I had hoped that Jesse Eisenberg wouldn't fall into the James Franco 'jack of all trades, master of none' type of egotistical art....and he somewhat avoids that, although not totally. Eisenberg is a talented writer, but there was just no real heart here sadly.
I will look out for other writing projects from him however.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

I'm always really skeptical about books written by celebrities. I'm always immensely curious but skeptical at the same time. Most of them have ghost writers or a co author that did most of the work.

I was actually kind of impressed with this book and it's history and humor. Jesse eisenberg did a great job.

Could not get into this. I suppose the interest is that it’s written by the actor. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a lot to recommend it.

Unfortunately I didn't connect to this book and ended up not finishing it. I will not be reviewing it since my opinions aren't based on the entirety of the book and may therefore give wrong impressions.

A Bit of a Mixed Bag, But A Surprising Number of Winners

This is a collection of short stories, incidental pieces, and the sort of short fictions you'll find in publications like "The New Yorker". They are reminiscent of Woodie Allen's work in that magazine and in his collections - the harder he tries the less they are, and the more he just relaxes and plays around the better they are.

What people find funny, and why, is a mystery to me, so I'm not sure that declarations that something was or wasn't funny are very helpful. Maybe this observation will help you decide on this volume. The stories seem to be of two sorts. The best ones, to me, for the most part, involved interesting characters/writing. The less successful, (or at least spottier), stories, to me, were the funny premise stories. In the former category is the longer story that opens the collection. Titled "Restaurant Reviews from a Privileged Nine-Year-Old", it is sort of a running commentary by a very precocious kid about dining out with his selfish, weird and self-obsessed Mom. While the kid is alert and observant he is also fairly clueless, and his observations are priceless, (though unintended by him), takedowns of foodies, posers, parents, and any number of other topics. The story is a gem, mainly because of the character and the witty, edgy and insightful writing. Eisenberg knows what he's writing about.

On the other hand you have stories that get their oomph from the premise - Alexander Graham Bell's first drunken random phone calls, drug info sheets written by a Dad, a book review by a critic of his ex-girlfriend's book, and so on. All of the starting premises stuck me as funny or clever, but the execution, and the extent to which the premise could be maintained, varied considerably. (But all were worth reading.)

The upshot is that there's a lot of quality work here, and even the misses are noble attempts. And at bottom, reading the book made me feel bad about assuming that this was just a vanity production by some celebrity. This is not James Franco's book; this is real and worthwhile stuff. I'm glad I got a chance to read it. And, to paraphrase Bilbo Baggins, "I liked more than half of it twice as much as I expected to."

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)