Of course I am already a fan of A.J. Jacobs -- he's right up there with Mary Roach as everyone's favorite. But this is not one of his books that I will be recommending to first-time readers of Jacobs. It has the feel of a project that had to be completed, whether the outcome was book-worthy or not. Granted, even a lesser A.J. Jacobs book is still entertaining and I had to laugh several times while reading this one. Still, I can't imagine reading it a second time which I have done with The Know-It-All and The Guinea Pig Diaries. This time Jacobs is getting on the genealogy bandwagon. Since I recently got caught up in the pursuit of dead ancestors, I was looking forward to Jacobs' adventures. But the gimmick in this book is that he's organizing what he hopes is the biggest family reunion on record. Genealogy plays a role in the story, but Jacobs is not poking around on Ancestry.com and building his own family tree. He has a major party to organize! And when it comes down to it, organizing a big party just doesn't grab a reader the way reading the entire encyclopedia or living biblically for a year might. So -- a fun A.J. Jacobs book that fans will want to read and will enjoy, but not one of his best.