You Deserve a Drink

Title: You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery
Author: Mamrie Hart
Pages: 288 (paperback)
Published: May 2015 by Plume

Summary: Since launching her YouTube channel “You Deserve a Drink” in 2011, comedian Mamrie Hart has built an intensely devoted following of more than half a million viewers. Like her bawdy and bacchanalian show, Hart’s eponymous debut pays tribute to her boozy misadventures with an original cocktail recipe accompanying each hilarious tale. From the “Leaves of Three Martini,” commemorating the hookup to whom she accidentally gave poison ivy, to the “Bizzargarita,” in honor of the time she and a friend were approached by two uber-Republican couples who wanted to “swing” while on vacation in Mexico, You Deserve a Drink is as useful as it is entertaining.

My Thoughts: I was lucky enough to go to Mamrie Hart's book signing earier in June, and oh my goodness what a nice and goofy person! She insisted on hugs all around and selfies with her fans, but not only that, she was also so sincere in everything she said, as well. I couldn't help to think, "Dang can we be bffl's?" after the meetup, and it made me want to dive right into her book ASAP.

So here's the thing: this is absolutely a meant-for-adults book, so I think that her younger Youtube fans should probably steer clear of it until they're at least 18, in my opinion. Also, I'm not much of a drinker, so the drink recipes at the beginning of each chapter, while a cute and original idea, got a little monotonous for me. But if you enjoy making mixed drinks and such, you'll probably enjoy this book a little more than I did because of the unique mixed drink recipes.

However, I did really enjoy this autobiography (memoirs? I have no idea how to exactly classify this. I'm new to this biography game). During every chapter, I had at least one moment of laugh-out-loud hilarity or I thought, "This girl is cray I can't believe she did this! I must know more!" Or both!

Near the end, though, I grew a little tired of the crazy antics. Most of the chapters near the beginning of the book had a nice "moral of the story" moment or cute friendship bonding fun times in them, but when I got closer and closer to the end I felt like those aspects weren't there as much and like Hart was just letting us know about that one time she was stoned and built up a Dairy Queen Blizzard conspiracy theory. I don't really feel like that story added to the book, mostly because it was like she was saying, "Hey look how kooky I was that one time!"

With that said, I did really enjoy this book and I highly recommend it to any of Mamrie's Youtube fans or You Deserve a Drink fans. And even if you've never heard of her, her stories were really hilarious overall when you get down to it. After reading her book, it made me appreciate her a little more as a Youtube personality and as a comedian and I hope to see more from her in the future.
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars