two days ago, I'm still unsure how to explain her explanations for the explanations doctors and probably WebMD or the Mayo Clinic website have given her for everything that hurts in her body and her brain. I'm glad she feels like she has it mostly figured out now. But reader be cautious. Please remember this is a memoir. This is not a self-help book. She is not a therapist or authority in treatment. Although, by chapter 4, I believed she believes she is. It's mildly amusing. I laughed once or twice. Mostly I felt like she self-deprecated just enough to make it seem like she wasn't trying to come off as an authority on self-help. But *wink-wink* she really wants you to be fine after you listen to her tell you how she's fine and you can be fine, too. According to her. Based on her. But I'm me. And she's not my therapist.

[Tony Valdez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious as it is heartbreaking, but ultimately optimistic. Whitney Cummings shares the issues she's overcome in great detail and perfected wit. A great relatable read (or listen, since I grabbed the audiobook) that reminds us we are all humans dealing with our assorted anxieties. Good stuff!

[India · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Whitney did a really excellent job of writing a funny self-help book that covered relevant, relate-able topics, a lot of which were similar to things I've experienced. It's always nice in a bittersweet kind of way for me to hear that others have come a foundation of dysfunction - due to family, typically, things outside of their control as a child - and have found ways to grow into stronger and more functional people because of it.

[Mon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

It is really interesting to me how many insecurities are lurking behind the most confident people. This was a fab autobiography and I appreciate Whitney's candour when discussing her relationships, her body struggles and her viewpoint of the world. A bigger fan of her now because of this.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the show Whitney, finding Cummings to be hilarious. When I found out she was also a co-creator of 2 Broke Girls, I knew I liked her.
I was really excited when I heard she was coming out with a book. I was hoping to laugh like I did while reading Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy. The first chapter had me laughing and my hopes were high. Unfortunately, the majority of the book felt like background noise to me.
I enjoyed the nuggets of psychology knowledge. For instance, I found myself relating to her experience with being codependent. I just felt like the book was a little all over the place and had no real structure. I wish it had followed a timeline, maybe leading up to where she is currently in her life. The book just kind of abruptly ended with a story from years ago and then the book was just over.
Overall, it was okay. I liked parts but wasn't wowed.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blugh... I feel bad about how negatively I feel about this book. The author is clearly a smart, funny, brave person, but she spends the entire book laying bare every excruciating detail of what seems like every conceivable thought and dilemma she has had in her entire life. While I appreciate her candor (and recognize her book is an autobiography),the whole thing just was too much navel-gazing for me. Half way through this book it starts to feel like you've been cornered at a party by someone who just wants to tell you their entire life story, and unfortunately, it just isn't that interesting.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow... Whitney goes deep with this one! I wasn't sure what to expect, but this book was different than any other celebrity memoir that I've listened to. Yep, listened. Audio is the way to go with celebrity memoirs, especially when they narrate themselves. Whitney did a phenomenal job and was completely authentic in her performance.

Whitney gives her life story, but breaks it into sections about her own life issues: self-help, codependence, roast jokes, sexism, egg freezing, eating disorder, boobs, headache, pit bulls and the Middle East. These all sound like random topics, but the book flows in a great way.

If you like her as a comedian, you'll enjoy getting this background of her life and how she came to be. She has great ideas on beauty standards, sexism, feminism... and one of the best things is that she realizes that she doesn't know everything.

Whitney ends the book so well.... "I’m gonna leave you with a quote by Jack Cornfield:
'In the end, only 3 things that matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. LET GO!' "

Thanks to San Diego County Library for the digital audio version via OverDrive.

[Audio: 9 hours, 35 minutes]

[Angela]

DNF after 3 audiobook CDs

I like Whitney, and I think she's a great narrator for her book, but this book was not what I was expecting. I thought it would be like the typically celebrity memoir with funny or enlightening stories from their childhood and career. This was more about the mental issues that Whitney has (like co-dependence) and how she is attempting to overcome them through therapy, etc. It had too much psychology jargon for a lay person book; it was like reading a textbook, and going to therapy doesn't make you an expert. There was too much "I'm so damaged" and "my brain needed rewiring." Stories went off on random, too-long tangents. I just wasn't having fun listening.

[Anela · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars and not what I was expecting at all (in a good way). It’s not “this is the story of my life from birth to now”, it’s “here’s how I have struggled with all of these things all my life but I got help and I hope you can too”. With jokes, of course.

[Theresa]

I just can't anymore.

Whitney is really funny on TV and doing standup, but this book....ugh

There really isn't a story being told. It's not like other memoirs I read. There's a lot of good therapy tips in this, but other than that it didn't really work for me.

DNF - 25%

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because I love Whitney Cummings. She's really one of the best comedians out there.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended for fans of: Furiously Happy, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and possibly Yes Please

This is not a side-splittingly funny book whose only purpose is to make you laugh, but like Furiously Happy, it's a moderately funny memoir about serious things. Whitney Cummings walks the line between humor and raw emotional honesty as she tackles a lot of highly personal topics, ranging from her mental health disorder, the many thousands of dollars she's spent on various therapists and forms of self-help, her eating disorder, her experience with freezing her eggs to extend her fertility, her breast reconstruction saga… let's just say there's a high chance that at some point in this book, you're going to feel a sense of medical kinship with Whitney because her list of stuff she's been through is so damn long. I personally connected with her on the headaches, the foot problems, and the costochondritis, which once sent me to the ER afraid I was having a heart attack. If you don't connect with her on one of the conditions I've already mentioned, then it might be the co-dependence, the addictive personality, the acne, the scoliosis, or the insomnia.

Before you conclude that this book is just one long rant by a hypochondriac, let me assure you it is generally funny and engaging. Whitney mostly does an excellent job of balancing the humor and the honesty, and uses her comic talent to shine a spotlight on aspects of her own life that you wouldn't ordinarily consider funny. But Whitney is able to find the humor in them while staying honest and real, without just playing them for laughs. She also has a chapter on pit bulls, how much she loves them, and an incident in which she moved too fast with a foster dog and got her ear nearly bitten off. Oh wait, that topic turned medical, too. Well, there are at least a couple of non-medical topics as well, like the one about her dubious role as the “first woman to do stand-up comedy in the Middle East.”

I will just say if I were her editor, I'm not sure would not have put the co-dependence and mental health section up front, because it is one of the more earnest, less funny sections, and it might scare some readers off. On the other hand, that section is important to understanding who Whitney is and a lot of the stuff she relates later in the book. And, as I think about it, it could just be that Whitney loosens up in her narration as she goes, and by the time you get deeper into the book to chapters like freezing her eggs and her eating disorder, she's more actively injecting her personal brand of humor into the performance, and so it feels funnier and livelier in audio even though the text read in a vacuum might not be funnier than the first couple of chapters.

I was a bit confused by Whitney's discussion of the condition known as “co-dependence,” which I know nothing about. I was left wondering where the line is between having a mental illness and just fulfilling the obligations that are inherent in having a civilization. To a certain extent, we all do things we don't want to do in order to please others. For example, I put up with my dad's eighth wife for decades not because I wanted to, but to please him. There's a certain amount of subjugating your own preferences to those of others that just comes with being a good person.

Then, as Whitney mentions, there's another load of it that comes with being a woman in a misogynistic patriarchy that beats you over the head with the idea that you, as a woman, exist to serve others, especially your family (first your parents, then your husband, then your children), and uses religion to assist with the beating. So there's a heck of a lot of grey area between “the shit we're all trying to crawl out from under” and “I have an illness,” and I'm kind of unclear on the boundaries between, “it's just a fact of living in a collective society that sometimes you need to put others before yourself,” and, “we're living in a patriarchy that specifically tells women lies about our obligations to serve others,” and, “oh shit, I really have a problem.”

But as Whitney described some of her crazier actions, I began to see Rebecca Bunch from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I might have started to get it a little. A few minutes later I began to see the “cool girl” that Amy so memorably derided in Gone Girl – the one who tailors her likes and dislikes to her boyfriend, who's always fun and accommodating and down for anything, whose real self stays buried so deep even she might start to lose touch with who that person is – and maybe I started to get it a little more.

When I got to the section on Whitney's headaches, I felt so seen and understood. As someone who has been in a lifelong battle with headaches, who never goes anywhere without hat, sunglasses, and migraine meds, and who appalled my college roommates with my sudden spasms of random crippling pain that I would laugh off, Whitney's journey was so familiar to me. Like Whitney, I've done the herbal/mineral/vitamin supplements, the allergy angle (including dust mite covers on all my bedding and years of allergy shots), the sinus surgery angle, the eyestrain and vision testing angle (which led to me getting glasses for the first time), the preventive drugs, the time in the MRI machine trying to find a physical source, the mouthguard and botox injections for my TMJ pain (and oh yeah, trying to balance TMJ pain and glasses is hella fun)... the works. So yeah, Whitney is my headache soulmate, and my heart goes out to her as someone who has lived with an even worse headache problem than mine.

Random note: An important and fun fact I learned about Whitney is that she considers Animaniacs her all-time favorite children's cartoon. As I am someone who still to this day uses a picture of Dot Warner as my avatar in some places, this elevates her considerably in my opinion.

Would I want to have dinner with her? Absolutely yes. Whitney seems like a riot. But she might find ME a bit boring...

Audio Notes: As a standup comedian, Whitney is of course perfectly suited to narrate her own book, and her performance is a little like listening to a heavily scripted version of one of her shows, but without the heckling. Unsurprisingly for a standup comedian, she does far more ad-libbing with the material than any ordinary narrator would, and she often inserts comments on the text as she encounters it afresh that make it even funnier. Like the content, her performance is funny a lot of the time, honest and raw at some points, and occasionally, amazingly, both at once. Cautiously on the “best audios” list, and I'm also marking it as “even better in audio” because Whitney's performance is so personal and brings so much to the mood of it. I dare you not to tear up yourself when Whitney cries a little at a couple of those honest and raw moments... and then laughs at herself for crying in the middle of the narration.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

[Mikky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally posted at:


I first found out about this book because it was nominated in the Goodreads 2017 awards in the Humor category. Before that, I had no idea who Whitney Cummings was or what she did for a living. What pulled me into wanting to read this book was the title. It reminded me of the type of humor I usually go for and like to read about. It's slightly dark and a little bit twisted.

The overarching theme to this book was mental health or more specifically how twisted someone's psyche can get due to how they were raised and society in general.

Before this book, I didn't know very much about the stand-up comedy world. Seeing a glimpse of it through the eyes of a woman who has made a carrier as a stand-up comedian was interesting. The author also hit on the note of life speeding up and how the biological clock ticks away and eventually takes the choice of motherhood from a lot of women who eventually want kids of their own.

This novel also made me realize how messed up life can get if you don't have the right support system in place at home and school. The damage those early years cause later in life in all departments is scary. I also had no idea there was a disease involving love.

Overall it was eye-opening to see how broken people are. It's also amazing to see them taking care of themselves and still making a point to live life to the fullest regardless.

The Audio Book:

The narration was great! There were moments where she would crack up while reading what she had written, and there were moments where she would tear up and prove how deep what she was saying truly went. She also misread a few sentences throughout the narration and kept her ramblings in the audio book and made fun of herself because for it.

[Elizabeth Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Whitney Cummings on Rich Roll's podcast; she was there promoting this book. And let me tell you: her book does not disappoint. If you like what she talks about on Rich Roll's podcast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km8Nv...), you will devour this book. IT IS A MUST READ! It's not your typical celebrity memoir. Cummings explores specific topics through several well-name chapters: The Self-Help Chapter, The Codependence Chapter, The Roast Joke Chapter, The Sexism Chapter, The Egg Freezing Chapter, The Eating Disorder Chapter, The Boobs Chapter, The Headache Chapter, The Pit Bull Chapter, The Middle East Chapter. Another thing to note: Whitney Cummings is a talented writer. Her chapters are honest, raw -- and so, so, so funny. The book covers many difficult and traumatic situations, but Cummings tells the stories in such relatable ways. It's clear Cummings has done the work to better herself. She's spent much time in therapy and this book is a byproduct of that. She's enlightened, but also light-hearted. She's deeply concerned, but also finds humor in the irreverent. 10/10 recommend.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Road trip audiobook!

I've enjoyed Whitney Cummings stand-up specials, so this was an easy pick. I was a little surprised that the humor was built around self-help topics and addresses some heavy issues Cummings has had with mental and physical health, including codependence, an eating disorder, botched plastic surgery, chronic headaches, and being maimed by a dog.

It's all interesting and still fairly funny, but yeah, brace yourself.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Introduction -- The Self-Help Chapter -- The Codependence Chapter -- The Roast Joke Chapter -- The Sexism Chapter -- The Egg Freezing Chapter -- The Eating Disorder Chapter -- The Boobs Chapter -- The Headache Chapter -- The Pit Bull Chapter -- The Middle East Chapter

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed Whitney and her comedy, both her stand-up (I’ve seen her live) and her tv shows. While this audiobook made me laugh out loud often, it was also very thoughtful and poignant. Whitney is not claiming to know everything, but her life experiences and lessons make her a great storyteller.

[Ines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know Whitney Cummings from her tv show Whitney! And since I thought she was really funny, I started looking for her stand up bits. I don't love every one of them, because some made me uncomfortable but it was okay and I watched ALL of them! So when I saw she had written a book, I had to read it.

Well the book was not what I expected. She talks about her life (and what a life! I don't think I have ever known anyone who had that many problems! physically and mentally!) in a 'humourous' way! It's not funny. It didn't make me laugh, but it was not dramatic and gloomy either.

I liked it because she speaks to the reader, it's like she's telling you the story and not just narrating it. So you get to know how her mind works, how she evolved over the years. She spoke about body image, trust issues, and several other topics that most people 'struggle' with and I liked her take on them.

But the chapter I loved the most, is the last one. I liked her critical thinking. More people should have this inner dialogue

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. Before this book I have only seen one of Whitney's stand-up and I liked it, but I can't say it was a favorite. Bit this book made me like her a lot more. She was very honest and relatable. Also she was narratong her own audiobook and that's always a huge plus.
I recommend it to everyone, even if you don't know Whitney Cummings.

[Patti Kearney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much angst, couldn't get past the first chapter.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the premise of the book. Whitney shared so much of herself her readers. it became a bit repetitive and I felt too long. Good book for fans of Whitney.

[SheReaders Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

She’s funny! This I knew. What I didn’t know is that she’s also wicked smart, deeply damaged, and not afraid to talk about it. I loved her personal stories and the life lessons weaved in. She has a lot of courage and you can tell that because she talks in detail about some ugly things like her eating disorder, acne, being bitten by her own rescue dog and many more topics that you would have to torture me in order to get me to tell people about such personal matters. Good book! I would read more by her and I am also going to seek out some of her comedy.

[Snem · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel seen and heard after reading this book. So many of Whitney’s mental illnesses I share and they are explained in a very digestible way. I really vibed with her definition of co-dependence. I picked it up after hearing an interview where she talked about her relationship with money and I was riveted.

There were a few very humorous sentences, but in general it’s just not laugh out loud funny. She uses some form of the phrase “primordial brain” A LOT. Would have appreciated a chapter about how she gets her work done, how does her mental illness impact her creative work?

I appreciated a more introspective, self-aware book from a comedian, but this was good not great. Skip reading if you’re looking for the funny, stand up comedian.

[Angie Sachs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a funny lighthearted biography, however this was not at all that. Whitney spoke about so many struggles she had in her life, while still interesting and she spoke so many truths. My favourite chapter was her talking about we as humans are wired to work harder, suffer through the pain and not listen to our body, but what we should be doing is listening to our body, slow down and learn what our bodies need to thrive which is different for everyone.