This was a very interesting book that makes sense on many levels. I will continue to think about what the author learned and shared!

Despite once being named L.A.'s Funniest Lady, Brooke Jones is probably not one of those people who qualifies as a household name.

Heck, I'd never heard of her. She wrote this book called "Why Are There Monkeys? (and other Questions for God)" and it sounded like a humorous version of the whole "Conversations With God" thing by Neale Donald Walsch and, to be honest, I thought that book could have used a little humor.

So, I figured "What the heck?" I'll read this book.

So, here I am.

Brooke Jones once died, but then she didn't. She's been semi-famous for being funny. She writes the blog "What If?" and has a line of greeting cards. She's a breast cancer warrior who served Stage 3 Breast Cancer, though that's not how she died.

There's more you'll learn about her from "Why Are There Monkeys?" and there are times in "Why Are There Monkeys?" that you'll wish you'd learned a bit more about her along the way.

"Why Are There Monkeys?" is a frequently humorous, occasionally touching, surprisingly insightful, and, in fleeting moments, even kind of sweet collection about one kind of agnostic young woman's eight minutes with God and God's rather endearing way of being God that will charm some, irritate others, downright offend more than a few, and hopefully result in more than a few laughs along the way.

I was never less than entertained by "Why Are There Monkeys?," a result mostly rising out of Jones's relaxed persona borne out of a life fully lived including all the lessons she could snag along the way. In "Why Are There Monkeys?," Jones asks the kinds of questions, some innocent and curious and others just a tad confrontational, that I can't help but believe many of us would ask if given a few minutes with the big man/woman upstairs -

"What is the meaning of life?"

"What religion is God?"

"Is God male or female?"

Along the way, we all learn that God has more than a little bit of a sense of humor and a whole lot of love.

Of course, we all also learn that Jones returned to the life that she had been living, though perhaps that's inappropriately stated as there's no denying that the not so dead Brooke Jones was quite a
bit different after the return trip.

Was she returned to the Land Of The Living because of the startling final question she asked? Did any of this actually happen or was it just the hallucination of a dying brain?

You need to read "Why Are There Monkeys? (and Other Questions for God)" to find out. A relatively quick yet always engaging read, "Why Are There Monkeys? (and Other Questions for God)" weaves together pieces of a memoir, humor, and spiritual insight and curiosity into a rather delightful and entertaining literary experience.