I thought this book may not resonate with me because I don't have children, and I was wrong. Mike's reluctance to have a child, and his self awareness through the process of becoming a parent is relatable sheerly on a human level. Doing something you don't really want to do because the love of your life DOES want that thing badly is universal. As always, his story telling is top notch. Here, even more than ever, he is totally honest, even when it might make him look like a jerk. Mike's essays alternate with his wife's poetry and show their drastically conflicting perspectives through this process of becoming parents. As a writer myself, I appreciate the effort it must have taken for this couple to create this book together. For them to each show the other the privates writings they did is kind of unreal to me. It makes the book so utterly genuine. I recommend this book for Birbiglia fans and well as those looking for an honest, funny take on parenthood.

Let me start by saying that before reading this book I was already a huge fan of Mike Birbiglia’s stand up comedy. So I was fully expecting to love this book.

This book is an adaptation of Birbiglia’s Broadway special of the same title- albeit with a few more stories and details thrown in. If you’ve seen the special (which is award winning and outstanding!) there isn’t a whole lot of additional content in this book. And I will say that much of the humor seems better suited to stand up or the spoken word. A lot of Birbiglia’s humor, like a lot of stand up comics, comes from his tone and timing- which is lost in book format.

However, The New One is still a hilarious, honest, and even dark at times reflection from a reluctant dad. Birbiglia shares the seven reasons he never wanted to have a child, from his myriad medical conditions, to his demanding career, to climate change. Despite all this, however, Birbiglia‘a poet wife, Jen, convinces him to have a baby with the agreement that the baby “will not change our lives”. As if.

Of course their lives dramatically change with the arrival of their daughter, Oona, and Birbiglia struggles with feelings of jealousy, regret, and shame. These very real and relatable feelings are made a little lighter through humorous stories and self-deprecating jokes. But the message is an honest, important, and ultimately uplifting one: having a baby isn’t always the magical and idyllic experience it is made out to be, it can take time to adjust to the demanding new life of being a parent, but at the end of it all “it is the most joy you will ever feel”.

This is an usual book, like reading a stand up comedy routine. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Birbiglia describes the trauma of becoming a father, in very humorous and understandable vignettes.

I can certainly see reading groups enjoying this, especially those who have recently welcomed a new baby.

Birbiglia is a wonderful observer and honest reporter of the events and emotions that come when A NEW ONE joins the family!

Yes, read this if you want a funny view of new parenthood.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me this opportunity to read, laugh at, and review this book.

"Charmingly neurotic" has often been a phrase used to describe Mike Birbiglia, a stand-up comic turned writer turned actor/filmmaker who's won our hearts and made us laugh with such efforts as "Sleepwalk With Me" and "Don't Think Twice" along with a number of other cinematic appearances where he often plays the neurotic boyfriend, best friend, co-worker, etc.

Let's face it. Mike Birbiglia is neurotic, though it's a hard-earned neuroses. Birbiglia survived cancer at the age of 19 and was diagnosed with rapid eye movement sleep disorder, a disorder so severe that he once sleepwalked out of a second-story Walla Walla, Washington La Quinta Inn window.

Based on Birbiglia's award-winning stage show "The New One," for which he won both Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance, "The New One: Painfully True Stories From a Reluctant Dad" is the kind of neurotic long-form storytelling for which Birbiglia is known best. It's simultaneously laugh-out-loud funny and awkwardly painful, filled with vulnerable truths that many of us feel yet most of us wouldn't ever dare speak.

Birbiglia speaks it and somehow makes us laugh through it all.

"The New One" kicks off with Birbiglia and his wife Jen, whom he regularly refers to as Clo for reasons either never revealed or that I'm simply too blind to catch on to, as they live into the marital vows they promised one another including such simple things as the fact that he can talk about her onstage and she can disappear. They're both natural introverts, though Birbiglia kinda sorta becomes an extrovert so that they have the ability to escape from awkward social situations.

This is Birbiglia. Almost every social situation is awkward.

They've agreed they don't want kids, but after several years of being happily married Jen changes her mind.

Birbiglia, whom I just don't want to call Mike, doesn't.

"The New One" is largely about that reluctance.

Birbiglia wants to maintain the status quo. It works. They're happy. He's happy. He's built a successful career. They've built a routine that satisfies.

For Jen, 'er Clo, suddenly something is missing. For him, not so much.

"The New One" is filled to the brim with Birbiglia's trademark neuroses, expressed here as painfully transparent and frequently funny revelations about what it's like to face parenthood reluctantly, become a reluctant dad, try but mostly fail to maintain the status quo, then somehow come out the other end with a stronger marriage, an amazing wife, a child you love, and a life that's pretty awesome.

There will be times in "The New One" when you'll love Birbiglia. There will be times in "The New One" when you'll read something and you'll gasp and go "Who is this stand-up comic I thought I knew?"

Then, you'll go back to loving him again.

Much like life and love and marriage and parenting, "The New One" is a journey with lots of ups and downs, laughs and poignancy. The stories that unfold in "The New One" are told from Birbiglia's perspective, though Jen, who's an increasingly popular poet who writes under J. Hope Stein, has her poetry woven into the fabric of the book in such a beautiful way that it balances the stories and offers her insightful, intelligent, and often quite revealing perspectives.

If you're familiar with the stage production or Birbiglia's 2019 Netflix production that served as the foundation for this book's material, some of "The New One" certainly won't feel as fresh or new and that's certainly something to be considered.

However, "The New One" possesses something special with Birbiglia's uncommon vulnerability, Jen's lyrical tapestry, and a literary experiment that digs deep and discovers both comedic and familial gold.

Mike Birbiglia is one of my al-ltime favorite comedians. I think it's his honesty combined with the sort of guileless storytelling nature of his delivery. He invites you into his life, and his life is sort of like your life with all the ups and downs and trials and tragedies, and he shows you how to look at all the hard things and find the humor in them.

Proving that, he's written this book about having a child. I will tell you that having a child is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. And I'm not the dad in this scenario. I'm the other side of the story. But it was refreshing and real and relatable to read about the struggles of bringing a child into the world and redefining family.

There's so much honesty here and some of it HAD to be hard to write. But it resonated. I laughed out loud so many times, but I also nodded along in solidarity. He did it again - he took all the hard things in life and made them funny and honestly, the world needs more of this.

The New One was beautiful, funny, raw and real. No surprise here. An easy five stars.

Oof, this book is hilarious and heartbreaking and wonderful. Mike Birbiglia is a great storyteller and the juxtaposition of his wife’s poetry is a beautiful choice. There are many funny books about becoming parents but so few talk about the jealousies and complexities of that first year in such an honest way. My heart caught in my throat as he began that food allergy joke, but at the end of the day, we both agree on the power jokes have to combat silence and generate discussion.

The best comedians can tell jokes about serious topics without feeling like they’re punching down, and Mike Birbiglia is one of those people. He was funny from the start and only gets better over time. The juxtaposition of his essays and his wife Jen’s poems were the icing on the cake here-two styles talking about the same situations. Loved it.

With humor and honesty, Birbiglia unpacks how he traversed from bachelorhood to devoted I'll-be-your-spouse-but-never-a-parent and then into the awkward first months of bringing home a baby. While being honest about the challenges he faced entering fatherhood, particularly against a backdrop of his itinerant career and a lifetime of severe illnesses, he shows the gradual path from feeling like being his family's extra appendage to embracing parenthood wholeheartedly and with his trademark wit. Highly recommended.

I've been a huge fan of Mike Birbiglia for several years. Everything he does is wildly funny, sweet, and incredibly thoughtful. This book was no different. I thought it was absolutely lovely. I will forever look forward to Mike's next project!

I really enjoyed this book. Not many books make me actually laugh out loud, but this one did. It wasn't just humorous, though. He captured some of the honest emotions around choosing to have a child, pregnancy, and new parenting.

Full disclosure I am a huge Mike Birbiglia fan and I saw The New One one man show before it even hit Broadway. It was AMAZING and I'm sure this book would also be....if I hadn't already seen it off Broadway and on Netflix. I only got through the first chapter because it is VERY similar to the show. I was really hoping for some new stuff. There might be later but the show is literally word for word in there too which was not surprising, but not worth a read. I'm sure it is great because I enjoyed the hell out of the show (laughed, cried, etc.), but I wish it had been structured a little different to keep me reading new stuff. Maybe move his wife's parts to the front so that if you have seen the show it doesn't read like a transcript.

Truly one of the best books I've read all year! If you are a fan of Mike Birbiglia, you are going to LOVE this! If you haven't heard of him, then I highly suggest you read it. I just want everyone I know to read it and love him as much as I do. He's one of the world's best storytellers in my opinion, and it translates well from stage to print.

This book is great for Mike Birbiglia fans or anybody new to his work. Those who have seen his stand-up shows and movies or read his previous book know what to expect: Funny, poignant, brutally-honest stories about life, work, love, and pizza. Admittedly, I was preprogrammed to love The New One. I saw his show of the same name, which is about becoming a father, on my first night out after becoming a dad myself. But the book version actually expands greatly on the show, and includes beautiful poetry by Mike's wife, Jen Stein. Anyone who has complicated feelings about parenthood—past, present, or future—will greatly appreciate this. You’ll be laughing constantly until you suddenly find yourself your weeping after an emotional gut punch. Like much of Mike’s recent work, this is truly wonderful stuff.

Sweet book on being a dad,. Funny but so so true.

Thanks to author,publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free,it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This book Is a collection of stories where Mike talks about his experience from the decision to become parents through his daughter's infancy. It's funny, but it also feels very honest and open. Mike talks about the difficult parts of becoming a parents and his feelings about everything.

It's also interspersed with his wife's poetry, which is very good and shows how she was experiencing the same events. I really liked the poems hello?, FISH DOCTOR PLAY, and little astronaut.

It's a good book, and I think anyone who like's Mike Birbiglia's comedy will enjoy reading it.

I received a copy of this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.